Marvel Mystery Comics #3

Marvel Mystery Comics #3

by Carl Burgos, Joe Simon (Editor), Alex Schomburg

A collection of epic stories featuring Human Torch in an alien invasion, Angel infiltrating a mind-bogglingly passionate cult and MUCH MORE!

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Classics

65 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Max Finkelstein created Jim Hamond, the Human Torch, for Timely Comics (later evolved into the Marvel Comics) in 1939, using the pen-name Carl Burgos. He also created the Thunderer for Daring Mystery Comics. Both series were published by Timely Comics, the forerunner of Marvel. He was drafted in 1942 and did mostly commercial art in subsequent years, occasionally drawing science fiction stories for Marvel, by that time known as Atlas. He also drew the first story featuring the Beetle (Abner Jenkins) in Strange Tales #123, starring Johnny Storm, the second Human Torch. Two years later, in Fantastic Four Annual #4, Marvel published a battle between the two Human Torches, resulting in the death of Jim Hamond. Although his daughter tried to preserve as much as possible, Burgos set fire to much of the Human Torch materials he had retained from the 1940s, considering the story an excuse to reassert trademark on a character they were not using simply to spite him.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Human Torch
Man the Torch is actually kind of winning me over, the writers sure do put him into situations only to bullshit harder than they ever have to get him out of it. His powers are pretty inconsistent, like talking into a ball of flame, throwing it, and having it explode like a firework, displaying his message. The writer has forgotten the Torch is a robot, but I haven't. I hope they do something with that again. I liked the stupid Toho-Martians and their plot to save Mars. I wonder if we'll be following Diane, with the super-explosion formula to Mars, or if that story is just done.

The Angel
This guy sucks. Not just as a Superman ripoff, but even as a hero, he's shit at his job. He only seemingly follows this one girl to protect her from baddies, but he doesn't even stop them permanently. This is the era where everyone is killing bad guys anyway, so just punch the bad guys skulls in, Angel! (punching is his only power)

Prince Namor: The Sub-Mariner
Alright, y'know, I was digging Namor for awhile. I really liked the whole last member of his clan wages a war against the surface dwellers - specifically America. I liked it until in both the last issues, guy just falls in love with the first American woman he sees and is easily convinced that actually "America is a gentle, peace-loving nation" that is "not bloodthirsty unless they see injustice or intolerance among their neighbours" which made me scoff, as they literally bombed his people out of existence.

The Masked Raider
I honestly don't even know what happened in this issue, our guy shot good, and convinced some criminals to stop harassing local ranchers. The guy who planned this story is seemingly as illiterate as the characters in the story. Not to mention its the same plot every issue.

American Ace
I keep going into this guys story with the pre-expactation that I don't care about dogfighting military propaganda, but then honestly, this has one of the best continuing stories so far, and the stakes on the cliffhangers are always so high! I really like that most of the countries in this story are fictional, it makes me care just that much more. Damn, American Ace got picked out of the sky! Our hero even got nailed with bullets! I want to only learn what happened to this guy in the next issue.

Adventures of Ka-Zar the Great
I really want to like Ka-Zar. I'd love for this to be my favourite story in these books. I love a good Tarzan the Jungle Man type, unfortunately, the inherent nature of a Jungle Man type very quickly lends itself to just the weirdest points of racism. I just want to see a guy protect his jungle friend, not racist caricatures whenever we meet the native denizens of the jungle.

[Hafeez · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. The Menace from Mars (The Human Torch)
2. The Voodoo Sacrifice (The Angel)
3. Enter: Betty Dean (The Sub-Mariner)
4. The Land Grabbers (The Masked Rider)
5. Origin of the American Ace Part 2
6. Siegried Suicide (short text story)
7. Adventures of Ka-Zar the Great: Third Episode

[Britt Halliburton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite enjoying previous Human Torch issues, I found this one dull and dumb, cranking up that absurd-camp dial to the nth degree. To be fair, I believe this was inspired by the radio version of The War of the Worlds that struck the USA at the time because it was made like a radio broadcast. But it follows the period sci-fi conventions, rather than taking anything from the source material written by H.G. Wells, which would have been much better.

The Angel story is basically The Temple of Doom style human sacrificing cult, but none of the charm or fun. The ending was the most interesting part, very dark.

