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Red Raven Comics #1 (Mercury)Issue(s): Red Raven Comics #1 (Mercury story only) Review/plot: Nostalgic Note: Just for kicks, we thought we'd re-present the very first story that King Kirby ever did for Marvel! (But, why the pulsatin' pen name at left? Don't as us -- even Jolly Jack doesn't remember!!) The "pen name" refers to the name "Martin A. Bursten". It seems (according to UHBMCC and GCD) that a Martin A. Burnstein was the actual scripter of this issue. See the Comments for a little more on "Bursten"; it's hard to understand what it was that Kirby didn't remember. ![]() Anyway this is a crazy story of interest even beyond the Kirby history because the main character, Mercury, was later consolidated with both Hurricane and the Eternal Makkari. And based on that, i'm making some other assumptions as well. I'm delving a bit into fan fiction here, but bear with me. Update: The 2004 Marvel Golden Age Handbook confirms my idea here. The Eternal Zuras is upset that the humans have once again lapsed into war, so Thena suggests that one of the Eternals be sent to stop it. ![]() Makkari is chosen for the task. ![]() Meanwhile, the war is being instigated by Kro, who has disguised himself as "Hendler", ruler of "Prussland". ![]() Makkari confronts Kro directly... ![]() ![]() ...but knows that he can't permanently defeat Kro, so he sets about fighting against Kro's forces. ![]() And a spy ("The beautiful Thea Shilhausen alias L-5") in an unusually-sexy-for-the-time costume. ![]() Ok, so in the story, it's not really Zuras, Thena, and Kro, but Jupiter, Minerva, and Pluto. But if we're allowing that Mercury is really Makkari, the other characters appearing in this story can't be the real Roman gods. It's actually uncanny how similar a role Pluto plays here to Kro in Eternals #3, leading me to wonder how much of this story was really written by Kirby (maybe he doesn't remember "Bursten" because he doesn't exist!)(I'm confident that someone will school me on that in the comments.) Other Roman gods are discussed in this issue and i can't say which Eternals, if any, they might be mapped to... ![]() ...but i love the fact that Diana is rejected because she "is still a woman -- and Pluto knows women!". It's worth noting that Hurricane, who debuts in Captain America Comics #1 (Mar 41) was unquestionably the same character as Mercury here, at least in Kirby's mind. Same look, same powers, similar godly origin, same weird winged headband. Assigning a Quality Rating to this is really an exercise in futility, but... Quality Rating: C+ Chronological Placement Considerations: References: N/A Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: Marvel Super-Heroes #14
CommentsI've been extremely confused over "Martin A. Bursten". Some sources state such a person actually existed; others state it was a pseudonym. I'm guessing Joe Simon actually wrote this(he also wrote the Red Raven story). Posted by: Mark Drummond | September 22, 2012 11:47 AM Considering in the Eternals comic, Thena did fall in love with Kro, its perhaps not a bad judgment by Zuras that "Pluot knows women." Vulcan is Hephaestus in Greek, therefore he is the Eternal Phastos. I don't think there are any other easy matches. Posted by: Chris | September 22, 2012 11:59 PM http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/simonandkirby/archives/1685 Martin A. Burstein ("Bursten") most certainly did exist, and wrote "Mercury" and was also a writer for Captain America comics 1-10. Kirby knew exactly what he was doing when he tried to steal credit, he also testified in court against artists' interests that his work for Marvel was all "for hire" and that the artists retained no expectation of ownership over their work or characters. There is a photo on this page of Bursten with Simon and Kirby (he is in the middle, wearing a suit and holding the scripts for Blue Bolt --- also for which he was denied proper credit). There is a nice chapter about some of his contributions in Joe Simon's first autobiography "The Comic Book Makers." Hope that helps! Posted by: Bursten Info | November 30, 2014 10:52 PM Here is the link to the photo: http://bdzoom.com/8356/comic-books/le-coin-du-patrimoine-us-jack-kirby/ Posted by: Bursten Info | November 30, 2014 10:54 PM Here is a better quality copy of the photo: http://thecomicsvault.tumblr.com/post/30407471427/jack-kirby-far-right-joe-simon-far-left-and Posted by: Bursten Info | November 30, 2014 10:57 PM I appreciate the info, BI! Posted by: fnord12 | December 1, 2014 3:17 PM The script is for Boy Commandos btw, as you probably already figured out : ) Posted by: Bursten Info | January 2, 2015 11:56 PM Comments are now closed. |
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