Obscure Marvel super-heroes, you say? But of course!
Monako, Prince of Magic:
Monako is a classic comic book magic hero in the Zatara vein, right down to the top hat, tuxedo and little mustache, though he does eventually switch to wearing a fez. His major distinction from his legion of peers is that he was brought back in a fairly recent Doctor Strange run, though as is so often the case he was dug up only to be horribly killed off.
Monako gets an origin story in Daring Mystery Comics 004, in which he is orphaned when an Indian group referred to only as “the Cruel Tribe” ritually explode the entire caravan that he and his parents were travelling in as missionaries (this at least gives us an answer to the perennial question of why bring your young child along on such a dangerous journey: because missionaries).
Young Monako (a last name? a stage name?) inexplicably survives the conflagration and is subsequently adopted by the chief of the Cruel Tribe, who teaches him the ways of magic. Just why he does this is not explored and will never be, because the British eventually show up to massacre the entire village and send young Monako back to England. Were he a going concern for the seventy-odd years between his final Golden Age appearance and his death, I’m sure that the question of just how a whole group of people with powers similar to the nigh-omnipotent Monako were killed with simple firearms, but alas, such was not the case. (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940)
Categorized in: Locations (Unrelated Name), Power Categories (Magic), Royalty (Princes)
Phantom of the Underworld:
“Doc” Denton is a surgeon-turned-detective who helps the police round up a gang boss named Perrone in his sole recorded adventure. I one hundred percent am including him here because “Phantom of the Underworld” is such a terrific name, even if nobody calls him that in-story. (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940)
Categorized in: Day Jobs (Private Detectives), Locations (the Underworld), Supranormal Beings (Phantoms)
Trojak the Tiger Man:
Trojak, orphaned son of a jungle explorer who made the inexplicable yet very popular decision to bring a baby along with him on his travels (perhaps as a difficulty boost? Was Trojak’s father a gamer?), has grown up among a tribe his father died in defense of. As is so often the case in adventure literature, being a white guy in the jungle has made Trojak both stronger and cooler than everyone else, plus he can talk to animals like Balu, his geographically-anomalous tiger companion. (Daring Mystery Comics 002, 1940)
(he is a very intelligent tiger)
Categorized in: Animals (Tigers), Generica (Mans), Origin (Orphan Raised in Jungle)
Tigerman:
“Trojak the Tiger Man” becomes “Tigerman” for its final instalment, and it’s a bit of a toss-up on whether the two characters are supposed to be the same or not. Both Trojak and Tigerman are orphaned youths who were raised by jungle tribe and who now adventure while in the company of a tiger named Balu, sure, but crucially “Trojak” is set in Africa while the Tigerman roams India. You’d be forgiven for assuming that Tigerman was Indian but no, he’s American by birth – he’s just the rare near-naked jungle guy who has the ability to get a tan.
The one thing that could have cleared up the mystery of whether these two are the same guy or not would be more adventures featuring either one of them and sadly there are no more (Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940)
Categorized in: Animals (Tigers), Generica (Mans), Origin (Orphan Raised in Jungle)
K-4 and his Sky Devils:
K-4 is the code name of a “flying spy,” and WWI/Spanish Civil War fighter ace (the youngest WWI ace, according to the text box, which would make him at most 18 as far as I can tell) who leads the Sky Devils, comprised of fellow WWI ace René d’Auvergne and makeup expert Ronald Wolverstone-Clodd. Some of the usual fun of the multinational team set-up is missing here because K-4 spends a lot of his time doing solo missions. (Daring Mystery Comics 002, 1940)
Categorized in: Alphanumeric (K, 4), Origins (WWI vets), Supranormal Beings (Devils)
