Cody is endeavoring to read his way through Marvel's entire publishing history. Let's see if he can do it!
The company we now know as Marvel Comics started out when Martin Goodman launched a company called Timely Comics by publishing the anthology comic book Marvel Comics #1 on August 31, 1939. (With an October cover date.) On October 3rd, the second issue of the series reached store shelves, sporting a December cover date and a modified title: as of issue #2, Marvel Comics was renamed Marvel Mystery Comics. This is indicative of something that happened quite often back in the day: a book would get a new title, but the numbering would continue.
There’s no question that when a comic book fan dropped their dime on the store counter and walked away with the latest issue of this book, they were getting their money’s worth. These days, the average comic book only has 22 pages of story between its covers. Marvel Mystery Comics #2 proudly boasted on its cover that it contains “64 Pages in Full Color,” and in those pages there are multiple stories, each focused on a different character: The Human Torch, The Angel, The Sub-Mariner, The Masked Raider, American Ace, and Ka-Zar the Great. There’s also a two-page prose story (again featuring The Angel) and some All in Fun and Loony Laffs joke panels.
The first issue showed us the origin story of The Human Torch, the result of a Professor Horton’s attempt to create a synthetic man, an exact replica of a human being. Horton made some bad calculations along the way, resulting in a robot that bursts into flames whenever it comes into contact with oxygen in the air. Since then, the Human Torch has found a way to control its flames and pass as human. The robot has also developed an appreciation for races and is taking in a show disguised as an average spectator when one of the race cars bursts into flames. An airplane is flying overhead at the time, and the Human Torch is able to deduce that the car exploded because someone in the plane was firing incendiary bullets into it.
Over the course of the story, and with the help of an undercover cop named Johnson, the Human Torch learns that this was set up by car owner Blackie Ross. Using a plane to pump incendiary bullets into competitors’ vehicles is a typical trick pulled by Ross, and the Human Torch sets out to bring him to justice. It’s not an easy process. Although the Human Torch is engulfed in flames and can toss fire at his enemies, is capable of making giant leaps and of running faster than a race car (a ride in a car that’s going 110 MPH is just too slow for him), Ross and his associates find ways to fight back against him, like dropping him into water and them sending him into a pit of boiling lime. They wear asbestos suits and spray him with water hoses. They even encase him in molten steel.
Nothing they try puts the Human Torch out of the fight for very long, and writer/artist Carl Burgos delivered an action-packed story.
Next up is artist Paul Gustavson’s The Angel. The story begins when a woman named Jane Framan is given a map that’s said to be cursed and sent to Hong Kong to report on the Lost Temple of Alano for the Smithsonian. As soon as she arrives, a thug attacks her in an attempt to steal the map from her – but lucky for her, The Angel is watching. He saves her from the attacker and gives her a cautionary note, letting her know that there are people scheming to take the map.
Legend has it that everyone who tries to find temple is met with death… and that’s because an unscrupulous fellow from a previous expedition to the temple, a man named Lelong who is now calling himself Mr. Sumner, is still trying to get there so he can loot its riches. He’s no match for The Angel.
I previously described The Angel as “the Punisher of the age,” although he prefers to beat people to death rather than shoot them. He’s less deadly this time around. While he still attacks villains with “the fury of a charging lion,” Gustavson gives us a gentler Angel in this story; one that might spare the life of a foe.
Bill Everett’s undersea-dwelling Namor the Sub-Mariner went to America to wage a war of espionage in the first issue, and he’s still up to no good in this one. Reaching New York City, he destroys a power house and sneaks about in the sewers, where he steals some clothes from a homeless man. He has multiple encounters with the local police, and during those encounters we learn that getting shot has no effect on Namor; bullets only tickle him. He’s even able to catch bullets out of the air with his bare hands. The guy can also fly and is strong enough to lift and throw cars.
Wanting to get some better clothing than what he stole from the homeless person, he stops by the home of a wealthy woman – just in time to see her accidentally catch her dress on fire with her cigarette. Grabbing her, Namor learns something new about himself: when in the vicinity of fire (something he has never seen before), his body acts as a sprinkler system, with water spraying out of his pores and dousing the flames.
