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Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics #4
Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 4
Collects Marvel Mystery Comics #13-16.
And now the flagship title of Marvel's Golden Age REALLY heats up! From day one Marvel Comics brought you Carl Burgos' blazing Human Torch and Bill Everett's undersea powerhouse Sub-Mariner, but two of the Golden Age's most thrilling characters just wasn't enough for MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS-Enter, the Vision! Created by Timely's titanic team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the Vision, burst into the Earthly world via Professor Enoch Mason's dimension smasher and brought to MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS an eerie crime-noir serial that sealed the comic's place at the very top of the Golden Age's greatest! Joined by the crime-fighting Angel, boy-adventurer Terry Vance, the caterwauling science fiction tales of Electro, and Ka-Zar's jungle action, there's no comparison for variety and excitement!
And now the flagship title of Marvel's Golden Age REALLY heats up! From day one Marvel Comics brought you Carl Burgos' blazing Human Torch and Bill Everett's undersea powerhouse Sub-Mariner, but two of the Golden Age's most thrilling characters just wasn't enough for MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS-Enter, the Vision! Created by Timely's titanic team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the Vision, burst into the Earthly world via Professor Enoch Mason's dimension smasher and brought to MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS an eerie crime-noir serial that sealed the comic's place at the very top of the Golden Age's greatest! Joined by the crime-fighting Angel, boy-adventurer Terry Vance, the caterwauling science fiction tales of Electro, and Ka-Zar's jungle action, there's no comparison for variety and excitement!
266 pages, Hardcover
Published April 25, 2009
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.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 17, 2013
This book picks up where Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 3 or Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus, Vol. 1 left off and collects Issues 13-16 of the golden age Marvel Mystery Comics.
The line up of characters is the same throughout all four issues and with one exception, it was the same line up as had been in Marvel Mystery Comics at the end of the previous book. Here are some thoughts:
1) Human Torch: The Human Torch has a great story involving a fire cult in Issues 14 and 15 sandwiched between the Torch fighting Terrorists in Issue 13 and Nazis in a pre-war story in Issue 16. These stories hang together pretty well and there's a great deal of complexity in the fire cult story which actually had some great plot twists in it.
2) Submariner-The Submariner began inching towards the "good guy" category. He fights Nazis in every issue but Issue Issue 15. Unfortunately, in Issue 15, he goes to New York and kidnaps a man and his girlfriend with the intent of forcing her to be his bride. (So not entirely on the side of the angels yet.)
The Submariner stories are connected but that leads to an odd switch. After issue 15, he goes from trying to kidnap the girl and defeat her beau to having them both accompany him to Europe to fight Nazis. Not quite Casablanca, but an interesting shift. In reality, this was setting up the second big Namor-Torch crossover in Marvel Mystery Comics #17 but the breakneck redirection is a little awkward. Also, Namor wears a helmet that looks like its pig shaped in this book. Whenever artists get Namor into wardrobe, things get weird.
That leaves the rest of the book and once again we're left with a mix between the good, the mediocre, and the bad:
On the good side, Ka-zar the Great has a solid plot in Issues 13-15 trying to get back to civilization and rescue his lion brother Zar before meeting a recurring villain back in the Jungle in Issue 16. Terry Vance, School Boy Sleuth continues to provide lighthearted fun with some amazing adventure. My favorite has Terry giving his Dr. Watson, his pet monkey, a gun to guard the bad guys with.
A little less good was the Vision. Not to be confused with the Android of later years, the golden Age Vision was an interdimensional/supersnatural being in stories that were somewhere between Horror and Science Fiction. The stories and art were by Jack Kirby which makes them imaginative and worth reading even if they don't always make sense.
On the down side, the stories featuring the Angel are, if anything, even more boring than prior stories. The stories of Electro the Wonder Robot astonish me only to the degree that they managed to stick around so long. They were simply repetitive and uninteresting.
Bottom Line: It's a decent collection even if a lot of space is wasted. I'm looking forward to Volume 5 and the next meeting of Submariner and the Human Torch.
The line up of characters is the same throughout all four issues and with one exception, it was the same line up as had been in Marvel Mystery Comics at the end of the previous book. Here are some thoughts:
1) Human Torch: The Human Torch has a great story involving a fire cult in Issues 14 and 15 sandwiched between the Torch fighting Terrorists in Issue 13 and Nazis in a pre-war story in Issue 16. These stories hang together pretty well and there's a great deal of complexity in the fire cult story which actually had some great plot twists in it.
