Marvel Mystery Comics #4
Marvel Mystery Comics #4 (cover-dated February 1940) is one of the most event-dense single issues in Timely Comics' formative run. It marks the first time the android Human Torch adopts the civilian alias Jim Hammond — the name that would follow the character through decades of Marvel continuity — while the cover, painted by Alex Schomburg, gives Prince Namor his first-ever cover appearance and simultaneously places a Nazi swastika flag on a comic book cover for the first time, a pointed anti-fascist statement issued months before U.S. entry into World War II. The issue also introduced two brand-new features — the robot hero Electro, the Marvel of the Age and the hardboiled detective the Ferret — expanding Timely's roster at a moment when the publisher was still figuring out what a superhero universe could be. Taken together, these firsts make the issue a structural pivot in early Marvel history: it deepened the identities of the two headline characters while adding the kind of genre variety that would sustain the anthology format for nearly a decade.
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Published by Timely Comics (the forerunner of Marvel) and on sale around January 31, 1940, the issue carried interior art and scripts by the characters' original creators: Carl Burgos on the Human Torch, Bill Everett on Sub-Mariner, and Paul Gustavson on the Angel, with Steve Dahlman — credited under the pen name 'Dahl' — both writing and drawing the debut Electro installment, and writer Stockbridge Winslow and artist Irwin Hasen launching the Ferret. The cover was produced by Alex Schomburg, who had only begun working for Timely the previous month with Marvel Mystery Comics #3, and who would go on to define the visual identity of Timely's covers through the mid-1940s. Notably, the issue carried no indicia — an irregularity it shared with the other Timely release that same month, Daring Mystery Comics #2 — leaving its publication details partly reconstructed by later historians.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First time the Human Torch uses the civilian alias Jim Hammond (spelled 'Hamond' in the original printing), a name that persisted in Marvel continuity through the modern era.
- First cover appearance of Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, depicted on an Alex Schomburg bondage cover also notable as the first comic book cover to display a Nazi flag.
- First appearance of Electro, the Marvel of the Age — a remote-controlled robot created by Professor Philo Zog — who went on to appear in every issue of Marvel Mystery Comics from #4 through #19, and was later revived in the 2008 miniseries The Twelve.
- First appearance of the Ferret (Leslie Lenrow), a hardboiled private detective created by writer Stockbridge Winslow and artist Irwin Hasen, who ran in the title through issue #9.
- First and last Golden Age appearance of the villain Doctor Manyac and his army of cold-flamed 'Green Flames'; they did not reappear until the Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 (2009).
- The Sub-Mariner's story, 'The Sub-Mariner Goes to War,' shows Namor being persuaded by Betty Dean to intervene against Nazi U-boat activity — an early narrative turning point in which the formerly antagonistic Namor begins aligning with Allied interests, while vowing not to take outright sides in the human conflict.
- Interior art credits include Carl Burgos (Human Torch), Bill Everett (Sub-Mariner), Paul Gustavson (the Angel), Steve Dahlman (Electro), and Al Anders (Masked Raider), making this one of the most creator-rich single issues of Timely's early run.
- The issue was reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Vol. 1 and in the 1974 Flashback reprint series (#26), giving modern readers access to all featured stories.
Cast · 6 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
De Kraft returns to the Belgian Congo, where, years earlier, he had killed Ka-Zar's parents, and when Ka-Zar spots him, he swears revenge. De Kraft uses deadly tactics to deal with the natives, who want to desert him because they fear retribution from the "Jungle God."
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).