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Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era
Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Battlefield, Vol. 1
Collects Battlefield #1-11.
In the early 1950s with the Korean War raging Marvel Comics' predecessor, Atlas, launched a bevy of war comics featuring the heroism and horrors of human conflict. Battlefield ranked four-star amongst them with art by Atlas Era luminaries including war comics great Russ Heath along with Paul Reinman, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, Bill Everett and many more. With challenging scripts by Stan Lee's stable of Atlas Era scribes these never-before-reprinted pre-Code comics delve into a challenging range of themes-from tales of the American fightin' G.I., to the machinations of the Communist front, and striking meditations on the atrocities of modern war.
In the early 1950s with the Korean War raging Marvel Comics' predecessor, Atlas, launched a bevy of war comics featuring the heroism and horrors of human conflict. Battlefield ranked four-star amongst them with art by Atlas Era luminaries including war comics great Russ Heath along with Paul Reinman, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan, Bill Everett and many more. With challenging scripts by Stan Lee's stable of Atlas Era scribes these never-before-reprinted pre-Code comics delve into a challenging range of themes-from tales of the American fightin' G.I., to the machinations of the Communist front, and striking meditations on the atrocities of modern war.
323 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 19, 2018
Back when Marvel was called Atlas...
A decent but not amazing collection of war stories- mostly centered on the Korean War raging on at the time- very similar to titles like EC's Two-Fisted Tales or Frontline Combat. Only not as good.
Chapman, Rico et al. are not Harvey Kurtzman. Most stories are propaganda stuff, with some over-simplification, unchecked facts and clichés. It has to be contextualized of course but even so stories range from very mediocre to not too bad when Kurtzman's more humane approach ranges from not too bad to very good.
As for the art, with the exception of a few good pages here and there- notably Russ Heath, Gene Colan and George Tuska- the great majority is mediocre to sub-par and simply cannot compete with the likes of Jack Davis, Wally Wood and the rest of the EC crew.
A volume that'll be more appreciated by aficionados of the genre and/or the period.
A decent but not amazing collection of war stories- mostly centered on the Korean War raging on at the time- very similar to titles like EC's Two-Fisted Tales or Frontline Combat. Only not as good.
Chapman, Rico et al. are not Harvey Kurtzman. Most stories are propaganda stuff, with some over-simplification, unchecked facts and clichés. It has to be contextualized of course but even so stories range from very mediocre to not too bad when Kurtzman's more humane approach ranges from not too bad to very good.
As for the art, with the exception of a few good pages here and there- notably Russ Heath, Gene Colan and George Tuska- the great majority is mediocre to sub-par and simply cannot compete with the likes of Jack Davis, Wally Wood and the rest of the EC crew.
A volume that'll be more appreciated by aficionados of the genre and/or the period.
October 24, 2018
Before there was the superhero world of Marvel Comics the company was called (among other things) Atlas Comics. Not to much in the way of publishing superheroes but they had some good solid War and horror comics. Nice read that takes you back to another era of comics. Recommended
March 31, 2024
I had no interest in war comics growing up, unless you count G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero as a war comic. That was always a hybrid war/science fiction comic book in my opinion, but I digress. The concept always seemed like they would be a dry, boring read. When the EC Archives were rolling out on a regular basis, I eagerly scooped them all up, including Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. Those were my first experiences with the genre, and I was absolutely blown away. Those were, in truth, anti-war comics published during the Korean War, but are still war comics nonetheless.
Battlefield takes place almost exclusively during the Korean War for at least the first 8 or 9 issues. The first six issues are outstanding, being dark, morose looks at war with no happy endings. The amount of story crammed into these 4-7 page stories is incredible. They manage to give each character an identity and a voice, so that when their fate befalls them, you actually care. The tone of the stories change in the later issues, with more happy endings. They are still excellent, but the gritty war stories in the earlier issues will appeal more to modern comic book fans.
The artwork in these '50s comic books is great. Russ Heath is in my top 5 artists of all time. His art is so photo realistic that if he were working today I'd swear that he was using Photoshop. He was that good. City of Slaves features artwork by an unknown-to-me artist, Sam Kweskin. I cannot recall experiencing his work before, and it is incredible. Werner Roth's '50s Atlas output is stellar. How his craft deteriorated so much by the '60s is a mystery to me. Here, he is a master. His '60s X-Men stuff was subpar at best. There are so many great artists gracing these pages that I could sit here and gush all day, but I'd rather you check this book out and experience it for yourself.
I have a confession to make. I love Marvel Masterworks. The state of the art restoration, the heavy duty coated stock paper, the sewn binding, the fact that these books lay perfectly flat from the first page to the last...all of these things make my OCD glow. I breathe a deep sigh of relief laying in bed at night, knowing that these books are gloriously restored documents for the ages that will outlast me. I almost envy the people of 2112 when they discover this stuff.
