Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Sub-Mariner - Volume 1 by Bill Everett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you're looking for pre-US entry into World War II heroes fighting Nazis, this collection is for you.

This book collects Issues 1-4 of the Golden Age Submariner comic with each comic being 60 pages long.Unlike other books, which were filled with back up features, each issue featured two Submariner stories and one Angel story.

The Sub-mariner had been around for a while and actually was the last of Timely's big three to get his own book. The Sub-mariner was an erratic character who would go from being a friend of humanity in one issue to attacking them in the next, to deciding to fight Nazis, and then deciding the whole war thing was kind of stupid.

Bill Everett really comes up with a memorable story for Issue 1 as the Nazis attack Atlantis and killing the Emperor (later ret-conned to a severe injury that put into a severe coma). While in the real world, attacking Russia was the Nazi's big tactical mistake, it's safe that bombing Atlantis had to be the Nazi's biggest blunder in the Marvel universe as Sub-mariner declares war right back on Germany. The first three issues are packed with Sub-mariner fighting the Nazis with Issue 3 featuring Sub in a great mystery adventure story with Nazis and Irish druids that time forgot. Issue 4 features more traditional mystery/light horror stories. All of them are very well-written and the art is a notch above most golden age stories.

What makes Sub-mariner so interesting is that he's not really an anti-hero but he's very alien in his values and priorities. He's not an assassin but he has little compunction about destroying an enemy, particularly Nazis. He's also concerned with Atlantis more than surface dwellers. In the second story in Issue 1, Sub-mariner, captures Nazis who'd stolen radium from a hospital in New York but returned the radium to the sea to save his own angel.

The Angel was the sub-mariner's back up character and while I'm not usually a fan of the character, his appearances is this book are probably the best I've seen as the twenty-page format helps to turn out a quality story. These remain strictly in the Mystery/Horror genre. The best Angel story I've read is in here with issue 3's "The Angels Draw a Comic Strip," featuring an utterly insane villain enslaving a staff of a comic book with the Angel undercover as a comic artist. I will admit it's still a mystery as to why he wears the costume. He says he's a private detective and I guess a blue unitard with wings is what fits in.

Beyond the two stars, there are some interesting text stories including one by a young Stan Lee. Overall, this is just a great volume and with it now in paperback, it's very well-priced. So i strongly recommend.



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