MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 080

It's a sidekick-heavy brew this time, chums.

the Silver Streak **UPDATE**:

It's been a gradual thing but the Silver Streak has been getting closer and closer to not just going real fast and jumping far but actually flying. I don't know if you can actually pinpoint the moment he made the transition but he is definitely on the "is flying" side of the equation by Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941. 

Mercury:

Although Whiz, King of Falcons is an exemplary sidekick to the Silver Streak, comic books are nothing if not prone to trends, and the trend for 1941 was for super-heroes to get kid sidekicks. And although there is only so much you can do to stand out among an army of gee-whillikering blonde boys, Mercury, aka the Boy Streak, aka Mickey O'Toole, does have a couple of aspects worth highlighting:

The first of these things is his origin story. Mickey O'Toole is the appropriately hard-hitting son of the late boxer Slugger O'Toole, who was murdered mid-match because he wouldn't take a dive. Mickey now shines shoes in order to provide for his widowed mother and disabled sister Mary. A sad tale indeed.

The remarkable thing about Mickey's sad backstory and struggling family the fact that it and they never come up again. Mickey starts hanging out with the Silver Streak and his family woes go right out the window. There's even a hint at the end of his debut appearance that he will get the chance to bring the man who killed his father to justice, but writing duties on "Silver Streak" transfer from Bob Wood to Don Rico with the probably-pseudonymous Rex Richards in between and Mercury's backstory gets lost in the shuffle.

The second thing to note about Mercury is the origin of his powers: Silver Streak gives him a shot of secret super juice. Not anything to write home about in and of itself - every third super-hero is on some sort of serum or powder or elixir, after all - but because the common knowledge about this kid is that he got his powers from a Silver Streak blood transfusion. I myself asserted this in my entry on the guy! I mean, it's not like we're out there getting the origin of the Flash wrong or something but it is an interesting example of how misinformation can become more prevalent than fact (also this kind of clears up the mysterious origin of the Silver Streak's own powers: he took the juice!) (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

Meteor:

The third thing about Mercury is the fact that after two issues he is replaced by Meteor, the Boy Speed-King and no two of the half dozen nerds who care about this kind of thing can agree on whether Mercury and Meteor are the same kid with two different names or two different kids with no explanation of where the first one went or the second one came from, with the argument fr the second position boiling down to the fact that they never say that the two are the same. 

Personally, I lean toward the "one kid, two names" hypothesis, as it's slightly cleaner. Why invent a whole new kid? (Silver Streak Comics 013, 1941)

Categorized in: Elements (Mercury), Locations (Space Places), Origins (Sidekicks) 

Whiz, King of Falcons **UPDATE**: 

Whiz, King of Falcons, the Silver Streak's original sidekick, in perhaps his final appearance before he is supplanted by one or more flying kids, demonstrates the heretofore-unseen ability to talk. And to be an annoying smartass, if I'm honest. Whiz returns later on in Silver Streak's career, so it'll be interesting to see if he retains this ability. (Daredevil Comics 001, 1941) 

Captain Battle:

Captain Battle: patriotic hero, scientist, former soldier and in fact World War One veteran, in which conflict he lost his left eye. Lest we think him too old, the text is at pains to reassure us that he was in fact the youngest person to fight in the Great War, which I think is supposed to make him seem tough but mostly instills a deep horror in my being. Particularly after I looked it up and found that that would make him something like seven years old, at least until a few issues later when they clarify that he was the youngest member of the American Expeditionary Forces, making him a comparatively venerable 12 or so.

Like many patriotic heroes there isn't a lot going on with Captain Battle beyond his love of country, but here are all of the interesting trappings of his character:

1. His assistant, Jane Lorrain: she's got a rhyming name and she'll push back on sexist language. Like many potentially interesting female supporting cast members she is pretty thoroughly sidelined once Battle gets a sidekick.

2. His patriotism. Not only is he dedicated to the defense of the US but he has sworn to only defend the US. He helps save a British fleet in his first appearance explicitly because they act as a buffer between the Axis Axian Powers and America. Presumably he would otherwise let them be destroyed. Every once in a while when he is not directly helping an American he gets kind of huffy about it.

3. His gadgets, while not unique, have very cool names, including the Curvoscope (remote viewer), the Dissolvo (death ray pistol) and the Luceflyer (jetpack). The Dissolvo is also really disgusting, as it melts its target into a quivering pile of goo. (Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941)

Captain Battle gets a couple of issues of his own comic in 1941 and for precisely one story he makes an extremely feeble attempt at having a secret identity with no consideration for the fact that a) there aren't a lot of guys running around with eye patches in any given area, which makes the usual secret id excuses appear even more ridiculous and b) Captain Battle's real name is in fact Captain Battle. "You know, I never see Captain Battle and Captain Battle in the same room together..." Ridiculous.

If I'm honest the story in question has a couple of indications that it originally starred another character and Captain Battle was a late addition, and if that is the case then the secret identity stuff is just a holdover from that. (Captain Battle Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Various), Origins (Patriotic Heroes), Origins (WWI Vets)

Hale Battle:

The prevailing trend in 1941 was for super-heroes to have sidekicks and so Captain Battle eventually gets a sidekick. But just how does he acquire a boy? Very simply! See, Battle's recurring foe the Black Dragon (tune in tomorrow for that jerk) had a thing where he turned people into giant bird-man minions called Deaglos, and the final Captain Battle/Black Dragon confrontation the surviving Deaglos were all restored to their human forms. Most of them were adult men who had lives to return to, but among them was one unclaimed boy.

