DIVINE ROUND-UP 030

In today's exploration of the divine, we delve into the extended lore of Sir Richard of Warwick, aka the Golden Knight, starting with his three magical brothers in-law.

Mokon, King of the Moon:

Mokon, King of the Moon, appears at Sir Richard's window one night to claim the hand of his sister Marion in marriage, and though we the reader are hearing about this deal (and indeed about this or any of the Golden Knight's sisters) for the first time, Sir Richard is well aware of whatever deal his father made to ally his kingdom with the Moon itself.

Mokon gives Richard a silver rod as proof of his identity, and also possibly as some sort of dowry? This rod will come in quite useful later on, as it is magic and has the ill-defined ability to freeze things. 

It seems that this is a true arranged marriage, as we get to see the first meeting between Marion and King Mokon just before he flies her away to the Moon. At this point we must ask: just what's the deal with this guy? Is he a god? "King of the Moon" is certainly a deific title, and he has cool magical powers. Later issues will show that he actually lives on the Moon. There's going to be a lot of back and forth about just what these guys are as we go forward in this entry but the format dictates that I state up front that I'm going with Some Sort of Godly Entity.

God Style: Real Entity (Fantastic Comics 016, 1941)

Sukon, King of the Sun: 

Sukon, King of the Sun, shows up later in the same day to marry Richard's second (heretofore unseen) sister, Elaine. Sukon is like a less cool version of his big brother Mokon - he even has a slightly less cool token, the golden rod, which paralyzes people. 

God Style: Real Entity (Fantastic Comics 016, 1941)

Winkon, King of the Winds: 

After Sukon leaves, Lucifer himself (see the next Demonic Round-Up for him) wants to get in on the extended family action and shows up to marry Richard's third sister, Jane. Richard has two problems with this: 1. Jane is too young and 2. it's the freaking devil, man. Lucifer then makes off with Richard's lover Alice instead. Shortly thereafter we learn a third reason: that Jane is already promised to Winkon, King of the Winds, youngest and weeniest brother of Mokon and Sukon. He doesn't even have a token!

Though Winkon doesn't actually lift a hand to help out, he does tell Sir Richard how to get to Hell to rescue Alice. He also exits on a really unfortunately creepy line - just look at Alice's face!

God Style: Real Entity (Fantastic Comics 016, 1941)

Further Adventures of the Golden Knight and his Magical Brothers In-Law:

As is always the case when a wild new bit of lore is dropped into a comic I was initially afraid that we would see no more of the Golden Knight's new extended family, but I need not have worried:

Sir Richard and Alice take advantage of their new connections to visit Mokon and Marion on the Moon in the following issue. This does nothing to clear up the questions about the three brothers' divine status, but does allow us to see a cool moon-bird.

Bakalma:

We are also introduced to Mokon's rival for the throne of the Moon, Bakalma, who kidnaps Marion and Alice and holds them in his underwater palace - is Bakalma the god of the moon's oceans? If so, he must have a pretty good chance of being the only on in fiction.

In order to aid Richard in his pursuit of their loves, Mokon calls upon Xakolma, the Moon God, (God Style: Invoked (Real?)) to grant Richard the power to travel and breathe under water. Just what is the relationship between the humanoid entities like Mokon and Bakalma and the unseen Xakolma? We will receive no further clarification on that, so I'm going to consider them to be part of a godly continuum like the Greek pantheon, with Xakolma being further up the chain of divinity in a Uranus -> Cronus -> Zeus -> Herakles kind of situation.

Bakalma has a very cool palace shaped like a melting monster head, but seemingly no idea what he's doing. When Richard bursts in on him he's trying to wrest Mokon's secrets out of Marion, who has been on the Moon for like a month or two, tops.

Bakalma perishes when the nearby volcano Venturious unexpectedly erupts. Is Venturious part of the extended Lunar pantheon as well or was this just a fun coincidence? (Fantastic Comics 017, 1941)

Richard and Alice are on their way to visit Sukon and Elaine on the sun when they have the above exchange that doesn't serve to resolve the issue of whether the brothers are gods or not (Sukon's high technology allowing Elaine, a mortal woman, to live on the Sun, yes. Anything about Sukon being a mortal man, no). Sadly the rest of the issue is concerned with an unexpected detour to the planet Zutarn and nothing further is learned, and this is the final Golden Knight story so there will be no future revelations. We do however learn that the Sun is actually cold, and any heat that it emits is due to ultra-violet ultra-resonic rays being converted when they reach the atmosphere. You dolt. (Fantastic Comics 020, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 967: THE FANG

(Fantastic Comics 017, 1941)

The Fang is a recurring villain in the mould of his Fox Features contemporaries the Rook and the Beast: you can knock him down and seemingly kill him as much as you want but he's just going to keep on coming back to do more crimes.

