Saturday, May 3, 2025

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 046

Enjoy these ancient delights!

the Black Spider:



Mild-mannered district attorney Ralph Nelson, like many comic book lawmen, sallies forth at night in order to deal with criminals that the law can't touch. Nelson is despised by his colleague Police Inspector Stern for being too soft on crime/ dedicated to the letter of the law to allow the cops to torture confessions out of people, while the Black Spider is hated by Stern for showing up the police by being so good at torturing confessions out of people. It's a real dichotomy!


Nelson's secretary Peggy Dodge has a classic "love one identity and hate the other" relationship with the Black Spider and her boss that gets resolved when she learns his secret during the first Black Spider adventure. It's a nice change of pace from your standard Lois/Clark arrangement, plus Peggy has the distinction of being one of the few noncostumed super-heroic aides to remember to wear a mask while on crime-fighting duty! (Super-Mystery Comics 003, 1940)

Davey


One day while fighting crime, Magno rescues Carole Landis and her kid brother Davey from a bombed-out building and learns about the crime that they were investigating and also that Davey is such a big Magno fan that he has his own Magno costume and also would Magno like to see it? Magno of course gives the kid the old brush-off.


Seeing as he first met this kid after he had tagged along with his sister on a dangerous assignment, it should not have surprised Magno to find Davey chasing him down the street in full Magno cosplay. The two get mixed up in various life-or-death situations before Magno can get rid of Davey and by the time things calm down they have formed a battle-bond or something. Magno figures out how to temporarily give Davey a portion of his powers for about an hour (the time limit gets dropped eventually, presumably because bookkeeping isn't very fun) and becomes the latest in a long line of super-heroes to have a sidekick with no code name. (Super-Mystery Comics v1 004, 1940)

the Sparkler


Red Morgan's father has invented an invisibility suit, but what he should have been working on was a don't-blab-your-secrets-all-over-town suit, because the local gang boss Baldy Spade has heard that there's some big scientific discovery in the works and has sent a guy to kill Morgan Senior and steal it. A vengeance-minded Red dons the suit and exacts justice on Baldy before going on to have a handful of adventures as the Sparkler, so named because the suit flashes and sparks as it returns to its user to visibility. (Super Spy 001, 1940)

the Night Hawk

Horse Rancher John Rogers was murdered some time ago, and his unnamed son has seemingly wandered the West ever since, doing vigilante justice while looking for murderer Baldy Crane. In his one recorded adventure he finally locates and guns him down before riding into the sunset. (Super Spy 002, 1940)

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