Fire vs Water
Marvel Mystery Comics continues to amaze and issue #9 is no different. Finally after 2 issues of set up we have a complete crossover where an entire story details the titanic fight between the Human Torch and Submariner. Carl Burgos and Bill Everett do a great job at sharing the artist duties and while it seems clear where one artist leaves off and the other takes over they still did a good job of working together so that the story feels seamless. You have to start trying to pay attention to notice things like the difference in artwork. Its also great that this is a collaboration rather than having one artist tell the whole story or it would feel like the other character is just a guest in the other one's story as was done in the last issue. I also like the interplay of the two characters who both feel that they're in the right but feel that the other is an implaccable foe. This is very good and leaves me with high hopes for issue #10.
The Angel's story was a little better than normal. They got out of the normal question of how the Angel knew to help someone by just stating that he was "passing though" this part of Europe. There's still the issue of who he is when he isn't the Angel. He's described simply as "an American" in the early part of the story so we still don't understand the origins and motivations of this guy. The story of a town terrified of attacks at night by vampires is an interesting one though and while it has a typical 1940's twist to it the action and adventure was of a satisfactory nature for an 8-page story.
The Masked Raider is clearly getting old. The addition of Mexican Pete is an attempt to give the strip new life by giving the Masked Raider someone to talk to but Pete is basically a walking caricature and is pretty annoying. The stories have risen slightly in quality now but they're nowhere near as interesting as the original Masked Raider story and I'm still just waiting for them to give the strip a quiet end.
The Electo story this time was very much on the odd side. I do want to know what will happen now that Electro is going back to Earth but the story of Electro in space was unnecessary and kind of dumb. Similar stories have already played out in the sister comic, Daring Mystery Comics and Electro's addition really adds nothing to the story. It also seems to be out of character for Professor Zog to give Electro a knife which he uses in this story. When Electro is as powerful as he is and with Zog against killing why would he have given Electro a knife? This story was fair but I would certainly find more interest in terrestrial stories for Electro especially if he were to come upon the Torch or Submariner.
The Ferret story was also a little better than normal. This time we're given more information although we still don't know what the Ferret read when looking through the trash until the very end. As with most Ferret stories this is very unsatisfying as there is no way for the reader to figure out the mystery before the story ends. Still it was more interesting than the Ferret stories normally are.
Finally we have Ka-Zar. This is a very basic story where Ka-Zar rescues a human woman who is lost in the jungle and returns her to her father. Ka-Zar has had much better stories than this so there isn't much to recommend this one.
All-in-all Ka-Zar aside this was a very above average issue of Marvel Mystery Comics with the Human Torch/Submariner story being far better than normal. As a result I think this is perhaps the best of the first 9 issues of Marvel Mystery Comics and I look forward to issue #10.