Marvel Comics #1/Timely Comics
The first ever published story(ies) done by Marvel Comics which at the time was known as Timely Comics
Released in October 1939 and debuts Marvel’s first ever superhero, Jim Hammond aka the android Human Torch
His creator is scientist Phineas Horton
The android is sentient and possesses the ability to spontaneously combust on contact with oxygen. It can also fly
Hammond becomes a crimefighter and breaks away from dependency on Horton
Introduces Thomas Holloway aka The Angel
Introduces Namor the Sub-Mariner
He is the son of a human father and Atlantean mother
His mother tells him how the Atlanteans have attacked humans in retaliation for the humans’ ignorance of the damage they’ve been causing to the Atlanteans
Introduces Jim Gardley aka The Masked Raider a vigilante of the Old West
Tells the story of the original Ka-Zar (David Rand, son of John Rand), who is raised in the African jungle after the plane his parents were flying crashes. David’s mother died of fever when he was very young, leaving his father to raise him into adolescence, then is killed by a British explorer, leaving David an orphan. He then makes a companion out of a lion named Zar and stays there
Timely Comics is a compilation of modern and new retellings and perspectives of Golden Age heroes
It begins with Bucky pondering what makes Captain America so special and that is the fact that Steve Rogers never lost his spirit, will, or integrity when becoming a Super-Soldier
A year into WWII, Namor decides to stay neutral and side with neither Britain nor Germany until a female Nazi supporter named Ursula convinces Namor that his dual-race makes him a perfect fit for Hitler’s Aryan race
Realizing how abominable the Nazi regime is, Namor sinks a German U-boat with Ursula inside and tells his ally that he knows which side he’s on now
A year before 1939, Namor takes down an underwater Nazi military installation in the South Pacific
Nine months after Jim Hammon’s ‘birth’, he is adjusting to the world and learning Western history
Hammond saves a blimp on New Year’s eve in which Warren Worthington II is in who is Angel’s (X-men) father
In 1941, Namor is working with his ally (Betty Dean) and a private investigator named Ferret to find a mechanical engineer named Professor Philo Zog who has constructed super-robots, one of which is called Electro
Betty Dean consults Jim Hammond and Toro (Human Torch’s new partner) who Namor has both a frictional history with
Torch is captured by androids who shoot cold green flames which were invented by a Dr. Manyac
The Angel attacks Nazi spies in a butcher shop and is looking for The Torch as well as information on Project Blockbuster which Betty Dean and Ferret are also looking for
The Green Flame androids were once men who used them as suits but now changed because of Manyac`s exploitation of Professor Zog`s expertise
Toro, Namor, The Angel, Betty Dean, and Ferret rescue Zog who puts on the Electro armor as well as rescuing Torch
Torch and Namor take down Project Blockbuster: a giant armored robot, and Manyac and a doctor who are inside it
Namor and Torch depart ways
Miss America dupes the plans of saboteurs on an American transport ship
Bucky, during his tenure as Captain America reminisces and commemorates the Sentinels of Liberty aka The Young Allies which consisted of 5 members including Bucky
A story about the Golden Age hero The Destroyer who is an escaped British POW
He derails a supply train from Poland to Ukraine and sends another crashing into a concentration camp where he has a German journalist named Emil Hansen document what he witnesses
Louise Mason aka the Blonde Phantom confronts and apprehends a woman who killed her ex-husband for accidentally putting her in the hospital after a drunk-driving incident six years prior after which she met him six months after said incident
The All-Winners Squad deal with two villains named Future Man and Madame Death. Future Man hoped to transport an army from 1 million A.D to the present using a chronal machine but was foiled and sent 1 million years to the past
Madame Death is left alone in the present and uses resurrected, deceased war heroes including Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes against the team. Her efforts are thwarted and she is impaled after an explosion
At the conclusion of the story we see Jeffrey Mace (The Patriot, who became Captain America after his ‘death’ and the one in the All-Winners Squad) working on blueprints for the Baxter Building
The original Vision who is from another dimension and uses Aarkus Wellington as his alias
Through Dr. Enoch Mason’s tinkering, he was the one responsible for opening a portal between dimensions hence the Vision getting through
A mobster uses a tip from a gardener who worked at Mason’s residence to infiltrate and take Aarkus down but fails and inadvertently destroys the failsafe protecting Earth from creatures from The Vision’s dimension
A monster called the Kalimachh gets through and resurrects the dead gangster (Galloway) who has a broken neck
It was an illusion beset by fog from the Vision’s dimension. The Vision takes Kailimachh down and Dr. Mason closes the portal
The mobsters want Mason and Aarkus dead but squabble and gun each other down instead
Richard Jones is another hero out of time like Steve Rogers, frozen in ice and put into suspended animation and wakes about 20-30 years after the war
Richard was a costumed hero known as The Phantom Reporter in the Golden Age. We revisit the past
He and a man named Edmund Chancellor discuss about a man they knew named Billy Sullivan who was burned to death in a house fire
Billy was a delinquent so Edmund gloats about his death while Richard thinks about what more he could’ve done to help him
Richard suspects that Edmund and his father Oswald are responsible for Billy’s death who had been working with a mafia family, the Manninos, as enforcers for Oswald
Richard speaks with Billy’s wife who was presumed dead and who tells Richard that Billy killed a professor
After investigating at the college where the professor taught, a history secretary tips Oswald’s men and is followed, He puts a mask on and lays a beatdown on them
While investigating in the college, the history secretary told Richard that the professor wrote 3 books on alchemy. No coincidence since Oswald has been seeking eternal life
Now costumed as the Phantom Rider, Richard coerces information out of the fire chief who had been covering up Billy’s death out of fear and owing the Manninos a debt. He was ratted out by gamblers
Mannino’s men are coerced into revealing Billy’s murderer- Gianni Big Nose who was in turn ordered by Silvio Mannino who is an ally of Oswald’s
Silvio confirms that Oswald was after the Elixir of Life aka the Philosopher’s Stone from the professor
Oswald had Silvio use Billy to off the professor so no one else could know his knowledge about the stone
Silvio had Big Nose off Billy when Billy realized what it was Oswald and Silvio were after
Oswald blackmailed Silvio to have his family act as a private security force for him in exchange for using the Elixir of Life to heal Silvio’s daughter in the hospital
Phantom Reporter takes pity on Silvio and decides to let him face justice through the press
He sneaks into Oswald’s home and overhears him having a conversation with Edmund to murder Billy’s wife Molly because she has a copy of the formula for the Elixir
Richard confronts them as Oswald uses some of the Elixir to enhance his strength. Richard is no match physically but uses his knowledge of physics to beat him as he crashes and falls out a window
Richard makes Edmund tell him where Molly is as he rushes to her
Richard arrives too late as he sees what he assumes is her body being carried onto an ambulance
In the present, Richard has been telling his story to a journalist who asks if Molly might be still alive due to her possessing a copy of the formula. Richard doesn’t think so and makes peace with it as we see Molly watching him in a coffee shop from the street