When he first appears, the Fang's major goal is to acquire the Burma Emerald from its caretaker Princess Kava, in order to decipher the secret of invisibility that has been carved into its surface. His initial attempt to snatch the emerald leads him to murder Police Sergeant Marley of the Princess' protection detail, which directly inspires Marley's son Chuck to become a costumed crimefighter under the tutelage of the Black Fury.

Perhaps because Black Fury scribe realized that a series of comics about a man trying and failing to achieve invisibility would be less interesting than one about an invisible crook, the Fang breaks prison in his second appearance and gets ahold of the emerald almost immediately. So what does he use his newfound powers of invisibility for?

- bank robbery (Fantastic Comics 018)

- framing a man for murder in order to buy his house that has an ideal smuggling setup in the form of a secret tunnel to the coast (Fantastic Comics 019)

- sabotaging arms shipments to Allied Europe on behalf of the Axis (Fantastic Comics 020)

I judge these... okay criminal uses of invisibility. Nothing spectacular.

Though I set up the comparison between the Fang and the Rook/the Beast myself, I must now point out the way in which he differs from them: he doesn't seemingly die at the end of every appearance. Instead, he alternates seeming to die being caught: he's caught in Fantastic 017, crashes into an oil tank in 018, caught again in 019, and does a header into a well full of slime in Fantastic Comics 020. 

If there's one thing that invisibility powers are extremely good at it's in helping to fake one's own death, though how they help to get out of an ooze pit is beyond me.

Sadly and annoyingly, the final page or two of the Fang's last appearance is not currently available. He is in the process of planting a bomb at the end of the portion that we do have, which makes it highly likely that he went on to be blown up, and that death finally claimed him. Alternately, perhaps he was arrested again and just treated with the appropriate amount of care by the authorities. It is my hope that we will someday learn the truth.

Categorized in: Body (Nonhuman Parts - Fangs), Narrative Footballs (Origin Story Guys), Powers (Invisibility)

MEDIA IN COMICS 005

This is the stuff that my counterpart in a comic book universe is writing his little blogs about.

Movies:

Not only does this theatre feature an appearance by Lady Luck (an impostor, alas), but it has screenings of Boris Scarloff in Mummy Blood and Myrna Powell and William Loy in Thinner than the Thin Man! (Lady Luck, the Spirit Section 1940)

The villainous Comrade Ratski might have founded Ratski Productions and filmed his opus The Great War as a cover for his espionage activities, but was it a real movie? Was he filming all of his crimes and if so who has the footage? (Speed Comics 009, 1940) 

Ted Parrish, aka the Man With 1000 Faces stars in Thundering Hoofs, which might appear to be a generic Western to you and I but which nets him the 1941 Oscar for Best Actor - sorry, Jimmy Stewart. (Speed Comics 010, 1940)

This is another Ted Parrish feature(, and though the title is partially obscured by that rude talking kid I am familiar enough with 1940s parody title conventions to confidently state that it is Went with the Gale. (Speed Comics 008, 1940)

Newspaper Columns:

"John Perry In the News," with its sassy little "Perry Says...." opening is said to be and written like a gossip column but like Bob Phantom before him John "the Black Fury" Perry seems to mostly write about crime. Also please note that both of these clippings have "Daily Standard" down the side even though Perry is consistently said to work for the Daily Clarion. (Fantastic Comics 017, 1941)

Martin Mitchell is another of these gossip columnist/ hard-core investigative journalist types, only he isn't a super-hero and so when he starts writing about ongoing criminal activity in "Martin Mitchell About Town" he just gets murdered. (Rocket Comics 003, 1940)

We don't get anything more about "The Tattler" than its title, and even that is concealed beneath part of the Press Guardian's name. Maybe Ted McCoy needs to dig up some hotter gossip. (Pep Comics 001, 1940)

Radio: 

Martin Mitchell (America's most popular columnist!) also has a radio show, and since we never learn its name I'm going to assume that it is also named Martin Mitchell About Town. (Rocket Comics 003, 1940)

We don't learn too much about The Brady's Better Bacon Program due to its star Biff Crossley being mixed up in a string of high-profile murders, but it certainly is well-attended. And it has a full orchestra!(Pep Comics 008, 1940)

Theatre: 

Tobacco Turnpike is one of those murder mystery plays that are so beloved of comic and television writers because of dramatic potential inherent in someone being murdered on-stage at the same time as they are supposed to be pretending to be murdered, as happens several times in this story before the Shield gets involved and reveals that the director is responsible and is trying to tank the play because he has sold half stakes in the play to at least four men and doesn't want to pay out or go to jail.

