[brydeemer]

More Golden-Age goodness.

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Bry

[Magneto_Guevara]

Great episode, guys. I love when you do 2-hour extravaganzas, but sometimes 30-minute, focused episodes are nice too.

I still really appreciate the craft (the art, the storytelling, the sense of history and research) behind Marvels Project, but I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in the Cap-centric nature of the past few issues. And, unlike a few of you guys, I DON'T get the sense that "Okay, well we got Cap mostly out of the way, now we can concentrate on other stuff."

Don't get me wrong, I love Cap (esp. when portrayed by this creative team), but I've seen this stuff before. I feel like the rest of this series is just going to be entire issues mostly devoted to: Cap taking on Bucky as a partner, Cap meeting Nick Fury, the Invaders fighting Nazis, Cap fighting the Red Skull. I've seen all that stuff so many times before.

All the "Easter Eggs" in the past few issues? Yeah, they're cool, but I'd like it more if instead of just MENTIONING these other characters we actually got to see them. It was great getting to SEE some of the Angel's first few adventures (and I hope he doesn't just become relegated to the narrator of Cap's exploits), but I was really hoping to see some of these other early Marvel characters FEATURED, y'know? Otherwise issues 4-8 of this might as well just be a 5-issue mini called "Captain America: The Early Days...Again".

I loved the first few issues of Marvels Project, though. I really hope that in the final three issues Brubaker can find something more for the lesser-known Golden Age characters to do, on panel. Cap is important--yes--he is very much the CENTER of everything, but I thought the point of this series was to spotlight (not just mention, show in one silent panel, or HIDE as an Easter Egg) more of the OTHER early heroes, the ones who've never gotten any shine. Regardless, like I said at first, at least the quality of this series is undeniably great. I just wish the focus would get back on track to what I thought it was going to be. But, like Bryan said, there's a difference between unfulfilled expectations and a "bad" comic. This issue was almost exactly what I DIDN'T want to read, but it was far, far, far from "bad". Still, unlike Bryan, I suppose I still have to say that the issue disappointed me a bit more than a tad.

Also, enough with the no-name (or near-no-name) scientists! Show me some more costumes and masks!

[mguy1977]

Thanks for the episode guys, as I cant read everything it was good to hear your continued feedback on the series.

Matthew

[Brack]

Great episode, guys. I love when you do 2-hour extravaganzas, but sometimes 30-minute, focused episodes are nice too.

I still really appreciate the craft (the art, the storytelling, the sense of history and research) behind Marvels Project, but I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in the Cap-centric nature of the past few issues. And, unlike a few of you guys, I DON'T get the sense that "Okay, well we got Cap mostly out of the way, now we can concentrate on other stuff."

Don't get me wrong, I love Cap (esp. when portrayed by this creative team), but I've seen this stuff before. I feel like the rest of this series is just going to be entire issues mostly devoted to: Cap taking on Bucky as a partner, Cap meeting Nick Fury, the Invaders fighting Nazis, Cap fighting the Red Skull. I've seen all that stuff so many times before.

All the "Easter Eggs" in the past few issues? Yeah, they're cool, but I'd like it more if instead of just MENTIONING these other characters we actually got to see them. It was great getting to SEE some of the Angel's first few adventures (and I hope he doesn't just become relegated to the narrator of Cap's exploits), but I was really hoping to see some of these other early Marvel characters FEATURED, y'know? Otherwise issues 4-8 of this might as well just be a 5-issue mini called "Captain America: The Early Days...Again".

I loved the first few issues of Marvels Project, though. I really hope that in the final three issues Brubaker can find something more for the lesser-known Golden Age characters to do, on panel. Cap is important--yes--he is very much the CENTER of everything, but I thought the point of this series was to spotlight (not just mention, show in one silent panel, or HIDE as an Easter Egg) more of the OTHER early heroes, the ones who've never gotten any shine. Regardless, like I said at first, at least the quality of this series is undeniably great. I just wish the focus would get back on track to what I thought it was going to be. But, like Bryan said, there's a difference between unfulfilled expectations and a "bad" comic. This issue was almost exactly what I DIDN'T want to read, but it was far, far, far from "bad". Still, unlike Bryan, I suppose I still have to say that the issue disappointed me a bit more than a tad.

Also, enough with the no-name (or near-no-name) scientists! Show me some more costumes and masks!

The point of the series is to show the origins of the Marvel Universe, rather than focussing on the adventures of early heroes. So in that respect the scientists are more important than characters like Thin Man and Hurricane.

