We're simply up to our eyeballs in minor super-heroes!
K-9:
K-9, an injured German Shepherd (they call him a police dog but I think that that's as an alternate breed name due to the war, like how the British call them Alsatians) nursed back to health and given a terrible name by scrappy teen Tip Starr, is given ample opportunity to fight crime thanks to his association with Tip's brother, Police Detective Dick Starr. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)
Categorized in: Alphanumeric (K, 9), Animals (Dogs), Origin (Animals)
Dynamic Boy:
When orphan Kent Banning is severely injured while rescuing Doctor Brown's unnamed daughter from a burning schoolhouse, Brown returns the favour by injecting him with a mysterious fluid that he got from a dying Tibetan Lama. This fluid not only saves Kent's life but endows him with the standard array of super-powers: enhanced speed and agility, super strength and the power of flight. He also adopts the lad, which makes the chaste romance between Kent and "She Seriously Never Gets A Name" Brown just a little bit weird. She does make him a costume, which is nice. And it clearly has room for him to grow into!
Probably the best thing about Dynamic Boy is just how lanky and awkward he is. Contextually, he's about the same age as Robin and most of the other sidekicks in Golden Age comics, i.e., somewhere between 12 and 15 years old, but Dynamic Boy really feels like it, particularly in the sequence above, where he learns that he can fly by tripping over his own feet. (Dynamic Comics 002, 1941)
Categorized in: Generica (Boys), Language (Superlatives - Dynamic), Origin (Mystic Mutates)
Lady Satan:
Lady Satan's career begins after an ocean liner is sank by Nazi bombers and an unnamed woman (there is some impression that she uses Satan as her surname while adventuring, but whether it is her real name is hard to say) is the only survivor. Swearing vengeance, she heads back to Europe to vex the Axis.
I really like Lady Satan! For one thing, she just kind of relies on the mystery inherent in being a hot lady in a mask and doesn't even switch to a secret identity to seduce horny Nazis into revealing their secrets. For another, she's supremely adaptive. Got captured and about to be shot as a spy? No problem, Lady Satan will merely steal the executioner's pistol, take him hostage, steal a plane, crash into the pursuing planes, parachute into a handy river, steal a car and be in Berlin at the same time as the fellow she was caught trying to rob in the first place. Just a very competent character.
She also packs a chlorine gas gun, which is horrifying to contemplate firing at another person, let alone firing it in an enclosed space. I suppose that war crimes don't apply to you if you are a stateless vigilante, but everybody has to breathe. (Dynamic Comics 002, 1941)
Categorized in: Famous Figures (Satan), Origin (Vengeance Quest), Royalty (Ladies)
the Green Knight:
Contrary to his name, the Green Knight is more of an archer-type hero than some sort of armoured bruiser or dashing cavalier. He is also our first Florida-based super-hero, as far as I can figure (many before him have visited, certainly, but none before have deigned to live there).
As the Green Knight explains to Lance Cooper, an orphan boy who he rescues from a vampire in the Everglades, he is in actuality Denis Knight, a rich guy who collects Medieval weapons and has a rose-tinted view of knighthood that informs his forays into vigilante justice.
Speaking of Lance, he abbreviates the usual perfunctory super-hero boy-adoption process even further by just coming out and asking to join up with Knight. He gets a mini version of the Green Knight's costume (and sadly loses his cheeky little orphan cap in the process) and follows him into battle for the remainder of his two-adventure career as Lance, which is a very annoying name indeed. Is it just using his regular name like so many kid sidekicks do, or are they doing a bit of a winking acknowledgement that his name already fits the knightly theme? Would it kill them to give him a spear? (Dynamic Comics 002, 1941)
Green Knight Categorized in: Colours (Green), Famous Figures (Arthurian)*, Royalty (Knights)
Lance Categorized in: Locations (Florida), Objects (Lances), Origins (Sidekicks)
* the character does not have anything to do with Arthuriana thematically, but the name "the Green Knight" is nonetheless enough of a reference for me
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