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 046

Enjoy these ancient delights!

the Black Spider:

Mild-mannered district attorney Ralph Nelson, like many comic book lawmen, sallies forth at night in order to deal with criminals that the law can't touch. Nelson is despised by his colleague Police Inspector Stern for being too soft on crime/ dedicated to the letter of the law to allow the cops to torture confessions out of people, while the Black Spider is hated by Stern for showing up the police by being so good at torturing confessions out of people. It's a real dichotomy!

Nelson's secretary Peggy Dodge has a classic "love one identity and hate the other" relationship with the Black Spider and her boss that gets resolved when she learns his secret during the first Black Spider adventure. It's a nice change of pace from your standard Lois/Clark arrangement, plus Peggy has the distinction of being one of the few noncostumed super-heroic aides to remember to wear a mask while on crime-fighting duty! (Super-Mystery Comics 003, 1940)

Davey: 

One day while fighting crime, Magno rescues Carole Landis and her kid brother Davey from a bombed-out building and learns about the crime that they were investigating and also that Davey is such a big Magno fan that he has his own Magno costume and also would Magno like to see it? Magno of course gives the kid the old brush-off.

Seeing as he first met this kid after he had tagged along with his sister on a dangerous assignment, it should not have surprised Magno to find Davey chasing him down the street in full Magno cosplay. The two get mixed up in various life-or-death situations before Magno can get rid of Davey and by the time things calm down they have formed a battle-bond or something. Magno figures out how to temporarily give Davey a portion of his powers for about an hour (the time limit gets dropped eventually, presumably because bookkeeping isn't very fun) and becomes the latest in a long line of super-heroes to have a sidekick with no code name. (Super-Mystery Comics v1 004, 1940)

the Sparkler: 

Red Morgan's father has invented an invisibility suit, but what he should have been working on was a don't-blab-your-secrets-all-over-town suit, because the local gang boss Baldy Spade has heard that there's some big scientific discovery in the works and has sent a guy to kill Morgan Senior and steal it. A vengeance-minded Red dons the suit and exacts justice on Baldy before going on to have a handful of adventures as the Sparkler, so named because the suit flashes and sparks as it returns to its user to visibility. (Super Spy 001, 1940)

the Night Hawk: 

Horse Rancher John Rogers was murdered some time ago, and his unnamed son has seemingly wandered the West ever since, doing vigilante justice while looking for murderer Baldy Crane. In his one recorded adventure he finally locates and guns him down before riding into the sunset. (Super Spy 002, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 023

The most minor bunch so far!

Don Rance and the Mysticape: 

Don Rance saves an old man from a tiger in the Indian jungle and is given a mystic cape as a reward. In his single documented adventure he runs into spy trouble while ferrying some papers from the American embassy in London to Washington DC and must use the cape's powers (generic physical enhancement and slow falling or some other way to jump from a plane and land safely on the ground. Also possibly teleportation? The art was unclear) to complete his mission safely.

So: an utterly generic character who barely qualifies as a super-hero, but I just can't help but be tickled that he calls his mystic cape the Mysticape and dream of a world in which Don Rance was such a popular character that he continued appearing for long enough that some bored writer had him battle the Mystic Ape. (Detective Eye 002, 1940)

Ken Traymore and the Invisobox:

Really really enjoy these guys. Properly this strip should be called Ken Traymore and His Dad and Their Invisoboxes because that's what it is: a guy and his dad and their invisibility girdles palling around and investigating mysteries. It's very wholesome! Particularly as your standard Golden Age comic would have featured the murder of Traymore Sr on page 1 as a bit of motivation for Ken in his neverending quest for justice.

Aside from the delightful father/son dynamics, the best part of the Traymores' single adventure is the fact that they spend the entire time investigating three suspects in the murder of their friend and do not catch the killer. Rather, he accidentally sees one of them turn invisible and freaks out because he thinks that he's being haunted by his victim's ghost. They don't even know who he is - it's great! 10/10 no notes, BRING BACK the Traymores and their Invisoboxes immediately. (Detective Eye 002, 1940)

the Mask:

The Mask is an adaptation of pulp character the Black Bat, but without the bat part due to some sort of gentleman's agreement with DC after a squabble over who ripped who off, bat-wise. What he does share with his predecessor is an origin: District Attorney Tom Colby is blinded when gangsters working for crimelord Olly Snate splash acid on some key evidence during Snate's trial. When Colby's sight is restored via an experimental operation he decides to continue working as a supposedly-blind DA while also punching crooks as the Mask.

