Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "atlas"

Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Venus, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The late 1940s and early 50s marked a decline of the superhero and allowed for the emergence of all sorts of series ranging from crime to western and romance.

This book collects, the first nine issues of one of the most unusual series: Venus. The book also includes Venus stories from Lana #4 and Marvel Mystery Comics #91. The plot of the book is that Venus leaves Mount Olympus due to boredom and a hunger for love. She is almost immediately hired as editor of Beauty Magazine by its publisher Whitney Hammond, who Venus falls madly in love with.

In this collection, Venus from Romantic Comedy to Romantic Fantasy in a way that's charming, and even more so if you can ignore all the inconsistency in story as Venus changes its mind about issues ranging from who exactly runs Mount Olympus to what Venus' powers are on Earth. In the latter fantasy stories, rules are made up for the convenience of the plot.

Still, all can be forgiven because the character of Venus is quite charming and shows good character in her willingness to help others and risk her own happiness to save others including all mankind. The love advice is all true and has classic warnings about the dangers of shallowness, selfishness, and snobbery in its more dramatic back up features. The comedy stories are mostly okay.

The book also has a few notes on the battle with censorship and public concerns about comic books. The response of Atlas/Timely is interesting and a nice historical bit.

Overall, this is a solid read from a period that's often considered a dead zone in comics.



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Atlas Era Tales of Suspense Masterworks Vol. 1 (Tales of Suspense by Jack Kirby

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Tales of Suspense is known for being the magazine Iron Man debuted in and where Captain America landed a solo feature after his return from the ice. But before that, Tales of Suspense was a 1950s science fiction magazine in the style similar to the Twilight Zone. Each story is about 4-7 pages long and there are common themes about bigotry being wrong, a future where humans fear robots, and so much more.

If you like the 1950s stories, these are fine and you'll some very recognizable art styles from Jack Kirby and the other men who'd make the Marvel era shine, although there are a few daft ideas like ants with walky talkies being picked up by a boy. Still, there are some deft and thought provoking ones as well. Its definitely worth a read if you love that old 1950s/early 1960s Sci Fi.



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