Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales of Suspense, Vol. 2

Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era

by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck

1356 copies in the "Classic" Format.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Anthologies

259 pages, Hardcover

First published June 25, 2008

About the author

Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to see how Kirby and Lee kept the Marvel company alive (well Atlas still back then) then these volumes are the answer to your questions. Before they created the sliver age of Marvel heroes they published tons of great monster stories. Recommended

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful nonsense

These stories are ridiculous in all the right ways. A scientist rents Frankenstein’s castle as a place to do research. Unfortunately, a mob of angry villagers storm the castle and haul him off, leaving his growth ray shining on an amoeba that soon menaces the entire village. And there are dozens of other stories just as ludicrous in this collection.
The art is great. Jack Kirby was always fantastic, and the stories here are no exception. And this collection reminded me how good Steve Ditko’s art could be. I tend to think of the art from late in his career, which was stiff and, frankly, not very good. His art in these stories is loose and dynamic and gorgeous as all get out.

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects Issues 11-20 of Tales of Suspense with some pre-Marvel offerings of classic 1960s Sci Fi. I don't think the individual stories were quite as good or clever as in the previous volume, but in this Volume, Tales of Suspense began to evolve to feature one long story along with all the short stories in the magazine. Generally, these featured an evil monster of the month. These were actually quite fun with great art even if the plots were a tad predictable.

The stories were all generally good. There were text stories with each issue in accordance with federal regulations and most of these were passable (although there was one repeat.) The last one regarding a weather man was quite wild.

Overall, these were fun if you like 1960s goofy sci fi and a chance to see great comic creators before the Marvel Age of heroes was born.

[Paul Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Golden Age Science Fiction at its best! Atlas (Marvel) delivers once again through the genius of Stan Lee, Jack (King) Kirby, Steve Ditko and others. Favourite stories are: I Lived a Million Years; When the Earth Vanished; What Lurks in the Mountain; Kraa the Unhuman; Enter... the Robot; The Bomb. Great to see all the old Atlas sci-fi classics now available once more to new generations of readers.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

SF and vaguely horror stories in an anthology comic... Not the greatest stories in the world, and often very similar to one another (quicksand finishes off a variety of menaces!), but when the artwork is by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck - all at the top of their form - who can really complain? Entertaining nonsense.

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some dumb pointless stories in this volume. And then there is Goom, the THING from Planet X! As well as Googam, son of Goom. These are legendary tales from Jack Kirby. The Green Thing, about the intelligent weed, is also top notch.