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I always like to read the Marvel Masterworks in order, but this is one time that I have actually read Vol. 2 before Vol. 1. I bought Atlas Era Heroes Vol. 2 when it came out and didn’t get this until later. It focuses on the revival of the original three Marvel heroes as well as Marvel Boy in the early 50’s. It was an experiment that wouldn’t last too long (though long enough to give us three such volumes of these, the third hasn’t been released as of this review). This first volume deals with the Marvel Boy comics, and Young Men, which showcased the Marvel Golden Age Trinity of Torch, Namor and Cap.
Spoilers Ahead
-Marvel Boy #1- This comic, released in December 1950, is the emergence of Marvel’s foray into the superhero genre again. As is common with these Golden Age comics, you get no less than four stories an issue, one written out in prose, and three or four standard comic stories. This one features a double-length story showing the origin of Marvel Boy, the son of a man who escaped Nazi Germany when Hitler was in power and fled to Uranus. The boy has the powers of Uranians (telepathy and strength) but needs a pill to stay alive on Earth every 24 hours. So he shows up as a new continent shows up and some evil men lay claim to it. He tries to stop them but the continent goes back underwater with the criminals on it. There is a short four-page story about a man tricking the men they are fighting using paranoia and fear other than war. A freaky cat story follows as a man is freaked out by a cat after the murder of his wife. Finally, Marvel Boy defeats a man with X-Ray vision. The origin story stands up well today, as does the art, but the other stories never really had time to grow.
-Marvel Boy #2- The opening story is a clunky tale of Earth being attacked by aliens and everyone joining forces except the Russians, who sneak attack. Marvel Boy stops the aliens from fighting and then uses their help to stop the Russians. The second story features Marvel Boy stopping another Commie threat. The sci-fi tale is about a boy going back in time to the year 2000 (to the Venus/Earth war!), being told not to interfere, he does anyway, and he accidentally blows up the wrong planet. Oops. The Clay Pipe is a short story of a man who takes old treasures from a pyramid, is told he will die, and suffers an interesting fate. Finally, Marvel Boy uses his secret identity as an insurance investigator to investigate shenanigans at a circus. He uncovers a nefarious scheme and puts an end to it. This was not even in the same league as the first issue and changes were in store already for the title, as the name would be abandoned for something else entirely, and Marvel Boy taking less space to include sci-fi stories, stories which were thought to be more profitable than spandexed heroes.
-Astonishing #3- Marvel Boy battles another insurance frauder who runs a spiritual cult that praises someone named Allah. He wears a turban, too. This is still relevant today. Anyway, Marvel Boy fakes himself being poisoned to uncover the fraud. Marvel Boy is at home on Uranus when another alien race causes civil unrest. Marvel Boy investigates and finds that they are scared their planet is heading towards their sun and wants to live on Uranus. Marvel Boy kidnaps the daughter of the king so they won’t fire on him as he escapes, and shows her how peaceful living is. He brings back proof the planet is not heading towards the sun. That was a long synopsis for a four page story. The sci-fi trype story is interesting, as it is exactly like a Twilight Zone episode. I wonder what came first. So a man goes to stay overnight at a wax museum filled with wax sculptures of murderers and thinks one comes alive.The prose story is just a simple ghost story featuring an unknown presence that kills the houses inhabitants. The final Marvel Boy story features MB stopping a commie threat. Not a stand-out issue by any means.
-Astonishing #4- This is where we really start veering into the crazy sci-fi/horror genre. Marvel Boy goes to a tomb filled with vampires to save Starr Ryder’s father. Vampires and skeletons! Back at home, MB unveils a plot by his government to limit water supply and create chaos. The prose story has a man on a train making a stop, in the Twilight Zone. No, he stops in Westall, which is inhabited by crows. He gets back on the train and finds out that town doesn’t exist. The Nightmare is a really good, fun story by Hank Chapman (writer) and Wayne Boring (art). It is a writer using his dreams to make stories for Marvel Tales and Stan Lee. Of course, in his dreams the nightmares attack and he gets the same fate he gave to his creations. It was a really good story. Finally, Marvel Boy’s alter ego of a insurance inspector looks into the death of a woman’s father and finds out it was all a ruse to try and get the daughter’s house. Fun issue.
-Astonishing #5- Marvel Boy uncovers an alien plot to use US inventions to try and take over the Earth. Marvel Boy stops him after nuking his hideout. Second story shows Marvel Boy stopping a plot to kill zookeepers to get to snakes. It seems the snake is actually a woman. Marvel Boy broke the snake’s back amazingly enough. The prose story is of a scientist who kills a man only to bring him back to life with a serum. The man wakes up a zombie, and the same fate befalls the scientist. The non-MB story has an pilot who becomes a cloud person. There’s a two-page story of scientists having their manned rocket come back from the moon, only to have moon people come out and start shooting them. Finally, Marvel Boy must save the life of his father and a stowaway to prevent a Communist threat. This was not as enjoyable as the last one.