2) Submariner-The Submariner began inching towards the "good guy" category. He fights Nazis in every issue but Issue Issue 15. Unfortunately, in Issue 15, he goes to New York and kidnaps a man and his girlfriend with the intent of forcing her to be his bride. (So not entirely on the side of the angels yet.)
The Submariner stories are connected but that leads to an odd switch. After issue 15, he goes from trying to kidnap the girl and defeat her beau to having them both accompany him to Europe to fight Nazis. Not quite Casablanca, but an interesting shift. In reality, this was setting up the second big Namor-Torch crossover in Marvel Mystery Comics #17 but the breakneck redirection is a little awkward. Also, Namor wears a helmet that looks like its pig shaped in this book. Whenever artists get Namor into wardrobe, things get weird.
That leaves the rest of the book and once again we're left with a mix between the good, the mediocre, and the bad:
On the good side, Ka-zar the Great has a solid plot in Issues 13-15 trying to get back to civilization and rescue his lion brother Zar before meeting a recurring villain back in the Jungle in Issue 16. Terry Vance, School Boy Sleuth continues to provide lighthearted fun with some amazing adventure. My favorite has Terry giving his Dr. Watson, his pet monkey, a gun to guard the bad guys with.
A little less good was the Vision. Not to be confused with the Android of later years, the golden Age Vision was an interdimensional/supersnatural being in stories that were somewhere between Horror and Science Fiction. The stories and art were by Jack Kirby which makes them imaginative and worth reading even if they don't always make sense.
On the down side, the stories featuring the Angel are, if anything, even more boring than prior stories. The stories of Electro the Wonder Robot astonish me only to the degree that they managed to stick around so long. They were simply repetitive and uninteresting.
Bottom Line: It's a decent collection even if a lot of space is wasted. I'm looking forward to Volume 5 and the next meeting of Submariner and the Human Torch.
August 8, 2022
2.25/5
April 28, 2025
There's only 2 things worse than this comic series:
1) Dying
2) Dying while reading this.
1) Dying
2) Dying while reading this.
September 23, 2023
Bill Everett's Sub-Mariner is frickin' awesome, and is my favorite out of all of these Timely heroes. I love his 'might makes right' mentality, and how he suddenly decides to involve himself in that "situation over in Europe"...all over a girl. It must be pointed out once again the historical significance of these issues, as their publication pre-dates America's involvement in World War II by a year (cover dates were 2 months ahead back then. At the end of each issue, there is an ad which shows the release date, likely very approximate given the lackluster distribution methods in place in those days.)
Carl Burgos' Human Torch is also great, ditto Electro, the Marvel of the Age. That character started out hokey, and either A) Professor Zog and his robot have become more developed, B) the silliness of these Golden Age stories has dulled my brain, or C) the sweet smelling fumes from the toxic Chinese ink has brainwashed me. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby unleash another great character, the Vision, who comes to, and returns from, our dimension through smoke. Yes, that's right, ordinary smoke. Cigarette smoke, any smoke will do. No matter how hokey the concept might seem in 2010, these are terrific reads.
From a production standpoint, everything here is top notch. Paper, restoration, coloring, binding...everything that even the most anal-retentive OCD-laden comic book fan can complain about is up to snuff here.
Carl Burgos' Human Torch is also great, ditto Electro, the Marvel of the Age. That character started out hokey, and either A) Professor Zog and his robot have become more developed, B) the silliness of these Golden Age stories has dulled my brain, or C) the sweet smelling fumes from the toxic Chinese ink has brainwashed me. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby unleash another great character, the Vision, who comes to, and returns from, our dimension through smoke. Yes, that's right, ordinary smoke. Cigarette smoke, any smoke will do. No matter how hokey the concept might seem in 2010, these are terrific reads.
From a production standpoint, everything here is top notch. Paper, restoration, coloring, binding...everything that even the most anal-retentive OCD-laden comic book fan can complain about is up to snuff here.
April 13, 2014
Another excellent Marvel Comics reprint volume, and again you've got the golden age rarity of having proper continuing stories. The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Electro and even Ka-Zar have adventures that span several issues
I think this is really what makes these Marvel Masterworks superior to most of the other reprint series - continuity and complete issues. Excellent artwork, good stories (for the time), and a lot of action. Hard to go wrong with that.
I think this is really what makes these Marvel Masterworks superior to most of the other reprint series - continuity and complete issues. Excellent artwork, good stories (for the time), and a lot of action. Hard to go wrong with that.
January 24, 2016
Fantastic reprint of these Golden Age of Comics issues. The first appearance of such iconic characters as the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner appear here. Great collection of rare comics. Very recommended
September 23, 2015
If everything were the quality of Everett's Sub-Mariner stories, I'd have given it 4 stars.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews