Marvel Mystery Comics #13
Marvel Mystery Comics #13 marks one of the most significant single additions to the Timely Comics roster: the debut of the original Vision (Aarkus), a dimension-hopping alien law enforcer conjured through smoke from a parallel realm, making him one of the earliest non-human, interdimensional protagonists in the American superhero genre. Created by the pre-Captain America partnership of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character directly inspired Roy Thomas and John Buscema's android Vision introduced in Avengers #57 (1968), giving this 1940 issue a clear line of creative ancestry into Marvel's Silver Age. As a dense anthology, the issue also showcases the full breadth of Timely's Golden Age ecosystem — Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, The Angel, Ka-Zar, Electro, and Terry Vance — in a single package that captures the publisher at peak Golden Age ambition. The Vision's debut story, titled 'Enter: the Vision,' also served as an early narrative laboratory for Simon and Kirby, with scholars noting structural parallels between its origin scene and the soon-to-follow Captain America origin.
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Published by Timely Comics with a cover date of November 1940 (on-sale September 17, 1940), issue #13 was produced under the editorship of Joe Simon, who had recently joined Timely alongside his creative partner Jack Kirby. Simon wrote and Kirby penciled the Vision's debut feature, with the Grand Comics Database noting that Kirby's contribution to the inks was later researched and reassessed by historians Greg Theakston and Harry Mendryk. The cover was rendered by Alex Schomburg, the Puerto Rico-born illustrator who would become the defining visual voice of Timely's covers throughout the 1940s; the remaining interior features were handled by the anthology's regular stable — Carl Burgos on Human Torch, Bill Everett on Sub-Mariner, Paul Gustavson on The Angel, Steve Dahlman on Electro, Bob Oksner on Terry Vance, and Ben Thompson on Ka-Zar.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the original Vision (Aarkus), an interdimensional alien law enforcer from the 'Smoke World' dimension, in the story titled 'Enter: the Vision' — created by writer/editor Joe Simon and penciler Jack Kirby.
- The Vision is depicted as a being who materializes through smoke and can generate extreme cold; his debut story involves a professor named Dr. Enoch Mason whose dimensional experiment inadvertently summons Aarkus to battle a criminal gang led by 'Brains' Borelli.
- The Vision feature ran as a regular backup in Marvel Mystery Comics from this issue (#13) through issue #48 (October 1943), a run of roughly three years.
- Cover by Alex Schomburg; interior art credits include Carl Burgos (Human Torch), Bill Everett (Sub-Mariner), Paul Gustavson (The Angel), Steve Dahlman (Electro), Bob Oksner (Terry Vance), and Ben Thompson (Ka-Zar).
- Joe Simon served as editor of the issue, making this one of his and Kirby's earliest collaborative contributions to the Timely superhero lineup — predating their landmark Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) by several months.
- The Sub-Mariner story 'Smashing the Island Invasion' features Namor and Dorma in newly designed suits engineered to resist poison gas, en route to Europe; the Electro story sends Professor Zog's robot to the Moon, where it battles an army of alien robots led by Gnorr, Emperor of the Moon.
- The Vision's 1940 debut directly inspired the Silver Age android Vision introduced in Avengers #57 (1968), with the Wikipedia article on Marvel Mystery Comics explicitly noting this creative lineage.
- Reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Vol. 4 (collects issues #13–16) and included in the Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus Vol. 2 (collects issues #13–24); the Vision debut splash page and selected panels were also reprinted in Complete Jack Kirby (Pure Imagination, 1997) #2.
Cast · 16 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
A professor, believing that ghosts and spirits actually inhabit worlds and universes that co-exist with our universe, is set upon by "Brains" Borelli's men during an experiment to prove his theory. The result is a being called Aarkus, Destoyer of Evil, drawn to the laboratory, who helps save the professor and his daughter from harm.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).