MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 058

A number of minor Fox Features characters for your perusal and delight.

the Bird Man: 

The Bird Man, descendant of "an ancient Indian god" (no further detail provided) uses his weird demigod wing-flaps to fly around the American Southwest and render aid to people. (Weird Comics 001, 1940)

In Bird Man's final appearance, in Weird Comics 004, he has conformed to the heroic norm a bit more by moving to a penthouse apartment in what might be NYC (please note that he keeps a little statue of his divine ancestor on top of his TV). He also has slightly more conventional wings in this appearance, but I have to say that I prefer the flaps.

Typhon: 

Typhon is a near-future undersea adventurer who not only has access to various super-submarines and ray guns and so forth but also sometimes has a magic ring that allows him to combat the various supernatural threats of the deep ocean. (Weird Comics 001, 1940)

Thor, God of Thunder: 

Thor, God of Thunder (the Norse god) gets restless one day in 1940 and decides to invest a mortal man with some of his power, making him Thor, God of Thunder (the super-hero). This is a not-uncommon origin story for a super-hero to have, but the really important thing to note is that the human, Grant Farrel, is not some paragon of virtue or descendant of Thor, and that he isn't being sent out into the world to combat injustice on Thor's behalf. No, he's just kind of a sad sack who just got dumped and Thor hands him the power with a kind of "have fun with it" attitude. Grant seems like he might be the type to get into super-heroics of his own accord but he doesn't really have any choice because Glenda, the girl who dumped him, is a real magnet for spy rings and secret invasions of France and so forth. They do eventually get back together, don't worry.

Like many of his contemporaries, Grant/Thor goes through a lot of different costume variants over the course of a short career, but the thing I really want to highlight is this very weird style of Viking helmet that both he and Original Thor wear in hist first three or four appearances. I mean, what's with the discs? 

Thor is of course wildly over-powered, as shown in this pretty awesome sequence in which he lassos an entire Luftwaffe attack on Paris and throws it at Berlin. He can also throw both his hammer and thunderbolts to devastating effect, and kind of alternates between flying under his own power and cartoonishly riding around on a big jagged bolt of lightning.

In his final appearance, in Weird Comics 005, Thor is sans hammer for no particular reason. This doesn't really slow him down but even so he gets a bit of divine aid via the gift of Thor's strength-boosting gauntlet. (Weird Comics 001, 1940)

Dynamite Thor:

Dynamite Thor, the Explosion Man, is actually Peter Thor, wealthy mine owner and explosives expert. I was all ready to roast him for including his surname as part of his superhero identity, but on review of his five appearances it appears that the actual name he goes my is merely Dynamite. This also leaves me with no material with which to roast Thor's fiance Glenda (same as our last Thor - what is it with Thors and Glendas?) for not realizing just who the mysterious man she so idolizes it.

In his initial appearance, Dynamite Thor is merely a man with a belt-full of explosives and a pretty hammer-and nail approach to problem-solving. Crooks holed up in an old shack? Blow up the shack. Crooks getting away in a vehicle? A controlled explosion will bring a nearby object down and stop their flight. A big fire? Blow it up.

By his second appearance in Weird Comics 007, someone had evidently decided that Dynamite Thor needed more of a hook or perhaps they just couldn't figure out a good explosion-themed vehicle for him to fly around, because he gets his signature move, which is absolutely the only reason that he is still talked about: he flies by the simple expedient of setting off a series of explosions under his ass. Finally, by his next appearance in Blue Beetle Comics 006, 1941, he is explicitly mentioned to be immune to these explosions, something that must have come as a great relief to him (edit to add: I was mistaken and they do make sure to mention that he is immune to explosions at the same time as he starts flying around on a column of them). (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 051

It's Day Three of Round-Up Week here at the Curse of Skeleton Munroe. 