Tobacco Turnpike is such a specific name that I was sure that it was a reference to something. I almost gave up the quest for knowledge after my third unsuccessful search for a production of Cigarette Junction, before finally narrowing it down to a play called Tobacco Road. (Shield-Wizard Comics 002, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 093

Fox Features, you burned hot and bright and brought us so many minor super-heroes.

the Black Fury:

The Black Fury, like Bob Phantom before him, is a newspaper gossip columnist who moonlights as a costumed vigilante. What are the chances that we would have two of those? I enjoy his costume even if it is somewhat generic even for 1941, though I am a bit upset that the glowing gemstone on his and his sidekick's foreheads is never addressed. For instance: is it really glowing or is that a stylistic choice?

As of his first appearance, John has already been the Black Fury for an unspecified amount of time, having adopted the mantle after his father was killed by gangsters for writing "anti-crime editorials" in the newspaper, a thing that comic book criminals react to like they are a farm lobby trying to influence government nutritional guidelines. (Fantastic Comics 017, 1941)

Categorized in: Day Job (Newspaper Columnists), Origin (Crime Orphans), Supranormal Beings (Mythological - Furies)

Chuck:

John Perry relates his origin as the Black Fury to young Chuck Marley after Chuck's own father, Police Sergeant Marley, is killed by henchmen of the evil Fang. Chuck is essentially bequeathed to Perry as the elder Marley lies dying, which is a very straightforward way for a hero to acquire a boy for sidekick duties.

Chuck does not get his own super-hero name, alas (at least not right away, spoilers for some comics from 1942), but he does get his own costume, which is more than a lot of sidekicks can say. The fact that his costume is exactly the same as the Black Fury's does make it a bit difficult to tell them apart at times but that's a small price to pay for the peace of mind of knowing that Chuck's identity is at least somewhat protected. (Fantastic Comics 017, 1941)

Categorized in: Day Job (High School Students),  Origin (Crime Orphans), Origin (Sidekicks)

the Banshee:

The origin story of the Banshee involves a remarkable number of steps. First, Irishman Jim O'Donnell finds that his step-father has been murdered out on the moors by the evil Scorpion, who is only prevented from bumping off Jim as well because he is extremely superstitious, mistakes a wailing wind for the cry of a banshee and runs off.

Jim discovers that the Scorpion has set out for the United States and, unable to secure a visa ("I am seeking vengeance on my step-father's killer" seemingly not good enough. Probably they would have let him in if it was his full-on father, though) stows away on a steamship. He is spotted disembarking in New York, making him one of the small group of super-heroes whose civilian rather than super identities are wanted by the authorities and the only one that I am aware of who is wanted for entering the country illegally.

But just why is the Scorpion in America? Why, to murder Jim's step-father's niece, who, as his only remaining blood relative, will inherit some land that is rich in gold and which the Scorpion is trying to get his mitts on. Just why Jim is out of the picture is unexplained - he and his step-dad have a relationship that is at the very least strong enough for a vengeance quest, so why shouldn't Jim be in the will?

Jim once again benefits from the Scorpion's banshee-focused superstitions after he falls through a load of bedsheets and onto the villain's head, with an assist by a distant police siren. This might just be the rarest and dumbest of super-hero costume origins, the Dressed by Slapstick approach.

Having enacted his vengeance, Jim decides to remain in the US and continue his fight against crime as the Banshee. He throws together a more super-heroic version of his accidental costume and crashes on Joan's couch while he figures out what to do about work, and it's okay that Joan kind of becomes his love interest because she is only his step-cousin. 

All this just to have an Irish guy fighting crime in NYC.  (Fantastic Comics 021, 1941)

(from Fantastic Comics 022 on, Jim adopts a simpler version of his initial pass at the super-hero look. He also adopts the "banshee wail" as his calling card rather than simply relying on it to happen diegetically as needed)

Categorized in: Accessories (Style - Calling Cards, Costume Origins),  Origin (Crime Orphans), Supranormal Beings (Banshees)

Samson **UPDATE**:

Some time in mid-to-late 1941, Fox Features presumably decided to round out a few of their more prominent characters such as the Flame, the Green Mask and Samson and give them a supporting cast so that they weren't just ping-ponging from adventure to adventure without any sense of continuity. In Samson's case, he gained a love interest with the very on-the-nose name of Lila Dee, along with a moderately annoying comic relief character in the form of perpetually-horny artist J. Rembrandt Speedball.

The same issue marks the very first time that someone thought to have David use a sling instead of just going around lassoing people the whole time. Credit to Al Carreño for that one. (Fantastic Comics 022, 1941)

This is also when Samson takes a stab at having a secret identity, but since he still has to have his trademark shoulder-length hair and that is a Huge Giveaway in 1941, this involves wearing a Very Big Coat with a Very Big Collar that he can pull up around his ears. Did he even try a wig before going coat shopping, you reckon? (Fantastic Comics 023, 1941)