Mutants & Masterminds: Golden Age Sourcebook: A Mutants and Masterminds Sourcebook (Mutants & Masterminds Sourcebook) [Paperback]

There much to like and dislike about this product. What Golden Age presents is partially a setting and partially a genre within comic books. It is an explanation on how comics came about and the world in which they first emerged. Big names are dropped, more as examples in the historical section than any attempt to rip off classic heroes.

The history portions of Golden Age comprise pretty much half the book. Which for the most part is as it should be for any and all potential readers who did not actually live through this day and age in the history of the world. Focusing squarely on American history and more specifically comic book history as it grew from illustrated pulp fiction to the superheroes that it now represents in the majority, the book looks at how comics developed. Some of the bigest names in Comic Book History are mentioned and described primarily as they first appeared. The Golden Age itself stretches from about the time of the Second World War into the age of McCarthyism and the Red Scare. The how and why comics ended is also given without much praise or malice towards the turn of events that eventually led to the demise of comic books as it was then known.

While the book is not clearly divided between two whole sections of what has now been almost institutionalized as "Fluff" and "Crunch" there are some aspects of both. New feats to help relay the desperate times that people were living in as well as suggested rules for how to better portray the shortages people expeienced during the second world war are given. Several new archtypes are also introduced to help give player ready made characters to play with GM permission. A possible critical miss in this section is that the book relies rather heavily on the PDFs that Green Ronin sells to supplement the Archtypes given in the main book. A list of what archtypes that were already published at the time of the book's printing is rather helpful as it lists what is and is not approrpriate to the genre. Green Ronin and Ronin Arts really should consider publishing a book of the archtypes they have jointly produce, but this is just my opinion. There are also archtypes for villains typically seen at this point in time as well as the obligatory super teams of the Nazis and Imperialist Japan.

Golden Age could well be used as a base line to run pulp inspired adventures as well as campaigns based on comics other than superheros. The bottom line is that book provideds a wealth of information about a time in America where a nickel could buy a day's worth of entertainment or at least a few hours worth. If you are interested in role playing in this genre with the Mutants and Masterminds game even if it's a brief episode involving time travel you owe it to yourself to pick this book up.