Super-heroes. Like heroes, but super.
Captain Midnight:
Like the second, more popular (though still pretty obscure) Captain Midnight that will be published by Fawcett starting in 1942, this fellow is an adaptation of the radio character, and unlike the second Captain Midnight, this one is a pretty direct adaptation. It's a bit abbreviated and you kind of have to keep referring to the Captain Midnight Wikipedia page to fill in the gaps where your assumed familiarity with the radio show lies, but it's all there:
Captain Midnight is an otherwise-unnamed pilot who gets his nickname after returning on the stroke of 12 after completing a secret mission to prevent Paris from being captured by the Germans during World War One. In the present day (1941) he is recruited to head a secret counter-espionage unit called the Secret Squadron by a mysterious government official who is implicitly Franklin Delano Roosevelt in disguise.
The Secret Squadron has hidden airbases and headquarters all over the United States and is comprised of a horde of agents referred to by alphanumeric designations starting at SS-1 (Captain Midnight) up to at least SS-85 (the guy who runs the elevator in one of the bases). The "SS" part of the names is quietly changed to "SQ" once the US enters WWII, but I don't think that this comic book adaptation goes on long enough for that to be a concern.
Finally, Captain Midnight's flying clock insignia is very fun. (The Funnies 057, 1941)
Categorized in: Generica (Captains), Locations (Temporal Locations), Origins (WWI Vets)
the Great Zarro:
The Great Zarro is otherwise nameless adventurer with the power of flight. He is also one of the most bland super-heroes in the history of the medium, personality-wise.
A former circus acrobat, the Great Zarro lost his job, fiance and friends when a gang of extortionists burned the whole circus down and killed everyone but Rags, his lover's kid brother. The two swear an eternal war on crime and Zarro gains his ability to fly by consuming some magical herbs given to him by the circus fortune teller, who was just good enough to fortell that he would need them but evidently failed to see
why.
There are precisely two interesting things about this character: Firstly, that as a circus acrobat he was known as Eagle Man, while as a flying super-hero he goes by the Great Zarro. That's a fun little inversion of naming conventions!
Secondly, there's Rags. Rags is an example of something that you occasionally get with comic relief characters, where they and only they are rendered as a full cartoon while everyone else is in a comic book. This is a particularly egregious clash of styles in a comic as full of stiff, human-proportioned figures as "The Great Zarro," rendering Rags more of a figure of horror than comedy. Rags finally becomes a real boy in the third and final Zarro adventure, but it's too little too late. (Great Comics 001, 1941)
Categorized in: Day Jobs (Circus Acrobats), Language (Superlatives (Greats)), Powers (Flight)
Madame Strange:
On the one hand, Madame Strange is pretty great: she's at least somewhat super fast and super strong, will throw a knife at the drop of a hat and prevents the Japanese destruction of Pearl Harbor in November 1941 (though not the one in December). Just like Ripley in
Alien, she is an example of a character not being written as a "girl-version" of a default-male archetype but simply
as that archetype, which is basically always the more entertaining option.
On the other hand, Madam Strange suffers from the same lack of depth - including any sort of backstory - as so many of her peers. Sure she can throw a knife into a goon from a city block away, but is that enough? I also do not care for the combination of red top, pale blue bottoms, aesthetically. (Great Comics 001, 1941)
Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Strangeness), Genrica (Madames), Powers (Enhanced Strength and Speed)
the Green Mask and Domino the Miracle Boy **Update**:
I am reasonably certain that this is the first time that Domino is given a first name. Don! He's Don! (Green Mask v1 006, 1941)
The same issue that Don gets his name also marks the introduction of the Green Mask's expanded supporting cast. Joining his reporter pal News Blake are heiress/ love interest Olivia Tracey and her chauffeur Peters, who serves as comic relief thanks to his two character traits of "enthusiastic tinkerer" and "very clumsy and hapless." (Green Mask v1 006, 1941)
I can't find anywhere that it's explicitly stated (which may be exacerbated by the fact that the only copy of this issue that I can find is missing 8 pages or so) but by
Green Mask v1 008 Olivia Tracey seems to explicitly know that Michael Shelby and the Green Mask - and by extension Don and Domino - are the same.
