SUPER-HERO 005 UPDATE: THE HUMAN TORCH 1940

So just what did the Human Torch get up to in 1940?

Well, in Marvel Mystery Comics v1 004 he makes the name Jim Hamond on the fly during a police stop and evidently likes it enough to adopt it as his full-time secret identity. Not sure when he adds the second 'm' to make it Hammond. Will report back when he does.

In Marvel Mystery Comics v1 007 the Human Torch, as Jim Hamond, decides to become a police officer and does so with very little fuss.

He does, however, immediately discard the idea of operating as a regular secret identity style super-hero due to the fact that he keeps incinerating his uniforms. Instead, he just goes and tells his senior officers the situation and ends up being deputized as a kind of official vigilante working for the city. He maintains the fiction of being a regular beat cop for a couple of more issues before becoming a full-time Human Torch.

That's pretty much it for 1940 but thanks to my comic book reading schedule we will be back soon with the 1941 developments in the life of everyone's favourite android. 

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 055

More aliens? Just how many more can there be?

Fantasans:

When time/space traveller Whiz Wilson visits Earth of the year 4400 CE, he finds that it is being bombarded by comets originating from the far-off planet Fantasa. Going there with the aid of his trusty Futuroscope, he learns that Molla, the rightful ruler of Fantasa, has been deposed by the wicked Gorano and that Gorano has a fanatical (and unexplained) hatred of humanity that is his reason for the comet attack. One quick Futuroscope-aided counter-coup later and Fantasa is back in more peaceful hands and Earth is safe. (Lightning Comics v2 003, 1941)

Mercurian Cave-People:

The very first outer space adventure of the Space Rovers sees them taking an unexpected rocket trip and being forced to make a landing on Mercury to get their bearings. Once they disembark they discover that the fire caused by their landing has been taken as a sign that the local deity (the Fire God, God-Style: Animistic) is angry and demands sacrifice. Ted and Jane pitch in to save the poor sacrifice, and in a rare happy ending for such people she gets to haul ass across the river to marry a dude named Kulu. (Exciting Comics 002, 1940)

Mercurians of Thian:

Having ruined the sacrifice, Ted is next up for being burned at the stake, and to make matters worse, Jane is hauled off by a giant bird (which turns out to be called a Mercurian Roc) before she can free him.

Ted manages to free himself, and the two both end up in the city of Thian, which is populated by a second kind of Mercurian who are possessed of more advanced technology than the Cave-People but who look absolutely terrible. They aren't even particularly good hosts, as can be seen here when they drug and capture the Star Rovers before the main course arrives.

And just what is the reason that these Mercurians had for treating their guests so rudely? Because they only live for twenty years and they need people from more long-lived species to study (i.e. vivisect) so that they can live to a somewhat riper old age. 

Since these particular tests subjects are space heroes, things go poorly from here. Head Scientist Flaedo gets electrocuted, the Star Rovers escape on Roc-back and the Mercurians of Thian hopefully reconsider their commitment to scientific ethics. (Exciting Comics 002, 1940) 

Mercurians:

Time adventurer Stuart Taylor and his companions Dr and Laura Hayward encounter this society of possibly human-derived Mercurians when they voyage to the year 4000 in pursuit of a man named Rogro who has stolen Dr Hayward's time technology. The major difference between Mercurians and humans is the fact that the former all have "synthetic blood" which makes them vulnerable to extreme heat and must be quite inconvenient for someone living on what is generally acknowledge to be a pretty hot planet.

Though the Mercurian society seems peaceful when they arrive, things go south quickly once Rogro promises the Mercurian king that he can engineer new blood for everyone if he can use the blood inside of Stuart and his friends as raw materials. The time travellers only survive the resulting riots by smashing up the protective dome over the Mercurian city (and note the fact that the writer now says that the Mercurians have a problem with oxygen instead of heat. Why? Who knows). (Jumbo Comics 019, 1940)

SUPER-VILLAIN FILE 003: NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER

(Marvel Comics 001, 1939*)

No character in comics history swings more wildly and frequently between super-villain and super-hero than Namor the Sub-Mariner, Prince of Atlantis, and since as established in the case of Spy Smasher and Smasher Spy we treat the villainous and heroic actions of the same individual as different subjects we must start with Namor the villain.

