What’s Old: The Yellow Claw Strikes! Atlas Era Super-Villainy from Kirby and Severin
One of the myriad concepts Atlas tried, in their Pre-Marvel years, to capture the attention of the dwindling readership, was the Yellow Claw, a wily Oriental scientist whose relentless attempts to conquer the world were thwarted only by the ceaseless vigilance of FBI Agent Jimmy Woo – the company’s first Asian-American hero, historians please note. Resemblance to Sax Rohmer’s legendary Doctor Fu Manchu is entirely coincidental, ahem ahem. In this fourth and final issue of the Claw’s series, he launches four separate attacks upon democracy: the Living Shadows, Solidified thought-projections, the unnerving bird-human hybrids the Skreemies, and his most fiendish plot yet – brainwashing by television! All four tales are illustrated by Jack Kirby and John Severin (behind a solo Sev cover), and the combination of the two artists gives a compelling air of palpable menace, highly appropriate to the narrative. The Yellow Claw returned to the Marvel Universe in the 1970s as an antagonist of Captain America, and Jimmy Woo became one of the Agents of SHIELD (and then Atlas), so both hero and villain are still very active today. This copy is GD/VG, sound clean and very presentable, with vivid colour and largely unmarred cover scene, on sale at £100. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD