Jan-Ken-Pon – Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special review

    
First, massive props to Paolo Rivera for the cover.

The title is probably a misnomer, as this is perhaps more properly called directed enthusiasm. There is an extra beauty in this read for me related to when I read it, as I had recently read through the drama-of-the-day (which rarely changes) in SF/F book online’‘community’. I love comics, because even with talents always pushing the medium’s limits there is a healthy and unabashed love for the past. Comic book fans can love Warren Ellis, yet still admire and appreciate the early works of a Roy Thomas. We can love Ross, and revere Frazetta. Templeton may be our thing today, but we acknowledge the stature and the oeuvre of a Joe Kubert or Toth. Our appreciation’s versatility knows few bounds, inhabiting a medium that appreciates a Bagge, a Wood, or Van Horn. It is this enduring optimism that keeps me wanting to talk about this medium more than others, and it is a title like Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special that reminds me why.

Out of all of the pre-Marvel titles from publishers- be it Timely or Atlas -that would later assimilate into the present publisher, my favorite run of comics is Marvel Mystery Comics. Sure, Captain America Comics is nice (a profound understatement), and for the more eclectic, perhaps Mystic (which among other things debuted Destroyer that we see Kirkman writing now) or Daring is an enviable run to have, but for me (and I think most) Marvel Mystery is the real gem run of the Golden Age of Marvel. Note that the first issue of the title that would afterwards be called Marvel Mystery Comics was called simply Marvel#1, which is one of the most desirable comics in the entire hobby. Excluding Detective#27, Action#1, and Pep#22, it’s probably the most desirable book in the hobby (excluding MPFW#1 which was a promo item and in my mind to rare to justify comparison). The heritage involved in the run is unmatched, introducing the first iteration of the Human Torch and Sub Mariner (excluding the aforementioned MPFW), two thirds of the Marvel Golden Age trinity (the other being Captain America). They would also be the characters from that era that would have the most impact on the line under the ‘Marvel’ banner, making key appearances in issues that ushered in Marvel’s Silver Age, an era that is the direct foundation to the Marvel we love today and have loved since.

The beauty I spoke of is due a project being unreviewable. It’s not for critics, you don’t critique justified celebration. This is just fun comics. Unlikely team-ups, unruly side-kicks, the kicking of some Nazi ass, and whose story on a fundamental level isn’t not at all too far removed from recent Brubaker issues of Captain America. While you can look at the reprinted stories in the back of the issue and see that Burnham’s pages aren’t exactly fascimilies. What you do see is a spirit, when anatomy of a story meant more than the anatomy of a character in the background- when cartoony was the style adventure and exploration came in. Not too long ago I didn’t recognize Namor in a rather high profile Marvel issue that featured him, and while we may not have seen Burnham’s Namor before or ever again, there is no such issue of recognition. There is no mystery, it’s just Marvel.

Burnham and Defalco captured the soul. 70 years new.

    
- Jay Tomio

_{Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen, and the editor of Heliotrope. Some call him the Bodhisattva.}