Golden Age Marvel thread.
Marvel! Timely! Atlas! Anything that came out before 1961 goes. Retro comics set in those eras like Agents of Atlas and Invaders also go!
Thread starter: Other than Cap, Namor and the Torch, who is your favorite pre-FF Marvel character?
Golden Age Marvel costume are the perfection.
NGL there are some slick ones.
The early Vision was interesting. At first, he appeared human and only those about to die could see him as the Vision. But he quickly became just another costumed brawler.
Did they ever try to draw a connection between the original Vision and Sleepwalker? Seems like it would make sense.
No, but he's connected to D'Spayre
This.
>Thread starter: Other than Cap, Namor and the Torch, who is your favorite pre-FF Marvel character?
Destroyer. The entire concept of a dude living in Germany, having German friends, and primarily superheroing around in order to defend German civilians from nazi brutalities made him really stand out among most of the other generic "punches people hard" heroes, and it was nice to have a hero who taught the kids aat the time that just because the nazis are evil doesn't mean Germans in general are.
Yeah, the costume is a bit weird but then idea behind the Destroyer is really solid. I think other than a few ideas the bulk of Golden Age Timely/Atlas is pretty forgettable. I was kind of interested in the GA Angel because he was a costumed pulp hero who made no attempt to cover his identity. The set up they gave Thin Man in the New Invaders series had a lot of potential, but they didn't do anything with it.
I like the Angel, but it's mostly because his stories tended to be a cut above most of the other heroes than because the character was anything particulaarly special. He's a very blatant ripoff of the Saint.
It's interesting how in the late 1940s Timely really pushed female superheroes. Namora and the Blonde Phantom got their own titles, Bucky was replaced by Golden Girl. Venus got her own title in the 1950s.
The comics weren't done WELL, unfortunately.
I think a potentially interesting hook is that for a while there were apparently two Angels. The original, Thomas Halloway, and his brother Simon who apparently took up the cape and tights at some point as well. Thomas retained his wealth and went on to become the backer of the Scourge killers in Captain America and
Simon wound up as a homeless man who later popped up in Cloak & Dagger and the Hulk before being killed off by Zeitgeist. Simon was originally created to explain away some continuity problems but they never really expanded on how and why he took over as the Angel and how he and Thomas ended up on such different paths.
The Yellow Claw in the 1950s had great art by Joe Maneely and then Jack Kirby. Very different from each other. The comic also had a Chinese-American hero.
You forgot Sun Girl (who also had her own title) and Miss America (who had one comics issue which became a girl's magazine with tiny comic strips and then the title character vanished altogether). Yes, for three issues or so Marvel had FOUR female led titles, not counting Miss Fury which was just reprints.
I did forget them! Miss America had some decent art and stories. She had a long running spot in MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS, I think.
She had a SERIAL in MMC which was extremely rare. It was okay, a bit above the average Marvel stuff at the time. Also her costume is great.
Also check out this sick cosplay cover of Miss America Magazine #1.
Oh, I haven't read her strip in years. Didn't she wear cats eye frame glasses for a while? Very cool.
Oh, and Miss America also appeared in the two All-WinnersSquad stories.
No connection with the beauty pageant or the song by Styx.
Aside from the awful lemon-yellow skin color, Jimmy Woo was a top FBI agent, educated, well spoken and up to date for 1954.
It was very inconsistent. In her origin she wears glasses as Madeline but not as Miss America. Later she doesn't wear glasses as a civilian but does as a superhero
Namora was a choice golden age waifu
I liked her. From a different company, but Harvey's Black Cat with Lee Elias art remains my favorite Golden Age heroine.
...
...
it was mostly shit
Sturgeon's Law.
90% of everything is crap. Comics, movies, Tv, Music....90%.