{"id":30318,"date":"2024-08-08T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T08:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30318"},"modified":"2024-08-07T14:58:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T14:58:03","slug":"marvel-masterworks-golden-age-sub-mariner-volume-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/08\/08\/marvel-masterworks-golden-age-sub-mariner-volume-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Sub-Mariner volume 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Bill Everett<\/strong>, Allen Simon<\/strong>, Carl Pfeufer<\/strong>, Mickey Spillane<\/strong>, Art Gates<\/strong>, Gustav \u201cGus\u201d Schrotter<\/strong>, Justin Dewey Triem<\/strong>, Ray Houlihan<\/strong>, Kermit Jaediker<\/strong> & others (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-2247-0 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times. Lots of it, generated at moments of fervent if not rabid anti-German and anti-Japanese patriotic fervour. Everybody on all sides was doing the same at the time but that\u2019s no excuse, and if you can\u2019t tolerate overtly racist depictions despite their historical context and social grounding, this might be a Marvel masterwork to stay well away from.<\/em><\/p>\n

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner<\/strong> was the second super-star of the Timely Age of Comics – but only because he followed cover-featured Human Torch<\/strong> in the running order of October 1939\u2019s Marvel Comics<\/strong> #1. He has however enjoyed the most impressive longevity of the company\u2019s \u201cBig Three\u201d: which also includes the Torch and Captain America<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n

After a brief re-emergence in the mid-1950\u2019s, the Marine Marvel was only successfully revived in 1962 as an unbeatable force and foe in Fantastic Four <\/strong>#4. Once again he appeared as an antihero\/noble villain, and has been prominent in the company\u2019s pantheon ever since. In-world, the hybrid offspring of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and American polar explorer is a being of immense strength and intelligence, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves.<\/p>\n

Created by young Bill Everett, Namor technically predates Marvel\/Atlas\/Timely Comics entirely, but first captured public attention as one half of the \u201cFire vs Water\u201d headliners in anthological Marvel Comics<\/strong> after it became Marvel Mystery Comics<\/strong> with the second issue. His elementally apposite co-star was The Human Torch<\/strong>, but Namor had originally been seen – albeit in a truncated version – in monochrome freebie Motion Picture Funnies<\/strong>: a promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers earlier that year. Swiftly becoming one of Timely\u2019s biggest draws, Namor won his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age.<\/p>\n

In 1954, Atlas (as the company was then known) revived the Big Three and Everett returned for an extended run of superb horror and Red-baiting fantasy tales, but the time or approach wasn\u2019t right for superheroes and the title sank again. As before, Subby was the last character to be cancelled, as rumours of a possible TV series kept his title afloat\u2026<\/p>\n

When Stan Lee & Jack Kirby used Fantastic Four<\/strong> to reinvent superheroes in 1961 they cannily revived the angry amphibian as a troubled, amnesiac, decidedly more regal and grandiose antagonist: one understandably embittered at the loss of his subsea realm (seemingly destroyed by American atomic testing). He also became the dangerous bad-boy romantic interest: besotted with golden-haired Sue Storm<\/em>. She couldn\u2019t make up her mind about him for decades\u2026<\/p>\n

Nomad Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for years, squabbling with assorted heroes like The Avengers<\/strong>, X-Men<\/strong> and Daredevil<\/strong> before reuniting his scattered people and securing his own series as part of \u201csplit-book\u201d Tales to Astonish<\/strong> beside fellow antisocial antihero The Incredible Hulk<\/strong>. From there both went on to become cornerstones of the modern Marvel Universe.<\/p>\n

Way back then though, after his illustrious debut in Marvel Comics<\/strong> #1, a Sub-Mariner <\/strong>solo vehicle launched in Spring 1941. The first 4 issues are gathered in Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Sub-Mariner volume 1<\/a><\/strong>: available in print and digital formats. This second compilation reprints Sub-Mariner Comics<\/strong> #5-8 (cover-dated Spring Winter 1942) and sees excitement build but quality inevitably drop as key creators were called up to serve in various branches of America\u2019s war machine. The shock-stuffed vintage wonderment is preceded by a fact-filled Introduction<\/em> from frequent Subby scribe and comics historian Roy Thomas, sharing context, backstory and tales of the replacement bullpen all finny fun-fans will appreciate. This titanic tome also incorporates most of the rousing in-situ ads and editorial pages seen in the original releases\u2026<\/p>\n

Following that critical appraisal and further details on possible unattributed contributors, a cover by Al Gabriele & George Klein ushers us into Sub-Mariner Comics<\/strong> #5, which opens on a monochrome frontispiece house ad for early Marvel Mystery Comics<\/strong> heroes…<\/p>\n

Then different times slap readers in the face like a wet kipper as \u2018Sub-Mariner Raps the Japs in the Pacific\u2019<\/em>: a simple saga of punitive carnage by Everett, Allen Simon and assorted unknown assistants, wherein the sea sentinel designs a new kind of attack submersible and unleashes it on the dastardly foe. When the foe sinks it, Namor unleashes hands-on vengeance…<\/p>\n

