Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "atlas-age"

Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes, Vol. 2 by John Romita Sr.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


By 1954, a few short years after Superhero books flourished during World War II, only three major heroes were left standing, DC Comics' Big 3: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. This book continues to look at the revival of Marvel's Golden Age Big Three during the mid-1950s for Captain America, the original Human Torch, and Sub-mariner.

This book collects stories from Men's Adventure #27 and #28, an anthology book featuring all three heroes and then Captain America #76-78 and Human Torch #36-#38 (with Atlas opting to continuing from golden age numbering.)

Here's a look at how each hero played out:

1) "Captain America, Commie Smasher" it's a beautifully politically incorrect cover that Marvel does its best to explain away through retcons mainly because it contradicts their continuity of Cap being in suspended animation after World War II until awakened by the Avengers.

At any rate, the concept is great but Cap fares the worst in this book. The seven page anthology stories in "Men's Adventures" were both pretty good, but Cap's tales in his own magazine were far weaker.

The problem is that while Sub-Mariner and Human Torch could just do what they'd been doing during the War, but the Captain America/Secret identity as a private identity wasn't something they could go back to. In 18-20 page Golden Age stories, you could goof around with that, but in a six page story, this element just distracted.

As a result of this unnecessary padding, the Captain America stories ended up rushed with even good concepts not being given decent space to develop. Ideas like the Chinese Communists blackmailing Chinese Americans, the Communists bringing to kill their own POWs for propoganda purposes, Cap fighting a green monsters with a hammer and sickle on its chest, or a plot to subvert through a sleeper agent could have been good stories if developed.

As it is, the Cap stories feature early art by John Romita who would distinguish himself with so many characters including the Amazing Spider-man.

The Submariner stories are good for the most part, although his role in the book is limited to the Men's Adventure comics and back-up features in the Human Torch books, Namor is pretty much the same as during the golden age: He's prince of Atlantis and mostly gets involved in human affairs with reluctance, but does when he has to. The most insane story in the book features the Sub-mariner trying to stop Half Man/Half Octopi from blowing up Europe. There's also an attempt at a ghost tale which is a bit weird. The introduction promised more Sub-mariner in Volume 3.

The Human Torch stories are probably the best in the book and make up the plurality of the book. The Torch tales really run a gamut of genres: There's crime, cold war spy dramas, and classic 1950s era Sci Fi tales about the dangers of prejudice. There's even a story where (in the style of the Golden Age Superman), the Torch helps a young pilot that lacks confidence through his power of invisibility (which he never had before this book and would never have again.) Really, everything is a lot of fun throughout.

The one flaw in the book is that writers did seem to keep forgetting that the original Human Torch wasn't actually human, but an android. The worst example is an unpublished Human Torch tale that was reprinted in this collection and features the Human Torch giving his actually human buddy Toro a blood transfusion. I'd like to think that someone had the strip withdrawn due to its glaring inaccuracy, and not that if Captain America had had an issue 79, this story would have gone in it.

There's a great introduction by Roy Thomas which always make a collection more enjoyable. In addition, I also have to say that this is one reprint volume where the two page text stories (required to be in comics to meet postal regulation requirements of the day) are actually quite good, with some good storytelling and clever twists across a variety of genres but mostly these are adventure tales.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable volume and it's too bad their weren't more of these stories made. Despite the limitations of length, they were fun reading. Alas, though, the Marvel age was still seven years away.



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Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes, Vol. 3 by Bill Everett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the brief revival of the Sub-mariner in his own comic from Issues 33-42.

The bulk of the comic stories feature the Sub-mariner. Original artist Bill Everett to draw all the Sub-mariner stories an the art in this book is absolutely superb and a cut above most Silver Age art. The stories are mostly well-written.

In the Silver Age, comic books would become obsessed with telling what Superheroes did during their childhood, ranging from the often weak tales of Aquaman and Wonder Woman to the epic Asgard tales of young Thor and Loki. Everett was ahead of his time in the mid-1950s, from Issue 35-42 we get eight tales looking at adventures of Namor as a child and they're far above the quality of most Silver Age stories. (Though not quite as epic as Thor's.)

The adult stories were mostly fun tales of the Sub-marienr taking on criminals, commies, and an alien here or there. The biggest problem I had with those stories was some of the consistency. For the first half of the book, Sub-mariner was the friend of surface people and tried to thwart his evil Stepbrother's attempts to start trouble. Then the Emperor of Atlantis powers him up and orders him to declare war on the surface people and he does lackadaisically, half-heartedly, and at times a disregard for lives, and then towards the end, the war is dropped. It's weird because the reason this book was kept going while Captain America and Human Torch were cancelled was because they planned on making a TV series out of Sub-mariner. Hard to do that with someone trying to wipe out mankind.

Other than that betrayal of the character and a few stories hindered by the rigid space requirement, the stories were all enjoyable.

The Human Torch appears in three back upstories and they're okay if unremarkable. Probably the best story is in Issue #33 which has the Torch taking on weird alien creatures. The art is really fun on that one. The other two involve a plague outbreak, and an attempt to frame the Human Torch.

After the Torch leaves, the back up feature becomes sea-based and doesn't feature recurring characters. The ones involving people at sea are good, but the four nature comics that center on the struggle of a sea creature features outstanding art and some great action as the they fight for their lives.

The text stories are okay. They're forgettable but will pass a couple minutes and allowed the comic company to ship out a lower rate.

The rare comics reprinted are a joy with solid artwork and enjoyable stories. Recommended for any fan of comic history or Namor.



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