What do you think?
Rate this book
Marvel Mystery Comics #13
Marvel Mystery Comics #13
Even more amazing tales from the early days of Marvel! Starring the Human Torch, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the first appearance of the Golden Age Vision!
68 pages, Paperback
About the author
Carl Burgos
244 books9 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 5, 2018
Off goes The Masked Raider, in comes The Vision: a weird trans-dimensional smoke traveling superhero. Close to a solid two except for the usual antics of The Angel who is all over the place, this time back to punching gangsters.
Dat accent tho!
Dat accent tho!
November 9, 2020
Aarkus Vision? Nice, the angel story? Nice, The Ka-zar story made fans buy the comics because they never tell what will happen next and leave us on an unfinished end.
Opinion:
The Aarkus Vision actually is not powerful since he's only there when there also is a smoke.
The human torch story is always cool.
The sub-mariner changes his mind every issue bruh.
The Angel is a copy of superman but he still is a cool character.
Ka-zar in New York? That would make a lot trouble, he doesn't understand and he doesn't know, he just needs to stay in jungle or get help.
I never read that monkey story.
Opinion:
The Aarkus Vision actually is not powerful since he's only there when there also is a smoke.
The human torch story is always cool.
The sub-mariner changes his mind every issue bruh.
The Angel is a copy of superman but he still is a cool character.
Ka-zar in New York? That would make a lot trouble, he doesn't understand and he doesn't know, he just needs to stay in jungle or get help.
I never read that monkey story.
August 14, 2022
The Human Torch
Subway train accidents keep happening in New York, killing scores of people. As the Torch investigates he learns that the man who built the subway had sons who died during the building. The man explains he went mad with revenge and hired goons to destroy the bridges but it quickly got out of hand, the goons kidnapping him and stealing shit from the wrecks. Torch revealed a new way that his power works and then becomes invincible to outward damage. Good power.
Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
After fighting his American enemy again, Namor decides that he's bored at home and should strikes out for adventure like the good old days. Him and his cousin Dorma decide to hit Europe, as that's where most of the action is in those days (WWII). There they help a French village withstand Nazi invasion. That's about the issue lol
The Vision
Another one of Marvels shockingly old characters, The Vision appears on the scene, but unlike other early Marvel characters (like the two listed above) this guy doesn't have much in common with his contemporary version. The Vision here is conjured from another world, through the amazing powers of... smoke? Anyway, I don't know how he works yet, he has an alter ego even though he's from another dimension? It's all a bit weird, I guess I'll wait for more explanation
Terry Vance
Terry is hot on the heels of a group of art theives, who paint copies of priceless works and swap them out to sell the original. Well Terry solves the day, but not before he's beaten and thrown down an elevator shaft. These are fine comics, but I really think the beating Terry takes is the best part lol.
Electro: The Marvel of the Age
I love anytime that you go to the moon in media before we went to the moon irl. Electro owner Professor Zog and friends arrive on the moon during a scientific exploration, coming across an ancient castle, giant robot men, and a huge, tentacled, brain like being named Gnorr. Gnorr wants to steal Electro from Zog to wage war on the Earth from the Moon, having Electro lead his robot men. Zog essentially says "fuck you" and goes to town on the moon, blowing up the castle, Gnorr and his Robo men with grenades. I guess I should give Zog more credit.
The Angel
I'm not going to verify this statement, but I think they got a new writer and artist for this story of Angel, but I really liked it. The story was a regular criminal catch 'em, but it did a lot of good things, like bringing back Angel's
'punch you before you shoot him' powers, actually showing people get hurt from his punching, and it had a background character talk about his last encounter with Angel (getting punched out and waking up 4 days later in the hospital). Even the phone thing at the end was a little clever. Anyway, I'm surprised that Angel is my favourite of this issue, and quite good at that!
Adventures of Ka-Zar the Great
Bingo bango bongo, I don't want to leave to Congo. A girl that Ka-Zar met and saved in an earlier issue vouches for him in New York. That night he breaks out of her house to free his lion dad from the zoo. This story did not get a new artist/writer, but I'm still excited for the next one.
Subway train accidents keep happening in New York, killing scores of people. As the Torch investigates he learns that the man who built the subway had sons who died during the building. The man explains he went mad with revenge and hired goons to destroy the bridges but it quickly got out of hand, the goons kidnapping him and stealing shit from the wrecks. Torch revealed a new way that his power works and then becomes invincible to outward damage. Good power.
Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
After fighting his American enemy again, Namor decides that he's bored at home and should strikes out for adventure like the good old days. Him and his cousin Dorma decide to hit Europe, as that's where most of the action is in those days (WWII). There they help a French village withstand Nazi invasion. That's about the issue lol
The Vision
Another one of Marvels shockingly old characters, The Vision appears on the scene, but unlike other early Marvel characters (like the two listed above) this guy doesn't have much in common with his contemporary version. The Vision here is conjured from another world, through the amazing powers of... smoke? Anyway, I don't know how he works yet, he has an alter ego even though he's from another dimension? It's all a bit weird, I guess I'll wait for more explanation
Terry Vance
Terry is hot on the heels of a group of art theives, who paint copies of priceless works and swap them out to sell the original. Well Terry solves the day, but not before he's beaten and thrown down an elevator shaft. These are fine comics, but I really think the beating Terry takes is the best part lol.
Electro: The Marvel of the Age
I love anytime that you go to the moon in media before we went to the moon irl. Electro owner Professor Zog and friends arrive on the moon during a scientific exploration, coming across an ancient castle, giant robot men, and a huge, tentacled, brain like being named Gnorr. Gnorr wants to steal Electro from Zog to wage war on the Earth from the Moon, having Electro lead his robot men. Zog essentially says "fuck you" and goes to town on the moon, blowing up the castle, Gnorr and his Robo men with grenades. I guess I should give Zog more credit.
The Angel
I'm not going to verify this statement, but I think they got a new writer and artist for this story of Angel, but I really liked it. The story was a regular criminal catch 'em, but it did a lot of good things, like bringing back Angel's
'punch you before you shoot him' powers, actually showing people get hurt from his punching, and it had a background character talk about his last encounter with Angel (getting punched out and waking up 4 days later in the hospital). Even the phone thing at the end was a little clever. Anyway, I'm surprised that Angel is my favourite of this issue, and quite good at that!
Adventures of Ka-Zar the Great
Bingo bango bongo, I don't want to leave to Congo. A girl that Ka-Zar met and saved in an earlier issue vouches for him in New York. That night he breaks out of her house to free his lion dad from the zoo. This story did not get a new artist/writer, but I'm still excited for the next one.
September 14, 2025
Namor was my favourite, as usual. He goes back to romping round the planet causing havoc, this time his cousin joining him. Human Torch was good, but the plan was a bit much for mere gangsters - flooding the entire subway system by blowing holes in it.
Electro was goofy, but not as fun as the last space adventure he was on. At least it is a silly space adventure though, making it better than his usual outing. Again though, the crack team of controllers is gone and we have just Zog. Angel’s story was fine. That detective and his monkey exists, unfortunately. Fortunately, however, Masked Raider is gone. Huzzah.
Instead, we have The Vision. Yes, The Vision. Unfortunately, aside from the name and some mild cosmetic parallels, this is a completely different guy, more so than Torch and Ka-Zar. He’s like an inter dimensional genie, who appears when there’s smoke. He has a human shape that he uses to walk about in.
I liked Ka-Zar, the fish out of water always works for me. But the appearance of him in a suit is really fun.
Electro was goofy, but not as fun as the last space adventure he was on. At least it is a silly space adventure though, making it better than his usual outing. Again though, the crack team of controllers is gone and we have just Zog. Angel’s story was fine. That detective and his monkey exists, unfortunately. Fortunately, however, Masked Raider is gone. Huzzah.
Instead, we have The Vision. Yes, The Vision. Unfortunately, aside from the name and some mild cosmetic parallels, this is a completely different guy, more so than Torch and Ka-Zar. He’s like an inter dimensional genie, who appears when there’s smoke. He has a human shape that he uses to walk about in.
I liked Ka-Zar, the fish out of water always works for me. But the appearance of him in a suit is really fun.
October 2, 2019
The highlight story in this comic is the new character Vision. More than about socking enemies into submission but he actually has something more than just brute strength. Summonable only through smoke and with mysterious powers. He is a character I will be looking forward to reading more about.
September 18, 2026
Stories included in this issue:
1. Cut-Throat Justice
2. Terror in the Subway
3. Smashing the Island Invasion
4. Enter: The Vision
5. Case of the Counterfeit Paintings
6. Mystery of the Moon Robots
7. The Murder of Happy Norton
8. In the New York Jungle
1. Cut-Throat Justice
2. Terror in the Subway
3. Smashing the Island Invasion
4. Enter: The Vision
5. Case of the Counterfeit Paintings
6. Mystery of the Moon Robots
7. The Murder of Happy Norton
8. In the New York Jungle
May 31, 2026
I was not expecting to see the vision in this
July 3, 2021
This is a pretty good Marvel series, mostly just love and enjoy the Human torch and Kazar comics😄😻👍
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews