What's So Golden About... Marvel Comics 1?

Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939) -- Human Torch story
"The Human Torch"
Carl Burgos

Doug: No, friends, I do not own a copy of Marvel Comics #1.  I do, however, happen to have the hardcover reprint of said tome that was published back in 1990 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the Human Torch, et al.  I'll be reading/writing/scanning from that book in order to bring you a sense of where Marvel got started.  This is the third installment in our Golden Age retrospectives, and I'll of course at the end give my two cents on just what's so Golden about this mag.  Let's hit it!

Doug:  Carl Burgos was only 21 years old when he created the Human Torch.  Not bad if that ended up being one's mark left on creation, huh?  Well, at least in our little corner of civilization.  Burgos was buddies with Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett, and the two of them became the cornerstones of Timely Comics until they both went off to war following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in December 1941.  But we should be thankful for this initial output and the imaginations of these two men that would give us those epic Torch/Namor conflicts, so wonderfully replayed and memorialized by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross in Marvels.  Speaking of, if you've seen Marvels #0, which I'm sure is now included in all of the compilation tpbs and hardcovers of the series, then you'll be familiar with this story.

Doug:  We begin in a conference room outside the laboratory of Dr. Phineas Horton.  Horton has convened a press conference to show the members of the 4th Estate his creation.  He proclaims to have created an android -- an exact replica of a human being.  Yet the creature has a side effect that causes Horton to fear it.  He asks the media to accompany him to the next room, where he shows his mechanical man, encased in a large glass tube.  Horton explains that whenever his artificial man comes into contact with oxygen, he bursts into flame!  Even more curious, however, is the fact that the android is not consumed or destroyed.  The assembled reporters immediately call on Horton to destroy it.  Horton balks at the notion, but is threatened by the power of the pen.  The next day, the news goes public.

Doug:  Later that day, Horton receives a telephone call from a member of the "Scientists' Guild".  The man offers to send a delegation to Horton to inspect the android.  Horton agrees, and sets up an appointment.  Now, being a modern cynical-type of guy, I was thinking that the professor set this up all-too-quickly.  What if the fella on the other end of the line was a mobster, or an overzealous G-Man?  Lucky for him, these guys are straight and do arrive to do as they'd offered.  As we saw in the demonstration for the press, the introduction of even a little oxygen to the tube ignites the Human Torch.  The scientists are amazed, but recommend that Horton destroy his creation.  Horton again rebukes his critics.  One of the scientists suggests encasing the Torch in concrete; Horton perks up, thinking this will buy him some time to fix the problem.  So later, the Human Torch is placed in an airtight metal pod which is then lowered into a huge vat of wet concrete.  And that's the end of the story.  Nope!

Doug:  A short time later Professor Horton was awakened from a deep sleep by a nearby explosion.  Snapping to his senses, he wonders if it could be his Human Torch?  Getting dressed and racing to the place where the Torch had been entombed, Horton finds that his artificial man is indeed gone.  And to where?  Terrorizing the town, that's where!  The Torch runs wild through the streets.  We learn that he can speak, and has the mind of anyman -- Horton truly did create an exact replica of a human being!  The Torch encounters a fire brigade, but he laughs off the water pulses.  It's not enough to extinguish his flame anyway.  He continues to run, until he comes to a fenced yard with a large swimming pool.  He simply melts the iron bars and enters, hoping to douse his flames.  He's successful.  But...

Doug:  It seems the grounds on which the Torch chose to trespass belong to a Mr. Sardo -- Grade A Smarm-meister and general organized crime-type.  Sardo is in the house with "Red", his assistant (I guess).  Red notices that the lawn is burned.  Well, it just so happens that Sardo is reading the papers about the Torch.  Sardo orders Red to get ready to winterize the pool -- even though it's not time.  Yep -- they catch themselves a Human Torch.  But having drawn the air from the pool, covering it, and then draining the water (yeah, I wasn't believing this, either), they have the Torch imprisoned and without his flame.  Sardo gets the idea to sell "fire insurance" and heads off to find a rich guy named Mr. Harris of Acumen Warehouses.  Harris stores raw steel -- something the Human Torch can melt at will.  Harris tries to bodily remove Sardo from his office after the racket is explained.  You know where this is headed.  Back at his home, Sardo and Red put the Torch into a sealed tube -- allegedly the Torch believed Sardo was helping him -- and take him to the Acumen Warehouses.  Released from the tube, the Torch runs through the warehouse, decimating it.  The Torch thinks to himself that since he can't control his flame, that Sardo knows he can't, yet he brought him to the warehouse (which is now in ruins), so Sardo must be a rat!  The Torch begins running and lo and behold -- he takes flight!

