Honours:
Pilot Bill Barnes is almost certainly awarded the Victoria Cross for blowing up a Nazi gas stockpile. He also gets a pie. (Bill Barnes, America's Air Ace Comics 004, 1941)
Comics Crossovers:
In one of Golden Age comics' rare but casual crossovers, Judy Jackson, rival of reporter-hero Scoop Mason, is attending the same Governor's ball in the Bahamas as Newsreel cameraman Speed Martin. (The Funnies 051, 1941)
Then in the very next issue, Scoop Mason himself shows up to take in a football game! (The Funnies 052, 1941)
ADDENDUM: I just realized that the team that they're watching is Elmhurst College featuring star player Wally Williams, from his own feature in Popular Comics. Layers upon layers!
the Looming Spectre of Death:
Perhaps the most understated Looming Spectre of Death of all time, from the Philo Vance story "Murder Rings the Bell." (The Funnies 059, 1941)
Presented Without Comment:
(The Funnies 062, 1941)
Honours:
Both the Purple Zombie and Chico, creator of the Mechanized Skeleton(s) receive medals for defending an unspecified European nation from the death ray of an unspecified fascist nation, while Chico's skeleton troops get a hero's burial. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 006, 1941)
Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects:
The NYPD do their level best to gun down the Challenger for wearing a mask near the scene of a crime. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)
Some probably-also-NYPD officers try to do the same to the Black Cobra. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)
Some definitely-NYPD officers try to gun down a fleeing Mask. (Exciting Comics 010, 1941)
Honours:
Heroic dog K-9 is given a medal and made an official officer in what is also likely supposed to be the NYPD. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)
Temporally Tricky Westerns:
I've occasionally talked about the temporal uncertainty of depictions of the West in comics of the 1940s and 1950s, in that comics set in the modern day are given all of the tropes of the Old West, such that you don't know what era they are taking place until someone flies a plane on-panel etc. The "Jim Hatfield" feature in Exciting Comics might just take the cake on this front. Every issue features Hatfield seemingly stepping from the present-day Texas Ranger HQ through a time portal to the 1850s.
(Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)
The US is being rocked by a series of explosions targeting munitions factories and other facilities contributing to national defense, and not even the speed of the Silver Streak is enough to combat the organizational skills and coordination of the mysterious mastermind behind them. It is only by sheer coincidence that he happens upon an imperilled security guard from a plant in Georgia and learns from him that the men who blew up his workplace were under command of a mysterious figure called "Iron-Jaw" and that they all work for the "Axes Government".
Even with this information under his belt, the Silver Streak still loses two more factories to the Iron-Jaw before finally running down some of his men in Boston and discovering the secret of their great organizational abilities: a super-miniaturized (for the 40s) radio set used to relay orders to the Axes forces in America. By following the instructions coming from a captured unit, the Streak and Whiz are finally able to get the jump on the Iron-Jaw's men and prevent the destruction of a plant in Pittsburgh, though the mastermind remains on the loose.
The Iron-Jaw returns in Silver Streak Comics 010 with a new set of goals - the focus is now on shutting down media criticism of the Axes. To that end, the Silver Streak is drawn away via a report of a potential bombing in Chicago while Iron-Jaw is grabbing the real target, broadcaster Kitty Doyle, in NYC.
This is Silver Streak we're talking about here, so he returns in time to interrupt the kidnapping in progress. the mysterious Iron-Jaw is revealed to be a moderately cool-looking/ moderately goofy-looking/ fairly spiky humanoid robot. With a gold finish, no less - so much for thematic consistency.
Though Iron-Jaw briefly gets the upper hand, even a super strong, very pointy robot is no match for the world's fastest man and it takes a fatal header onto the streets of Manhattan below.
Here's something about the Iron-Jaw: in its first appearance, all it does is talk, while in its second it is completely mute. This dovetails interestingly with something that Kitty reports after its defeat, that investigation of the robot indicates that it was controlled by trans-oceanic radio waves originating from the Axes government. Which seems to indicate that the Iron-Jaw was merely operating as the mouth and hands of one or more spymasters in some comic book pastiche of Germany, which in turn means that this is one of the few times in Golden Age comics in which the villain gets away at the end!* Neat!
