Customer Reviews

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery - Volume 1

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It would be hard for me to overstate the pleasure this book gave me.

I was born in 1965, so my childhood offered me very few opportunities to see golden age comic book art beyond the major DC characters. There was a Marvel reprint title called "Fantasy Masterpieces" that gave me a taste, but that was all.

At the same time, I did often see reproductions of the covers of titles like "Daring Mystery," and I have harbored a lifelong desire to see behind those covers. This book was my chance, and it did not disappoint.

First off, this was a Marvel (Timely) title that featured no major heroes of the era. (If you want Captain America, the Human Torch, and the Submariner, I recommend the first Masterworks volume of "All Winners," which gives you some of each, drawn by their respective originators.) What's neat about the "Daring Mystery" volume is that many artists and writers provided a very broad collection of everything that characterized the early days of comic books - superheroes, westerns, detective, etc. The features and artists change with every issue, so the range is really quite extensive.

The restored art and color are immaculate - crisp, vivid, and true to the era. The stories are often bizarre and generally quite complex. These were the days before slamming superhero antics dominated storytelling, so in many cases, each frame is a decisive move forward in the plot. Even the amateurish storytelling is engaging, because it may represent the one story some young hopeful labored over for weeks. You don't have that feeling you get when reading 200 pages of Simon and Kirby Captain America stories that they were all written by one guy over lunch on Tuesday.

The art is a wonderful smorgasbord of the period, ranging from the minute, hyper-controlled detail of newspaper comics to the broadly expressive superhero action mode. It's a plus (in my book) that the heroes are unknowns. A golden age Superman or Human Torch story doesn't give you room to experience it as something unique and new; you've seen it all before in other stories. The "Daring Mystery" stories are unique in every way, which makes that sense of going back in time much more intense.

For me, this was a very rich, very varied, thrill-ride through the golden age that I was far too young to have experienced first hand. It satisfied an itch I've had for more than 30 years. If you want to peek behind the curtain - and then hang out there for hours and hours - this is the book for you. Next up, the Marvel Masterworks "U.S.A. Comics," which was built on the same model as "Daring Mystery."