Doug:  Back at Sardo's home, the snake is fearful that the Torch will come looking for him.  He heads for a secret lab, sealed behind a heavy steel door.  The Torch indeed arrives and burns the place to the ground -- joyfully.  "Ha ha!  It was easy to burn Sardo's home down!"  Talk about your anti-heroes!  The house burned out, the Torch can see Sardo's mob cronies outside.  Red tries to hide under a car -- the Torch lands on the car, melting it on top of Red.  "That rat burned -- all right!"  He then moves to the pool, where a couple of hoods have sought refuge.  The Torch heats the water, burning the men alive with steam.  "And those fellows in the pool won't come up for air..."  Wow.  This is brutal!  And then the Torch moves back into the house to find Sardo's hide-out.  He notices a heavy steel door he'd not seen before, and literally walks right through it.  Sardo is inside, and attempts to finish the Torch with a gas bomb.  But the heat causes the gas to dissipate.  Sardo then picks up a large container of liquid, but before he can do anything the firemen arrive.  Horton's with them, and wades through the flames to get to the lab.  There's a tank of nitrogen within and Horton wants to remove it.  But before he can, the Torch leaps forward and hugs the tank, melting it away.  He takes the full force of the now-liberated nitrogen.  When next we see him, the Torch is human again!  Horton can't believe it, and a cop on the scene really doesn't care.  He attempts to put a slug in the Torch's noggin, but the bullet melts on contact with the still-hot skin.

Doug:  Sardo is still alive, and is amazed to see the Torch without his flame.  He thinks that the nitrogen must be the answer, so grabs another tank and tries to offer it to the Torch -- in exchange for Sardo's freedom.  Of course the Torch is hearing none of it, and once again flamed on starts to tear the lab apart.  Sardo grabs a large container of sulphuric acid and attempts to throw it at the Torch.  But it explodes in his face, killing him.  "Poor fool -- killed by his own hand."  Uh, with help...?  Horton confronts his creation, who tells him that Sardo dealt justice to himself.  He then takes the nitrogen back into the lab area where he melts the container.  Again his flame goes out, and the Human Torch concludes that he can now control it at will!  And what's more, he can throw fireballs -- one of the all-time great comics visuals!  Walking outside, fully flamed, the Torch notices that the police are on his tail.  He begins to run, streaking through the city like a comet.

Doug:  Alas, the cops corner the Torch, and he toys with them.  He intensifies his heat to the point that the police cannot get near him.  Then just like that, he douses the fire -- and apologizes for the trouble he's caused!  At the local precinct, the Torch and Horton stand before the Chief.  the Torch is interrogated about his roles in the destruction of the warehouse and Sardo's residence.  The Torch paints himself as a victim in both cases, with Sardo getting what he deserved in the end.  And the Chief... buys it!  Horton asks that the Torch be released to his care.  And the Chief... buys it!  On the way back to Horton's, the Torch explains that he now has complete control over his flame.  Horton's first thought is that he can make a buck off of his artificial man.  The Torch shows off his newfound control, and Horton becomes even more greedy.  Voicing this, the Torch turns on him and tells him that in no way will anyone control him again.  He's his own man, and he abruptly burns through the ceiling and leaves.  To be continued!

Doug:  So, what's so golden about this yarn?  Well, by Silver and Bronze Age standards the art is a bit crude, although with a certain charm.  Burgos does move us through the story, though -- at an average of nine panels per page!  Seriously... this story was only 16 pages long, but all those tiny gridded panels made this baby read like an annual.  One of the oddities I noticed was that the narration boxes were located at the bottom of panels rather than at the top -- so the reader saw the action and dialogue before the set-up!  Strange.  And how about the level of violence and unapologetic killing?  Good lord, but our "hero" piled up a body count here.  And to think, we look back on the Batman's days of using a gun with incredulity!  It's funny, as those of us who still know a little about modern comics complain about the line between hero and villain, and of course there's that overused term "anti-hero".  What we have here, kids, is one of the original anti-heroes!

