If you believe the Internet, the subject of today’s Retro Review is the first stretchy superhero in comic history. The problem is, he doesn’t stretch. So, what IS the deal with The Thin Man? Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Mystic Comics #4 awaits!

MYSTIC COMICS #4

Writer:  Uncredited
Penciler: Klaus Nordling
Inker: Klaus Nordling
Colorist: Uncredited
Letterer: Uncredited
Editor: Martin Goodman
Publisher: Timely Publications (Marvel Comics)
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $10,000
Release Date: July 4, 1940

Previously in Mystic Comics: In the earliest days of the company that would become Marvel Comics, publisher Martin Goodman was buying content from other comic book packagers. The first three issues of Mystic Comics featured content from primarily from Funnies, Inc. (a company which had been with Goodman from the beginning, having provided all the content from Marvel Comics #1 a year earlier) and Chesler Publications, whose honcho Harry “A” Chesler was the man behind a number of Golden Age comic imprints. This relationship is an important part of understanding the earliest days of Timely, as well as why several characters that appear in various Goodman-published books end up at Centaur, Lev Gleason or Chesler-published books in in those pre-Bullpen days. This issue’s lead feature is The Blue Blaze, carrying over from issue #1, Marvel’s first Hercules, who first appeared in Mystic Comics #3 and should not be confused with the later Avenger, as well as Flexo The Rubber Man, the Golden Age Black Widow and Dr. Gade, The Invisible Man. In between, we meet Bruce Dickson, an American scientist trying to scale Mount Kalpurthia… because reasons?

After getting lost in a blizzard, Bruce awakens in a scientific paradise, a civilization known as Kalahia. where everyone can alter their form to become two-dimensional. And thanks to either their advanced science, the atmosphere of Kalahia, or good old goofy comic book logic, Bruce Dickson can also become “thin,” as well!

This part of the story is interesting, as it skips over an ill-defined amount of time where Bruce and Olalla, the chief scientist’s daughter bond as she teaches him all about Kalahian science. Having fallen into the strange world unexpectedly, Bruce wants to return to the Western world that was his home. (All of this, by the way, is likely lifted from the movie Lost Horizon, released in 1937, wherein the hidden land was known as Shangri-La, and whose star, Ronald Colman, shares Bruce’s hairstyle.) Using the “electronic television” device, he shows the Kalahians that the United States is still full of crime, making the case that he must return to take care of it. But what about Olalla?

Turns out she is going with him. The art here is by artist Klaus Nordling, best known for creating Lady Luck, who appeared in the weekly newspaper Spirit Section, featuring clear linework that reminds me a bit of Fletcher Hanks. Flying back to the US in an advanced Kalahian super-jet, Bruce becomes The Thin Man, punching evil with an assist from Olalla. Since it’s 1940, that assistance comes in the form of a fatal hail of bullets from her strato-jet, carrying over the commonplace murders of the pulps into the nascent superhero genre. As for The Thin Man, being flat gives him (you should excuse the expression) an edge in combat.

It doesn’t, however, protect him from the most dangerous force known to man circa 1940: a blow to the back of the head. This sequence does explain how useful flattening yourself into a two-dimensional form can be against conventional criminals, but more importantly, It shows that the Thin Man doesn’t actually stretch.

As for the nefarious Clip Walton, his schemes end with him being (illegally) remanded to the custody of the police commissioner for imprisonment, which beats the “horrific death by high-caliber utopian ammunition” dealt to his mooks and lieutenants. It’s an odd ending, but Mystic Comics #4 gives The Thin Man a brief but effective origin and throws him into his first adventure with aplomb, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall.

If you’re wondering why online sources refer to him as the first stretchy hero, that’s the work of Roy Thomas, who brought back Thin Man, fellow one-shot Golden Ager Red Raven, and other Marvel obscurities to form the Liberty Legion some four decades later. In those stories, Bruce was given the power to stretch his form, explaining that the “thin” power was actually Kalahian dimension-warping technology. If you’re wondering who the real first stretchy superhero was, I’ll remind you of Thin Man’s co-star this ish, the robot/alien symbiote known as Flexo, The Rubber Man.

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MYSTIC COMICS #4

60%

60%

Named For One Movie, Origin From Another

The first appearance of The Thin Man is a well-crafted eight pager, notable for clear and pretty art, and followed by... decades of nothin'.

• Writing

  5
• Art

  7
• Coloring

  6
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
  0