The very first Marvel crossover, by any definition. Just how old is this? Captain America wouldn’t be created for another six months!
MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #7 (1940)
cover Alex Schomburg
In case you don’t know, in the Golden Age nearly all comic books were anthologies featuring stories of various heroes; even Action Comics started that way.
Up to this story, each series was independent from the others. This is the first time that different series are set in the same universe, something that DC Comics won’t do for years.
Technically speaking both Marvel and DC didn’t exist yet: this was published by Marvel’s predecessor, Timely Comics.
Before we get to the proper crossover, we need to see what leads to it.
“Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner”
by Bill Everett
In the Golden Age, all the Atlanteans were depicted as green-skinned and resembled humanoid fish. I can’t say that I’m nostalgic for that design.
So Namor declares war on the surface world (well specifically to America) for how badly they have been treating him. And since he’s immensely strong he doesn’t even want an army.
Also, apparently in the Golden Age, the Manhattan skyline was a little more colorful.
When he returned during the Silver Age in the Fantastic Four book, Namor was initially the bad guy. So it’s always a treat find the inspiration for that characterization.
Pretty ballsy for Timely Comics to show their protagonist beat up New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia !!! (and yes, it’s blatantly him in the comic)
Namor doesn’t f#ck around!!!
Yet another Golden Age little known fact: the Empire State Building used to have a giant drill on its top, until Namor threw that away.
The only person able to reason with Namor is policewoman Betty Dean (who we have seen die in the Doom retrospective).
And she is, in fact, the one to namedrop the Human Torch. Thus single-handedly creating the first superhero shared universe!
And that’s how the Namor story ends! Let’s check out the connection to the Human Torch story.
“The Human Torch”
by Carl Burgos
Yep! That is literally the only connection in the Human Torch story.
MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #8 (1940)
Part 1 by Bill Everett
Part 2 by Carl Burgos
cover Alex Schomburg
This is one continuous story, but Everett and Burgos take turns.
By the way, when I searched the publishing date for this issue on the Marvel Database, I noticed it indicates this is the first appearance of the Bronx Zoo and the George Washington Bridge, and I can’t decide if that attention to detail is awesome, or insane, or stupid, or all of the above.
And here’s the cover in all of its Golden Ageness.
It stars a character we won’t be talking about, the Angel, and his steel-muscled body against the Two Ton Monster! Also this guy with four arms with a gun who’s trying to shoot the Angel and… I don’t know, rob this woman? Is he taking off that collar to free her? Or is that a torture device he’s trying to make her wear?
Sigh… okay, I have no idea what’s happening on this cover, so let’s move on.
The first page let us jump right into the action and right off the bat does something that OTHER comics with fighting super-heroes fail to do: give a compelling reason for them to fight!
First: wow, citizens of the Marvel Universe were dicks to super-humans back in the 1940s.
Second: Namor, don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit!?
Anyway, Namor starts his rampage: first he steals a depth bomb from the Navy and detonates it in the Hudson river, causing a flood in the tunnels…
Then he heads to the zoo, and after being a dick to “a police plane”…
…being a dick to a cage, being a dick to zoo keepers and to lions.
To be fair, he’s not a dick all the time: he does save a kid from being trampled by elephants (that HE freed).
But he’s still a dick to bridges, so you can never tell with Namor.
Until he FINALLY meets the Human Torch!!!
After fighting for exactly 8 panels (!!!), Namor escapes into the river and… that’s the end of the first part.
Just to show how much this is the first real crossover, it’s even divided into neat little stories that might seem self-contained at first glance but really don’t mean anything unless you have paid for the whole story.
At least this time it’s in the same book.
We’re into the Human Torch part of the story now, with the artwork changing from Everett to Burgos.
He’s looking for Namor, but since this is 1940 he can’t just turn on the TV to find a news channel talking about it, so he goes to the police headquarters to inform them that Namor has vanished.
Then the chief calls him a coward and the Torch is ready to punch him. What is it with 40s heroes being dicks?
Luckily for the chief they know where to find Namor, so the Torch MELTS THROUGH THE WALL TO FLY AWAY!!!