 

Doug:  I want to add one more thought to my concluding paragraph, and maybe this will serve as the crux of today's conversation -- hope so, as our reviews tend to generate less interest than do our conversation-based posts.  I saw on Twitter Thursday evening a musing about whether or not the twitterverse will explode again on Tuesday (11/12/13) with the release of Man of Steel on video.  Not to spoil the ending, but I think we're all aware of the now-notorious scene in the climax of the film.  Why are we upset about that?  Is it just our modern sensibilities?  Are those who were not upset or unnerved simply numb to violence as it is so often portrayed in film, on television, and in video games?  Do we look at the immorality of the Human Torch today in that same vein?  Or do we write today's post off to days long since past -- it's the depiction of Superman in a film of today that grabs our attention.  As always, we welcome any and all input on today's material.  Thanks!

What's So Golden About... Archie Comics 64?

Archie Comics #64 (September/October 1953)

"Winner Lose"

"Safe at Home"

Uncredited:  Likely by Vic Bloom and Bob Montana

Doug:  Many of our readers seemed to like our examination of a WWII-era Captain America story, and although today's fare probably lies outside the Golden Age, we're going to bend the rules just a bit.  So, what have we here?  The two short tales I'll show you today are contained in the trade paperback, Archie Americana Series: Best of the Fifties.  As I remarked in the Phoenix review from Bizarre Adventures, I also cannot recall exactly how I came to own this tpb; I know I did not pay for it.  The mystery remains, which benevolent vendor threw it into an order I'd made?  Let's see what was happening with Riverdale High's famous kids in the era of Leave It to Beaver.

 

Winner Lose

Doug:  Ah, rivals for a young beauty's affections.  Here we find Veronica telling Archie "no dice" to a weekend date.  No can do, says she, because she's going boating with Reggie.  So Archie, totally defeated, heads to the soda jerk to drown his sorrows.  In walks faithful Jughead, always willing to lend a hand.  Archie feels that there's no way he can compete with Reggie's new boat; the only choice is to get a boat of his own!  So he and Jughead set out on a mission, and actually find a candidate -- for $20.  Jughead's skeptical, but Archie is, after all, desperate.  So the boys buy the boat and set about fixing it up.

Doug:  A couple of days later, Archie and Jughead go looking for Veronica and find her with Reggie.  Archie insults him, as any would-be suitor would.  Reggie fires back that he wishes Archie had a boat so he could show him who is boss.  Reggie mentions the local boat races, and Archie now has to put his money where his mouth is -- especially since Veronica says she'll give all of her boat dates to the winner.  So the next day the whole gang is at the river, except Jughead.  He's gone to borrow his uncle's outboard motor.  Archie doesn't even have a motor for his boat!  Reggie can hardly contain himself.  At the last minute Jughead comes staggering up... with a motor that's about as big as Archie's boat!  The boys get it installed just in time -- well, in fact a few moment late, as the race starts!  They finally get the motor started, and the recoil throws Archie out of the boat!  Jughead's on his own now.  He finds the course, and wouldn't you know it?  He starts picking off the competition one by one.  With only Reggie to pass, Jughead zooms right on by and through the tape!  However, he's got so much power, he keeps right on going.  And wouldn't you know it -- the only way to stop the boat was to beach it... hard.  When Archie arrives, it's to find his winning boat smashed on the shoreline.  So Veronica's boating dates?  They go to Reggie anyway, because Archie doesn't have a boat!

Safe At Home

Doug:  I think the charm of these stories is their predictability.  In both of the samples I've presented we can see the gag coming, but the true measure of a storyteller is that they keep it fun for the reader along the way.  There really aren't any twists or turns in the plots, but just watching the tale unfold is a joy.  For the second story, which was only five pages in length, I chose to present pages 2-5 in their entirety so that you can see what I mean.  Here they are:

 

Doug:  So what's so golden about these stories?  Well for starters, everyone's clothed -- the boys don't have their pants hanging off their rear ends and the girls don't exhibit (as one of my colleagues likes to say) "cleavage in two places" -- although I was a bit surprised that Bob Montana draws just a peek of it on Veronica in the first story.  I don't know that there's a lot here for Frederic Wertham to complain about, but what I do notice is the seminal nature of these stories to such television programs as the above-mentioned Leave It To Beaver, as well as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and even on up to Happy Days.  Do you want to know the first cast of characters that I related to Archie's crew?  See if you can link the cast of The Amazing Spider-Man to each of the characters in these stories.  I've not heard Stan Lee or Steve Ditko ever discuss Archie's stable of comics as influences on their own creativity, but in my eyes it's pretty plain to make the connections.

Doug:  So would I read the rest of the trade paperback's stories?  I just might!  After all, knowing that tales of Archie and Jughead as beatniks, or the Elvis look-alike contest lurk just a few pages forth makes me smilingly curious.  After all, sometimes it's nice to get away from one's usual preferences and explore just a bit.

What's So Golden About... Captain America Comics 5?

 

Captain America Comics #5 (August 1941)
"Captain America and the Ringmaster of Death!"
Joe Simon & Jack Kirby (ink assist from Al Avison)

Doug:  What have we here?  A Golden Age story, on the Bronze Age Babies?  Why not?  We all know that our collections are littered (I say that affectionately) with GA material, whether in books like Fantasy Masterpieces, in the various Giant-Size issues, or in hardcovers such as The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told.  I asked Karen back in February if she had a problem in my branching out; certainly we've covered the Silver Age and even beyond the Bronze Age.  Today we complete the cycle of comics history.

Doug:  Back in 1990 when I thought I had to have everything that might be worth something someday, I purchased the slipcased, two volume hardcover Captain America: The Classic Years.  I read through all of it at the time.  It was OK -- but I was like, "what's the big deal?"  Now that I'm infinitely more cultured as an almost-47 year old than I was at 24, I want to take a second look.  I chose this story because the baddie will be familiar to our Silver- and Bronze Age readers.  It's none other than C-lister The Ringmaster - we'll see if he's brought his Circus of Crime.

Doug:  We open at the circus, where Private Steve Rogers and his companion Bucky Barnes stroll the midway.  Who should they meet up with but General Blaine, who Bucky refers to in a whisper to Steve as "the old man".  As Bucky plays the carnival games, we go behind the scenes in an adjacent tent and find one Ringmaster of Crime spinning his own wheel of misfortune -- and tonight's target is going to be General Blaine himself!  Putting his machinations in order, the Ringmaster summons Tommy Thumb, the "circus midget" (hey, it was the politically incorrect 1940's!) and orders him to do a dirty deed.  When Tommy balks, the Ringmaster takes after him with his whip!  While this is only silhouetted, I was still taken aback at the brutality of the act.  We then see Tommy slide up next to the tiger pen and undo the latch.  This ain't good...

Doug: The tiger, now loosed, attacks the first passerby -- and as bad luck would have it, it's General Blaine.  In one of those panels that can only be appreciated at blogs like superdickery.com, Steve orders Bucky, "off with your clothes, kid!"  They slip into the shadows, basically costing the general his life while they shed their G.I. uniforms and emerge as Captain America and Bucky.  In a scene reminiscent of Tarzan, Cap gets the big cat in a choke hold and snaps its neck (the Lord of the Jungle always preferred the full nelson, by the way).  Bucky spies the midget (I feel bad just writing that...) and even calls after him, "A midget -- hey, are you the one who opened the cage?", because you know that midgets just do that sort of thing.  Bucky's knocked out by a hammer handle-wielding goon as Cap arrives from pronouncing the general dead.  Cap lays out Bucky's assailants, punching one guy clean through the side of a canvas tent (man....) and punching the other fellow into the vacated tiger cage.  A previously-unseen thug watches from a hiding place, and goes to tell the Ringmaster.