The woman is still hurt badly enough that she loses consciousness… but when she’s taken away to the hospital, Namor decides that he wants to keep her around with him (“On second thought, I want that girl!”) and attempts to abduct her. Namor is a creep, and it’s kind of surprising to see classic stories that focus on a character like him.
Al Anders’ The Masked Raider is a character who’s out to bring justice to the Old West. In this story, he learns about a place called Outlaws’ Gulch, a haven for bad men that’s run by a fellow called Hook Tebbs. The latest outlaw to come around is Tex, who plans to rob a gold bullion train in Prairie City.
Under the pseudonym Streak, The Masked Raider manages to infiltrate Outlaw’s Gulch and take the place down. He apprehends some of the villains, but Hook and Tex decide to go out shooting. It’s a fine story, but rather underwhelming. It didn’t feel like it lived up to the potential of the concept.
Artist Paul J. Lauretta had created a character called American Ace for the Marvel Comics #1 precursor Motion Picture Funnies Weekly. That book didn’t go far (the idea was that copies of Motion Picture Funnies Weekly would be used as a promotional giveaway that movie theatre owners would pass out to children, but only a handful of sample copies were printed to show to theatre owners, who were not interested in giving out comic books), so his American Ace story was reused for Marvel Mystery Comics #2.
Somewhere in Europe there’s a country called Castile D’Or. After a war, the country’s Queen Ursula, who dreamed of building an empire, was banished to a lonely islet in the Atlantic. But she’s still secretly communicating with her followers within Castile D’or, and they have built an army to help her take back control of her her country. They smuggle her back home and have their own minister assassinated in the country of Attainia so they can declare war. This event could be the start of a second World War!
Unaware of what’s going on between the two countries, young American engineer Perry Wade has flown his personal plane into Attainia on business – and he gets there just in time for the war to break out. That’s all there is to the story in this one. It’s all set-up and ends so abruptly that I wondered if a page was missing. It wasn’t.
Then we get the two-page prose story, Death-Bird Squadron by David C. Cooke. Germany invaded Poland in 1939, and this story takes place while German forces are conducting an air raid in the country. The United States of America was determined to stay out of the war raging in Europe and the UK at the time – but The Angel was there, on a mission to wipe international war-mongers from the face of the earth. During the air raid, The Angel climbs to the top of the tallest building in a city and then manages to jump high enough to catch onto a bomber plane.
Here we get the deadly Angel that the other story in this issue was lacking. Once he’s on the bomber plane, The Angel crushes the skulls of the pilot and the gunner like egg shells, then uses the plane to take down other bombers before ditching the plane, jumping out of it and landing easily on his feet, no parachute needed.
America avoided going war with Germany for as long as they possibly could, but The Angel could see something needed to be done.
As I mentioned previously, Ka-Zar the Great was created by writer Bob Byrd in the pages of the pulp magazine Ka-Zar #1, published by Manvis (another Martin Goodman company) in October of 1936. Ka-Zar returned for two further issues, published in January and June 1937, then got set aside until Marvel Comics #1, where he was referred to as a “famous character.” Writer/artist Ben Thompson adapted the Ka-Zar story for Marvel Comics #1 and following issues.
Ka-Zar is basically a Tarzan knock-off. David Rand was three years old when the plane carrying himself and his parents crashed somewhere in the African jungle. Luckily, the kid loved living in the jungle and is able to communicate with a variety of animals living there, including a lion named Zar. By this issue, David has reached adulthood and lost both of his parents, so he goes to live with Zar, who calls him Ka-Zar, brother of Zar.
Unfortunately, Sha, mate of Zar, isn’t welcoming, as she doesn’t trust her mate’s human pal. That problem is the least of David’s worries, as the story also sees him getting on the bad side of an ape called Bardak and having to deal with Tupat, an elephant that has been “taken by madness.” There’s still a human villain lurking out there, David is going to have to deal with him for this to be a satisfying story, but for now, the focus is the animals.
Marvel Mystery Comics #2 wraps up with some jokes provided by Ben Thompson… and in the end, the reader has gotten a whole lot of entertainment from a variety of characters, all for the price of a dime.
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