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Marvel Mystery Comics #2
Marvel Mystery Comics #2
A historic comic series dating all the way back to 1939! Featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and more, this one’s sure to thrill any Marvel comic buff!
68 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1939
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50 people want to read
About the author
Carl Burgos
241 books8 followersMax Finkelstein created Jim Hamond, the Human Torch, for Timely Comics (later evolved into the Marvel Comics) in 1939, using the pen-name Carl Burgos. He also created the Thunderer for Daring Mystery Comics. Both series were published by Timely Comics, the forerunner of Marvel. He was drafted in 1942 and did mostly commercial art in subsequent years, occasionally drawing science fiction stories for Marvel, by that time known as Atlas. He also drew the first story featuring the Beetle (Abner Jenkins) in Strange Tales #123, starring Johnny Storm, the second Human Torch. Two years later, in Fantastic Four Annual #4, Marvel published a battle between the two Human Torches, resulting in the death of Jim Hamond. Although his daughter tried to preserve as much as possible, Burgos set fire to much of the Human Torch materials he had retained from the 1940s, considering the story an excuse to reassert trademark on a character they were not using simply to spite him.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 14, 2015
I only read the Human Torch, the Angel, and the Sub-Mariner story in this one as the others didn't intrigue me in the first issue. Namor the Sub-Mariner's story is by far the best one in these.
May 30, 2018
It's time to look at issue #2 of Marvels first ever series! As usual there are several stories told, I'm going to give my thoughts on each from worst to best.
First up, The Masker Raider, yeah this was pretty boring, he goes undercover to catch some baddies and most of the story if filled with dialogue bubbles and it dragged on for too long.
Overall Grade - F
The Angel - This was actually quite a step down from the previous issue for me, even more things go unexplained, for instance, The Angel seems to be a traveling hero? Its really unclear as in this story he ends up in Hong Kong. On top of that his abilities are still really unknown, and I don't really know why he dresses up, when he doesn't wear a mask most people (villains included) know who he is. The worst part is not really knowing the plot until the very end in an exposition dump.
Overall - D
Than we have a debut story for American Ace, it has a pretty straight forward story that seems to take place in an alternate time after WW1 about a queen getting revenge on a country that destroyed her home a plot that see was planing for two decades. Overall Grade - D+
Ka-Zar: Another average story, Ka-Zar ends up fighting with a rival jungle gang (run by apes? gorillas?). One of Zar's cubs gets kidnapped and Ka-Zar has to rescue them. Overall - D+
The Human Torch: Honestly the second best story of the issue, it seems like maybe The Human Torch is getting a better understanding of his powers. I wish I could say in that he was less gulliable but unfortunatley he still falls for some silly setups. On the (bright?) side he still either brutally murders or injures villains.
Example A:
Example B:
But he IS trying to cooperate with the police more AND it shows him caring more about civilians.
Overall Grade - C
And finally the best story goes to yet again...
Namor, The Sub-Mariner: Overall Grade - C+
As of right now Namors hatred is purely for "The White Man" because of the (almost) extinction of his people due to their drilling and excavations. This tale picks up right where the last left off and had some interesting implications. Is Namor slowly growing fond of the surface? Some great artwork here and it helps back that theroy up.
But don't worry Namor can FUCK stuff up when he wants to, like when he gets sucked into the pipe of a submarine, trips on one of the live wires, gets pissed and starts chucking GIRDERS AT THE CREW!
Most of the stories in this issue were either bland or average at best, The Torch and Namor stood out the most (again) with Namor being the clear victor.
First up, The Masker Raider, yeah this was pretty boring, he goes undercover to catch some baddies and most of the story if filled with dialogue bubbles and it dragged on for too long.
Overall Grade - F
The Angel - This was actually quite a step down from the previous issue for me, even more things go unexplained, for instance, The Angel seems to be a traveling hero? Its really unclear as in this story he ends up in Hong Kong. On top of that his abilities are still really unknown, and I don't really know why he dresses up, when he doesn't wear a mask most people (villains included) know who he is. The worst part is not really knowing the plot until the very end in an exposition dump.
