Astonishing super-heroes of the past! And future!
the Invisible Avenger:
Teen radio enthusiast Buzz Allen discovers the secret of personal invisibility shortly after the death of his father at the hands of criminals and so is perfectly primed to become part of a super-vigilante duo alongside his friend Will Lawrence (if the issue of whether they should be the Invisible Avengers ever comes up then it is in the initial adventure which I alas cannot read).
Their adventures are structured such that they cause maximum consternation so as to really get the most out of the invisibility gimmick: they become invisible before driving their car to the scene of a robbery, for example, and when they put on their anti-invisibility gloves so that they can flash their guns at the crooks they make sure to do so in a public place so as to freak out the subway-riding squares. If I were to devise some sort of ratings scale to score invisible characters on how well they use their powers (which I will not - I am already tracking far too many arbitrary metrics), then the Invisible Avenger and Will would score low. (Superworld Comics 001, 1940*)
Hip Knox:
Hip Knox! An orphaned child raised by Professor Knox to have the mightiest mind in the world and named by Professor Knox to have a silly name that kind of winks at his powerset!
If Hip Knox is known for anything then it's for being one of the worst-dressed men in comics. Every element of his uniform is just a little bit wrong, except for the parts that are a lot wrong. Breaking things down from top to bottom, we have:
1. The Helmet. If there's one piece of this costume that is 100% bad then it's this scaly golden swim cap. I sincerely wish that Superworld Comics 001 was available for less than 2000 dollars US, because I really want to know if this is some sort of mind amplification helmet or just a bizarre affectation. Hate it. Hate that it covers his ears.
2. The Mustache. I can get behind a super-hero with a fussy little mustache, but you aren't Hercule Poirot, my dude. Grow it out a bit more or have fewer weird and uncanny elements to your outfit so that a little mustache is a fun little affectation and not the punchline to someone's description of you to their friends.
3. The Jumpsuit. This isn't all that far off of what would come to be the standard super-hero outfit, so I should be fine with it, right? Wrong. Between the fact that Hip is drawn with a bit of a barrel chest and the noodle arms of someone who fights crime with their mind, and the suit being buttoned all the way up to a collar at the neck, this suit is bad.
4. The Insignia. A minor nitpick but it contributes to the whole: that eye looks too realistic to just be sitting on the chest by itself. Throw it in a circle or something. Plus you gotta choose: either the eye or ...
5. The Belt Buckle. I have nothing against a good yonic symbol, but why does Hip Knox have one as his belt buckle? And why is it so big? It looks like an attempt to pick up a pencil off the ground would result in him simultaneously stabbing himself in the groin and the upper abdomen.
What is the solution for this fashion debacle? Change one or two key elements: swap the jumpsuit out for a red tuxedo to lean into the (stage) hypnotist angle and things feel a lot more harmonious. The eye would have to become an amulet or maybe an ornament on one of those weird sashes that goes under the jacket, but everything would hold together much better. Or keep the jumpsuit and lose the helmet! Or make it a headband, that would be much less heinous!
As befits a super-hypnotist, Hip Knox has a pretty relaxed approach to the mental autonomy of those around him, but tragically also seems to have a terrible imagination, as in the above panels in which he attempts to signal that he is being kidnapped by turning bystanders into a trail of living statues instead of, say, having them shout "Hip Knox is in that car being kidnapped!" in unison. (Superworld Comics 001, 1940*)
Marvo 1￮2 Go+:
The Boy Genius style of comics/fiction in general has produced a lot of very fun adventure heroes over the years and also a lot of annoying little smug turds, and I'm sure that personal bias plays in to whether a particular boy reads as one or the other to you. As you might be able to tell from all of this preamble, Marvo 1￮2 Go+ is very much a smug little turd in my eyes.
Thanks to the wonders of sleep education, Marvo has all the knowledge of a forty-year-old scientist packed into his fifteen year-old head, but he's even more intelligent than that, so much so that he gets to put a little plus sign on the end of his name (Marvo is from one of those science fiction futures where inefficient surnames have been replaced with government-assigned alphanumerical designations, like Superworld publisher Hugo Gernsback's own novel Ralph 124C 41+ or DC Comics' later Chris KL-99), which he makes sure to have embroidered on the front of all of his clothing in case people forget how special he is.
Knowledge of a forty year-old or not, Marvo still has all the foresight of a fifteen year-old, as seen above for instance in the above panels wherein he takes advantage of a geothermal hotspot beneath Pennsylvania to permanently alter its climate without stopping to consider the potential long term environmental effects of a permanent Summer. (Superworld Comics 001, 1940*)
X, the Phantom Fed:
There are a whole lot of comic book protagonists with names like Secret Agent Q49 or Agent X-7, etc, code-named operatives two-fistedly saving the world for
*I have not actually read Superworld Comics
001 because it is not readily available to the average person. My
information on the origins of these characters therefore might be
slightly inaccurate.
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