Mystic Comics #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMystic Comics #4 (cover-dated August 1940) packs two genuinely historic debut strips into a single 65-page anthology. The Black Widow — spirit medium Claire Voyant, resurrected by Satan as his lethal agent — stands as the first costumed, superpowered female character in comic-book history, a distinction that holds even against close competitors like Fantomah (superpowers but no costume) and the Woman in Red (costume but no superpowers). In the same issue, artist Klaus Nordling introduced the Thin Man (Bruce Dickson), a body-stretching hero who predates Quality Comics' Plastic Man by over a year and Marvel's own Mister Fantastic by more than two decades — making Timely, not Quality, the originator of the malleable-hero archetype. Together, these two creations gave the otherwise rotating-cast anthology an outsized place in the genealogy of superhero comics.
In "The Trustees of Hate," spirit medium Claire Voyant is tempted by Satan after a moment of doubt, leading to a tragic chain of events when her curse claims the lives of a mother and daughter. The son, consumed by grief and rage, kills Claire—only for Satan to claim her soul and transform her into the Black Widow. Given a mission to return to Earth and avenge her death by killing her murderer, she is also tasked with collecting the souls of evil men at Satan’s command. With haunting art by Harry Sahle and a striking cover by Alex Schomburg, this 1940 classic blends supernatural dread with moral ambiguity in a story that remains a standout in early Marvel's occult lineup.
In "The Trustees of Hate," the Blue Blaze—returning to the grave between adventures—steps in when a secret organization wields a hate ray to incite war between two neighboring nations. With no time to rest, the hero must confront the forces manipulating fear and fury before the conflict spirals beyond control.
In "Earthquake," Hercules faces off against a mad scientist wielding a monstrous machine capable of shaking the very ground beneath them. Trapped and subjected to a mind-control attempt, the hero's strength proves too much for the villain's schemes.
In "The Train Wreck," Merzah, his assistant Diana, and his driver Jose race to stop a sabotage ring targeting a secret lifeboat design—after a train derailment exposes the conspiracy. With danger at every turn, the trio must outwit a shadowy enemy before the plans fall into the wrong hands.
In "The Jewelry Store Robbers," Dynamic Man tracks a series of gold-only heists, leading him to a scientist wielding a mysterious magnet capable of targeting gold alone. When the criminal escapes in a dirigible equipped with the device, Dynamic Man pursues him across the Atlantic, racing to stop a theft that defies both law and physics.
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The first four issues of Mystic Comics were nominally edited by publisher Martin Goodman, with content sourced almost entirely from the packager studios Funnies, Inc. and Harry 'A' Chesler's shop. Issue #4 marks a turning point: the Chesler connection disappears entirely, and the book shifts to material supplied predominantly by Funnies, Inc., the same studio that had packaged Marvel Comics #1 in 1939. Joe Simon held the editor-in-chief role at Timely at the time of publication, though the individual stories carry no credited editors on their splash pages. The Thin Man story is a notable outlier in the issue's creative roster: artist Klaus Nordling had no known connection to Funnies, Inc., leading researchers to suggest the strip may have originated from the S.M. 'Jerry' Iger shop, making its production origins the least-understood of the issue's features.
Trivia · 9 facts
- First appearance of the Black Widow (Claire Voyant), created by writer George Kapitan and artist Harry Sahle — recognized as comics' first costumed, superpowered female character.
- First appearance of the Thin Man (Bruce Dickson), created by artist Klaus Nordling and an uncredited writer — a body-flattening hero who predates Plastic Man (August 1941) by over a year.
- The issue carries two cover dates: the indicia lists July 1940, while the cover displays August 1940, with 'July' blacked out on most surviving copies — a source of persistent dating confusion among researchers.
- Joe Simon served as editor-in-chief at Timely at time of publication; Martin Goodman was the nominal overall editor for the series' first four issues.
- The issue's cover was illustrated by Alex Schomburg, who was the primary cover artist for Timely's Golden Age line.
- Also featured: final Golden Age appearance of Dynamic Man (Curt Cowan), who later returned in J. Michael Straczynski's 2008 Marvel miniseries The Twelve; continuing appearances of Flexo the Rubber Man and the Invisible Man (Dr. Gade); and the introduction of the magician Merzah.
- The Black Widow made only five Golden Age appearances total (spread across Mystic Comics #4, #5, and #7; USA Comics #5; and All Select Comics #1), all written by George Kapitan — yet she was revived decades later in Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's Marvels (1994) and given a new origin in The Twelve (2008).
- The Thin Man's single Golden Age appearance was retroactively expanded by Roy Thomas in Marvel Premiere #29 (April 1976), which retconned the character as a founding member of the World War II team the Liberty Legion.
- The entire first four issues of Mystic Comics, including this issue, were collected in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Mystic Comics Volume 1 (2011), with an introduction by Will Murray.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Omnibus #[nn] (2010), Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Magazine #1 (2010), Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades #[nn] (2010), Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Mystic Comics #1 (2011), Marvel Firsts: WWII Super Heroes #[nn] (2013), Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War #[nn] (2017), Decades: Marvel in the '40s - The Human Torch vs. the Sub-Mariner #[nn] (2019), Marvel Tales: Black Widow #1 (2019), Vint Age Press Presents… Leading Ladies #[nn] (Premiere Edition) (2025)
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