Throughout 1941, Jack Kirby continued to challenge and experiment with conventional comic book layouts. In Captain America #9 (September 1941), we see Cap and Bucky aggressively bursting out of funky-shaped panels, curved or jagged borders, characters with body parts hanging over the rims, etc. We get to see lots of the two-page spreads too!
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In Mystic Comics #6 (July 1941), Timely introduces a new costumed hero, The Destroyer, who focused on sabotaging Nazis during World War II. What’s unique about the Destroyer is that he was created by Stan Lee. Stan Lee started his career writing filler stories for Captain America and The Vision, but this is his most […]
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A new Marvel Comics villain debuts in Captain America #5 (May 1941): The Ringmaster! The Silver Age version of this character was a bit more well-known, but both were co-created by Jack Kirby. Both Ringmaster characters were tall, lean, wore a top hat, had a long face and a mustache. This version was a Nazi […]
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The Golden Age Angel meets a new nemesis, a spy dressed in a tight-fitting black cat costume, known as The Cat’s Paw in Marvel Mystery Comics #18 (February 1941). The Cat’s Paw looks almost identical to the modern day Catwoman minus her whip.
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In Marvel Mystery Comics #17 (January 1941), the Human Torch and Namor appear together again, but this time as allies fighting the Nazis. The two still spar a bit with each other before they learn to cooperate. I had no idea this hallmark of Marvel Comics existed from the Golden Age!
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Joe Simon and Jack Kirby have their first hit with Captain America #1 (December 1940). Captain America is the first character to star in his own comic book, not as a try-out feature in another book, and comes complete with a fully-fleshed out (and interesting) origin, a sidekick and an iconic villain (the Red Skull) […]
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Is that an anti-aircraft gun or are you just happy to see me? The Sub-Mariner gets suggestive on the cover of Marvel Mystery Comics #14 (October 1940)! By this point in American comics, I’m definitely noticing a trend of showing superheroes battling Nazis or thinly-veiled Nazi-like forces. Superman, Sub-Mariner and Captain Marvel / Shazam all […]
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Marvel decided to introduce a sidekick in Human Torch #2 of Toro, a human boy. Toro had all the powers of the Human Torch. [I discovered later that this comic came out in December of 1940 – thus this entry is a little bit out of order]
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As I mentioned before, I never knew there were so many Marvel Comics characters named after obscure Golden Age characters they had introduced decades earlier*. Marvel Mystery Comics #13 (September 1940), introduced a new hero to Timely/Marvel’s Golden Age of Comics: The Vision. No, not the android from the 1960s, but an alien from Jupiter […]
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In Mystic Comics #4 (June 1940), Timely Comics Inc (later Marvel) introduces the first costumed female superhero, Black Widow. Claire Voyant is a spiritual medium who is overcome by evil powers while performing a seance. She puts “Satan’s curse” on the family who later die in a car crash. The surviving brother murders Claire and […]
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