*excluding all of the recurring villains who get away all the time, of course.
Finally, Silver Streak and Whiz get to meet FDR to get his congratulationss, plus a Congressional Medal of Honor!
Categorized in: Body (Jaws), Elements (Iron), Origins (Robots)
Costume Materials:
The Daredevil's mask is made out of rubber. (Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941)
Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:
The NYPD attempts to gun down Nightro (and his dog!) for fleeing the scene of a suicide. (Daredevil Comics 003, 1941)
Honours - Dash Dillon:
Honours:
Aviator Cloud Curtis and his pals are personally thanked by FDR for stopping a spy plot against the US. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)
Decorations:
Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects in the Back:
I'll grant these cops this: Steel Sterling did just steal one of their motorcycles. I still don't think that that warrants a "SHOOT TO KILL!" and three bullets in the back. (Zip Comics 001, 1940)
Even less of a reason to shoot someone in the back: because you heard a different person shooting at them and assumed that they were a thief. Both because you are wrong and the person you are shooting at is actually super-hero Mr Satan and because theft is not punishable by death. (Zip Comics 007, 1940)
Honours:
Rambunctious pilots Tim and Tom Shane, aka the Devils Twins, are decorated for valour. (Zip Comics 001, 1940)
Super-Heroes Going to Costume Parties as Themselves:
Dudley Bradshaw, aka Mr Satan, attends a very costume-heavy Mardi Gras parade in costume as himself. (Zip Comics 005, 1940)
Both Mr Scarlet and his enemy Bluebeard attend the same costume party in character. (Wow Comics 004, 1941)
(Whirlwind Comics 002, 1940)
This is Muskog, ruler of the Earth's core in the far-future year of 1980 CE and total dick. Muskog has been blasting the surface of the planet with a static electricity ray for seemingly no reason whatsoever, or at least no reason that he cares to state. This of course attracts the attention of crack science adventurer Bruce Barlow, who ventures into the molten depths on behalf of his people to ask "how come?"
There are precisely three things I want to note about Muskog's sole appearance. The first is simply to note that his name is infuriatingly close to muskeg, the Arctic/subarctic bog biome. Is this a coincidence, or did Bruce Barlow's unknown creator(s) know and love the word as much as I do?
Secondly, we must mention Barlow's method of getting to the centre of the Earth: via a capsule that is shot out of a big gun into a volcanic crater. Never has any idea so neatly conveyed how simultaneously wonderful and dumb comic books can be. And how is he going to get back, you ask? Why by means of an "upward space helmet" that will simply float him back through the fiery mantle.
Finally, as always, I must take note of any time that an alien or otherwise nonhuman species crops up in which the males are, e.g., bug-eyed green weirdos but the females are conventionally attractive human women, as seen here in the person of Muskog's rebellious daughter Eda. Ah, the wonders of evolution.
Eda frees Barlow, allowing him to destroy the irreplaceable explosion machines, but unfortunately is unable to join him on his voyage through thousands of kilometres of molten rock because she is wounded. Barlow promises to return and is later seen trying to spin this return voyage not as a sex thing but as being in the interests of science, heh heh.
Bruce Barlow is of course honoured by the surface world for his efforts, and this gives us the opportunity to see that the US flag of 1980 has only 28 stars - what great calamity has caused 20 whole states to succeed/ be kicked out/ other? Worldbuilding!
Big Head Futurites:
Just a fun illustration of the concept of future humans being big-headed weirdos, from the "Brick Bradford" Sunday strip for 5 December, 1937
Honours - Thor, God of Thunder:
Grant Farrel, aka Thor, God of Thunder, gets a medal in his role in defending the US from invasion by fascist Gratnia. Note that it is Grant and not Thor who gets the medal, because Grant does a lousy job of protecting his secret identity. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)
Honours - Typhon:
Honoured at the Inter-Ocean Congress for stopping the dastardly Menar. (Weird Comics 006, 1940)
Panel Fun:
The aliens are very humanoid today. I hope that they are to your liking. Cavemen : There's no real explanation of why these cavemen are...