**UPDATE** the White Streak:

Novelty Press is back at it again, exercising their compulsion to tone down the "fantastic" in their comic book stories. The White Streak has gotten a job as an FBI agent, and so he gets plastic surgery in order to make his inhuman face into that of a square-jawed white guy. Now instead of being the utterly fantastical ancient android in a bright costume running around blasting people with electron vision and zooming through the skies on an electric ladder, he's... the same thing but he looks like a normal guy. Plus he tries to limit his power usage so as to stay inconspicuous, so he sticks to x-ray vision and electrified punches. Very realistic stuff. 

If this move was in the cards for the White Streak, this might also be the explanation we were looking for for why Dr Simms went off the rails and blew up his entire life as Dr Death: it was a good old-fashioned slash-and-burn of a comic book's supporting cast before a change to the status quo. Feels like I'm in the Nineties again! (Target Comics v1 010, 1940)

Galar: 

A childhood friend of Spacehawk's from the same near-human species as him, Galar is turned from his six hundred year-long career as a space pirate by the intervention of his old friend and sent out into the galaxy to act as the protector of some random solar system, which it turns out is the reason that Spacehawk is protecting our solar system: he just arbitrarily chose it. (Target Comics v1 011, 1940)

the Stratosphere Patrol: 

Speaking of Spacehawk, here's "Spacehawks," a Basil Wolverton strip that didn't really get the room to shine before its home comic was given the axe. While "stratosphere" in the context of 1940s comics is often a flowery way to describe everything up to and including interplanetary space, the meaning here is quite literal: Steve Grover and Bart Bixby and their colleagues are charged with policing the vast array of air traffic that is constantly whizzing around in the near-future, and their greatest challenge occurs when they encounter an evil scientist who can go into the upper, upper atmosphere! Heady stuff. (Circus, the Comics Riot 001, 1938)

the Ghost Rider: 

There are a seemingly infinite number of masked cowboy vigilantes roaming the various Wests of assorted comic book universes, and the Ghost Rider is one of them. In his one recorded adventure he stops the wretched gambler and crime boss of the town of Last Chance, Poker Slade, from murdering miner Robert Burton and his daughter Rose and stealing their gold claim. Also, though it's not particularly visible in the image above, this particular Ghost Rider is the only one to have a mustache.

As always, there are no new super-hero names under the sun, and "Ghost Rider" might just be one of the ones to unexpectedly crop up the most times. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 004, 1939)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 047

Astonishing super-heroes of the past! And future!

the Invisible Avenger: 

Teen radio enthusiast Buzz Allen discovers the secret of personal invisibility shortly after the death of his father at the hands of criminals and so is perfectly primed to become part of a super-vigilante duo alongside his friend Will Lawrence (if the issue of whether they should be the Invisible Avengers ever comes up then it is in the initial adventure which I alas cannot read). 

Their adventures are structured such that they cause maximum consternation so as to really get the most out of the invisibility gimmick: they become invisible before driving their car to the scene of a robbery, for example, and when they put on their anti-invisibility gloves so that they can flash their guns at the crooks they make sure to do so in a public place so as to freak out the subway-riding squares. If I were to devise some sort of ratings scale to score invisible characters on how well they use their powers (which I will not - I am already tracking far too many arbitrary metrics), then the Invisible Avenger and Will would score low. (Superworld Comics 001, 1940*)

Hip Knox:

Hip Knox! An orphaned child raised by Professor Knox to have the mightiest mind in the world and named by Professor Knox to have a silly name that kind of winks at his powerset!

If Hip Knox is known for anything then it's for being one of the worst-dressed men in comics. Every element of his uniform is just a little bit wrong, except for the parts that are a lot wrong. Breaking things down from top to bottom, we have:

1. The Helmet. If there's one piece of this costume that is 100% bad then it's this scaly golden swim cap. I sincerely wish that Superworld Comics 001 was available for less than 2000 dollars US, because I really want to know if this is some sort of mind amplification helmet or just a bizarre affectation. Hate it. Hate that it covers his ears.

