Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Young Allies - Volume 1 [Hardcover]

This was a interesting comic book in it's day for several reasons. It had kid gang lead by Toro ( the human torches' sidekick) and Bucky (Captain Americas' sidekick) along with four other teens. One of which is fat, one is a dead end kid brooklyn type of 1930's character, and one of which is a african american kid. Now at least they have these kids in there because at the time there was real racial inequality in the states. However unfortunately the african american kid is a awful stereotype with occasional lines like "I like de watermelon", ok; that is bad. However the character is part of the team and fighting the Axis alongside the other teens. He can be brave and this would have shown the kids of America in 1940 that African American kids are patriots too. Often brave ones; even if this is aimed at kids of the era that message is a important one. So if you can overlook that minstrel act type of personality and the way they draw the character you can just enjoy this stuff for it's vintage fun. Another point is that for most of the long stories the teens are on their own. Fighting the Red Skull and other Axis menaces! The Human Torch and Captain America drop by but the team does most of it's work. The enemy forces are often depicted as fanged monster men because the Axis was the hated enemy so don't expect fair depictions of them in any nice regard either.
I enjoyed these wild 1940's marvel comics and I am glad that they reprinted them.
Some people don't like the golden age; but I do and these tales were long and fun , it also has two other marvel heroes as back ups as well: "Father Time" and "the vagabond" two b listers from the era but they are at least superhero characters.
The art looks better than if you bought the original comics by far. Unlike the terrible job DC did on the Simon and KIrby sandman reprints these look brand new and are wonderfully reproduced. So I would say that this is well worth reading and enjoying and even adding to your book library.

Very funny, somewhat weird, simply lovely!

Enjoy the REAL (and underage!) Inglourious Basterds!!