(Also like the Black Bat he has enhanced night vision as a result of the operation but it never really comes up)

Colby also inherits the Black Bat's stable of assistants: Silk Davis (crook turned butler), Carol Smith (the one who lined up the eye operation for him) and Butch O'Leary (former boxer). As with all heroic associates they spend about half the time helping out and half the time captured by crooks, with the added twist that since there are three of them they often end up rescuing each other or getting serially captured while trying to rescue one another.

The Mask was also quite clearly going to be the Owl in his first couple of appearances - presumably someone at Exciting Comics noticed that 1940 was a big year for owl-themed comic book characters and decided to skip the potential drama. By Exciting issue 3 he had traded in his owl-cowl for a beakless version and replaced his owl calling cards with a frankly hilarious version featuring a picture of his own face, clearly labelled. 

One thing that always springs to mind when reading comics from the Nedor (etcetera - these people could not settle on a name for their publishing company) stable: did Alan Moore include them in Terra Incognito? The answer is of course no - the Mask is utterly middle-of-the-road and would have added nothing to the proceedings. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

Major Mars:

Major Mars, hero of 3964 AC, is another retooled version of an older pulp character, in this case the still-occasionally-name-checked-to-this-day Captain Future. Some basic research into the character indicates that the broad details are the same: brought up on the Moon (i.e., he should be called Major Moon), Major Mars battles injustice across the Solar System with the help of his robot pal Grag and love interest Joan. My major (ha) beef with this is that they left out Captain Future's other two associates, a sassy shapechanging android and a brain in a jar! 

Why Captain Future became Major Mars and why all of the best companions were left out of this adaptation are a question for the ages. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 018

More of these guys and their antics.

Johnny Fox:

Johnny Fox is a guy* from the Florida Everglades who visits his grandfather one day to find him the victim of a treacherous murder. And what's worse, the murderer, one Peter Pokane, did so in order to steal a supply of "sun-shots", i.e., invisibility pills.

*and by "guy" I mean "Native American guy of the Seminole Tribe of Florida" but it's a tricky thing to work into a concise sentence. Also tricky: the racial politics of the Johnny Fox comic! Johnny is a college-educated Seminole and thus free of a lot of the overt stereotypical behaviour of the day but also is a near-superhuman even without the invisibility pills, explicitly due to his Noble Savagery. Plus Peter Pokane's major villainous trait is that he's a "half-breed" which... must I explain why that sucks? What I'm saying is that it's complicated.

Johnny gets the sun-shots back by yeeting Peter Pokane out a penthouse window and begins fighting crime, invisible-style. Keeping in mind, of course, that he has to take a pill to turn invisible and another to turn back. Unless he gets hurt, which will turn him back immediately. Which happens a lot, because Johnny may be invisible, but his shadow never is. As far as invisibility goes, this version might have the most caveats I have ever seen. At least he doesn't have to be nude.

After a while the writers seem to get tired of the invisibility gimmick and have Pokane return just long enough to take the sun-shots to a watery grave (and it's a rare villain who gets killed by the same hero twice). Johnny Fox is now just a regular bow-wielding New York City Private Detective... for about two issues and Johnny's grampa's ghost returns to teach him how to make them. (Champion Comics 006, 1940)

the Human Meteor:

Duke O'Dowd was just a regular Texan serving as a French Foreign Legionnaire until a couple of issues in, when his writers presumably realized that comics about the French Foreign Legion are boring, repetitive and usually pretty racist (though they probably cared more about the first two reasons). So they made Duke homesick, had him earn an honourable discharge and sent him on his way in a plane piloted by fellow Texan Kerry Flynn - an unlucky break for Flynn as it turned out, because somewhere over the Himalayas the two were caught up in a mysterious tornado and blown to the hidden city of Bayakura, a journey that only Duke O'Dowd survived.

Hailed as the Great Deliverer, O'Dowd is introduced to Bayakuran scientist Dr Wah Lee, who outfits him with the Wonder Belt, a superscientific device which provides him with super-strength, the power of flight and invulnerability to metal. Plus he gets a stun ray gun! And a very fun and goofy outfit!

Duke puts down a rebellion by the very low-achieving heir to the throne of Bayakura (his aim was to take the riches of Bayakura to the outside world and live like a king but he decided to do so via a huge heist rather than the traditional and much safer option of embezzling from the kingdom while in power) and installs Wah Le in his place befpre heading to the outside world himself.

Sadly, once O'Dowd rejoins the outside world he trades in the amazing Bayakuran national costume for a more traditional super-hero getup (though the Bayakurans seem to have varied up their outfits as well - perhaps their fashion industry was revitalized by O'Dowd's fresh new looks). He also switches names, from the Great Deliverer to the Human Meteor, which is admittedly more snappy. 

