(Hi all, I’m gonna be going through marvel’s ENTIRE publication history week by week while being in character as if I’ve never seen marvel before. Then I’ll give the week a rating along with the individual comics. Plus I’ll include a fun fact of something that happened that week)

Golly gee! I’m sure enjoying the year 1939, I’m sure glad ww2 won’t break out literally next month! 


But anyways onto Marvel Comics #1, 68 pages total with a handful of different stories inside! And 10 cent too, what a steal! (About 2.30 in today’s USD for 3 comics worth of pages)

Character Debuts: Human Torch (Jim Hammond), The Angel, The Sub-Mariner, The Masked Raider

HUMAN TORCH
First story is this swell fella called The Human Torch! Carl Burgos is the man writing it. 
We’re following the origin of the guy, he’s a synthetic human made by Professor Horton. Issue is that anytime Torch’s skin comes in contact with the air, he ignites! So scientists and press alike try pressuring Horton into destroying the Torch, but Horton compromises and puts Torch into a steel tube and encased em in a big concrete block! Eventually torch busts out and goes on the run where he eventually tries to put himself out by jumping into a pool that turns out to be owned by the mobster Sardo and his lackey Red. 

They trap him in the pool and convince torch they’re helping him, only for Sardo and Red to drive him to a steep warehouse, breaking the glass tube they kept him in to commit arson for their protection racket. Torch gets wise to this after the warehouse catches fire and returns to sardo’s home, cooking red alive under a car and boiling 2 other goons in the pool from earlier. 

Sardo hides in his underground lab where he gets hit by nitrous oxide and learns that nitro is what can help him control his fire and turn it off. Torch kills Sardo and returns to the lab with Doctor Horton whose mind turns to the fortune that could be made from the Torch, causing Human Torch to flee and strike out on his own.

Overall a solid debut issue! 
7/10



THE ANGEL

Our second story is a guy called The Angel. We get our first look at crime in nyc with a racketeer group called The Six Big Men running all sorts of things from night clubs to fixing trials to gambling houses. The police can’t get them because they don’t have any witnesses willing to testify against the group, so the mayor says he’ll bring on The Angel to handle the situation. Only for The Angel to throw a brick through his office window with a note saying he’s already on the case.

The Angel has a signature of making his shadow Angel shaped before making an entrance. His costume is somewhat plain with it being the Superman suit minus the trunks and replace the symbol with a pair of angel wings on his chest- plus a pencil mustache. The Angel sneaks into the first of the six’s far and chokes him to death from behind. The second accidentally kills himself by climbing out of the window that doesn’t have the fire escape, he beats another to death. 

The remaining three manage to overpower him and hold him at gunpoint. But a woman working directly for the overboss stops them and orders they take the angel out to the woods to kill him instead of offing him in the hideout. The woman freed him once they’re in the forest and he takes out the last of the big men. He finishes off the racket.

Pretty eh
5/10


SUB-MARINER

A recovery boat is out trying to salvage a shipwreck but this fish guy Namor murders both of the divers, he also pushes the boat into the rocks causing it to blow up, killing the entire crew. Namor brings the bodies of the divers back to his native city in the Antarctic Ocean where he presents them to King Thakorr and his mother who has the divers strung up as display pieces for their people to look at in pride. 

We learn about how Namor’s people hate specifically the white Americans for bombing their city below the waves, nearly driving them extinct. 

Namor and his cousin Dorma travel to a lighthouse on land, hoping to disable it to cause shipwrecks. He beats down and kills man after man until they get to the roof and destroy the beacon, escaping by hijacking’s a plane midair (he throws out the pilot to their death) and sends Dorma home on the plane before diving into the ocean to go his own way.

Pretty simple but very interesting lore
7/10


THE MASKED RAIDER

A man named Cal Brunder is trying to force all of the smaller cattle ranchers in Cactusville to sell out to him at his own price at gunpoint. A man named Gardley refuses to sell out and so Brunder claims to the sheriff that Gardley tried stealing his cattle. The sheriff believes it immediately and locks Gardley up. 

Gardley lured the sheriff into his cell by faking illness, knocked him out and stole his gun and a horse. He vanishes into the wilderness for weeks training with a gun for his aim and quick draw. He ends up befriending a wild white furred horse he names Lightning. Then Gardley settles to become The Masked Raider. 

The ranchers are all about to sell out the next day when The Raider kills one of Brunder’s men. He gets the sheriff on his side and knocks out three men before the rest of Brunder’s gang arrives only for Gardley to chase Brunder down and take him out. 

Pretty basic Wild West story, it’s fine but nothing special
5/10



JUNGLE TERROR

Professor Roberts has disappeared into a Caribbean jungle, so his housemates Ken Masters and Tim Robert’s go looking for him. A goon working for the plantation neighbor overheard for some reason and reported back to said neighbor, the neighbor ordering to round up the boys so they could follow them Masters and Roberts. 

The pair fly until they reach the Caribbean only to realize the plane’s… motor has been missing since takeoff in Florida and they crash? They’re found by natives and are taken back to their village while the neighbor Crafton and his men land, losing one of their number after killing a native. 

The chief ordered Ken and Masters to be killed later, having them taken to the ‘prisoner hut’ where they find Professor Roberts. The Professor found an opening in the corner of the prison hut… that led to a trove of thousands of diamonds. Incidentally their neighbor from the plantation also found this trove… via a separate cave that also led there. Crafton and his men are killed by natives and everybody flees… then everybody escapes via Crafton’s plane.

Wow that was ass
1/10



KAZAR THE GREAT 

David and his family crash land in the Belgian Congo jungle, his mother’s leg being broken in the crash. During their stay, David proves to have. Natural affinity for the animals, making friends with many. His mother grows ill and dies with his father and David being struck in the head by a falling tree during a storm. It messes them up and makes it so David’s father and David no longer want to leave, embracing the jungle as a sacred place to David’s mother. David learned to speak to the animals as well.

David came to save a lion named Zar from quicksand, befriending the beast. All was well until a poacher named Paul de Kraft arrived, with David’s father trying to chase him off only to be shot and killed by Kraft the next night. 

David swears vengeance with Kraft trying to fire on David only for Zar to rescue him and chase the Frenchman off. Zar invited David to stay with him in his cave, renaming him Ka-Zar.


A very fun story and a good foundation for a jungle adventure series. Very different from the rest
6/10





All in all, this week was a good week to be a Timely Comics fan. A solid 8/10 with a lot of new characters to enjoy! 

See you All for October 4th!

Marvel Week 1: August 31, 1939