Overall - D
Than we have a debut story for American Ace, it has a pretty straight forward story that seems to take place in an alternate time after WW1 about a queen getting revenge on a country that destroyed her home a plot that see was planing for two decades. Overall Grade - D+
Ka-Zar: Another average story, Ka-Zar ends up fighting with a rival jungle gang (run by apes? gorillas?). One of Zar's cubs gets kidnapped and Ka-Zar has to rescue them. Overall - D+
The Human Torch: Honestly the second best story of the issue, it seems like maybe The Human Torch is getting a better understanding of his powers. I wish I could say in that he was less gulliable but unfortunatley he still falls for some silly setups. On the (bright?) side he still either brutally murders or injures villains.
Example A:
Example B:
But he IS trying to cooperate with the police more AND it shows him caring more about civilians.
Overall Grade - C
And finally the best story goes to yet again...
Namor, The Sub-Mariner: Overall Grade - C+
As of right now Namors hatred is purely for "The White Man" because of the (almost) extinction of his people due to their drilling and excavations. This tale picks up right where the last left off and had some interesting implications. Is Namor slowly growing fond of the surface? Some great artwork here and it helps back that theroy up.
But don't worry Namor can FUCK stuff up when he wants to, like when he gets sucked into the pipe of a submarine, trips on one of the live wires, gets pissed and starts chucking GIRDERS AT THE CREW!
Most of the stories in this issue were either bland or average at best, The Torch and Namor stood out the most (again) with Namor being the clear victor.
August 28, 2018
I think this issue was a bit better. The politics of the time show up and the visual novels are a bit more consistent. I wonder how American Ace was received at the time given that it seems/is unfinished.
June 29, 2022
I'm finally into the stuff that's actually published under Marvel Comics group, and honestly, it already seems like the difference is night and day. These all had pretty good action and fun, paneling is (mostly) clear and I liked a lot of the art here. I'm excited to finally meet Captain America, but I think the Human Torch and Namor are definitely tiding me over!
The Human Torch!
Our triumphant return to the more super of Marvels early superheroes. At this point we're heroic, if not a little brutal in the punishments. Here the Human Torch takes down a mobster trying to rig rally car races. The Torch dishes out his own approved justice and murders most of the crooks with his heat that's seemingly comparable to the sun. The only person The Torch doesn't torch is the actual guy who was doing the crimes, the mob boss Blackie. He just makes that guy sign a confession after saving him. Helping people when convenient 👍
The Angel
Ever the Superman-type, The Angels powers seem to be a fist that's faster than a bullet, as everytime someone tries to shoot him he punches them first. It's kinda cool I guess. Although it seems like he stalked a girl all the way to Hong Kong so he could protect one single individual. So I guess I'm saying he's bad at his job.
The Sub-Mariner
Continueing his war against the White Race of man, the Sub-Mariner visits New York City and almost immediately fall in love with a white girl. I definitely think Namor is a more interesting character than the comic he's in can portray, but I think I'll feel that way for awhile with these Marvels. I like that Namor is morally ambiguous, he's definitely made all the more interesting for it, short of falling in love with the enemy immediately.
The Masked Raider
Don't call guns "smoke poles", please. I still don't really care for westerns, but I could vaguely see a series of events that would make me like these stories. As it is its pretty whatever, just your average Wild West vigilante. He shows up, he's a quicker draw than the rest, then he wins.
American Ace
So this is another dogfighter story. This almost casts American Ace as being in somewhat of another reality, as they're clearly eluding to World War II, but all of the nations and leaders have changed. After peace was declared the Queen of some nation is Napoleon-ed on a small island by herself. After she breaks free of the island, she re-declares war on the allied nations, bombing cities and whatnot. This story, VERY weirdly, end on a cliffhanger after the Ace gets an air raid explosion to the face, basically. It was a weird and kinda frustrating ending, as I wasn't hating the story and, believe it or not, wanted to find out what happens. Hopefully it's not an error and I will find out next volume.
