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Obviously many do not enjoy Golden Age or Atomic Age comics because they are simply not as good (on average) as the books of the Silver Age and beyond.


Ah, good. So in essence we agree.

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I will also courageously step forward on this public forum and say how much I enjoyed the Atlas Heroes volume.


Well, I didn't say I didn't enjoy the book on some level; I just opined that the stories weren't very good! I enjoyed the book as an artifact of its time, I enjoyed reading certain passages with foreknowledge of what was to come in the character's history, and I especially enjoyed Everett's artwork!

However, the basic question that initiated this thread was, why did the Atlas hero revival fail? The answer is, quite clearly, that the quality was not there to sustain interest.

You have to look at why superheroes made their mark in the first place. The early Superman and Batman strips were even more crudely written and drawn than the Torch and Cap stories in this volume, so it wasn't the quality of the strips, it was the concepts contained therein! The Superman and Batman stories are, at heart, compelling mythology, a backstory which has been analysed to death: Superman representing the flight/expulsion of the Jews to America from Nazi Germany, Batman representing a wealthy heir earning his place in society by protecting the not-so-wealthy...

But by 1953, there was no such novelty. And there was very little in the backstory of the four characters dealt with herein which readers could identify with. Hell, three of the four main characters didn't even bother with the secret identify pretense! It was utterly ridiculous to see that EVERYONE knew that Marvel Boy was Bob Grayson, which of course meant that changing into the Marvel Boy costume was completely unnecessary. Only Cap and Bucky retained secret identities, and those civilian identities weren't even consistent -- were they at a school, or were they in the army? Oh -- and why did Bucky have a completely different hair color than he'd had in the Golden Age?

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...the mind frame I had as a kid when I first started reading comics. Back then, finding a Golden Age reprint was like finding a lost scroll of hyroglyphics. I was fascinated.


Perhaps there is the difference between our perspectives. All that I remember as a kid when I was exposed to Golden Age material was thinking how primitive the stuff was. I didn't see that much -- I had one circa-1951 Captain Marvel comic that I found completely dull, and I saw the occasional 1-page excerpt in DC Annuals for Superman and Batman origin stories. And then in 1966, when I discovered Fantasy Masterpieces and the Golden Age Captain America. I recognized the art style as being similar to some of the old Classics Illustrated which were in my collection, but I was much more eager to read the more modern material. And the All-Winners and Torch reprints which came later in the run was curiosities, but "fascinated" wasn't the operative word. I think I had the sense that I wished I'd had some of these comics in my collection, only because I figured no one else would have them.

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Also, I NEVER read an Archive or a Masterwork cover-to-cover. These books were published on a monthly schedule. They were never meant to be read that many in a sitting.


Again, the Silver Age Marvels from 1965 until about 1968 do, indeed, hold up to cover-to-cover reading, notwithstanding their original publishing schedule. And it's the contrast with that material that is most disconcerting. Or another example would be Eisner's Spirit, which most assuredly can be read cover-to-cover without suffering from brainstrain. But usually you want to soak up that art design and wind up spending a lot more time on each page than the storyline warrants...

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What EC had was much, much better art. And, like Lee's Marvel Comics in the Silver Age, EC was a much smaller line of comics than many of their competitiors making it easier to maintain a consistent quality throughout the line.


A valid point, however I would suggest, firstly, that strong editorial vision was another similarity between EC and Silver Age Marvel -- in the 1950s, Lee was just going through the motions, a young and uneducated man feeling lucky to have a position of responsibility with his uncle's company, but constantly concerned that he doesn't really know what he's doing. As well, justifying inferior work because the publisher is putting out so much work is a little like asking a food critic to accept a Big Mac as an adequate meal because McDonald's just serves so many people.

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Everett's work during this period is absolutely his best stuff and well worth preserving in a hardcover format.


Absolutely! I also enjoy Everett's Silver Age and Bronze Age work, and I wouldn't mind the opportunity to see some of Everett's horror work again.