MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 027

Guess what? More minor super-heroes, that's what.

the Black Arrow:

Black Arrow, aka Rex Norton, is a detective/pilot, ho-hum. As per standard he has a great codename. (Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)

the Researcher:

A dapper super-scientist armed with x-ray flashlights, paralysis-inducing walking sticks and mind-reading rays. Perhaps the most charming thing about him is that everyone from his enemies to his friends to his lab assistant/love interest refer to him solely as "the Researcher." (Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)

the Green Mask:

The Green Mask started out in Mystery Men Comics as your standard Green Hornet or Crimson Avenger style masked vigilante: capable with his fists and with a gun but otherwise an ordinary if unnamed human man, believed by the police and the underworld to actually be a crook and thus hunted by both, the works. 

After about a year and a half, he got a bit of a revamp: the Green Mask is now Michael Shelby, son of Senator Shelby, enemy of crime. In an attempt to prevent the Senator from introducing a law that would make crime illegal, gangsters gun him down and shoot up Michael in the process. Lucky for him, family friend Professor Lascomb is present and has a healing vita-ray machine at his disposal - Michael's life is saved and as happy side effect he is given the power of flight and some ill-defined enhanced physical abilities. His crimefighting career is much the same as before but without the ire of the police. 

(Like Fox Features' other big non-Blue Beetle heroes Samson and the Flame, in 1941 the Green Mask gets a bit more of a supporting cast, in his case wealthy socialite Olivia Tracy and her bumbling chauffeur Peters. Like Samson and the Flame this didn't save him from oblivion when Fox had its troubles in 1942-1943 but unlike them he did return eventually. Kind of) (Mystery Men Comics 001, 1939/ Green Mask v1 001, 1940)

Domino the Miracle Boy:

In the same story in which the Green Mask becomes super-powered Michael Shelby (and also Michael Shelby becomes the Green Mask) an unnamed youngster is blown up by a grenade and must be healed by Professor Lascomb's vita-ray. This youth was called Don (no last name forthcoming) and wasn't just a blown-up teen but a blown-up teen orphan and so was summarily adopted by Michael Shelby. Domino's powers are a little less extensive than the Green Masks, as Prof Lascomb foolishly fixed the vita-ray machine's short circuit in between the two being treated, the main upshot of which is that Domino doesn't seem to be able to fly but rather gets around on a rope tied to a boomerang. (Green Mask Comics v1 001, 1940)

Update 1941

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 651: THE RAIDERS

(Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)

The Raiders are a piratical group with a two-pronged approach to acquiring gold on the briny deep: 

1. learn of  gold shipments via a spy network operated by a member known only as "the Spy Chief"

2. employ the super-scientific creations of submarine captain Dirck to wreak havoc on gold bearing ships and then escape.

The whole thing is going swimmingly and even Rex Norton, the Black Arrow, is making very little headway against them until they make the mistake of trying to eliminate him using some of the Spy Chief's spies. Here's where the Raiders' fatal flaw comes in: no two of them can stand one another. In the course of their operation, spies Borgu and X-13 bicker hard enough to spill every vital secret that their organization has to Norton's hot little ears, and are distracted enough by infighting that he escapes and captures them without difficulty.

(X-13 seems to be coded as the Black Arrow's femme fatale/ friendly enemy and probably would have been a recurring antagonist if Rex Norton had ever reappeared)

The bickering extends all the way to the top, as the Spy Chief and Dirck the Inventor basically do Rex Norton's job for him in a mutual betrayal that he barely has to intervene in to take down the entire organization.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 650: RANGO OF SLAVONIA/ MINOR SUPER-HERO: THE MASTER MYSTIC

(Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)

We join Rango, a science villain of some description, after he has failed to conquer Europe. His next move: total destruction.

After absolutely devastating a city in what is probably Slavonia, Rango heads for the United States by the simple expedient of swimming across the Atlantic.

And now we encounter the main attraction, Master Mystic! What a character! Master Mystic is very much ahead of his time, both in his art style and degree of superhuman omnipotence.

Master Mystic's entire battle with Rango feels like something out of a 60s underground comic, slightly unreal and rubbery and full of visual excess. Appropriately, Master Mystic was created by Victor E. Pazmino, whose other credits tended more toward the funny animal content that informed so much of the underground comix scene.

(see also Pazmino's other super-heroic creation, TNT Todd, for some fun costume compare-and-contrast)

It really is a shame that Pazmino didn't do more work along these lines, assuming that he wanted to. Stuff like this visualization of the Master Mystic's telekinesis stands out as innovative by any era's standards.

