MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 042

Boys! Boys! Boys! Super powered boys!

Magno: 

Magno, aka the Miracle Man, aka the Magnetic Man, aka Tom Dalton, was a power line worker who died when he was shocked with 10 000 volts DC and then revived when he was shocked again with 10 000 volts AC. As a result, Dalton developed electromagnetic powers that he used to fly, simulate super strength when dealing with metal and create magnetic force fields. Not a bad deal.

Magno's Golden Age career was short and fairly undistinguished, and his main claim to fame is being the only one of the old Quality heroes to be killed off by Roy Thomas in All-Star Squadron to never be brought back (Magno's look also reminds me of Jericho of the Teen Titans for some reason, but that's hardly another claim to fame). (Smash Comics 013, 1940)

the Ray: 

I had a couple of issues of The Ray comics from the early 90s when I was younger and so have a tendency to think of the Ray as being a far more prominent character than he actually is - he's got to be fourth-tier at best, really (assuming that top-tier characters are the ones that everyone knows, your Batmans and Supermans, and second-tier are the ones that even a casual comics reader would consider essential. Third-tier and below is where you get into debating territory).

Regardless of his level of prominence, the Ray is actually Happy Terrill, a devil-may-care young reporter who signs on as crew in a balloon trip to the upper atmosphere and is... empowered? When he ventures out into a cosmic storm to secure some essential safety equipment. Honestly, as presented on the page Terrill could be assumed to have been replaced with some sort of cosmic entity but maybe I'm the only one who thinks that because it certainly isn't reflected in subsequent Ray lore.

Cosmic entity posing as human or no, the Ray is endowed with a startling array of powers, including at least partial invulnerability, the ability to become and travel along light, giant growth, a healing touch, light projection and telekinetic rays. At first, anyway - after a couple of issues he adopts more of a two-fisted adventurer persona whose main power is the ability to change between Happy Terrill and Ray identities and who occasionally remembers that he can fly and shoot rays of light at people.

A fairly consistent thing that I've noticed in depictions of the Ray post-Golden Age is a tendency to portray him as a very dour and serious guy, which seems a disservice to someone with the nickname "Happy." I suppose I must give it to those later scribes in that the Ray himself almost discards his Happy Terrill identity in his first adventure before eventually coming to his senses. Neither the reason for resuming life as Happy nor the process by which he explained how he made his way back from the upper atmosphere is shown on-panel, but I have to assume that being a super-hero 24/7 just gets boring after a while and he wanted to have a bit of a break. (Smash Comics 014, 1940)

Master Man: 

Master Man starts out as a weedy little kid, too small to play, who is gifted a magic vitamin pill by a kindly doctor and becomes incredibly powerful adult man. It's all there on his one-page introduction, but what's missing is one important detail: is this a gradual process like the Champ's origin, where he takes the vitamin every day and grows up big and strong, or did this little kid instantly transmogrify into a grown man, like a permanent Captain Marvel? I suppose that if Master Man really is a little kid in a man's body it would explain why his first act is to build a cool clubhouse on top of a mountain, presumably containing lots of slides and fireman poles instead of stairs. 

Being a Fawcett Comics character, Master Man is technically owned by DC Comics now, though they haven't yet bothered to trot him out of retirement, possibly because of his name, which sounds fascist enough that Marvel Comics has several full-fledged Nazi characters that use it. He would be an interesting character to use as a foil for Superman, since his powers are magic-based, but Captain Marvel does usually fill that role so we're unlikely to get a Master Man revival any time soon. (Master Comics 001, 1940)

El Carim:

One more crime-fighting-stage-magician-with-actual-magical-powers for the pile, El Carim ("miracle" backwards, as the caption box is at some pains to inform you at the start of every story) also subscribes to the same tuxedo and thin black mustache school of fashion as his contemporary Zatara, though the turban does make it easy to tell the two apart.

What sets El Carim apart from his contemporaries early on is the fact that his crime fighting is done with a series of magical items rather than with magical spells. He has a magical monocle that can deflect bullets (in what must be a very alarming manner, visually) and project illusions and which can be combined with a device called the Spectograph to scry distant locations. In addition, he has a super powerful magnet capable of plucking bullets from the air (useful for when he already has a headache from bouncing a few off of his eye, perhaps) and the Arrestor, which is able to freeze others in place, even against the pull of gravity.