The Human Meteor is also the first character we have encountered who will someday be done dirty by Roy Thomas in 1993's Invaders v2. Briefly, Thomas had the idea to field a team of super-heroes who had defected to the Nazis against the Invaders and since he wasn't allowed to use any actual Golden Age Marvel characters he instead opted for the public domain. 

While my initial instinct is to reject this idea... I must admit that it's not without merit. Plenty of otherwise rational people were also charmed by the fascists - it's unreasonable to think that no superfolk would ever compromise one aspect of their morality for another (it is a badly-written comic, because it's a very 1990s comics). So what we're going to do is not assume that we'll get to it later (three years into this project and I still haven't gotten to 1942, after all) and instead we're going to evaluate just how much of a stretch it was for each character to end up as a Nazi.

While Duke O'Dowd is an adventurer and thrill-seeker who joined the French Foreign Legion for a larf and never really expresses complex morality as opposed to simple justice-seeking, his stated reason for joining the Battle-Axis is that his Boston Irish blood demanded it, which... is plausible as a motivation for attending a few meetings but a huge stretch when it comes to attempting to kill Captain America. (Champion Comics 008, 1940)

Robinhood Jones:

"Rich guy who gives it all up to become a do-gooder hobo" wasn't the most popular trend in early comics but I can conjure up at least half a dozen examples. Robinhood Jones has the added distinction of being a pretty direct pastiche of - you guessed it - Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Some highlights:

Robin Hood - Robert Harrison Jones III

Friar Tuck - Fry Tucker

Little John - Little Jack Lee

Will Scarlet - Bill Scarlet

Alan-a-Dale - some guy named Allen

There's also a fairly delightful swap of archery for horseshoes as an all-purpose solution. Funnily enough, though Robinhood Jones squared off against the same crooked Sheriff of Sherwood City on thereabouts on two separate occasions he never encountered a clear Prince John analog. Or a Maid Marion, for that matter. (Champion Comics 007, 1940)

the Black Ghost:

AKA the Black Rider, the Black Ghost was an alternate identity adopted by cowboy hero Bronc Peeler (himself the character prototype for the slightly less outlandishly-named Red Ryder) on one of the many occasions in which he was framed as a crook and had to prove his innocence. Of note mostly for his very cool outfit consisting of jet black cowboy gear with a white bandit mask. (Popular Comics 039, 1939*)

*Originally a comic strip that was reprinted in Popular Comics, if you're truly interested.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 516: THE GHOST CROOK

(Blue Bolt v2 003, 1941) 

Sergeant Spook's actual jurisdiction as a ghost cop is both broad and vague, but when he opens up his presumably black market mortal paper one day and learns that a ghost is seemingly wreaking havoc among the living it's a no-brainer: he's on the case. And it seems that he's up to the task of tracking the Ghost Crook down, because just about as soon as he steps foot in the mortal world he happens across a spooky mugging!

It doesn't take long for Sergeant Spook to discover that the Ghost Crook is not, in fact, a ghost but an invisible man of some kind. So not a criminal ghost but something just as bad: a criminal besmirching the good name of ghosts everywhere!

Sergeant Spook seemingly just starts visiting all of the supernatural-adjacent locales in town and once more gets incredibly lucky as his first port of call is the theatre at which Suez, Master Magician and Super Spiritualist is performing and Suez is in fact the Ghost Crook. Why is he named the overwhelmingly-Egyptian-associated Suez when he is touted as being from "the mystery shrouded land of India"? My money is on him being a white guy who chose his name on vibes. My evidence? The history of entertainment.

This is where things get a bit confusing. Once the Ghost Crook is revealed to be a stage magician there is some effort to reframe his invisibility as mere slight-of-hand, whether via trickery with mirrors and clouds of dust or the old standby explanation of mass hypnosis. But... we saw the Ghost Crook be fully invisible! He was running down a city street in broad daylight! And just like every time hypnosis is wheeled out in a Zatara story to explain all his wild powers, the sheer scope of what Suez could supposedly do (hypnotize everyone with eyes on him in a city street, including a ghost that he could not see and was not aware of who had just showed up while he was busy wresting a bag from a man's hand) is so wildly over-the-top that merely turning invisible via magic is by comparison mundane.