The Masked Raider was actually much more interesting this time than previously, probably because he’s barely in it. Instead, most of the panel time is taken up by the two villains and seeing their plots in action to get the ranch was actually interesting. The two best comics are, of course, American Ace and Namor. The only head scratch for Namor is that in the previous comic, he didn’t know humans could drown and dragged a woman underwater. This time, he just seems to know this now and saves the undercover cop. Otherwise, yeah, these two comics have the best writing and best artwork.

Ka-Zar continues to be middling, never reaching a level of worth, but not being so trash to hate it.

[Mars Fargo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically, what I said in my review of the previous issues can sum up the entire run of this comic book. Namor is the only fleshed out story, all the others are cookie cutter rip-offs of other characters, have no deeper themes, and have no lasting narrative arcs or any plot points of impact. If you're going to read this, just read Namor's stories. Because the above sentiment could apply to any one of these stories, I will simply review the Namor stories from here on out.

NAMOR has taken an interesting route, in that the comic book has now chosen to present him as a villain. Initially, I viewed him as sympathetic. The arc seems to be his inability to see the human race as nuanced rather than one uniformly evil thing, hence it is meant to be a villainous trait to judge someone only on the basis of what group they are a member of rather than as an individual. Quite a daringly radical notion for its time.

[Lser · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best marvel mystery comics and one of my favorite comics. I know it's a simple 1940 comic but still it was epic! I am trying to read every single marvel and dc golden age comic and this one is the best i read yet. Maybe the next issue is gonna be more interesting than this one, who knows i can\t wait to read it!

[Apollo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Human Torch | ★★★
The Angel | ★★★.5
Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner | ★★★.25
The Masked Raider | ★★★
American Ace | ★★★
Siegfried Suicide | ★★★.5
Adventures of Ka-Zar The Great | ★.5

Average Rating: ★★.95

[Simon Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old fashioned heroics. Man saves the girl like she’s a siren and must do his best to please her or take her.

Average takes.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are cheesy and dated as heck, but they’re far more enjoyable than I expected. The Sub-Mariner really is fun.

[Maddux Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.45/10 to be exact for me

[cowboylikejoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3🌟

It's getting interesting to see the human torch's story go into a bigger picture.

[Alexis Ferguson · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far Namor is my favorite out of all of them

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty good Marvel series, mostly just love and enjoy the Human torch and Kazar comics😄😻👍

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's that magical time again to read Marvel Mystery Comics #3! This was a pretty entertaining read, there was only one story I really didn't care for. The first, was the usual "The Masked Raider", not only are the stories basic, but the writer does this thing where they try to capture the old west slang and it just doesn't work for me.

>

Also, not gonna lie I didn't read the American Ace story, I just had zero interest. Moving on we have The Angel, his story involved dealing with a brainwashed cult who's leader was "Hideous". This was fun because it read like cheesy action movie.



Next up is Ka-Zar and this was kind of interesting as it dealt with someone working with the natives to capture animals and bring them to the zoo but ONLY capture them not harm them. I was still surprised that they worked with him and didn't just kill him.



And I'm sure to no ones surprise the top two stories were The Human Torch and Namor The Sub-Mariner. The Torch had the first story so far dealing with aliens, Martians to be exact, and it leaves off with a cliffhanger.



Namors' story was actually really surprising as it has him growing more fond of the humans, even helping the allies during WW2 and him contemplating the consequences of having to answer to his people.



I have to be honest, I really enjoyed this issue, sure it has a lot of things in it that are way over the top and things that don't make sense but it was still an improvement over the first two.

[Victor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sub-Mariner's cassus belli against ze germans.

The propaganda is getting stronger in this one, somehow understandably given the publication date of november 1939.

By now there are four recurring characters:
- The Human Torch, a superhero introduced as a robot who turns out to be a cool dude if he wants it.(2/5)
- The Angel, sometimes having superhero powers and always kicking right before sometimes is about to discharge a gun in his direction. I still don't get what's with the cold breeze preceding him but it's foreshadowing. (1/5)
- The Masked Raider, your western maverick fighting illegal property acquisitions since 1939. (1/5)
- Sub-Mariner aka Prince Namoor, a bit on the naive side but he's a badass with a big heart whose mistakes, mainly consisting in a murder or ten and some property damage, are easily forgotten. I like his style. (2/5)
- Ka-Zar, a Tarzan like kid, lost in the jungles of Congo who is adopted by Zar, a lion -in the jungles of Congo. Fights white men and monkeys and is on speaking terms with various inhabitants of the jungles of Congo: elephants, antelopes and lions. (2/5)