Showing posts with label Russ Heath. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russ Heath. Show all posts

Monday, February 27, 2023

Russkie-Smashers YOUNG MEN COMICS "Return of...the Human Torch"

When Atlas revived Timely's "Big 3" golden age heroes in 1953...
...look who got the spotlight!
(Heck, colorist Stan Goldberg couldn't even get Captain America and Bucky's costumes correct on the cover by Carl Burgos!)
Though no Russkies are seen in this tale from Atlas' Young Men Comics #24 (1953), they did supply the criminals with Solution X-R and brainwashed Toro into fighting for fellow Communists in Korea!
(And they do appear later on, though the strip emphasizes homegrown American criminals!)
Written by Hank Chapman and illustrated by Russ Heath (with the Human Torch in the splash panel rendered by his creator, Carl Burgos), this story actually handles the explanation of where the flaming felon fighters were for the previous four years very well! 
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Monday, February 6, 2023

Russkie-Smashers MARVEL BOY II "Zero Hour!"

The only thing you can trust about Russkies...
...is that you can't trust Russkies...who apparently would be happy to die to "own the imperialists" (to paraphrase Repugs)!
BTW, though the mag was called Marvel Boy for the first 2 issues, (and he appeared in issues 1 through 6), it became Astonishing as of #3, and remained that way for the rest of the title's 63-issue run!
Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Bill Everett, this tale from Atlas' Marvel Boy #2 (1950) about cooperation-then betrayal parallels what happened between the Allies and Soviet Russians during World War II (when they acted together against the Axis) and afterward (when they became hostile once the common threat had been eliminated).
You'll note, though the other side is referred to as the "Eastern" Empire, they're clearly written and drawn as Russians/Soviets!
Bob Grayson was the second character to bear the "Marvel Boy" name, the first one being a Joe Simon/Jack Kirby creation who made only two appearances during the 1940s.
Since he appeared (and disappeared) before the 1953 revival of the "Big Three" (Captain America/ Human Torch/Sub-Mariner) he could be considered Timely/Atlas/Marvel's final Golden Age superhero!
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Atlas-Era Heroes
Volume 1
(which includes all of Marvel Boy's 1950-51 appearances as well as the re-intro of the Big 3)