Namor's origin is a relatively simple one, and to my knowledge one that has remained fairly unchanged to this day: in 1920 a scientific expedition to the Antarctic inadvertently blows up large portions of the sunken city of Atlantis while doing some sort of hydrological survey. The Atlanteans send their most human-looking citizen (and please note the all the weird racial stuff here, just like the recent Molemen entry. Why do these sea-swelling blue people care about how white the surface peoples' skin is? Because they aren't really being written as underwater near-humans but as any non-white group would be), who just so happens to be the Princess Fen, Beautiful Goddess of Seals.

While posing as a mysterious amnesiac to pass on information about the humans to her people, Fen also falls in love with, marries and conceives a child with the expedition's Commander Leonard McKenzie This extreme communion between disparate groups does not sway her from her purpose, however, and the only reason the human expedition survives is that they accidentally finish blowing up Atlantis before the counterattack can commence.

Cut to the present day (1939) and dutiful son Namor (with his occasional sidekick and eventual unrequited love interest Dorma in tow) sets out to enact vengeance on humanity white people for their crimes against Atlantis. Namor's first outing is an absolute bloodbath that sees him wiping out an entire small Naval outpost.

The continuation of this story in Marvel Mystery Comics v1 002 sees the Sub-Mariner make his way to NYC, where he starts to show his more mellow side. Sure he spends much of his time in the city murdering police officers, but he also meets a very flammable woman and saves her life with the seldom-seen ability to barf water out of his pores.

It's safe to say that Namor the Sub-Mariner is defined by a few different drives and that those drives are the reason for his frequent shifts in alignment on the super-hero/super-villain spectrum. The first of these is his dedication to duty - the campaign against the surface world is much more his mother's idea than it is Namor's, but as a dutiful boy he obeys her wishes. The second of these drives is stubbornness - once Namor sets his mind to something he pursues it for longer and with more effort than one might expect, even if it is a bad idea. Next is his temper, which flares up hot and pairs disastrously with his stubbornness to inspire long hot grudges.

The final important drive that Namor is ruled by can be seen above and it is his horniness. Every so often he becomes taken with a woman and it causes him to act like a complete maniac, as here when he attempts to kidnap the severely injured and very much air-breathing Miss Drayson and drag her into the ocean depths.

That's pretty much it for Namor's first foray into villainy: for a variety of reasons he barges into the US and then smashes people and things for a while. Tune in later this week to see him try out benevolence for a while. 

*yes, okay, Motion Picture Funnies 001 is his real first appearance, but it's the same story in an unpublished comic that had it been published wouldn't have been by Marvel/Timely, so I would consider that more of a trivia fact than a fact fact.

MEDIA IN COMICS 014

Forget lost media, here are some media that only exist in comic books

Movies: 

A Modern Macbeth is one of innumerable in-comic movies that we never really learn anything about. Is it a musical? Is that why a singer is speaking at the premiere? Is it a reference to another movie? The only pre-1941 movie with a similar title that I can find is 1917's A Modern Monte Cristo and that seems a bit of a stretch. (More Fun Comics 072, 1941)

Captain Marvel stars in a film called Crusher of Crime in one of our earliest examples of a super-hero starring in a film as themselves. No clue what it's about but we can probably assume that it's standard 40s super-hero fare. (Whiz Comics 020, 1941)

More intriguingly, the character of Whitey Murphy joins the Captain Marvel cast just two issues later, and dialogue between him and Billy Batson implies that not only does the real-world film The Adventures of Captain Marvel exist in the comics universe, but that both Captain Marvel and Billy Batson appeared in it and also that some or all the events of the film actually happened.