Master Mystic eventually melts Rango into horrible goo and then returns to his Arctic stronghold to resume his protective watch over humanity North America, and if the super-powered one-upsmanship of their battle felt like something out of 60s counterculture comics then this detached, omnipotent man routine feels very 1980s post-Watchmen, or at least one step away from that. Should some entrepeneur BRING BACK the Master Mystic the next time metatextual super-hero analysis characters like Miracleman come into vogue? It's worth a shot!

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 026

Just look at all these guys.

Power-Man:

Power-Man, aka Rip Regan, private detective or possibly just nosy guy, gets his powers in one of the classic ways: his friend Dr Austin gives him a special suit. It's the simplest of origins and also one that puts a lot of weight on Austin's assessment of Regan's character.

The Power-Man suit is one of the more hand-wavy bits of comic book super-science I have encountered, when you get down to it. Billed as chemically-treated metal woven into cloth, the suit simultaneously makes the wearer light enough to perform superhuman feats of jumping, grants super strength, provides total protection against penetrating weapons like bullets and knives but also crushing damage from a collapsing building and also somehow protects the wearer's head despite it not being covered. It truly is a miracle of science. (Fight Comics 003, 1940)

Mantoka, Maker of Indian Magic:

Mantoka is a comic book magic user, with all of the nigh-omnipotent power that that entails: manipulating the elements, transforming humans to animals, giving himself superhuman attributes like flight, intangibility, size control, etc. It is slightly unclear if he receives his powers from being bitten by a magic snake or if the snakebite is merely a part of a ritual to transfer his father's powers to him. Either way, it's an extremely radical and cool as hell way to become a magic man.

I keep wanting to give the Mantoka strip credit for being a not-racist comic starring a Native American character but then I look at it again and it is in fact built on racist tropes. After a few cycles of this I realized that I was thinking this way because it doesn't go out of its way to be extra racist - the characters are being portrayed at about the racism level of a comical Cockney or a Chinese American c. 1943. Still not great but not as bad as it could be*. (Funny Pages v4 001, 1940)

*only one out of three Mantoka adventures is actually easily available, so all of this applies to that comic only. 

the Owl:

The Owl is a man named Jack (no surname given) who is on a quest for revenge against the gangsters who cost his father his legs and by extension against crime in general. To that end, the never-named father has invented an owl-themed flying suit capable of speed of up to 200 mph. Also, he invented himself what I can only describe as the most unstable looking motorized wheelchair I have ever seen.

The Owl and his dad live in a swamp near an unnamed city in the Southern US, and Jack spends his days working at a library under an assumed name and sweeps up any dirt that falls off of anyone's shoes so that he can take it home to be analyzed in their swamp shack/laboratory. Presumably this is part of some sort of organized plan relating to the leg-revenge quest but the Owl only ever had one adventure and so in effect it's just the weirdest version of Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet or Bruce Wayne palling around with Commissioner Gordon to hear about crime. It does work in this issue though. (Funny Pages v4 001, 1940)

the Green Giant:

The Green Giant! Cover model and namesake for the one and only comic put out by Pelican Productions! Thanks to me spending my formative years with my nose buried in a copy of Jeff Rovin's Encyclopedia of Superheroes that image of him bounding over those buildings was forever seared into my brain as the definitive non-Marvel/DC Golden Age comic book cover, despite the fact that the actual comic probably wasn't really distributed.

I've never really found any information on the Green Giant beyond people pointing out that he wears pants on the cover but not in the actual story, so I kind of went in assuming that he was so bare bones as to be unremarkable but no, the Green Giant is as fleshed out as any single appearance character of the time.

The Green Giant's real name is Brentwood (no first name given), the owner of both a Wall Street Hall Street brokerage firm and a presumably high-tech belt, the latter of which allows him to grow to various enormous heights. I had kind of assumed that the fact of his sheer size and the problems it might cause was not really explored in-comic but there is a mention of the belt having anti-gravity properties as well. That's why he isn't, for example, crushing that building on the cover! How great and more well thought-out than I had assumed! This anti-gravity also explains how the Green Giant hops around like an off-brand Hulk even when at regular size.

One thing that really stands out about the Green Giant's sole appearance is that the problem he is dealing with is a targeted attack on his own brokerage firm. I reckon that an ongoing comic might have featured him acting in a more selfless light but as it stands all the evidence is of him being solely motivated by his own self interest. Do better, Green Giant, sheesh. (Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)