Things start to hit their stride in this third issue.

Torch: We see the 1939 version of television; although TV had actually been around for about ten years, programming must have been pretty thin, but it was certainly in the news at that time from the demonstrations at the 1939 World's Fair. I like the reference to Orson Welles/Lawson Bell, especially since this story is itself capitalizing off Welles' momentous 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds. Plenty of funny misspellings here, such as "slavo" for "salvo" and hilariously, "larva" for "lava." It is pretty dumb of Ratton's men to let the Torch out of his prison; what exactly do they think keeping a belljar over his head is going to accomplish anyway? Certainly an oddball finale to the story, since the characters have spent the whole thing keeping the formula away from the Martians, only to give it to them in order to get rid of it.

The Angel: What is the deal with this guy? He's hit by a car, but not injured, and he crashes a car into a pit (no airbags, no seatbelts) and is unfazed? Does he have superpowers or not, and if so where did he get them? More unanswered questions than I'd like. The idea of voodoo cults full of white folks outside of New York City, complete with human sacrifices, is certainly amusing. Pretty wild stuff indeed. It's very unclear to me what happens at the end...all the voodoo folks go to the altar and vanish? Are they all sacrificed to their fire god? Really incoherent storytelling, and it shares a general weakness with these early Golden Age stories of not knowing how to finish very well.

Namor: "Revenge is his motive and evil is his intent." Nice line. Betty Dean gets introduced at last as being "easy on the eyes," which is key to a playa like Namor. The Sub-Mariner almost accidentally becomes the first major Timely hero to end up fighting the Axis, as he does Betty's bidding, though he does it more out of curiosity and desire to please her than any intent to be of actual assistance. Betty carefully observes American neutrality here, saying it's for her personally, not for America. Given Namor's hatred of Americans (which weakens substantially here) that's probably a good move. Namor is brutally effective at taking out the U-Boats and the Nazis generally, and his lack of compunction over killing them is quite consistent with his past portrayals; what's not so consistent is his willingness to save the crew of the freighter, even though Betty doesn't expressly urge him to do so. It seems to be dawning on him that he doesn't know enough about the surface world, which softens his rough edges a bit. But Betty is definitely persuasive, and may well be able to get him onto the side of the Allies, even though Namor knows full well this will get him in trouble with Mom.

The Masked Raider: Some decent if slightly slapdash characterization here, with the sheriff an outlaw who has gone straight but is compelled to overlook the actions of the villains. The land grab is for a farm that has both oil and gold on it---yeah, that's pretty valuable land I'd guess. Is the Masked Raider really "wanted dead or alive" as the sheriff says, or is he just helping out his former buddies here? We've seen nothing to indicate that he would be wanted. Again, another very abrupt finish, with no sense of drama or pacing or suspense at all in the last two pages from Anders. Important action happens off-panel, and it's not nearly as effective as it could have been.

American Ace: It's too bad that this is it for the Ace in Timely's pages, since I rather enjoy his strip. Perry Wade himself is still pretty boring, but Queen Ursula is a delightful villain. She makes excellent Goebbels-like use of patriotic fervor to stampede her populace into war, making her all too human and recognizable as a type still present today. There's a pretty nice aerial combat sequence, even if Perry is totally outmatched. He resolves to do an important job next month, but sorry, there is no next month for Perry the American Ace. According to Wikipedia, he made another appearance in The Arrow #2 (cover date Nov. 1940, Centaur Publ.) under the name Lieutenant Lank, battling Queen Ursula's forces and determined to raise an air squadron of pilots from fallen nations. I kind of wish that episode had been acquired as a bonus feature, since that book is surely public domain now. It seems American Ace's adventure had originally appeared in the infamous Motion Picture Funnies Weekly No. 1, along with Namor's first appearance, which was also published by Centaur.

Text Story Siegfried Suicide: A little historical background is in order here; this title references the infamous Siegfried Line, a series of German defences on the Western Front (there was a version in WWI, but the more famous was the one here in WWII), opposite the French Maginot Line of defence. This text story would take place during the "Phony War" period after war had been declared but the German and the French basically sat looking at each other for months, with only ineffectual attempts at breaking through. So we have America officially neutral, and our hero is an American mercenary fighting with the French. He doesn't seem all that keen on them, either: "Stay back, you Frogs!" But with his help, the British and French break through and defeat the Nazis. Ah, wishful thinking....in a few months, the Nazis would attack in serious force and the British would disorganizedly flee in terror, leaving most of their equipment behind, and the French would utterly capitulate and set up the Vichy puppet state controlled by the Nazis. Life is not as pat as in the pages of Marvel Comics, alas.

Ka-Zar: Steve Hardy the big game hunter appears and cages up many of Ka-Zar's friends, which he will have none of. It proves useful to be thought of as a jungle god, as the rather racially insensitive portrayals of Hardy's native bearers makes clear. The leopard just does not seem very grateful for being released by Ka-Zar; maybe next time he should just let Hardy take the leopard with him. And we get the promise of Fat Face next time. Is he played by Sydney Greenstreet? Ah, but that will have to wait for part 2 of the Marvel Golden Age Masterwork Marathon!!!! Bring on Mystic Comics vol. 1 so we can do that properly!



Last Edited By: gardibolt Dec 19 09 1:46 PM. Edited 1 times.