Over time, El Carim starts slinging spells in a way more in line with the other magic men of comics, and I personally reckon that that's why he has languished in relative obscurity since the 1940s (other than an appearance in a 2016 issue of Scooby-Doo Team-Up, that is), as without that hook he is not appreciably different from any of his peers. (Master Comics 001, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 531: THE EVIL EYE

(Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941) 

I wonder if high schools in comic book universes hold some sort of assembly to teach kids not to yell about selling their souls to the Devil when life has them down? Because as far as I can tell it's got a pretty high chance of working, like it does for weird little scientist Ribo here.

Ribo does indeed get to see again but he also gets a demonic makeover - he's even more of a little creep than before! This is because the devil who he made a deal with is the same guy as the Dictator and Ribo/ the Evil Eye is being set up to take out Mr Justice.

This is probably why the Evil Eye sets out to bet on a boxing match and fix the outcome rather than stay at home and work on his "great invention" with his new power of sight, right? Or was he a degenerate gambler to begin with and the Devil knew that he couldn't resist using his new power this way - his invention is never defined, so perhaps it was just some sort of odds-calculator or a device for hypnotizing athletes over the phone.

The Evil Eye gives Mr Justice a run for his money when they do eventually meet up but too bad for him that he has eye-based powers and that the counter to eye-based powers has been a mirror since Ancient Greece.

In one of the harsher punishments in comic books (particularly when the only crime has been a bit of crooked sports betting) Mr Justice immediately drags the Evil Eye down to Hell, where we get some more of that sweet sweet LORE: not only are minor demons powerless to affect an immortal such as Mr Justice but the souls of what I can only assume are the creme de la creme of the evil dead are chained up next to their own bodies. It's a fun visual if a slightly underwhelming punishment, but it's where we must leave Ribo AKA the Evil Eye.

MINOR SUPER-HERO 050: THE BLUE BLAZE

(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1940)

Spencer Keen AKA the Blue Blaze is an interesting character. His origin for example has a couple of classic elements that were not yet classic at the time because it was 1940. Or rather it was 1852 because Spencer Keen is from the Past.

Costume: like Barbara Gordon twenty-odd years later, the reason that the Blue Blaze has a super-suit ready to go is that he was on the way to a costume party when his origin happened.

Origin: while the Blue Blaze is possibly the earliest super-hero to have the costume party outfit origin (and a cursory search turns up Miss Fury as the only other contender), the origin of his powers was probably already a cliche in the pulps. My Science Dad Made a Thing and I Got Powers From It has to be one of the all-time most common origins (particularly once Science Moms start getting equal representation) - heck, you could probably include Superman's origin in that category if you were feeling puckish.

Spencer Keen's Science Dad discovered a weird blue flame that killed whatever it touched, only for them to come back stronger after some time had passed. For slightly unclear reasons he had resolved to destroy this blue blaze (the name of the guy! that's where it's from!) but before he could do so a tornado ripped through the area. Spencer Keen was seemingly killed buy in actuality was blasted with blue flame.

(the tornado also ties into the origin of the Blue Blaze's costume, by the way. It killed so many people that they were all buried as quickly as possible, meaning that Keen went into the ground in fancy dress)

Spencer Keen hibernates in his coffin for 88 years, then emerges as the Blue Blaze when he is disturbed by graverobbers working for Professor Maluski. As the Blue Blaze, Keen is generically physically and mentally enhanced and invulnerable to small arms. He also has some degree of telepathic power - he passively absorbs knowledge about the world while in hibernation and has some sort of sense of where and when danger is afoot. Initially, the Blue Blaze operated as a regular-style super-hero with a secret lair, a laboratory and a cool car, but his last adventure introduced the very cool concept of him returning to the grave once he had dispensed justice upon some fools and then reemerging in a new location when he is needed once again.

I am honestly surprised that the Blue Blaze hasn't been BRUNG BACK in some capacity yet. Not only is he conceptually interesting with his whole "emerge from the grave to smite evil" gimmick but he's preloaded with an interesting state of being: a completely knowledgeable and up-to-date human whose social development stopped when he was early 20s at latest, in the 1850s. Rife with potential!