King of Darkness:
Radio engineer Bruce King develops the amazingly-named Black Zero Transmitter that selectively allows him to negate light and/or heat in its range of operation, plus an insulated costume and night-vision goggles so that he is immune to its effects. He ends up dealing with nosy reporters and spies inadvertently egged on by said nosy reporters and so adopts the alias of the King of Darkness. Probably the best thing about him is the fact that he will just drive around with the Black Zero Transmitter in his car (or boat! or plane!), with a column of darkness travelling at highway speeds and presumably giving people religious experiences. (Amazing-Man Comics 024, 1941)
The Blue Lady:
The Blue Lady is Lucille Martin, who gets mixed up in an attempt to smuggle gold out of China to aid the war effort and ends up gaining super strength from a weird gas released from inside an ancient ring. And since the ring had a bird on it, she has a bird on her hat! Delightful! Unfortunately, this comic came out in 1941 and involved Chinese people, so while it doesn't indulge in every racist Yellow Peril storytelling trope it does hit a lot of them, including multiple instances of yellowface by the Blue Lady herself. Far less delightful! (Amazing-Man Comics 024, 1941)
Nightshade:
Howard Hall is Nightshade, who has the power to control, see, speak etc via his own shadow, with his strength increasing proportional to the shadow's size. This is, frankly, much cooler than most shadow powers in comics. He's got little ankle-mounted spotlights to throw shadows with! (Amazing-Man Comics 024, 1941)
Captain Courageous:
It's not especially clear from the couple of appearances I have access to but Captain Courageous seems to be the Uncle Sam kind of patriotic hero - a guy made up of free-floating patriotism. He has the standard array of superpowers - flight, enhanced strength, invulnerability to small arms fire - and I would classify him as a medium-level annoying patriot. He also has a mask that looks very annoying to wear. (Banner Comics 003, 1941)
No comments:
Post a Comment