Previously – in Sub-Mariner Comics<\/strong> #1 – Namor had declared war on the perfidious Nazis after a fleet of U-Boats depth-charged his underwater Antarctic home city. The Avenging Prince immediately retaliated in a bombastic show of super-power. Here in the weeks after Pearl Harbor and with anti-Japanese sentiment on high, the antihero switched attention to the Pacific Theatre of War. For most of these stories as Everett\u2019s contributions diminished, he and other lead artists used a string of assistants culled from the comic book \u201cShop\u201d outfits. Sadly, with no accurate records, best guesses for uncredited past contributors include Charles Nicholas (nee Wojtkoski), Witmer Williams, Ben Thompson, Sam Gilman, George Mandel, Mike Roy, Al Fagaly & Jimmy Thompson and more. I\u2019ve added a few guesses of my own but we may never know who and where…<\/p>\n

The publishers having omitted a Remember Pearl Harbor!<\/em> Public Service Announcement, we pick up with a second 20-page Subby saga (attributed to Allen Simon but possibly drawn by Syd Shores with Simon inking) which seizes on headlines to depict how \u2018Sub-Mariner Smashes an Uprising in Manila!\u2019<\/em>: savagely smashing the invaders whilst rescuing a female US spy from the conquered islands and featuring a cameo by General Douglas MacArthur…<\/p>\n

These deluxe editions include those mandatory text features comics were compelled to run to maintain their postal status (an arcane system allowing publishers to procure large postal discounts as \u201csecond class mail\u201d) so next comes prose fable \u2018Tight Spot\u2019<\/em> by Mickey Spillane. The author was an actual fighter pilot and flight instructor lending authenticity to the tale of a trainee pilot forced to make an emergency landing only minutes into his first lesson…<\/p>\n

Following \u2018Don\u2019t Delay Another Second!\u2019<\/em> (an ad for Captain America\u2019s Sentinels of Liberty<\/strong> club), Gustav \u201cGus\u201d Schrotter – or possibly Kermit Jaediker & Al Gabriele – delivers another 20-page gothic chiller starring The Angel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Although dressed like a superhero, this dashing do-gooder was a blend (knock-off would be more accurate but unkind) of Leslie Charteris\u2019 The Saint<\/strong>, Richard Creasey\u2019s The Toff<\/strong> and The Lone Wolf<\/strong> (Louis Vance\u2019s urbane two-fisted hero who was the subject of 8 books and 24 B-movies between 1917 and 1949).<\/p>\n

One marked difference was the quality of the Angel\u2019s enemies: his foes tended towards the arcane, the ghoulish, the ugly and just plain demented\u2026<\/p>\n

The globe-trotting paladin also seemed able to cast a giant shadow in the shape of an angel -. not the greatest aid to cleaning up the scum of the Earth, but he seemed to manage\u2026<\/p>\n

In \u2018The House of Evil Dreams\u2019<\/em> the dapper dilettante saves US agent Dorothy Ray<\/em> from oriental mesmerist Hutsu<\/em>, who employs a murderous cult of Morpheus-worshipping sleepwalkers to destroy America\u2019s defenders…<\/p>\n

Cartoonist Art Gates closes the issue\u2019s comics content with another \u2018Pop\u2019s Whoppers\u2019<\/em> – a jolly comedy feature starring an inveterate windbag beat-cop – who here foils escaped convicts despite himself…<\/p>\n

Cover-dated Summer 1942 Sub-Mariner Comics<\/strong> #6 sported an Alex Schomburg cover and offered a monochrome frontispiece house ad for its heroes prior to Carl Pfeufer (with Everett) sidelining the \u201cJap-rapping\u201d to confront other purveyors of skulduggery. \u2018The Missing Finger Mystery\u2019<\/em> finds him undercover at a Canadian lumber camp after discovering a body inside a tree and resolving to track down the killers and their victim, before – following Marvel Mystery Comics<\/strong> ad \u2018Not a Weak Link Among \u2018Em!\u2019<\/em> – Namor returns to the war in \u2018Sub-Mariner Fights the Periscope Peril!\u2019<\/em> Here Pfeufer limns a savage clash as the finny fury discovers the Japanese are using randomly-scattered fake pericopes to distract convoy protection ships and takes immediate and excessively violent action to scuttle the scheme, after which Spillane resorts to fantasy as sailor assesses his narrow escape from \u2018The Sea Serpent\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

\u2018At it Again!\u2019<\/em> proclaims another clash between Sub-Mariner and The Human Torch, prior to Schrotter – or maybe Jaediker & Gabriele – taking on The Angel in \u2018Death Sees a Doctor!\u2019<\/em> The macabre and forewarned assassination of a dentist sets the costumed investigator on the trail of deadly medical extortionists using modified body parts as murder weapons…<\/p>\n

Gates\u2019 \u2018Pop\u2019s Whoppers\u2019<\/em> sees the braggart pay for bigging up his achievements at \u201cThe African Olympics\u201d, before another Sentinels of Liberty ad, and back cover promo of Timely\u2019s Next Big Thing – Terry Toons<\/strong> comics – ends the affair.<\/p>\n