This question is not resolved, by the way. The Ghost Crook is felled with a spectral sock to the jaw and carted off by mortal police. Who then had to figure out if he really was an Indian citizen, presumably.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 276: THE INVISIBLE SLAYER

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 019, 1941)

There's a bit in the introductions to the Top 10 anthologies in which Neopolis mayor John Q. Public lays out the exponential propagation of super-heroes, -villains, -pets, -monsters and so forth that takes place in a comic universe that I think of often as I read through these old adventures. Heroes inspire sidekicks and imitators; their enemies build robots and create doppelgangers to counter them, etc, until you have superhumans everywhere. 

There's one thing that isn't brought up in that intro that absolutely contributes to the proliferation of the extranormal in a super-hero universe: any friend, family member or acquaintance (and especially any old college classmate, for some reason) is highly likely to either become a super-villain or to be targeted by one. Out of universe, it is of course an easy way to bring the hero in on a case, but in-universe: what a wild series of coincidences!

In this case, we find Professor Zog summoned to the side of his old college pal Sir John Chadwick, who has seen almost his entire family killed by a mysterious set of floating hands in recent weeks. Zog is of course a bro and immediately flies to England to solve this problem via Applied Robot Violence. The first battle between Electro and the Invisible Slayer ends in a robo-defeat, but Zog manages to shoot the killer and follows its trail of blood to...

The nearby mansion of Basil Drake, who turns out to be behind the whole thing to such a degree that one must wonder about Sir Chadwick's powers of observation. Drake's mansion contains a herd of gorillas, for heaven's sake. His motivation for five murders and many more attempteds is that Chadwick's daughter sensibly rejected his marriage proposal, which is, I must say, a stupid reason to delve into super-villainy.

And of course even after Drake bumps himself off rather than be captured we must deal with the Invisible Slayer itself, or himself, as it turns out, because the Slayer is in fact Drake's servant Chandi, cast as a monster due to his size and race.

A story featuring disembodied hands and herds of gorillas, ruined for me by racism and misogyny. I hope you're happy, Basil Drake.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 142: DR DARRK

 (Adventure Comics 065, 1941)

Another in a long line of scientist-villains faced by Hourman, Dr Darrk has a moderately cool name, a lighthouse HQ and an invisibility ray but ultimately is overshadowed by his really excellent robot goon, Giganto:

Just look at that cool robot!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 141: THE UNSEEN MAN

 (Adventure 064, 1941)

The Unseen Man, aside from his pretty great name, is fairly run-of-the-mill: an art supply owner or employee who somehow develops an invisibility paint, he subsequently turns to crime and is captured by the Sandman.

The reason that the Unseen Man gets such short shrift is that a lot of story real estate is taken up with a subplot of Dian Belmont wanting to be in on the adventure and generally getting in the way, despite discovering at least one key clue. It's all fairly depressing, especially as her earlier, hypercompetent self was still showing up only a few issues prior and she mostly gets pushed out by Sandy the Golden Boy going forward.

Anyway, a shame that the Unseen Man didn't get more to do.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 098: THE INVISIBLE MAN

(Detective Comics 041, 1940)

What makes them a super-villain? He's an espionage guy with an invisibility formula.

What is interesting about them? Invisible guys are often pretty dull comic book villains, but I will give the Invisible Man/ Dr Ellis this: his cover identity is as a scientist in the team that is trying to catch him, and he's evidently arrogant enough that he actually developed a formula for a gas that would render him visible again but assumed that investigator Cliff Crosby would not have the chemical knowhow to synthesize it. He was wrong!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 078: MR GLIB

(All American Comics 011 & 013, 1940)

What makes them a super-villain? He's a guy who kind of looks like Satan (named I.M. Glib, natch) who uses such as invisibility fields and food spoiling chemicals to ransom cities and US Senators. A slam dunk, definitional villain.

What about them is interesting? He's a Golden Age scientific villain who made two appearances and used the same technology in both of them. This is almost unprecedented, I assure you - ordinarily someone who made their first foray into crime with invisibility tech would be sporting a time machine or an army of robots in their second.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 072: THE GREAT I

(Adventure Comics 052-054, 1940)

A properly fun invisible villain, finally! In order:

-great hat, great mustache

-has to get nude

-filled with hubris vis-à-vis just how much you can get done just by being invisible (world conquest?)

Although to that last point they (they being heroic boxer Socko Strong) had to set a trap to electrocute him in order to stop him.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 040: THE INVISIBLE TERROR

(More Fun 044, 1939)

Not much to this fellow, just a scientist who turns himself invisible and immediately starts criming it up. He is our first invisible guy though, and he's yet another collar by the Radio Squad. Well, almost - he hurls himself out a window rather than go to jail.