From an interview on Marvel.com last Feb:

"It's a modern day retelling of the origin story of the Marvel Universe," Brubaker explains. Taking place between 1938 and 1942, the comic centers on the unknown connections between Marvel's biggest Golden Age heroes and how their creation still impacts Marvels characters today. "What I'm trying to do is tell the story in a way where it feels like it fits with the Marvel Universe and ties into the Marvel Universe that exists today."

I'm not quite sure where people got the idea it was going to be anything different that what Brubaker has given us, as everything I read leading up to its release seemed focussed on drawing the connections between the Golden Age and modern Marvel Universe.

[Peter]

Promotional blurb from issue #1, emphasis mine:

The centerpiece of Marvel's 70th Anniversary celebration! Who is the mysterious old man who lies on his deathbed in a hospital in 1939, and how does his passing mark the beginning of the first heroic age of the Marvel Universe — and signal the rise of the superhumans? Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting unveil the defining story of the origin of the Marvel Universe, revealing the hidden connections that unite the earliest costumed champions, and whose reverberations are felt dramatically into the present day! It’s a world on the brink of war, and the race is on to create the world's first super-soldier! Witness the first days of the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and many more-- how they shaped the world to come, and how the future they would create in turn shaped them!

While I totally get the part about the "hidden connections" it also leaves room in the description for the masks as well. And it does clearly say "the beginning of the first heroic age". I can totally see where the idea for wanting more masks in the story is coming from.

[Brack]

Promotional blurb from issue #1, emphasis mine:

The centerpiece of Marvel's 70th Anniversary celebration! Who is the mysterious old man who lies on his deathbed in a hospital in 1939, and how does his passing mark the beginning of the first heroic age of the Marvel Universe — and signal the rise of the superhumans? Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting unveil the defining story of the origin of the Marvel Universe, revealing the hidden connections that unite the earliest costumed champions, and whose reverberations are felt dramatically into the present day! It’s a world on the brink of war, and the race is on to create the world's first super-soldier! Witness the first days of the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and many more-- how they shaped the world to come, and how the future they would create in turn shaped them!

While I totally get the part about the "hidden connections" it also leaves room in the description for the masks as well. And it does clearly say "the beginning of the first heroic age". I can totally see where the idea for wanting more masks in the story is coming from.

Yeah, that marketing blurb is a lot more vague and fuzzy than what Brubaker said in interviews.

[Bizarro-Me #1]

Okay, in fairness to me vis-a-vis not recognizing the name of the scientist who empowered Luke Cage, I learned the name from the first volume (1982-3) of OHOTMU, which gives it as "Dr. Noah Bernstein." This is just different enough from "Burstein" that my brain didn't make the connection when I read this issue. More recent editions, however (e.g., the Marvel Legacy 1970s Handbook), do identify the good doctor as "Noah Burstein," so I guess all I can do is growl and shake my fist at whoever was fact-checking OHOTMU back in 1983!

A further self-correction: The Blue Bullet, who first appeared in Invaders #11, was named Johann Goldstein, not Jacob as I mentioned in this episode. Jacob Goldstein, a.k.a. The Golem, was his brother.

[demonbear]

in Brubaker I trust, still. it's just the slow build-up is getting to me. i mean, really, nothing much happened! and i still personally feel that this series could've been 'condensed' into 6 issues, instead of 8. unless Marvel's plan is for this series' ending to coincide with the ending of Seige, to draw a parallel of sorts (the first heroic age --> the current Heroic Age)

[atomic99]

I thought I heard both Murd and Jamie mention about Hurricane's one and only appearance. As Mercury, he had one appearance in the golden age in RED RAVEN #1 but as Hurricane, he was a regular backup feature in CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS from issue 1 through 11. You can catch his adventures in the Golden Age Cap Masterworks out there.

So did this show Cap's very first adventure and that the Angel was there? That is how I read it and yet that would be different from Cap's first adventure in the Stern/Byrne issue #255. Did the Angel get retconned into the story there or is even the story different? I have to pull out the trade and check.

Interesting to note that the Thin Man predates Plastic Man. So is he the first stretchable hero?

The Shangri-La origin is so typical of that time as the book & movie LOST HORIZON about the fabled city were popular in the 1930s. And the name "Thin Man" was a nod to another literary source, Dashiell Hammett's detective from the book and movies which was also popular in the 1930s and 1940s. I could always see the connections between old horror movies and the names Stan and Jack used during the early 1960s like "The Thing" and "Invisible girl" but it is interesting to see that Hollywood had their influences on the creators in the golden age as well. Not just in the Thin Man but many of Simon and Kirby's Cap stories were inspired by the movies like their version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

[Peter]

...but as Hurricane, he was a regular backup feature in CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS from issue 1 through 11.

What's that you say? A backup feature? Who would want those??