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Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era
Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Venus, Vol. 1
As seen in Agents of Atlas! She's the goddess of love, the ruler of romance, the original queen of hearts: Venus! In 1948, she descended to Earth to spread, protect and experience love--and those adventures are collected here for the first time! Conspiring co-workers, doubtful doctors and quarreling couples keep her busy for a while--but there's a quick shift in mood and genre when Marvel's best-known god of evil decides all this love means it's time to give hate a chance, on Earth AND in the heavens!
284 pages, Hardcover
First published August 31, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 10, 2018
Way before Jack Kirby and Stan Lee brought the God of Thunder to comics Marvel (then Atlas) tried a different Divine being in the comics. While she is not a mainstay of comic culture today Venus was a nice read and a well done comic from that Golden Age era. Recommended
April 8, 2014
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.
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.
November 6, 2023
I tend to dislike romance comics in spite of the often wonderful artwork by industry legends. I find them boring and uninteresting on all levels. I bought this book despite this because I know that the material that will make up Volume 2 when/if it comes out will be something else entirely. I can always find a certain level of enjoyment in collections of old comic books because the originals would be so expensive to buy even reader copies of. Beater reader copies of the issues reprinted here would set you back at least a hundred bucks each if you could even find them.
Venus is the Venus, as in the Goddess of Love. Upon her arrival on Earth she is taken under the wing of one Whitney Hammond, editor of Beauty Magazine. He hires her on the spot and she falls madly in love with him. The first few issues sort of meander along with all of the wonderfully illustrated yet painfully boring soap opera tropes found in the then-new romance comics that sprouted up like mushrooms on a wet lawn. I read this intermittently, not hating it but not really reading it with any sense of urgency or interest. There is something charming about this comic book, though.
One of the things that I found to be curious for this era was the real sense of continuity from one issue to the next. Most comic books from this time frame are basically reset with every story. Here, we get the sense of the ongoing one-sided jealousy between Della Mason and Venus for the love of Whitney Hammond. Another ongoing thread is the other gods conspiring against Venus, either out of jealousy or out of desire to have her for their very own.
This is where things begin to get interesting. Much like Roy Thomas, I try to fit everything and anything ever published under the Marvel banner (Timely, Atlas) in their nearly 75 years of existence into main Marvel Universe continuity. One of Venus' recurring foils is Loki, here being the king of the underworld. One could say that this might well be the Loki from Thor comics using his trickster ability to alter his appearance. This gives things an air of fun. Either that or I am as insane as Roy Thomas for trying to make sense out of something that does not require being made sense of. Your mileage may vary.
The further I got into the book the more interesting it became. I really hope that we see a Volume 2, as there is some prime Bill Everett artwork waiting in the wings. Since many of these Atlas Era Marvel Masterworks were part of a huge blowout through Diamond this past year I doubt that we'll ever see it. I would love to be proven wrong, though.
Marvel Masterworks are my poison of choice. The superior restoration, paper, binding, and sweet sweet toxic Chinese ink smell make me swoon.
Venus is the Venus, as in the Goddess of Love. Upon her arrival on Earth she is taken under the wing of one Whitney Hammond, editor of Beauty Magazine. He hires her on the spot and she falls madly in love with him. The first few issues sort of meander along with all of the wonderfully illustrated yet painfully boring soap opera tropes found in the then-new romance comics that sprouted up like mushrooms on a wet lawn. I read this intermittently, not hating it but not really reading it with any sense of urgency or interest. There is something charming about this comic book, though.
One of the things that I found to be curious for this era was the real sense of continuity from one issue to the next. Most comic books from this time frame are basically reset with every story. Here, we get the sense of the ongoing one-sided jealousy between Della Mason and Venus for the love of Whitney Hammond. Another ongoing thread is the other gods conspiring against Venus, either out of jealousy or out of desire to have her for their very own.
This is where things begin to get interesting. Much like Roy Thomas, I try to fit everything and anything ever published under the Marvel banner (Timely, Atlas) in their nearly 75 years of existence into main Marvel Universe continuity. One of Venus' recurring foils is Loki, here being the king of the underworld. One could say that this might well be the Loki from Thor comics using his trickster ability to alter his appearance. This gives things an air of fun. Either that or I am as insane as Roy Thomas for trying to make sense out of something that does not require being made sense of. Your mileage may vary.
The further I got into the book the more interesting it became. I really hope that we see a Volume 2, as there is some prime Bill Everett artwork waiting in the wings. Since many of these Atlas Era Marvel Masterworks were part of a huge blowout through Diamond this past year I doubt that we'll ever see it. I would love to be proven wrong, though.
Marvel Masterworks are my poison of choice. The superior restoration, paper, binding, and sweet sweet toxic Chinese ink smell make me swoon.
May 24, 2018
A good collection much in the same style of early wonder woman too bad they used a lor of space to reprint the back up features maybe that's why the planed vol 2 never saw print
December 5, 2023
Equal parts Millie the Model and early Thor. Works far more often than it has any right to, and has solid art throughout.
February 28, 2023
I really enjoyed these comic book tales from a simpler time. Some nice artwork. It is a reminder that good solid storytelling does not need to be at an epic scale with one eye on how it would look as a movie.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews