Finally got my Marvel Masterworks #73 and have had a chance to read it. Fun read, well worth the money. Well done, Cory and the gang.
My observation, albeit from the perspective of the early 21st Century is that the revival of the Timely superheroes failed for two fairly obvious reasons.
First, the stories are way too short. Granted Atlas had this policy in nearly all of their comics because they could easily substitute a six page story from horror/western/girl/SF comic A to horror/western/girl/SF comic B if something went amiss during production. But in the Golden Age the superheroes, especially the A-listers like Cap, HT and Namor, usually had much larger spaces for their stories. They needed those extra pages whereas a crime/horror/whatever story did not.
Second, those covers. They're darn near somber. Heavy on dark colors, a limited palette, and two even had panels at the bottom cutting space for the main image. It's the main image that attracts attention and potential buyers. One wonders if something as dramatic as the Captain America image as latter used on Avengers #4 might have been more effective.
The logo is way too big, since "Young Men" conveys nothing as to the contents. Not only that, it would confuse buyers because of all the format changes the title had already gone through.
It's unfortunate that Goodman didn't rename Marvel Tales back to Marvel Mystery Comics since at least SOME readers would have recognized that as an old superhero title.
The art on all five Young Men covers is, well, bad. Not the drawing, but the layouts. They're way too dark too. And concentrating on the Human Torch strikes me as a bad idea. Captain America WAS Timely's biggest seller. That patriotic uniform/costume is much more visually striking than Goodman gave it credit for. If Young Men's sales were not as hoped, surely the company could have experimented with a different format or, at the very least, Cap on the cover.
Okay, other opinions?
A. Leedom, President, Red Raven Revival Society, professional second guesser, and former charisma instructor to Al Gore.
"Nobody dies forever, this is Marvel!"
My observation, albeit from the perspective of the early 21st Century is that the revival of the Timely superheroes failed for two fairly obvious reasons.
First, the stories are way too short. Granted Atlas had this policy in nearly all of their comics because they could easily substitute a six page story from horror/western/girl/SF comic A to horror/western/girl/SF comic B if something went amiss during production. But in the Golden Age the superheroes, especially the A-listers like Cap, HT and Namor, usually had much larger spaces for their stories. They needed those extra pages whereas a crime/horror/whatever story did not.
Second, those covers. They're darn near somber. Heavy on dark colors, a limited palette, and two even had panels at the bottom cutting space for the main image. It's the main image that attracts attention and potential buyers. One wonders if something as dramatic as the Captain America image as latter used on Avengers #4 might have been more effective.
The logo is way too big, since "Young Men" conveys nothing as to the contents. Not only that, it would confuse buyers because of all the format changes the title had already gone through.
It's unfortunate that Goodman didn't rename Marvel Tales back to Marvel Mystery Comics since at least SOME readers would have recognized that as an old superhero title.
The art on all five Young Men covers is, well, bad. Not the drawing, but the layouts. They're way too dark too. And concentrating on the Human Torch strikes me as a bad idea. Captain America WAS Timely's biggest seller. That patriotic uniform/costume is much more visually striking than Goodman gave it credit for. If Young Men's sales were not as hoped, surely the company could have experimented with a different format or, at the very least, Cap on the cover.
Okay, other opinions?
A. Leedom, President, Red Raven Revival Society, professional second guesser, and former charisma instructor to Al Gore.
"Nobody dies forever, this is Marvel!"