-Astonishing #6- This issue didn’t even have Marvel Boy on the cover, and Marvel Boy was gone by #7. The first tale was a weird one of Marvel Boy dealing with a magician who was kidnapped but then killed his abductors, then disappears. No real conlusion for this one. The second story has Marvel Boy deal with a Russian plot to steal money from a wealthy American. This is a big dig at Communism itself. The prose story is a silly story of a man on Venus that didn’t really make sense. We end with a silly Coffin story where a man calls out of his coffin but no thanks to his wife, who serendipitiously ends up in the same coffin. Not a stellar finish to the career of Marvel Boy.
-Young Men #24- What is this? Torch, Sub-Mariner and Cap are back from the dead? Yes, it’s true, they are alive and well, and this issue re-introduces us to who these people are, and what they did in the four years since they were last seen. Torch was buried by mobsters. He escapes and frees Toro from Communist brain-washing. Cap is now a teacher (in Bucky’s class no less) and suits up again to stop the Red Skull, and Namor has been chilling underwater and he’s called back by Betty Dean to investigate strange disappearances (turns out it was robotic aliens). There is a novelette in each issue, as was the customs of the time, and it was an unmemorable tale of pirates and a Judas Bell. As a piece used to bring these characters back and briefly describe their origin, it worked very well.
-Young Men #25- With our characters introduced last issue, we get full-blown stories for all three. Torch and Toro uncover a crazy plot by a mobster to use a machine to de-age “old people” and make them in their 20’s again. He has them commit crimes for him but he doesn’t tell them of the downside. They turn to dust in 30 days. Torch and Toro stop the operation and the machine is destroyed. The novelette is next, and it’s a macabre story of a man facing certain death and torture and tricking the Eskimos into killing him quickly. Weird. Cap and Bucky stop a Red threat and meet “The Executioner,” in a by the numbers Commie-scare piece. Sub-Mariner has the unenviable task of stopping an alien invasion (again). These aliens are sharks who can transform into humans. Not what you would say is essential or classic storytelling, but it was a fun 25 pages.
-Young Men #26- The Torch and Toro battle a new foe called, The Vulture, but not the one we would meet in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. Vulture was getting atomic weapons together but the flaming duo (that doesn’t sound right) stops them. The novelette was a rather dull one of a man and his daughter trying to escape theives on a desert island. Cap stops a Commie threat when Cap plays along to being brainwashed and eventually takes out the bastards. Torch and Namor make an appearance in these pages. Sub-Mariner deals with aliens, again, but these aliens are actually Commie’s in disguise. Their plan to get US atomic weapons failed.
-Young Men #27- Torch and Toro deal with “The Hypnotist,” the face of death. He’s no match for Torch. Interestingly, the splash page on the first page is the same as the cover. The novelette is about twin brothers, one who is trying to steal from the other. Cap takes on Red Skull again. Skull captures Cap and Bucky and tortures them to find the location of a new weapon, and Cap says he’ll show them. He leads them to a trap and it seems Skull is dead at the end. Namor doesn’t deal with aliens in this issue, but instead with ghosts and a traveling show trying to blunder a wrecked pirate ship and the ghosts and Namor (and Namora, who reappears, too) stop them. Turns out, it was a Commie threat.
-Young Men #28- This has a great cover, with a crazy looking dude getting his gun melted down. Torch and Toro battle the Vulture again, as he tries to sabotage a mission to the moon. Torch helps and heads to the moon, but aliens tell them that humans are not ready yet. This was a cheesy ending. The novelette is a prodigal son type of story, of a man who went wrong but returned to his farm. It was a sweet story. Cap and Bucky end up on a ship and run right into a plot to sell dope to South Africa to start a revolution. Cap and Bucky get to the bottom of it. Sub-Mariner returns home, but they disown him since he helped humans. He stops Russians from blasting the ice with the help of Dorma, who he uses to scare off the Russians. So the Russians leave and Namor finds out his cousin didn’t help him, but a ghost of the Arctic!
-The Bottom Line- Roy Thomas shows he’s the best introduction writer in the history of Masterworks as he recounts his time as a child and seeing these heroes making their appearance on the stands once more. He goes into great detail on why these Atlas titles reappeared, thanks to Adventures of Superman on TV, and possibly why they flamed out so quickly. He talks about the issues and the men who worked on these titles. You also get some cool extras, including Romita’s original art for his Cap story in Young Men #24. The first page of that includes a splash page that was not in the original comic, as Lee thought Cap and Bucky looked too big. You get the original splash, as well as the cover to Roy’s magazine Alter Ego #35, which used that splash and added Torch and Namor. A house ad from Astonishing #6 rounds it all out with all the sci-fi/terror stories Atlas put out at the time. I had a blast going through this collection. It’s a period piece, of the sci-fi space stuff on everyone’s mind, as well as the Communist threat that had taken over in the Americans mind as the biggest threat to American freedom. The stories were entertaining, especially with the Marvel Golden Age Trinity of Torch, Cap, and Namor. I loved the art of the three characters. Early Romita art shines on Cap, Bill Everett is his usual stunning self on Namor, and Carl Burgoss was excellent on Torch. The Marvel Boy stories were fun, albeit unmemorable, and the Young Men stories are all easy reads. It isn’t fleshed out, classic, stories, but fun to read and as a period piece, as a time in Marvel history where it was between two great eras, it is a nice look back. Recommended.
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