From its inception, Marvel Comics was more than just the standard comic book company. Sure, it offered costumed mystery-men, detectives, jungle heroes, and the other typical features of the era, but it offered them with a bit of an edge. The company's very first book, Marvel Comics #1 (which would change its name to Marvel Mystery Comics with its second issue) reflected this with two of its main features. The Human Torch was a creature of fire who, at first, couldn't even control his own flame, and the Sub-Mariner was the first of comics' anti-heroes, actually murdering two innocent men in his first story! The Torch quickly learned to control his flame, and became a great boon to mankind, prodiving a great contrast to the increasingly hostile Sub-Mariner, who the "surface dwellers" went so far as to try to put to death in the electric chair for his war on mankind. Later, the "big two" of Marvel Mystery Comics finally battled it out - a true rarity of the time - in the ninth issue! Slowly after the battle, Prince Namor mellowed a bit and began to battle alongside the Torch against the Axis powers (but not without slugging it out with the Torch three more times in the pages of Human Torch Comics #5(b), 8, and 10!) Timely/Marvel continued on through the war and into the 1950s after adding a third heavy hitter to its stable of heroes, the one and only Captain America, and also added a couple of rare early teams - the Young Allies and the All-Winners Squad. Along with consistently good but largely obscure back-ups like the Vision, the Angel, Miss America, and the Whizzer, Timely/Marvel was doing something DC couldn't do - maintain a consistent quality of art and story.
Available are:
Marvel Masterworks Golden Age All Winners Volume 1 reprints All-Winners #1-4 from 1941-1942
Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Captain America Volume 1 reprints Captain America #1-4 from 1941
Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Sub-Mariner Volume 1 reprints Sub-Mariner #1-4 from 1941
Each is 6½x10, full color throughout, 264-269 pages, squarebound paperback. ...$49.95 each.
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