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This is the second of the Marvel Comics Golden Age collections. You may ask why they only collect four issues in these instead of about 10 like they usually do. Well, these are anthology style comics. What that means is that you would have usually 5-6 stories in each comic each featuring a different main star. Each issue would wind up being about 64 pages. I read the first volume a long time ago, so I am interested in seeing how I feel about stories that are some 70 years old.
Spoilers Ahead
-Marvel Mystery Comics #5- Human Torch starts off the anthology with a tale about going to a remote village to deliver well-needed supplies. However, a gang of thugs shoot down the plane, steal the supplies, so Torch has to stop them. Angel (one of the original stars of the series who got 5 of the first 8 covers) is just a caped hero with no real powers. He stops a bank robbery. Sub-Mariner is captured on land but is freed to stop a flood in the subway. It was caused by bank robbers so Subby stops them and is freed. Subby is actually drawn as blue-skinned underwater, something saved for the Atlanteans years later. Masked Raider was just a typical cowboy with a black mask who stops an murderous archer. A prose story features a knife tosser on the run from the law confronting his old assistant who can testify against a murder he committed. Of course, he manages to get out of it by calling his wife and using a code he wouldn’t understand. Electro, currently appearing in The Twelve is sent to a fictional country to stop a war where the leader, seeing his cause is done, kills himself at the end (eerily reminscence of what happened to Hitler some 4 years later). We then meet Ferret, a detective, who has a pet (wait for it) ferret. He figures out a mystery and it’s a really by the numbers crime tale. Finally, Ka-Zar kills off the two men who were after him.
-Marvel Mystery Comics #6- Torch must stop a gang of two who start a forest fire to draw attention away from the banks and secret missile plans. Torch helps stop the fire, then goes after the bad guys. Torch has to stop the missile, burns the ground to stop the getaway car but is struck and knocked out with rock. The villains decide to end him there but the remaining fire from before surrounds Torch to save him. Torch eventually awakens and dispatches of the two thugs, and the day is saved. The Angel tale is a forgettable one featuring Angel breaking up a fake diamond crime ring. Sub-Mariner broke up a crime ring last issue and he thinks that’s enough to clear his name, until he learns he will be put on trial. He is tried, and found guilty! He will be put to death and is strapped to the chair. However, Namor escapes to the ocean and vows revenge. This forward-thinking tale led to the first super-hero battle when Namor and Torch would eventually face off. The Masked Rider continues to be masked and rides into town, saving a man’s property. The prose tale is of a shrinking spy, a prototype to Ant-Man, and just as forgettable. Electro breaks up a dope ring in a pretty good tale which is then followed up by another lame Ferret mystery. Finally, Ka-Zar stops another White Devil in the lands of Africa.
-Marvel Mystery Comics #7- The Torch wants to become a police officer, and does! His first mission is to take out the corrupt Roglo. He does, but not after having to escape being trapped. He returns to the station and hears someone named Sub-Mariner is wrecking the town? The seeds are planted, kids. Angel stops a murder from happening in another adventure. We get to the other star of MMC, as Namor enters New York City pissed at the world for trying to kill him and just destroys the city. He smacks around the mayor (who at this time was Fiorello LaGuardia), destroys an elevated subway and takes out the Empire State Building’s spire. Namor returns to see to rest before wreaking more havoc when Betty Dean tells him Torch is now after him. This is real comics history, the first real team-up between two greats of a publisher actually fighting. That’s one great thing that always seperated Marvel from DC. DC was all about fictional towns while Marvel, even in its early days, were in places we knew, places we could find on a map and see in postcards. Continuing with the book, Masked Raider helps a rancher under attack from a sheriff. Nothing too thrilling there. The prose story (written in early 1940) features a bomber getting involved in a war he doesn’t need to be to help a smaller country defeat a larger one. You can see right through this story. It seems to be about Britain staving off the Nazi and Russian forces (in fact, the villains are the Nussians) and how someone who shouldn’t be involved (the US) helps the small country out. Reading things like this are a sign of the times and I wonder if in 50 years someone is reading Civil War and seeing it as a commentary of the times we live in? Moving on with the heroes, Electro stops a crimelord from killing and stealing in a flood-ravaged city (shades of Katrina?), Ferret solves a mystery which was neither fun nor entertaining, and Ka-Zar saves a young woman (but not her dad) from a evil white man. Namor and Torch carried this title, again.
-Marvel Mystery Comics #8- The real fun starts with this issue. Namor is going insane in New York City in his story (which starts the comic this time) and after terrorizing the Big Apple, Torch confronts him at the end! Namor leaves to fight another day. From there we move to Torch’s story, where he deals with the havoc brought upon the city thanks to Namor’s tantrums the last two issues. The final panels of Namor’s story are echoed here where Torch confronts the prince of Atlantis and Namor escapes. Namor and Torch are advertised to have their big fight next issue and it would be one for the ages. Can you really follow that up? Well, no, but they tried. I will probably go through these next ones very quickly, Angel saves an abducted woman, Masked Raider solves a bank mystery, a man saves a train in the written story, Electro is used by criminals to break free a mob boss then its abducted by aliens (really), Ferret solves a silly mystery, and Ka-Zar saves tribes from being enslaved.
-The Bottom Line- Roy Thomas does another patented in-depth look at the Golden Age Timely comics at the time, how the success of the title spawned others but were missing the magic of Marvel Mystery Comics and its two stars (Torch and Sub-Mariner), and joking about Angel getting on the cover so many times. They should just collect all of Roy’s writings and put them in a book, he knows his stuff about early Marvel. While reading this it is evident that even back then it was clear who the two stars of the comics were; Sub-Mariner and Human Torch. Their stories were just much more developed and are very enjoyable. The rest were just standard by the numbers comic book tales with an uninteresting protagonist, little in the way of plot, and ultimately forgettable. Ka-Zar would later be reinvented by Lee and Kirby so he’s notable for that, but other characters (like Angel, Ferret, Electro, and The Masked Raider) were just weak in terms of story and character development. In fact, of those four, the only one that is somewhat enjoyable was Electro, as it was a bit different than the other three. It was sometimes tough to get through these stories. I would recommend this for the old Sub-Mariner/Torch stories, but since the best ones were reprinted in the 65th Anniversary Special, this may be a bit overkill. It is a piece of history to see how far Marvel progressed, but if your looking for solid story-telling and great characters, well, after Torch and Sub-Mariner, you will be looking for a long time. I would take a pass on this and find the Marvel 65th Anniversary Comic Special instead. Recommendation to avoid.
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