Venus
Release: May 15, 1948
Cover: August 1948
10 cents
22 pages
No credits are given. Online sources uncertainly credit Lin Streeter with inks. The GCD once credited Ken Bald with pencils and George Klein with inks, but has removed those credits.
There are two chapters and perhaps two different stories here. But neither has a name, and they flow together well enough. Online sources refers to them as two stories with implicit titles “Venus Comes to Earth” and “The 10 Goddesses”. I don’t know where those titles come from.
Since we just met Thor, I figured we should look back at other mythological figures in the Marvel Universe. We’d already met Medusa, and I skipped an appearance of Zeus, which I am correcting. But the most mainstream I know of before Thor is Venus, goddess of love and beauty. Her series lasted 19 issues in the late ’40s and early ’50s.
Now, this isn’t a superhero comic. It’s aimed at women (though the ad on the last page is addressed to both fellows and girls), so about romance and fashion and such. But later writers will treat Venus as a superhero, and the story has some elements in common with Thor.
The story is that Venus ruled the planet Venus from her castle on Mt. Lustre.
She is adored and envied, but unloved, and grows weary. Seeking new adventure, she makes a wish to be transported to earth, and her wish comes true.
Enter the publisher of Beauty Magazine, who recruits her, and decides on a campaign to pretend she is descended from the goddess Venus. He won’t believe her when she insists that she is herself Venus.
Part of the issue is that being transported to earth meant she lost her super powers.
Notice below how much of the art extends beyond its normal rectangle. Venus’ hair and feet break out of panel 2. And panel 3 is tilted to extend beyond the normal page box. It’s a technique I associate more with modern comics than 1948 comics.
Anyways, she is made a magazine editor, despite having no qualifications but her looks. This earns her the animosity of current and former employees, who will no doubt cause trouble in future installments.
Sure enough, in the second chapter, a former editor has recruited the 10 most beautiful women in the world for a competing magazine. Venus will likely lose her job unless she can find 10 even more beautiful women. So she travels back to Venus to bring her handmaidens to earth. They include Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Salome… The issue doesn’t bother to name all 10. We also meet the god Apollo, who is just a humble servant of Venus.
The issue also features a Hedy de Vine story.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 50/100
Characters
- Venus
- Whitney P. Hammond
- Perry Pallete
- Clarence Snippe
- Della
- Apollo
- Cleopatra
- Helen of Troy
- Salome
Story Notes:
- After quitting Beauty, Clarence Snippe becomes the editor of Lovely Lady magazine
Next: Tales to Astonish #35
Previous: Journey Into Mystery #83
