PSSST! HEY, SAILOR - DO YOU CARRY A TORCH FOR YOUNG MEN...?

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Before the MARVEL AGE Of COMICS began in 1961, publisher MARTIN GOODMAN decided to revive TIMELY COMICS' three main superheroes of the '30s and '40s and see if he could repeat the wartime popularity that the characters had once enjoyed.  It was 1953, and by this stage Timely was now calling itself ATLAS - at least on the covers.  However, the indicia inside the mags usually sported a different name, as Goodman had many subsidiaries within the comicbook line's parent company, MAGAZINE MANAGEMENT.

In the case of YOUNG MEN #24, it was INTERSTATE PUBLISHING CORP., and within its pages The HUMAN TORCH, SUB-MARINER, and CAPTAIN AMERICA made their return to the four-colour comicbook business.  However, they only lasted for five issues before disappearing again, and the world had to wait until the '60s and the arrival of The FANTASTIC FOUR to see The Human Torch (though not the original) and Sub-Mariner once more, and for The AVENGERS to see Captain America.  (A try-out for Cap, using an impostor, appeared in a Torch solo story in STRANGE TALES to gauge reader reaction to the prospect of Cap's return.)

Well, you know the rest.  All three characters are still around today in some form or other, so's all's well that ends well. I think I've got an issue of FANTASY MASTERPIECES somewhere that reprints Young Men #24, but the reproduction (if I remember correctly) isn't all that great and besides, I can't be bothered digging it out.  So here instead is the cover and splash pages of #25 for you to paste your peepers on.  Just think how different the future of the comicbook industry might've been had this '50s revival been successful.

Posted in: Cartoons