Hey! I'm actually looking forward to the next issue!
Ka-Zar: The Great
I think I have the most fun with this Tarzan wanna-be, there aren't a bunch of other boring humans around for our ape-man to fall in love with, and this time, there were no Nazis in the jungle either. Ka-Zar in this story covets a mirror the Nazis left last issue, he goes to find it, only to see that a member of the local chimp tribe had found it. Ka-Zar fought the ape for the mirror, sparing his live. This make monkey mad, so he steals into Ka-Zars basically adopted lion brother Zars cave. He doesn't find a mirror, but steals Zars baby cubs from the cave making Ka-Zar have a huge dramatic fight, almost causing a war between lion and monkey. I liked this story as most of the dialogue was implied, I also really like that our guy knows the personal names of almost every beast in the jungle. My biggest problem here is that the paneling is so bad they literally had to number the panels to read correctly.
The Human Torch!
Our triumphant return to the more super of Marvels early superheroes. At this point we're heroic, if not a little brutal in the punishments. Here the Human Torch takes down a mobster trying to rig rally car races. The Torch dishes out his own approved justice and murders most of the crooks with his heat that's seemingly comparable to the sun. The only person The Torch doesn't torch is the actual guy who was doing the crimes, the mob boss Blackie. He just makes that guy sign a confession after saving him. Helping people when convenient 👍
The Angel
Ever the Superman-type, The Angels powers seem to be a fist that's faster than a bullet, as everytime someone tries to shoot him he punches them first. It's kinda cool I guess. Although it seems like he stalked a girl all the way to Hong Kong so he could protect one single individual. So I guess I'm saying he's bad at his job.
The Sub-Mariner
Continueing his war against the White Race of man, the Sub-Mariner visits New York City and almost immediately fall in love with a white girl. I definitely think Namor is a more interesting character than the comic he's in can portray, but I think I'll feel that way for awhile with these Marvels. I like that Namor is morally ambiguous, he's definitely made all the more interesting for it, short of falling in love with the enemy immediately.
The Masked Raider
Don't call guns "smoke poles", please. I still don't really care for westerns, but I could vaguely see a series of events that would make me like these stories. As it is its pretty whatever, just your average Wild West vigilante. He shows up, he's a quicker draw than the rest, then he wins.
American Ace
So this is another dogfighter story. This almost casts American Ace as being in somewhat of another reality, as they're clearly eluding to World War II, but all of the nations and leaders have changed. After peace was declared the Queen of some nation is Napoleon-ed on a small island by herself. After she breaks free of the island, she re-declares war on the allied nations, bombing cities and whatnot. This story, VERY weirdly, end on a cliffhanger after the Ace gets an air raid explosion to the face, basically. It was a weird and kinda frustrating ending, as I wasn't hating the story and, believe it or not, wanted to find out what happens. Hopefully it's not an error and I will find out next volume.
Hey! I'm actually looking forward to the next issue!
Ka-Zar: The Great
I think I have the most fun with this Tarzan wanna-be, there aren't a bunch of other boring humans around for our ape-man to fall in love with, and this time, there were no Nazis in the jungle either. Ka-Zar in this story covets a mirror the Nazis left last issue, he goes to find it, only to see that a member of the local chimp tribe had found it. Ka-Zar fought the ape for the mirror, sparing his live. This make monkey mad, so he steals into Ka-Zars basically adopted lion brother Zars cave. He doesn't find a mirror, but steals Zars baby cubs from the cave making Ka-Zar have a huge dramatic fight, almost causing a war between lion and monkey. I liked this story as most of the dialogue was implied, I also really like that our guy knows the personal names of almost every beast in the jungle. My biggest problem here is that the paneling is so bad they literally had to number the panels to read correctly.