Note that the boy gives his name as "Nathan Hale" and Captain Battle immediately renames him "Hale Battle." This is weird. It's a weird thing to do. Particularly as "Nathan Hale" is a very patriotic American name, which Battle should totally be into! Also note just how small this kid is. This doesn't last long, as he is definitely around the thirteen to fifteen year-old range that most Golden Age sidekicks fall into and is drawn to look more like it as time passes.

Hale Battle is among the minority of Golden Age sidekicks who aren't recruited as sidekicks but who insist upon becoming them. Not that Captain Battle puts up much resistance - once Hale gets this poor war refugee to sew him a uniform he's got the job.

Aside from these small points of interest, Hale Battle is one of the most generic sidekicks in comics. He does have a minor obsession with collecting souvenirs of his adventures, which is something I in turn enjoy writing about, but if I'm honest he approaches it without joy. It feels like an attempt to have more of a personality than a hobby. (Silver Streak Comics 012, 1941)

Categorized in: Origins (Amnesiacs), Origins (Sidekicks) 

DIVINE ROUND-UP 009

I came across Jumbo Comics 031 while filling in gods from my backlog in another Divine Round-Up entry and realized that the array of entities represented in the Stuart Taylor story in that issue should be presented as a block.

Mercury: 

This story begins as most Stuart Taylor stories do, with reckless use of time travel technology. Specifically, Taylor's love interest Laura Hayward has travelled back to Ancient Greece to buy a new hat, because as we know: women be hat shopping. It's practically all they think about!

Laura's Twentieth Century charms are apparently too much for the local deities to bear, because before Stuart can collect her and be condescending about headwear she is kidnapped by Mercury and spirited away to Olympus, which among other things places the gods of this issue in the hybrid Greco-Roman Pantheon.

the Oracle of Delphi: 

Stuart and Dr Hayward's next move is to consult with the Oracle of Delphi to get a line on how exactly they might follow Mercury and recover Laura from him, and I must say that I really enjoy this weird wisp-of-air version of the Oracle, despite it being tremendously off-model. 

Medusa: 

The Oracle directs Our Heroes to seek information from Medusa, who turns out to be depicted in typical style, though somewhat more enormous than is generally the case. I do appreciate that this issue answers the age old question: "is Medusa vulnerable to ray gun blasts?" 

the Evils Contained in Pandora's Box: 

The final stop on Stuart and Hayward's quest is to retrieve a laurel wreath from inside of Pandora's Box, which is just sitting in a field in the middle of nowhere. The comic kind of glosses over the fact that Stuart Taylor is responsible for unleashing the Evils of Mankind, but I am fully prepared to do so, as it might just be his worst snafu in a career full of the reckless and unthinking use of time travel. 

The specific evils released from this version of Pandora's Box are: 

Disease - a classic for a reason. The generic ghost look suggests that the artist did not want to draw a lot of pustules.

Greed - an evil little pig man. 

Hunger - another one right out of the classic Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse set. Much more gruesome than Disease, when the opposite is usually the case.

Intolerance - I was going to call this guy an unusual inclusion, but on reflection I'll bet that most Pandora's Box lineups include Hate, which isn't far off. Definitely looks intolerant.

and bringing up the rear... 

War, aka Mars: 

What is unusual inclusion is not War, who I reckon is there pretty often, but specifically Mars, God of War. Is the implication that this fairly major god was powerless until released by human hands? Is the War who is usually depicted in PB lineups some sort of aspect of war or a specific type of warfare? No clue. What is certain is that Stuart Taylor knocks this War's block off.

And speaking of block-knocking, that's what also happens to Mercury once Taylor, Laurel wreath firmly on brow, makes his way to Olympus to finally rescue Laura. The story ends on a fairly limp callback joke about women and their genetic predilection for hat-shopping, one which I rolled my eyes at even before I realized that Laura wearing the divine laurel wreath as a regular hat at the end would be a much better bit. (Jumbo Comics 031, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 312: PLUTO

(Red Raven Comics 001; Captain America Comics 001-003, 1940-1941)

As originally presented, this is the literal Roman god of the underworld come down (up?) to Earth to stir up trouble as Rudolph Hendler, dictator of Prussland (mild aside - recently saw a fascist complaining about Nazis being vilified like it was a new thing, but we've always known that you suck, bro).

 Jupiter and the other Roman gods aren't so hot on this plan and send Mercury down to Earth to combat cousin Pluto. A simple tale. The very mild complication comes from Marvel's fondness for retcons and rcontextualizations. After the Enernals were introduced in the 70s, a number of characters from the 40s and 50s were retroactively said to actually be the Eternal Makkari, including Mercury here.

He was also said to be Hurricane, the near-identical hero who faced Pluto in his next couple of appearances. But if Mercury/ Hurricane was not actually a member of some godly pantheon, who was Pluto?

In an unsurprising twist, Pluto was revealed to be Kro, a villainous member of the Deviant race who features in the same 70s series as Makkari. I don't know a lot about Kro but I guess that it's in-character for him to (in order) start a version of WWII, run a murder-for-hire gang, unleash a plague in the Amazon and attempt to take over a place called Groton City via the medium of repeated subway accidents.

The really important thing is that his first couple of appearances were drawn by Jack Kirby so he looks like a perfect evil creep. Of course there might be an argument that he no longer qualifies as a minor super-villain because the Pluto identity has been rolled into the larger Kro identity but where's the fun in that?