MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 099

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.

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) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 907: HALF-MAN

(Whiz Comics 021, 1941)

Due to Allied concerns about the Nazis generic Axis use of black magic to ensure victory, Ibis the Invincible is recruited and sent to the front as a counter-sorcerer. His foe: the mysterious Half-Man, occultist and rumoured worshipper of an ancient evil god called the Dark Spirit.

The Half-Man served with distinction in WWI, until an artillery shell cost him a leg, an arm and an eye and he was no longer able to lead troops in battle. He then turned to the study of black magic to make himself powerful and potentially whole again, and with the advent of WWII he has offered his services to the War Lord, Fawcett's all-purpose late-1941 Hitler stand-in.

Some further particulars: 

In his first appearance, Half-Man has these pseudo-Gestapo occultist minions who are masterpieces to design. They could not more obviously be weird creep villains. They also receive planchette-writing intel from "the watchful ones," which could be flowery language describing another set of occultist creeps in a lookout post somewhere but which I prefer to think is some sore of class of spirit. 

Perhaps it's the Ancient Egyptian in him coming through, but Ibis is unable to treat Half-Man with anything but pity and contempt, no matter how often he is proven to be a legitimate threat, as above when he completely is completely trounced by the guy.  

Like I said, the first issue that Half-Man appears in contains a lot of talk of the ancient god called the Dark Spirit helping to ensure the Axis victories, and I had initially thought that his magical power was also derived from this being, like a D&D warlock, but Whiz Comics 023 includes a segment in which Ibis is almost sacrificed to the Dark Spirit, here called the Angry God, and manages to turn the tables and kill the god's one remaining priest instead. This seems to kill the Angry God as well without noticeably diminishing Half-Man's power, so I guess it's more of a Hellboy situation in which all of the Evil Magic Guys are lumped together into a unit.

Speaking of the military applications of mystical power, the final act of Half-Man's villainous career takes place on the battlefield between the War Lord's forces and those of an unnamed Allied nation that starts out on a back foot because someone is scrying their troop deployments with a crystal ball. 

Once Ibis joins the fighting on the small nation's side, Half-Man too is obligated to take the field, and while no mortal army is a mach for the power of the Ibistick, he manages to capture Taia and get away. The back-and-forth between them might have gone on indefinitely, but for the fact that the War Lord himself shows up and treats Half-Man with a sneering condescension instead of acknowledging his clear need for validation. This gives Ibis the chance to step up and be nice to the guy by restoring his lost body parts. Having finally achieved a feeling of wholeness again, from being literally whole rather than from magical accomplishment, the former Half-Man reforms. Hopefully he had some sort of plan in place to get to a neutral country, since he renounced his magics and presumably fascism at the end there and I doubt that the War Lord would be too understanding of that. 

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 055

Some more super-folk for your delectation. 

Doc Strange:

Doc Strange (called "Dr Strange" for the first half dozen or so of his appearances, but why cause unnecessary confusion) is an almost prototypical scientist-hero: no real origin beyond being a well-known brilliant scientist who is primed and ready for adventure having just perfected Alosun, a "formula distilled from sun-atoms." After taking his first dose of Alosun in his initial adventure, Strange has super-strength and invulnerability sufficient to take on an entire gang single-handed, and if he takes a supplemental dose he becomes exponentially more powerful.

Doc's sidekick Mike won't be showing up until 1942, but in the meantime his fiance Virginia Thompson (as so often is the case, the woman he rescues during his first super-heroic adventure) acts as his adventuring companion/frequent kidnap victim in the meantime.

 

In Thrilling Comics 007 Doc Strange mixes up a new formulation of Alosun that completes his powerset by allowing him to fly while under its effects. This is also the issue in which he stops fighting crime in suits and adopts his classic red t-shirt/blue jodhpurs/brown boots look. 

Finally, I've noticed a lot of sites listing his name as "Hugo Strange" or "Thomas Hugo Strange" and while the Thomas is definitely an Alan Moore addition from Tom Strong I can only report that the Hugo has not yet appeared in the 1940 issues of Thrilling. (Thrilling Comics 001, 1940) 

the Ghost:

Young George Chance is orphaned in India and so is of course raised by yogis. He learns all of their magical secrets and is eventually sent out into the world to fight crime, as I assume all yogis are. I must say that it is something of a change of pace to see a magic-man come into his powers in India after such a long string of Tibetan origins.

Like most magical heroes, the Ghost is a nigh-omnipotent force of nature who can be stopped only by a sneaky blow to the head, and even then only temporarily. His adventures are distinguished by the fact that his long-time foe is Professor Fenton, a scientist who has developed time travel technology, so the Ghost's adventures are distinguished by the sheer variety of times and places he ends up.

The Ghost takes his name from his early habit of painting his face (all the way to the back of his neck!) so as to resemble a skeleton while he is fighting crime. Sadly though the name sticks the look doesn't. 

In Thrilling Comics 008, the Ghost travels back to Revolutionary America and meets a patriotic woman named Betty Morris who ends up coming back to the 20th Century with him as his companion/love interest. I keep seeing claims online that she is his wife, but strongly suspect that that is another swipe from Alan Moore's version of the characters. (Thrilling Comics 003, 1940)

the Lone Eagle: 

Another classic example of a pilot-hero-with-a-cool-name and not much else going on. The Lone Eagle does seem to have been a World War I veteran, which I always like to note. (Thrilling Comics 003, 1940)

the Woman in Red: 

The Woman in Red (an extremely good name) has what just might be the simplest origin story in comics: she is really Peggy Allen, undercover police officer, and the Woman in Red disguise is her way of investigating crimes without blowing her cover if she is caught snooping around. See? Simple! 

Woman in Red mysteries tend to be structured as whodunnit murder mysteries, which I obviously like, and so Peggy is also frequently wanted by her comic foil, the bumbling Inspector Cavanaugh, as a suspect because he sees her creeping around the crime scene and doesn't have a lot of critical thinking skills. (Thrilling Comics 002, 1940) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 434: THE PHANTOM OF THE SKY

(Popular Comics 046, 1939)

The Phantom of the Sky (AKA the Phantom Sky Raider AKA the Black Phantom) is a mysterious pilot who has been flying around the American West, viciously attacking and shooting down civilian planes and painting a skull-and-crossbones calling card on them. He turns out to be a nameless French WWI flying ace, shot down and left for dead but actually just trapped in a delusion of an unending war in which he is essentially conducting guerrilla air combat. He proves elusive but eventually the Masked Pilot and his pal Tom shoot him down. He does manage to survive the crash, so hopefully he got some help for his nightmare existence.

Here's where I thought I might say something about the Masked Pilot but... he's just a pilot hero. He flies around with Tom and solves problems with his plane. You might think that he wears a face-concealing mask because he's horribly deformed but no, he wears a regular domino in his civilian getup so it's just an affectation. I suppose a pilot with a gimmick is technically better than one without, but only just.