Dude! There was a window RIGHT THERE!
Geez, no wonder you guys are always hated by the public.
Anyway, the Torch is a little more useful when he looks through the mess made by Namor: he fixes pillars and train tracks.
Let’s hope he doesn’t try to fix the zoo.
That’s when he meets with Betty, or how he calls her, “The Sub-Mariner’s only friend”.
(how does he know!?)
She tries to convince him that Namor isn’t as bad as he thinks but he’s also “mighty dangerous when aroused”.
I don’t think the 40s were progressive enough to have Namor hit on the Human Torch, so he might’ve dodged a bullet there.
The car is stuck in a traffic jam, but don’t worry: the Human Torch can fly away and ALMOST BURN DOWN BETTY’S CAR!!!
Dude! There was a car door RIGHT THERE!
Anyway, after saving the life of the police woman from, well, HIMSELF, the Torch reaches the Empire State Building where Namor has CUT AWAY THE TOP OF THE MAST WITH HIS BARE HANDS!
Holy crap, why isn’t THIS on the cover!?
There are people trapped under the mast, still alive… somehow… and the Torch saves them by melting the mast… somehow.
The Torch gets to the top of the tower, but Namor is already gone now. The Torch sees there are animals running loose (he can see them from the top of the tower!?), freed by Namor from the zoo he wrecked at the beginning of the issue.
So the Torch, after being a dick to the animals, WRESTLES A TIGER WHILE HE’S STILL IN FLAMES, which does… absolutely nothing to the tiger, apparently, because it gets free until it’s killed by the zoo keeper!
What the… was that really the best idea, guys!?
I mean, not that I wanted the Torch to burn it alive, but come on!
What’s even more ridiculous is that the Torch creates a fire ring to convince the other animals to get back to their cages, in an admittedly cool little use of his power, but this makes shooting the tiger even more pointless.
After fixing some other stuff Namor broke (which is kind of the theme of the whole issue really), the Human Torch fights a gorilla!
Not crazy enough for you? Alright, he ends the fight PUNCHING OUT THE GORILLA!
Man I love comics sometimes.
And so we come to the end of the issue, where the Human Torch meets Namor… and the fight this time lasts only 3 panels before Namor escapes.
Kind of a letdown, but we still got the Human Torch punching a gorilla.
MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #9 (1940)
Written by Bill Everett, Carl Burgos, John Compton, Ray Gill
Pencils by Bill Everett and Carl Burgos
Cover by Bill Everett and Alex Schomburg
That’s a lot of credits for a 1940 story. Let’s have a look at the cover, which this time focuses on the main event.
And it’s pretty cool: the Torch’s body bursting with fire, Namor crushing… hmm, something that looks very hard to crush, a train falling off its tracks, and police running towards them!
One thing I didn’t comment last time: what’s up with the title? Why is the word “mystery” covering the word “comics”? Weird choice, but quite unique. And it gives more space to the word Marvel, which will eventually become the name for the whole company.
After a brief recap, we start off with a stalemate: the Torch can’t follow Namor into the sea, but his fire is a real danger to the Atlantean anti-hero.
So Namor steals some pressure tanks from a submarine; when the fight with the Torch resumes, this time on the torch of the Statue of Liberty, Namor uses the air from the tanks to extinguish the Torch’s flame and throws him into the sea.
The Torch is now captive inside Namor’s, uhm, “aereal sub” (WTF!?) where there’s a weird effect to show we’re underwater.
Hilariously, Namor can’t control the hose from the tank… which lets the air escape and creates bubbles (WTF!?) big enough for the Torch to fit inside.
According to the narrator this is just a bubble of air, but not only Namor isn’t able to hold it: he can’t even punch it out!!!
Now, Namor isn’t a big name, so let me remind you two things: last issue, he cut off the top of the Empire State Building with his bare hands, and about twenty years after this story we’ll learn that, as long as he’s underwater, he’s as strong as the Hulk, if not stronger.
The Torch escapes to the surface, flying to the police headquarters where… Dude! There was a door RIGHT THERE!!!
And to prove me wrong about what I said last issue, he does get his news from television, where Namor is issuing a warning to the Torch: get off his trail, or he’ll unleash his final weapon.
The Torch, of course, wants to be the only one to put people around him in danger, so he flies to the television studio where he fights Namor for a while.
Then since this comic can’t stay still for five panels they fly to a water reservoir, where Namor gets weaker because of all the chlorine inside it.
Which… hmm… okay.
At least he survives ARMY PLANES BOMBING THE RESERVOIR!!!
And we come to what we’ve been waiting for: a fistfight between Namor and the Human Torch! And… Namor tries to punch him and… “his fist sails right through the Torch’s flame”? Uh?
Wait, I though the Human Torch was just on fire, does this mean that is body is literally made of fire in this story? Golden Age stories aren’t big on consistency when it comes to powers, but this is really stretching it even by their standards.
The Torch tries to stop Namor with a wall of fire, but Namor is protected by… uhm… “this sprinkler system”?
I have no idea what’s going on anymore, guys.
Anyway Namor’s ankle wings are injured by the flames, which means he can’t fly. Ah, now this is comic book logic I can understand.
But of course we can’t stay still for two freakin’ panels on this comic, so Namor jumps on an airplane, punches out the pilot and flies away, probably to be a dick to even more people.
The Torch tries to stop the plane, which he does by cutting it in half (!!!).
But of course this only helps Namor escape to the sea, and we are basically back where we were at the beginning of the whole damn crossover.
At least the comic slows down a little, having the Human Torch do some research into something that can, quote, “burn the sub-mariner off the face of the Earth”. I would joke he has a one-track mind, but he IS the Human Torch.
I hope sulphuric acid wasn’t as easy to get in the 1940s as this issue suggests.
Luckily for him Namor is already there, and we soon find out why: after their fight almost blows up the place, because of course it does, Namor slips out to find a huge cylinder that he later uses to trap the Human Torch, depriving him of the oxygen needed to keep his flame.
It seems Namor has won the fight, but there’s a catch: the cylinder traps the Torch, but Namor can’t hurt him while he’s inside. And if he lifts the cylinder even by an inch, the Torch will get his fire back. I assume the Torch only needs oxygen for his powers and doesn’t need to breathe.
So the whole thing ends basically with a tie, but with a last hilarious bit: the last page asks the readers with a challenge, asking us what would we do to fix the problem?
The answer is on the next issue, and here it is, the amazing conclusion to the first superhero fight: officer Betty asks Namor to let the Torch go, and in exchange the Torch won’t ever bother him again.
Which basically means: stop being dicks to each other, guys.
Unfortunately the ending doesn’t really deliver on the promises of the first part. I mean, that one ended with a pyrokinetic android punching a gorilla!
This one just kind of…ends. Man I can’t stand it when creators just rush to the end without giving a proper
Historical significance: 10/10
This is tricky. The two characters meet, yes, but just barely, and we don’t know anything about them other than they’re both dicks.
But it’s the storyline that firmly establishes the very first superhero shared universe! Plus it’s been reference a few times, especially since the Marvels miniseries gave us a GORGEOUS interpretation of the fight from a civilian’s standpoint.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Just because the Silver Age doesn’t exist yet doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t fit in that era!
Out of all the comic books where a flaming android fights an Atlantean antihero, this is the only one I can think of that features a gorilla.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
The coolness factor is off the scale. The Torch punches a gorilla and almost kills many people! Namor cuts the top off the Empire State Building and probably kills someone! What else do you want!? But would this work as a modern comic book issue? This is a tough call.
The art is definitely showing its age: there are a few creative uses of powers, but the art isn’t very good at showing it off. Everett has aged FAR better than Burgos, and the difference really shows.
Characterization is non-existent, and the dialogue is very… well… dated.
Oddly enough the pacing is great for the most part, jumping from scene to scene to keep your interest, which is tricky in the second part since we already know how it ends from Namor’s part.
It’s bizarre and sometimes nonsensical, but it’s NEVER boring. The basic structure still holds up enough to get a much better score than I anticipated.