Three months later Sub-Mariner Comics<\/strong> #7 (Fall 1942 with the cover by Allen Simon & Frank Giacoia) opens with an ad for Young Allies<\/strong> and All Winners Comics<\/strong> in advance of Pfeufer & Simon delineating \u2018Piracy on the Ocean\u2019s Bottom!\u2019<\/em> Here Sub-Mariner battles mad scientist The Doctor<\/em> who has found a way to revive the dead and is sinking and plundering US vessels with giant squid, robots and his enslaved horde of zombie buccaneers…<\/p>\n

A Human Torch ad leads into a bloody clash (body counts in Timely tales were frequently in three figures!) as The Angel faced \u2018The Firing Squad!\u2019<\/em> Attributed to Schrotter, the grim crime caper saw disgraced soldier\/recently released convict Danny Poll<\/em> recruit a cadre of gangsters and drill them into being his personal robbery, murder & revenge squad. Police were helpless against their ruthless tactics and even the cherubic champion could not save everyone who fell under their sights…<\/p>\n

Justin Dewey \u201cJ.D.\u201d Triem delivered prose murder mystery \u2018Mercy Flight\u2019<\/em> as ingenuity and a model plane saved two men from cruel death, after which Sub-Mariner discovers \u2018Death \u2018Round the Bend!\u2019<\/em> (Pfeufer & A Simon) when hunting lost treasure and a ghostly Mississippi river boat and encountering generations of criminal masterminds…
\n\"\"
\n\u2018Pop\u2019s Whoppers\u2019<\/em> by Gates sees the smug flatfoot and his newest partner embroiled in a practical joke war with the local street urchins, before this session ends with a Terry Toons<\/strong> #2 ad and more plugs for Captain America and his Sentinels…<\/p>\n

Schomburg\u2019s cover for Sub-Mariner Comics<\/strong> #8 (Winter 1942) is followed by an official Treasury Department ad for war bonds, prior to Pfeufer\u2019s opening but untitled \u2018Sub-Mariner\u2019<\/em> saga, as the marine marvel witnesses the murder of a lighthouse keeper\/American agent by traitor The Knife<\/em>. Determined to avenge the crime, Namor secretly enlists in the US Marines, following clues from boot camp on Parris Island to an occupied Pacific atoll, until he nails the killer and incidentally sinks an entire Japanese fleet of warships…<\/p>\n

Ad \u2018They\u2019re At it Again\u2019 <\/em>plugs the next fire vs water clash of heroes before Sub-Mariner initiates \u2018The Setting of the Rising Sun\u2019<\/em> (Pfeufer) by protecting and eventually rescuing the crew and gear of a shot-down US blimp. Along the way Namor faces brainwashing boffin Dr. Suki<\/em> and battles his legion of P.O.W. zombies before ending the vile threat…<\/p>\n

Anonymous Prose thriller \u2018Tommy\u2019s Taken for a Ride\u2019 <\/em>reveals how a raw recruit on leave is robbed and finds new friends and romance in recovering his cash, after which cartoon great Ray Houlihan starts his kids feature \u2018Tubby and Tack\u2019<\/em> with a brace of tales seeing the playful lads enjoying a Saturday and then buying war bonds in advance of The Angel battling a true madman with a \u2018Genius for Murder!\u2019<\/em> Scripted by Kermit Jaediker with Schrotter art, the saga sees frustrated, failing author Caleb Crane<\/em> reinvent himself as master criminal The White Carnation<\/em> in an attempt to add veracity to his manuscripts. His gift for crime and pitiless arrogance turns the city on its head and almost defeats the mighty Angel.<\/p>\n

One last Houlihan \u2018Tubby and Tack\u2019<\/em> tale sees the kids waste a perfect day trying to find friends to enjoy it with, to close this sargasso of lost sagas. Don\u2019t fret though, there\u2019s plenty more where these came from…<\/p>\n

As a special bonus, this collection also shares candid photos of the creators from a 1969 reunion, even more house ads in various stages of completion, pencil roughs for those ads and 12 pencil pages of story layouts.<\/p>\n

Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this compendium, even if largely devoid of premier league talent, is a happy exception. Offering high-octane – albeit uncomfortably jingoistic and culturally enmired in its time – action and adventure, this is a vibrant vigorous, historically unvarnished read as well as a forgotten treasure Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights fans will find irresistible.
\n\u00a9 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bill Everett, Allen Simon, Carl Pfeufer, Mickey Spillane, Art Gates, Gustav \u201cGus\u201d Schrotter, Justin Dewey Triem, Ray Houlihan, Kermit Jaediker & others (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-0-7851-2247-0 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Lots of it, generated at moments of fervent if not rabid anti-German and anti-Japanese patriotic fervour. Everybody … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Sub-Mariner volume 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,74,113,102,122,320,125,72,79,107,155,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-captain-america","category-comedy","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-human-torch","category-humour","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-science-fiction","category-sub-mariner","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7T0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30318"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30324,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30318\/revisions\/30324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}