2. The Mustache. I can get behind a super-hero with a fussy little mustache, but you aren't Hercule Poirot, my dude. Grow it out a bit more or have fewer weird and uncanny elements to your outfit so that a little mustache is a fun little affectation and not the punchline to someone's description of you to their friends.

3. The Jumpsuit. This isn't all that far off of what would come to be the standard super-hero outfit, so I should be fine with it, right? Wrong. Between the fact that Hip is drawn with a bit of a barrel chest and the noodle arms of someone who fights crime with their mind, and the suit being buttoned all the way up to a collar at the neck, this suit is bad.

4. The Insignia. A minor nitpick but it contributes to the whole: that eye looks too realistic to just be sitting on the chest by itself. Throw it in a circle or something. Plus you gotta choose: either the eye or ...

5. The Belt Buckle. I have nothing against a good yonic symbol, but why does Hip Knox have one as his belt buckle? And why is it so big? It looks like an attempt to pick up a pencil off the ground would result in him simultaneously stabbing himself in the groin and the upper abdomen.

What is the solution for this fashion debacle? Change one or two key elements: swap the jumpsuit out for a red tuxedo to lean into the (stage) hypnotist angle and things feel a lot more harmonious. The eye would have to become an amulet or maybe an ornament on one of those weird sashes that goes under the jacket, but everything would hold together much better. Or keep the jumpsuit and lose the helmet! Or make it a headband, that would be much less heinous!

As befits a super-hypnotist, Hip Knox has a pretty relaxed approach to the mental autonomy of those around him, but tragically also seems to have a terrible imagination, as in the above panels in which he attempts to signal that he is being kidnapped by turning bystanders into a trail of living statues instead of, say, having them shout "Hip Knox is in that car being kidnapped!" in unison. (Superworld Comics 001, 1940*)

Marvo 1￮2 Go+:

The Boy Genius style of comics/fiction in general has produced a lot of very fun adventure heroes over the years and also a lot of annoying little smug turds, and I'm sure that personal bias plays in to whether a particular boy reads as one or the other to you. As you might be able to tell from all of this preamble, Marvo 1￮2 Go+ is very much a smug little turd in my eyes.

Thanks to the wonders of sleep education, Marvo has all the knowledge of a forty-year-old scientist packed into his fifteen year-old head, but he's even more intelligent than that, so much so that he gets to put a little plus sign on the end of his name (Marvo is from one of those science fiction futures where inefficient surnames have been replaced with government-assigned alphanumerical designations, like Superworld publisher Hugo Gernsback's own novel Ralph 124C 41+ or DC Comics' later Chris KL-99), which he makes sure to have embroidered on the front of all of his clothing in case people forget how special he is.

Knowledge of a forty year-old or not, Marvo still has all the foresight of a fifteen year-old, as seen above for instance in the above panels wherein he takes advantage of a geothermal hotspot beneath Pennsylvania to permanently alter its climate without stopping to consider the potential long term environmental effects of a permanent Summer. (Superworld Comics 001, 1940*)

X, the Phantom Fed: 

There are a whole lot of comic book protagonists with names like Secret Agent Q49 or Agent X-7, etc, code-named operatives two-fistedly saving the world for democracy the US Government, and X, the Phantom Fed exists at the border between that concept and that of the super-hero. Described as the "Man of a Million Faces," X's real face is a mystery even to his friends because he is always in some disguise or another. X is armed with an embryonic version of the James Bond-era spy's arsenal and the best super-spy name of the bunch but sadly that doesn't save him from having a bare handful of appearances. (Sure-Fire Comics 001, 1940)

*I have not actually read Superworld Comics 001 because it is not readily available to the average person. My information on the origins of these characters therefore might be slightly inaccurate. 