This is reinforced by the fact that Billy goes to see "The Guillotine", the second chapter of the serial, in Captain Marvel Adventures 003 (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)

The costume party held for the premiere of The Phantom Duelist (film) held in the castle of the Phantom Duelist (ghost) provides the opportunity for the Phantom Duelist (super-villain) to murder Reynolds (film producer, universally-hated). (Doll Man Quarterly 001, 1941)

One of the minor recurring tropes of comics is "tough guy goes to Hollywood and finds it exhausting," seen here as the super-hero Hercules is talked into making a sadly unnamed jungle movie and it almost kills him. (Hit Comics 010, 1941)

Music:

The song "Icy Igloo Blues" is the key to District Attorney Steve Malone solving a major jewel robbery case. (Detective Comics v1 053, 1941)

The "Symphony of Death" was employed by the nefarious Doctor Death in his murders. Do music nerds in comic book universes hold Nights of Evil concerts where they play pieces like this? (Wow Comics 002, 1941)

Speaking of which, here are six extremely on-the-nose songs composed by the Murder Maestro as part of his own efforts in the field of killing: "A Message to My Heart" (victim shot in the heart), "I'm Drowning My Sorrows" (drowned), "I'm Burning Up Over You" (set on fire), "My Sleepy-Time Pal" (poisoned, weirdly), "I'm Walking on Air" (dropped from a plane) and "I'm Getting Up in the World" (fake attempt on own life). (More Fun Comics 072, 1941)

Newspaper Columns:

"Walter Winkle on Broadway" is of course yet another take on the gossip column of Walter Winchell. (Feature Comics 049, 1941)

Television:

There are in fact Martian invaders in this Human Torch story, but since they don't get up to any NYC-destroying I must conclude that this is an unnamed and very coincidental television program. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003 1940) 

SUPER-HERO FILE 006: THE ANGEL

(Marvel Comics 001, 1939)

A two-fisted vigilante in the Batman mode, the Angel was a big enough name in Marvel's Golden Age comics that it would be kind of surprising that he has never really been revived post-Silver Age if not for the fact that his name was, and that the subsequent and ongoing popularity of the X-Men means that there was always a full "Angel" slot on the Marvel roster. On top of this (and probably because of this) the Angel was eventually revealed to be the mastermind behind the Scourge of the Underworld program, lending a villainous tarnish to his name that certainly contributed to his lack of a modern legacy.

The Angel never really gets an origin in the Golden Age, and thanks to the fact that he was never brought back in any meaningful way, this persists until the Marvel 70th Anniversary books in 2009, when he is revealed to have grown up in a prison or something. It's not better than just mysteriously having no origin at all, so I never internalized it.

One thing that the Angel does have, however, is a calling card. Two of them, in fact, as he both signs his notes to police and criminals with a little drawing of an angel and also projects long-lasting shadow images of an angel onto nearby surfaces, this latter also being his only real super-power.

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 029

Time for a heaping dose of real folk from Golden Age Marvel comics.

Adolf Hitler:

Kalph Belgri, dictator of Torpis, takes his own life when his invasion of neighbouring Molivia is thwarted by Electro. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 005, 1940)

The Human Torch encounters Adolphe Hiccup, dictator of Slaveland, while foiling a plot to fool his sidekick Toro into aiding their war effort. He is seen colluding with his ally Benny Musclein, who is such a clear Mussolini stand-in that I feel a bit foolish even mentioning it.

Hiccup's aide Herr Medals, on the other hand, is quite vexing to me, as despite his physical appearance and love of regalia being clearly based on Hermann Goering, his name makes me think of Goebbels, which caused me to poison my search history a little more by looking up the Nazi high command yet again to make sure I had the right guy. (Human Torch v1 003, 1940)

Al Capone:

Mob boss Vince Garrone is the latest in a long line of crooks with Capone-like names. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017, 1941)

Fiorello La Guardia:

Marvel Comics was a very NYC-heavy operation even back when it was Timely Comics, and as a consequence of that we get far more Mayoral Action from them than other publishers. Here we see Mayor La Guardia showing a lot of moxie while dealing with a hostile Sub-Mariner, for example. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 007, 1940)

Not even a year later, here's the Human Torch helping out a mysterious and unnamed non-La Guardia Mayor of NYC. Just who the heck is this guy? (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, 1941)

La Guardia is back by Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, just in time to deal with an epidemic of arson and extortion aimed at the city.

Finally, a chunky little La Guardia thanks the Patriot for fending off the attempted takeover of the city by the fascist Yellowshirts. (Human Torch v1 004, 1941)

Orson Welles:

The Human Torch must deal with a Martian invasion, and that means referencing Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast, here attributed to a "Lawson Bell." (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003, 1940)