August 9, 2025
The Human Torch issue is frustrating. While I enjoy it, and the exploration of his powers, the villain is absurd. He sets fire to racing cars using his plane. How has nobody put two and two together? Was it normal for a plane to be following racing cars around a track? It’s not like it’s a one off, he goes round the country with the same plane doing the same thing, and he has been doing it before Torch shows up and is blamed, and, like a moron, goes off to do it again while Torch is in gaol, which would exonerate him. The idiocy aside, the only thing that left me scratching my head was the… fire-talk? He shouts at the fire and it dies down. If you want to give him that power, why does he have to talk to the fire? It’s so weird.
Ka-Zar was okay, but I did realise that this is not the Ka-Zar of later years that was introduced in X-Men. This guy’s name is Rand (yep) and he’s in the Congo. Unfortunately, this makes me significantly less interested in these stories long term. The Masked Raider story was absolutely horrendous.
The American Pilot story was actually pretty great, a kind of alternate World War II where the Europeans are still more reminiscent of World War I soldiers, instigated by the beautiful psychopath queen of a fantasy kingdom. Given I had low expectations of this, I was thankfully surprised by the story and great artwork.
The Angel was okay, but just more of the same. He’s Punisher/James Bond that hunts and kills criminals while dressed up like Super-Man. I do think the costumes confuses people because, unless he later gets powers, he’s just some guy, not a superhero, and I feel like that costume must get in the way of his murder spree.
Namor is, by far, the best comic here. Fascinating artwork and colouring and probably one of the few comics with a ‘villain’ as its hero. He goes round bashing the snot out of people and stuff, threatens a helpless beggar out of his clothes and then kidnaps a woman and tries to take her to his underwater lair, almost drowning her, and murdering cops as he does so. I suppose it is little wonder that while Torch and Ka-Zar get rebooted into new characters later on, Namor remains.
Ka-Zar was okay, but I did realise that this is not the Ka-Zar of later years that was introduced in X-Men. This guy’s name is Rand (yep) and he’s in the Congo. Unfortunately, this makes me significantly less interested in these stories long term. The Masked Raider story was absolutely horrendous.
The American Pilot story was actually pretty great, a kind of alternate World War II where the Europeans are still more reminiscent of World War I soldiers, instigated by the beautiful psychopath queen of a fantasy kingdom. Given I had low expectations of this, I was thankfully surprised by the story and great artwork.
The Angel was okay, but just more of the same. He’s Punisher/James Bond that hunts and kills criminals while dressed up like Super-Man. I do think the costumes confuses people because, unless he later gets powers, he’s just some guy, not a superhero, and I feel like that costume must get in the way of his murder spree.
Namor is, by far, the best comic here. Fascinating artwork and colouring and probably one of the few comics with a ‘villain’ as its hero. He goes round bashing the snot out of people and stuff, threatens a helpless beggar out of his clothes and then kidnaps a woman and tries to take her to his underwater lair, almost drowning her, and murdering cops as he does so. I suppose it is little wonder that while Torch and Ka-Zar get rebooted into new characters later on, Namor remains.
May 20, 2019
Plain and simple, the only arc in this comic book even worth following is Namor the Submariner's. The writers behind him consistently mapped out where his arc was going for multiple issues at a time rather than the "inconsequential bad guy of the month" crap that plagues these other stories.
THE HUMAN TORCH story has clearly established it will not continue the themes or narrative ideas set up in the first issue, so my fear that it would completely throw away what made the story great out the window has now been realized.
THE ANGEL is just knock off Superman. Plain and simple. Skip it.
NAMOR is given an interesting conflict in this issue. He falls in love with a land dweller! His motivation was to wipe out the human race because their weapons were hurting his civilization, but now he has to actually think of the human race as a person rather than as a concept; he has to put a face to what he has hated in his non-aggressive, non-militaristic, compassionate love interest. He can no longer think of the human race as a uniform thing, but as something that is nuanced and complex just like his own civilization. Interested in how this plays out.
AMERICAN ACE might as well be any cookie cutter Republic Film Serial. Skip it.
KAZAR is back. Still schlock. Still racist. Skip the schlocky racism.
I might as well say at this point, after the first issue you should really only read the Namor stories.
THE HUMAN TORCH story has clearly established it will not continue the themes or narrative ideas set up in the first issue, so my fear that it would completely throw away what made the story great out the window has now been realized.
THE ANGEL is just knock off Superman. Plain and simple. Skip it.
NAMOR is given an interesting conflict in this issue. He falls in love with a land dweller! His motivation was to wipe out the human race because their weapons were hurting his civilization, but now he has to actually think of the human race as a person rather than as a concept; he has to put a face to what he has hated in his non-aggressive, non-militaristic, compassionate love interest. He can no longer think of the human race as a uniform thing, but as something that is nuanced and complex just like his own civilization. Interested in how this plays out.
AMERICAN ACE might as well be any cookie cutter Republic Film Serial. Skip it.
KAZAR is back. Still schlock. Still racist. Skip the schlocky racism.
I might as well say at this point, after the first issue you should really only read the Namor stories.
July 13, 2017
Es bastante dicotómico este número. Tiene unas series malísimas como el vaquero enmascarado, american ace, y tiene unas historias ilógicas, descabelladas y llenas de fallos argumentales como la antorcha humana, el angel y sub-mariner. Tiene obras muy buenas perfectamente trabajadas como ka-zar que es lo mejor de este número. El dibujo es excelente en ka-zar y en sub-mariner. Pero en el resto es muy malo. Quizas american ace tiene un poco de originalidad en el dibujo. Pero lo demás es bastante malo. En la antorcha humana a medida que pasan las viñetas el dibujo va a peor. Se nota la molestia o apuro del dibujante. Y en el vaquero enmascarado... ni vale la pena mencionarlo. 3 estrellas. Producto regular.
March 15, 2022
The Human Torch | ★★★
The Angel | ★★★.5
The Sub-Mariner | ★★★.5
The Masked Raider | ★★.75
American Ace | ★★★
Death-Bird Squadron | ★★★.75
Adventures of Ka-Zar The Great | ★★★.5
All In Fun | ★★★.5
Loony Laffs! | ★★.75
Average Rating: ★★★.5
The Angel | ★★★.5
The Sub-Mariner | ★★★.5
The Masked Raider | ★★.75
American Ace | ★★★
Death-Bird Squadron | ★★★.75
Adventures of Ka-Zar The Great | ★★★.5
All In Fun | ★★★.5
Loony Laffs! | ★★.75
Average Rating: ★★★.5
July 9, 2018
The Human Torch is my favourite, but I'm also really enjoying the Adventures of Ka-far the Great
March 15, 2023
4.5/5 to be exact for me
December 31, 2024
3🌟
These mystery comics are much more fun than the daring ones, especially since the heroes are recurrent and way more interesting.
These mystery comics are much more fun than the daring ones, especially since the heroes are recurrent and way more interesting.
September 21, 2025
A continuation of the Marvel Comics #1 with a new title, Marvel Mystery Comics #2. Consists of:
1. The Human Torch: Murder at the Racetrack
2. The Angel: The Treasure of Alano
3. The Sub-Mariner: Attack on New York City
4. The Masked Rider: The Town of Wanted Man
5. Origin of the American Ace
6. The Angel: Death-Bird Squadron (short text story)
7. The Battle with Badrak (Ka-Zar)
1. The Human Torch: Murder at the Racetrack
2. The Angel: The Treasure of Alano
3. The Sub-Mariner: Attack on New York City
4. The Masked Rider: The Town of Wanted Man
5. Origin of the American Ace
6. The Angel: Death-Bird Squadron (short text story)
7. The Battle with Badrak (Ka-Zar)
October 4, 2020
Pretty cool
July 22, 2021
This is a pretty good Marvel series, mostly just love and enjoy the Human torch and Kazar comics😄😻👍
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews