Customer Reviews

Marvel Masterworks Presents Atlas Era Tales to Astonish 3

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Collections like these are published mostly to be just that - collections. Masterworks have evolved to the point where the goal is to preserve, in a high quality format, the comics of bygone eras. In this respect the current Masterwork is an unqualified success; the book is gorgeous. It is a tribute to collections editor Cory Sedlmeier and his staff. Only a few nits can be picked. The two page introduction by Jon B. Cooke is uninspired. Artist Bob Forgione, who did two stories in the book, does not rate a biography.

How do the stories hold up on their own merits? Not well at all unfortunately. The art is very nice to look at. Indeed, I'm guessing that the main attraction to most buyers will be the Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko gems within that would otherwise be hard to find otherwise. The much underrated Don Heck holds his own nicely compared to those two stalwarts.

But the stories are virtually unreadable to one with adult sensibilities. The stories run the gamut from absurd to illogical to the same plot over and over. What little glimmer of interest that there is comes from the Ditko stories for my taste. Everyone who reads the text pieces (not many) condemns them rightly as pure drivel. What is not so well appreciated is that they are not far below the level of the main stories - they just don't have Kirby, Ditko, or Heck distracting from their looming flaws.

I can only recommend this book to those for whom it is intended - the aficionado who knows what he's in for with these stories. All others - you have been warned. I couldn't even recommend this for current ten year olds; the stories are too dated.

If you know much history about this period for Marvel, you can enjoy these collections for their strengths while overlooking their shortcomings. To wit:

1. A still-young Jack Kirby was cranking out reams of pages to fill these books, and the work ranges from solid Kirby to absolute brilliance. There's a raw power to his pages that became smoothed over and lost as he shifted to superheroes (and slicker inkers). It you want to see what make Kirby's raw power at its most undiluted, these stories are the place.

2. The stories are, with rare exceptions, tripe. Like Kirby, Stan Lee was cranking out scripts at a madman's pace, and these stories reveal three things. First, Lee always had that terrific knack for dialogue that helped lift Marvel to distinction in the sixties. Second, Lee was at the same time a hack who was content to crank out mediocre stuff; many of these stories, and especially a lot of the Kirby giant-monster stories, are obvious reworkings of the same simple plot over and over, and almost all of the stories are forgettable. Third, though Lee built a reputation as the driving force behind Marvel's success, these stories show over and over that Kirby was by far the prime talent and that Lee merely assisted and complemented Kirby's stunning imagination. I think Marvel would have still been great (if perhaps not quite as great) without Lee, but it would never have been great without Kirby. The same applies to Steve Ditko, whose early work is richly represented in these volumes. Although far less prolific and less of a driving presence than Kirby, Ditko had a style and power that stands out despite Lee's mundane stories.

A couple other things:

1. Don Heck is also amply represented in these volumes, and while his figures were stiffer than Kirby's and Ditko's, his compositions during this era were superb. See for yourself.

2. Those whose experience primarily began (as mine did) in the mid-sixties with Marvel's superhero line will find a new appreciation for Dick Ayers, who by then was delivering mediocre pencils on titles like Sgt. Fury. These volumes reveal the younger Ayers to be a masterful inker and probably the best inker Kirby ever had. To see these stories and then think of all those years Marvel let Vince Colletta destroy Kirby's work makes you want to cry.

Enjoy!