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 038

Second- and third-tier Fox Features heroes: ACTIVATE

Dynamo:

Jim Andrews is an electrical scientist who heroically risks his own life by using his own body as a conductor to prevent some crazy bit of machinery from blowing the whole laboratory he works at to high heaven. And since he lives in a comic book world, the reward for his bravery is some super powers! He can now emit electricity, create an electrical forcefield, kind of fly by throwing a lightning bolt and then riding it through the air and even be super strong, with the minor caveat that he has to charge himself up from time to time (over time and for narrative convenience he also develops the powers to freeze water, to repair smashed up items by shooting electricity at them and to travel interstellar distances under his own power).

Andrews originally calls himself Electro but swaps that name out for Dynamo in his second appearance. There is some speculation that the name change comes about because there was already an extant Electro over at Marvel.

Dynamo's costume choices over his two years of adventuring range from "generic" to "kind of dumb-looking," and the real kicker is that the Fox Features cover artist consistently puts him in this incredible red number. (Science Comics 001, 1940)

ADDENDUM: In Science Comics 005, Dynamo, already wildly powerful, invents a device with the fairly ominous name the Brain-Wave Trap which allows him to read the minds of everyone on Earth and indeed for hundreds of light years around. Ir's a significant power boost for something that is mainly used to keep the plot chugging along.

the Eagle:

The Eagle is Bill Powers, a wealthy young gadabout who has developed an "anti-gravitation fluid" which allows him to fly when applied to his wing/flaps.

 

The Eagle might just have the greatest number of costume variations before finding his groove, though I suppose a number of them can be ascribed to the whims of the colourist on any given day. While the flying squirrel style flaps are fun for their uniqueness and that fourth version has far nicer-looking wings than Hawkman was sporting at the same time I can absolutely understand the impulse to move toward a more traditional super-hero costume without a bunch of fiddly little feathers all over it. BUT! the Eagle's costume has not reached its final form - something to look forward to once we get to Fox Features' 1941 offerings. Or just look up on your own, I suppose.

I don't think that it's intentional so much as a product of many busy hands being involved in making most if not all Fox Features comics, but Bill Powers is one of the better realizations of the "wealthy young playboy" super-hero alter ego. He really and truly comes off as someone who is just kind of doing things, including fighting crime, to keep himself occupied and the greatest example of that is all the little projects such as his "crime cartoons" or his "book on crime" that he keeps mentioning once and then never ever returning to. Plus he has a butler named Jason, whom I love.

Finally, the Eagle might just have the most mysterious of all calling cards, an unseen "mark like that done by an eagle." (Science Comics 001, 1940)

Marga the Panther Woman:

Marga, formerly a nurse at the asylum housing the mad physiologist von Dorf, finds herself kidnapped and made into a panther/ human hybrid. Is there just a hint of weird race science in the way that Marga going from blonde to black haired is a sign of her primitive nature being brought forward? Maybe just a skosh.

Marga adapts fairly well to her new situation, even when it means that she is now an obligate carnivore. She just kind of accepts that her life is no longer that of a nurse but that of a jungle predator.

Marga's first few adventures take place in what is pretty clearly the future but a series of comics with different creative teams ends with her being a contemporary 1940 figure. (Science Comics 001, 1940)

Navy Jones:

Navy Jones (and let me tell you I groaned audibly about two hours after I fist read that name, when I figured out that it was a pun on Davy Jones) is a submarine commander of the future who meets with disaster when his submarine hits a free-floating mine and everyone on board but him is killed. Lucky for Jones, he is picked up by some passing Fish-Men and taken to their city, where he befriends their king.

Things take a turn when the evil Prime Minister uses the presence of this outsider in the halls of power as a catalyst for rebellion, and Navy Jones is almost killed. In another stroke of fortune, the king happens to be a skilled surgeon and saves Jones' life at the cost of his ability to breathe air. Jones rescues the kidnapped Princess Coral from the Prime Minister and puts down the rebellion, becoming the city's champion (and in a final stroke of luck, the Fish-Men are the kind of comic book species where the more aristocratic you are, the more human you look, so Jones' new Princess love interest is barely a fish at all!). (Science Comics 001, 1940)