It could be said that The Human Torch is Marvel Comics’ Superman. But what about the Golden Age Marvel Comics equivalent of Batman? Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Marvel Comics #1, featuring the first appearance of The Angel, awaits!
MARVEL COMICS #1
Writer: Paul Gustavson
Penciler: Paul Gustavson
Inker: Paul Gustavson
Colorist: Uncredited
Letterer: Paul Gustavson
Editor: Martin Goodman
Publisher: Timely Publications (Marvel Comics)
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $600,000.00
Release Date: August 31, 1939
Previously in Marvel Comics: One of the great difficulties of Retro Review comes in finding the material to go over. It is a bit easier in 2025, wherein much of the history of comic books is available online, but a few years ago, it required me to go and dig up physical copies of the comics in question. That’s how I’ve managed to collect so many DC Archive and Marvel Masterworks volumes, most of which run between twenty and fifty dollars a pop. And sometimes, a single issue is so full of important moments that revisiting things is both prudent and necessary for more than just amortizing those purchases. Half a decade ago, we took the proverbial thirty-thousand-foot view of Marvel Comics #1, the very first comic book to come from Martin Goodman’s publishing-house-of-many-names.
Today, we zoom in on The Avenging Angel!
In the street and alleys of the unnamed city which, like all cities in Golden Age comics, is New York City, six crime lords have joined forces. Uniting their networks of influence, the Six Big Men (Dutch Hansen, Trigger Bolo, Mike Malone, Gus Ronson, John Dillon, and Steve Enkel) have been running rampant. A group of victims gathers to demand that the mayor take action, even hiring the deadly vigilante known as The Angel to deal with the situation.
But The Angel is already on the hunt!
It’s interesting to me that Bob Kane’s initial sketch of The Bat-man featured him in red, with blue wings and a domino mask, which resembles The Angel much more than the finished Bat, who debuted just five months earlier. Racketeer Gus Ronson, who specializes in restaurant protection schemes, has just been released after rigging a jury to escape a manslaughter charge, finds himself stalked by the mysterious winged vigilante. Why is he so spooked?
We quickly find out, as Angel pops up from his back seat and strangles him to death!
Paul Gustavson is probably best known for his work at Quality Comics, including the creation of The Human Bomb, but this story comes from his days working at Funnies, Inc., the comic packagers who also supplied material for Centaur Comics, where Gustavson also created Man of War, The Fantom of the Fair/Fantoman, and The Arrow. I have always loved the delicate lines and the amount of detail he packs into his work, and he puts it all to work as The Angel rubs out Mike Malone and John Dillon in one fell swoop, setting his sights on Trigger Bolo.
Does the hero fall prey to a sap on the skull? Or does he pretend to fall into the clutches of Bolo and his mysterious lady-boss? It seems like a classic Batman Gambit, decades before Batman was actually known for them, and it leads The Angel to an avenging double-play, breaking free just in time to manipulate Enkel and Bolo into killing each other. If you’re keeping score, that makes for five deaths in the space of seven pages, or .71 fatalities per page, impressive stats even for 1939. The Avenging Angel doesn’t care for decimals, though, so it’s he’s off to off Dutch Hansen, only to find out that things are more complicated than they seem.
The reveal of the hands that manipulated things is a massive wall-of-text infodump in the second-to-last panel of the story, reminding us that The Angel isn’t in the business to solve crimes. The Angel is in the business to kill criminals, like The Shadow, The Spider, or season one Barry Allen. in short, The Angel’s debut in Marvel Comics #1 is an interesting one, leaping out of the gate to lethal solutions and looking great doing it, earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall.
Later stories would establish that he became a masked mystery man after being gifted the mask and six-shooters of Matt “The Two-Gun Kid” Hawk on that cowboy hero’s deathbed, that he shared his role with his twin brother, that he ganked a flying cape that may have been created by Mercury himself, that he financed the Scourge of the Underworld, and that his mask (which he isn’t actually wearing yet) is in fact a living piece of Eternity itself. It’s Hawkman-level retconnery, reminding us that, while Marvel doesn’t do DC-style reboots, it’s just because their canon is in a constant state of flux.
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MARVEL COMICS #1
Gustavson can always be counted on for subtle, detailed art, and the story is very pulp-inspired Golden Age stuff. Years later, a complex network of retcons would make The Angel into something else, but here, it's just murder after murder.
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Writing6
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Art8
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Coloring6
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.