Comics’ First Marvel Man in Dell’s Popular Comics, Up for Auction

Marvel was in the air in the second half of 1939.  Within the space of a few months, comics saw the debut of a character called Masked Marvel, the launch of the Marvel Comics title and finally the original Captain Marvel hit the newsstands in Whiz Comics right before the end of the year.  But forgotten among these is a character who was called the Marvel Man from Dell’s Popular Comics.  Of course, Dell is best known during the Golden Age as the publisher who put out licensed Disney comic books, but they also had some rather fascinating and underrated superhero characters as well.  Popular Comics contains a few of these including Supermind, Dr. Hormone, and Martan the Marvel Man, and there’s a group of Popular Comics including several issues featuring Martan the Marvel Man up for auction in this week’s 2023 April 30-May 2 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122318 from Heritage Auctions.

Martan the Marvel Man’s backstory has some general similarities to the Jor-El/Krypton aspect of Superman’s background.  A scientist of the technologically advanced Antaclea, Martan and his wife Vana were on their way to see the birth of a new planet when they came under attack by Martians.  The pair ended up on Earth, and soon got involved in Earth’s conflict with Mars.  Perhaps unsurprisingly given the time frame, parts of the storyline were inspired by real world war-era events, as Martan took on a spy network from Eurasia — an analog for the Soviet Union in the story.  The creation of Martan is credited to G. Ellerbock and artist William Kent, though these may be pseudonyms.  Dell had launched Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ John Carter of Mars in their comics title The Funnies just a few months prior, so it’s possible they wanted to capitalize on the success of science fiction featuring the red planet in other ways as well.

Supermind (technically “Professor Supermind and Son”) was even more closely inspired by Superman  A scientist named Professor Warren developed a machine that gave his son superpowers.  He was like Superman in many regards — strong, fast and nearly invulnerable.  And he could use magnetism to fly and generate force fields.  Overall, Popular Comics’ superhero era is fun and underappreciated.  Martan was featured in Popular Comics #46-71, and there’s a group of Popular Comics including several issues featuring Martan the Marvel Man up for auction in this week’s 2023 April 30-May 2 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122318 from Heritage Auctions.

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