Battlefield takes place almost exclusively during the Korean War for at least the first 8 or 9 issues. The first six issues are outstanding, being dark, morose looks at war with no happy endings. The amount of story crammed into these 4-7 page stories is incredible. They manage to give each character an identity and a voice, so that when their fate befalls them, you actually care. The tone of the stories change in the later issues, with more happy endings. They are still excellent, but the gritty war stories in the earlier issues will appeal more to modern comic book fans.
The artwork in these '50s comic books is great. Russ Heath is in my top 5 artists of all time. His art is so photo realistic that if he were working today I'd swear that he was using Photoshop. He was that good. City of Slaves features artwork by an unknown-to-me artist, Sam Kweskin. I cannot recall experiencing his work before, and it is incredible. Werner Roth's '50s Atlas output is stellar. How his craft deteriorated so much by the '60s is a mystery to me. Here, he is a master. His '60s X-Men stuff was subpar at best. There are so many great artists gracing these pages that I could sit here and gush all day, but I'd rather you check this book out and experience it for yourself.
I have a confession to make. I love Marvel Masterworks. The state of the art restoration, the heavy duty coated stock paper, the sewn binding, the fact that these books lay perfectly flat from the first page to the last...all of these things make my OCD glow. I breathe a deep sigh of relief laying in bed at night, knowing that these books are gloriously restored documents for the ages that will outlast me. I almost envy the people of 2112 when they discover this stuff.
March 24, 2021
Before there was Marvel there was Timely. Or Atlas. Complicated. The Golden Age was over, the Silver Age not yet in sight. One way to make money was to publish war comics.
Battlefield was Atlas’ longest running war title. And here in the Masterworks series we get to read the first eleven issues. Not bad at all, but also far from good. They tried to imitate the E.C. war stories but very seldom successfully.
The best thing about them is that we see some of the guys later to become famous (or semi-famous) in the superhero genre, like Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott, George Tuska or Werner Roth. There is also one story by Bill Everett about Mussolini, one of the best in this collection. And I could finally see the artwork of legendary Joe Maneely. (I was not overly impressed.) There is also Dave Berg (quite bad) later to become a Mad super star. Actually the art I liked best was by a guy called Louis Ravielli.
What about the stories? They are okay at best. Most of the stories are about the Korea war. And the few that are not are much better. Like the one mentioned about Mussolini. There is one about the Crusades. Easily the best is a story called "Attrocities" written by Hank Chapman about... well the atrocities of war. Most of the stories are blatant US propaganda stories. Some okay within the limits of the genre but very many hard to accept. With communist yellow (very yellow) people depicted as evil and stupid.
Interesting. But really only for someone interested in the history of Marvel.
Battlefield was Atlas’ longest running war title. And here in the Masterworks series we get to read the first eleven issues. Not bad at all, but also far from good. They tried to imitate the E.C. war stories but very seldom successfully.
The best thing about them is that we see some of the guys later to become famous (or semi-famous) in the superhero genre, like Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott, George Tuska or Werner Roth. There is also one story by Bill Everett about Mussolini, one of the best in this collection. And I could finally see the artwork of legendary Joe Maneely. (I was not overly impressed.) There is also Dave Berg (quite bad) later to become a Mad super star. Actually the art I liked best was by a guy called Louis Ravielli.
What about the stories? They are okay at best. Most of the stories are about the Korea war. And the few that are not are much better. Like the one mentioned about Mussolini. There is one about the Crusades. Easily the best is a story called "Attrocities" written by Hank Chapman about... well the atrocities of war. Most of the stories are blatant US propaganda stories. Some okay within the limits of the genre but very many hard to accept. With communist yellow (very yellow) people depicted as evil and stupid.
Interesting. But really only for someone interested in the history of Marvel.
November 4, 2015
An excellent volume in the Marvel Masterworks series! This one features some very well-written and poignant war stories, very akin to the EC Comics tales of the day and the later masterpieces of Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert.
You've got a Who's Who of fifties' artists here, too: Joe Maneely, Don Rico, Ogden Whitney, Werner Roth, and even early stories by more humor-centric artists like Dave Berg, Jack Davis.
The stories are set mostly during the Korean War (which was going on at the time of publication), but they span the years and cover many salient points about war and the human condition.
A very good read on all counts!
You've got a Who's Who of fifties' artists here, too: Joe Maneely, Don Rico, Ogden Whitney, Werner Roth, and even early stories by more humor-centric artists like Dave Berg, Jack Davis.
The stories are set mostly during the Korean War (which was going on at the time of publication), but they span the years and cover many salient points about war and the human condition.
A very good read on all counts!
February 5, 2017
Read alongside Arundhati Roy's Capitalism: a Ghost Story and Chris Hedges's Wages of Rebellion, it shows we weren't fighting for the reasons alleged in these pages. The artwork is excellent, and the storytelling is often similar to the horror comics Marvel/Atlas was producing at the time.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews