MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 083

Oh boy! Minor super-heroes!

13: 

13 (aka Thirteen, although the numerical version of the name is the official one) is the alias of Harold Higgins, whose life has been haunted by a series of misfortunes related to the number thirteen. A timeline of some of them:

February 13, 1940: Harold's brother Bob dies in a plane crash.

March 13, 1940: Harold loses his life savings in the stock market.

May 13, 1940: Harold's sister Margy is paralyzed in a car accident.

July 13, 1940: Harold's father is lost at sea.

September 13, 1940: Harold's fiance is killed in a hit and run.

April 13, 1941: Harold loses his job as a reporter to a crooked editor looking to cover up a story. 

All of this (and more! A text story in Daredevil Comics 005 adds the facts that he was born on Friday the 13th, that minor tragedies like a broken leg or academic failure had frequently befallen him on the 13th of any given month and that at his thirteenth birthday party his childhood sweetheart Helen was killed by a falling chandelier) has clearly preyed on Harold's mind, to the point that he is finding the number everywhere including his own name.

Rather than, say, moving to a small shack in the woods to keep others safe from his constant misfortune, Harold decides to weaponize his bad luck by bringing it to criminals via his fists. Does this work, logically? Not really, but it's a decent enough comic book origin.

Like many super-heroes and villains, 13 flirts with the idea of leaving a calling card in his first adventure but doesn't maintain the practice. In this case, it's a calendar page with the 13th of the month circled. (Daredevil Comics 003, 1941)

Finally, a couple of minor things about 13: In Daredevil Comics 004 we learn that like many of his peers he wears his costume under his clothes for quick-change action. Intriguingly, the above panel seems to imply that this includes his mask, which appears to be either acting as a liner for his hat or worn as a kind of bandana under it.

Finally, in Daredevil Comics 006, 13 moves from the super-hero crammed streets of NYC to the lesser-served Boston.

Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Luck), Accessories (Calling Cards), Alphanumeric (Thirteen)

Jinx: 

Recently orphaned Darrel Creig has just inherited the family steel fortune, something that rankles his guardian, uncle and the only other potential heir Moldon Creig. Thus, a family outing to the Statue of Liberty, where Moldon and Darrel's tutor Travers expedite the inheritance process by tossing him off the statue's torch.

Luckily for young Darrel, 13 happens to be present to stop an unrelated attempt to bomb the statue, and after saving the lad the two of them beat up Moldon and Travers and hand them over to the authorities.

As we all know, if a costumed vigilante happens across an orphaned boy who can throw a punch they are allowed to keep them, which is just what happens with 13 and Darrel, and though Darrel's connection to the bad luck theme is much more tenuous than Higgins (he is an orphan, if a wealthy one, and he is the very spooky age of thirteen years old) he is promptly given a slightly worse costume than 13's and anointed as his sidekick Jinx. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Luck), Day Job (High School Students), Origin (Sidekicks)

the Ghost: 

The Ghost is a super-hero who seemingly exists solely to combat the menace of the Claw as he troubles America's shores once more, Daredevil having moved on to less stressful pursuits.

Though presented as a normal human man, the Ghost not only has the acrobatic prowess necessary to fight a giant across the rooftops of New York City but enough stamina to do so for seven hours straight. In their first encounter he manages to drive the Claw away by simply punching him thousands of times.

The Ghost's origin is unrevealed as of his final 1941 appearance but rest assured: we will learn it in 1942 (spoiler: it is not very interesting). (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Categorized in: Origin (Unknown), Supranormal Beings (Ghosts)

the Fiery Mask: 

The Fiery Mask! A hero whose modern depictions have consistently involved a morning star despite only ever actually wielding on on this cover. I'm not complaining, mind you - it's just interesting to note where things come from.

The Fiery Mask is in reality Jack Castle, a young doctor who accidentally tracks down the lair of the villainous Zombie Master and is in quick order captured and subjected to the fiend's mind control device. Jack manages to resist the device long enough to enrage the Zombie Master, and in an effort to boost the power and overcome this resistance he causes it to explode.

The strange energies given off by the device cause Jack to develop strange abilities, the most striking of which is a fiery glow that plays around his face when he is worked up, and which gives him his super moniker. He also has an invulnerability to heat and flame, a fiery touch and a range of non-heat-related powers like super strength, super breath and a hypnotic gaze. Also his origin is later heavily revised, but we can save that for the hundred years or so it will take to get to The Twelve. (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

Categorized in: Elements (Fire), Objects (Masks), Origin (Radioactive Mutate)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 953: THE COUPLE KILLER

(Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

New York's dating scene is in trouble, as courting couples are being murdered at a blazing clip: six couples in two weeks as the story begins and a seventh just one page in - that's fourteen people! That's a person a day! On average!

Nightro is on the case, but merely patrolling the parks and other canoodling spots is a bust as the killer knows to look out for costumed vigilantes and even leaves a taunting note with the bodies of the unfortunate Mert and Rita. 

Nightro's next move is to set up a sting, featuring him in a dress alongside a dummy boyfriend that he can "make love to," and here I must pause to say that the physical transformation achieved by the Streamlined Robinhood by merely putting on a dress is phenomenal, no matter what kind of shaping undergarments he has on. He goes from a fairly beefy superdude to a slender woman who might be a few inches shorter than he is normally, despite wearing high heels. His face changes shape! This is a Bugs Bunny-level crossdress, is what I'm saying, which means that once the Couple Killer takes the bait he is immediately attracted to the disguised Nightro and so leaves himself open to a left hook.

There's a full page of Nightro beating up the Couple Killer, which is a lot for a five pages story but you just have to get as much mileage as you can out of having your hero in a dress when it's 1941 and that it the height of comedy.

So, after all that bloodshed and gender-bending, just what was the Couple Killer's motivation? Turns out that he is actually a fellow known as Lonesome Larry, a known arsonist and misogynist who just got dumped and went "a little loco" and killed fourteen people. It's not quite a "boys will be boys" situation but these cops sure do give him a lot more grace than he deserves.

Categorized in: Crime (Killers), Ideology (Misogynists), Murder (Serial Killers)

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 024

You just can't keep 'em out of comics, those real people.

Adolf Hitler:

Dispatches super-spy Miss X to America. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Raymond Stokes, the actor playing Hitler in a British propaganda film about London (the super-hero, not the city) inexplicably also turns out to be a Nazi agent who attempts to murder the Prime Minister when he makes a cameo appearance in the movie. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Al Capone:  

No-first-name Perrone here is another classic example of a crook lent a bit of legitimacy via a Capone-alike name. (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

Charles Biro:

Carnival stunt-eater Ydlab Orib is a transparent Biro name-drop, though the "Baldy" part of his backward name doesn't really jibe with the pictorial record of the man himself. Whether he was a prodigious eater or not is unrecorded as far as I can find. I would venture that we are witness to a series of in-jokes here. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Comics Folk:

Give a Golden Age comic creator like Edd Ashe a chance to write a list and you'll get a bunch of references to other Golden Age comics guys. For example, this collection of football stats features a (Harry "A") Chesler College, a (Gil) Fox University and a (Mort) Meskin Mining & Mech. And a double-barrelled reference to Bob Wood, with Wood Military College and also Woodro College, referencing a Bob Wood/Charles Biro combination pen name. (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

The list of schools also includes one called Lamont and I was ready to discount it, but then remembered that there was a reference to a Lamont in the previous issue, as a circus freak called the "Man of Wood," which made me think that this might be a third Bob Wood reference and wouldn't you know it some places list his middle name as Lamont or Lemont. What's with all the Bob Wood references, Edd Ashe? 

Franklin Roosevelt: 

Once again, President Roosevelt is placed in the unenviable position of being in charge of a country plagued by the Claw's particular brand of bullshit. He's also placed in shadow and a 3/4 reverse view, because comic artists didn't like to draw his face, presumably out of respect. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941)

Fritz Julius Kuhn: 

I'll be honest: I had no idea who Fritz Kuhn was and certainly didn't twig to "Herr Kahn" here being a version of him until I took a look to see if "Nordic infested [...] Yorkville" was a real place and spotted his name associated with our favourite band of overhyped losers the German-American Bund on its Wikipedia page. Like the Bund itself, the spectre of Kuhn seems to have haunted comics long after he himself was relevant - he had already been slung in jail for tax evasion by the time this comic was published. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

I was curious, so I looked back at the various Bunds we have thusfar encountered to see if any of them had their own version of Kuhn, and the only real candidates to jump out at me were Fritz Kessel, leader of the Termania Bund (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940) and Fritz Hewn - presumably rhymes with Kuhn - leader of the Young Bundists (Blue Ribbon Comics 014, 1941)

George Roussos: 

Given the uncommon nature of the surname "Roussos" I have to assume that the crooked newspaper editor in this 13 story is yet another example of Lev Gleason reference-your-coworkers style yuck-em-ups. (Daredevil Comics 003, 1941)

Three issues later sees a murder be committed above the Roussos Pool Room. (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

And in the same issue, an index of insane asylum inmates yields a Roussos, a (Jerry) Robinson and a (Bob) Wood. And possibly others, but I can't place them.

Heinrich Himmler:

One of several Nazi officials vexed by the hero London and his "L" campaign (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

Rudolph Hess:

Rudolph Hess (or Hesst) and his flight to England are framed as a straightforward espionage mission, with Hesst landing along with fifty picked men via black parachutes. He is immediately captured by London. (Daredevil Comics 003, 1941)

Winston Churchill: 

Initially, I was all set to point out that this "London" adventure featured a completely made-up niece of Winston Churchill making a daring escape from Nazi-occupied Holland, but imagine my surprise when her uncle showed up and was a store-brand imitation Churchill with a mustache. I was particularly caught off guard by this as while US-based comics had a weird reluctance to portray or name FDR they usually had no such qualms about doing so with the PM. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941)

The False-Churchill returns in the "London" feature in Daredevil Comics 004, and this time his inexplicable presence is highlighted by the unaltered name of Lloyd's of London in the upper left.

Finally, the Churchill-alike in Daredevil Comics 005 looks different enough from both the real deal and Mustache Churchill that we must assume that there has been some sort of regime change between issues.