Saturday, May 18, 2024

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 010

MORE MLJ ACTION

Doc Strong:


Doc Strong is a famous scientist living in the year 2041, in a world where WWII dragged on for an entire century and a new Mongol Horde has swept in and conquered the battered remnants of civilization. The strangely Doc Savage-like Doc Strong gathers a group of like-minded scientists and starts a new civilization called the Isle of Right from which to strike back at the invaders with such inventions as a ray gun that solidifies shadows. (Blue Ribbon Comics 004, 1940)

the Fox:


Paul Patton, photographer for the Daily Globe, gets the tar beaten out of him by some fellows called the Night Riders and comes up with a plan:


That's right, he's about halfway between Spider-Man and Batman. Okay, he's mostly Batman but his wearable camera scheme anticipates Perter Parker's epic work hack by about twenty years. The Fox's first attempt at a costume is a bit rough, but eventually...

... he adopts one of the top costumes of the Golden Age! His adventures may be a bit regular but he looks great doing it.

BONUS FOX FACT: his "bat flies through the window" moment comes when he hears a song on the radio. (Blue Ribbon Comics 004, 1940)

the Green Falcon

The Green Falcon feature is essentially a Robin Hood Elseworlds story in which Robin is a knight instead of a forest outlaw and his pals Tiny Tuck and Jolly Roundfellow kind of encapsulate a few Merry Men each. Prince John is still there, and Maid Marion, but there are more swordfights than arrow tricks. Hey, I never said it was a particularly compelling Elseworlds story. It is more high concept than you usually get in a Golden Age comic, though. (Blue Ribbon Comics 004-015, 1940-1941)

Ty-Gor:

Ty-Gor is MLJ's answer to Mowgli: a British child orphaned in the jungles of Malaysia and raised by tigers. Ty-Gor is a shortened form of his birth name, Tyrone Gorman, which he learns thanks to an absurd series of events pictured above.

I don't usually have a lot of time for jungle adventures but Ty-Gor does have a pretty fun twist in that after a half dozen issues he is brought to New York by explorer Dr Davis and his daughter Joan and Does Not Adapt. He's just a wild kid who knows about five word maximum thrust into the public school system and causing havoc. It's fun! (Blue Ribbon Comics 004, 1940)

BONUS TY-GOR AS A BABY EATING GRAPES

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