Doug:  Back at base, Sergeant Duffy is in no way happy that Rogers missed curfew the night before.  Of course the penalty for that is peeling potatoes, so Steve and Bucky commence with this monotonous job.  Up walks Betty Ross, "special government agent", and the boys relate the goings-on of the night before.  Convinced that the general was set up, Betty decides she'd better clue in Defense Commissioner Newsome.  But, the Ringmaster is back at the circus spinning his wheel and -- you guessed it: Commissioner Newsome is next in line!  It's worth mentioning that the Ringmaster does not employ the hypnotic circle on the band of his hat as would the Silver Age version -- the only circular image employed by this guy is his "wheel of death".  The Ringmaster muses to himself that once he kills all of the swine chosen to be his victims, he will rule this leaderless land as Hitler rules Europe, with the mob as his Gestapo!  I thought these panels were interesting, as on the cover of the mag there is clearly the Nazi vibe, but while there are these and other references to the War in the story no one is pictured with swastikas, etc.  The Ringmaster assembles his circus performers (not referred to as the "Circus of Crime" at this point) and lays out his plans to kill Newsome.  He threatens them with his whip should they fail, and then sends them into action.

Doug:  As Newsome works in the armory, the acrobats form a human chain across the chasm between rooftops.  Omir the snake charmer (no Princess Python, he) moves across and sets up just outside some duct work.  Playing, the snake begins to rise form its basket and slithers into the ventilation system.  As Newsome hears the notes playing, he's suddenly beset upon by the snake and killed.  Outside, Betty Ross is walking briskly toward the armory to warn Newsome that he might be on a hit list.  A gang of thugs leaps from the shadows and attempts to drag her away.  Cap and Bucky, keeping her in their sights for safety, leap to action and pummel the baddies.  As they round up the five goons, Zandow the Strong Man emerges from the shadows and wallops Cap.  Down and out, Cap is unable to prevent the gang from spiriting Betty away, Bucky helping his mentor rather than giving chase.  But when Cap awakens, he's fighting mad and tells Bucky they are going to the circus.

Doug:  The Ringmaster addresses Betty with all the bravado we'd expect from a creep like him, and tells her that if Captain America comes for her, it will be the end of him.  And sure enough, outside we see Cap and Bucky now on the circus grounds.  As they move about, attempting to conceal their presence, they round a corner and fall right into the Ringmaster's trap -- all of his goons, the circus performers, and the elephants!  Cap pays ol' Zandow back for the knock on his noggin, and Bucky takes out "the missing link".  But an elephant grabs Cap in its trunk and hurls him -- headlong into the bad guys!  Yeah, that shield will leave a mark!  Inside the big top, the Ringmaster has suspended the now-unconscious Betty from a rope high above the center ring.  As our heroes enter, the Ringmaster slices the rope -- and their isn't any net for this trick!  Cap commandeers a trapeze, with Bucky holding onto his boots.  They swing to the middle and Bucky is able to grab Betty and spirit her to safety while Cap goes after the Ringmaster.

Doug:  Cap easily catches the Ringmaster in the tent that serves as his headquarters.  The beating he takes is pretty severe, and Simon & Kirby do a fun job of showing that with just a series of sound effects.  In the next panel we see the slumped over, would-be crime lord with his wheel of fortune bashed over his head.  Bucky comes in and reports that he was able to collapse the big top on the rest of the gang -- it's a victory for the good guys.  And as the cops arrive, Cap and Bucky make tracks.  Betty thinks to herself, as most comic book girlfriends do, that maybe some day she'll figure out who those guys are?!

Doug:  So, what's so Golden about this story?  Well, first of all it was only 12 pages long, as most Golden Age comics had several stories crammed between the covers.  Secondly, while the art was dynamic and full of action, it was somewhat crude by Silver and Bronze Age standards.  But for its time, it's really hard to knock Simon & Kirby.  Third, there were several Wertham-worthy moments, such as the comment about Bucky getting his clothes off, the beating of the "midget", the mutilation of the general by the tiger, Cap's dispensing of justice to the Ringmaster (even though off-camera), Betty in bondage, Bucky being put into countless incidents of danger as a child, and probably some other minutiae that I've missed.  Lastly, it was a self-contained story, common for the era.  But, was this good stuff?  I'd say I had a fair enough time reading it.  I took it for what it is (was) and wasn't disappointed.  Whereas I tend to look at Silver Age books as the ground floor for the Bronze Age, Golden Age stories have a bit of heritage to them that places them on a pedestal as formative to the industry as a whole.  We cannot overlook their significance.