Some hot Archie/MLJ super-hero action.
**Hero Update** Bob Phantom:
Perhaps in honour of his making the jump from Blue Ribbon Comics to Top-Notch Comics, Bob Phantom gets two hitherto-unseen powers: super-breath powerful enough to turn aside oncoming bullets and the ability to summon cyclones by flapping his cape. (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940)
Bob Phantom also demonstrates super strength sufficient to tear an airplane to pieces in mid air. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)
And not content with three new super powers, in Top-Notch 010, Bob is shown to be completely bulletproof.
Bob Phantom’s modus operandi, to reveal crimes and taunt both police and criminals in his gossip column as Walt Whitman and then bust things up as Bob Phantom, has never been particularly kind to the police of his corner of MLJ New York, and at this point they openly hate him in both of his identities. (Top-Notch Comics 009, 1940)
**Hero Update** the Wizard:
The Wizard’s powers also get expanded once 1940 rolls around: not only can he now hypnotically mind control people with a mere glance but he can mentally contact his thralls across distances of at least 500 miles (the above message was broadcast from somewhere in the vicinity of Dallas to somewhere in Mexico).
1940 is also the year that the Wizard’s already-formidible strength was rounded up to full-on super, seen here as he is bodily heaving an entire u-boat Bundonian submarine out of the water with only the power of his little kicking feet to hold him up.
The Wizard’s arsenal of weapons and gadgets also gets a fair few additions this year, including:
– more rays guns than one would assume could fit in a suit with such clean lines: death rays, two different engine-killing rays (the vibra-ray gun and the neutronic ray gun), an explosive ray (the destructo-ray), a metal-melting ray (the VB-ray gun), a paralysis ray (the electrolysis ray), a rainmaking ray (the H2-VX-0 ray), fire-extinguishing ray (the Hydra Gun), and the dynamagno saw ray projector, a cutting ray which can be tuned to selectively destroy mechanical parts such as the wires that hold a plane together.
– secret chemicals including: Secret Chemical L-77 (solidifies liquids), Ethyl Formula 2X-Y-BZ (superfuel additive) and Super-Caloric Capsules and Secret Formula Ho Mg 4, which put pep back in a weary Wizard’s step.
– special vehicles, the greatest of which is the Contra-Gravity Flask, pictured above, which allows the Wizard to float harmlessly to the ground from a height or run through the air, merely by virtue of being in his pocket.
(Top-Notch Comics 002, 1940)
I somehow also failed to note in the original Wizard entry that he is not only a calling card guy but an obnoxiously patriotic one. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)
After being blinded by his enemies the Mosconians, the Wizard changes out his tuxedo costume for a more super-heroic one with even less room for ray guns. This is supposedly to protect him from getting acid splashed in his eyes again, but since the Mosconians don’t actually get a chance for a second try the actual mechanism by which the same mask but a different shirt might help in that situation is not explored. (Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940)
Finally, Blane Whitney abandons the life of the wealthy playboy to become a crusading newspaper publisher with ex-fiance Jane Barlowe as his star reporter, though he of course does not get a break for this. (Top-Notch Comics 008, 1940)
Roy the Super-Boy:
He’s not quite the Sensational Character Find of 1940, but Roy the Super-Boy is the Marvel of 1940 and that has to count for something. He’s also our first Archie/MLJ sidekick (yes, yes, Tommy the Super-Boy, but he was a reference to Roy and we only covered him first because of the alphabet and its tricks). Does he suffer the “just running around without a mask calling yourself by your own name” problem common to a lot of Golden Age sidekicks? Sure he does, but at least he has a partial code name. And I was wrong: he totally wears a mask most of the time!
As is often the case, Roy is just a scrappy young orphan making his way in the world as a bootblack, when he ends up in a fight with some grown-ass men and impresses the Wizard with his sweet moves and devotion to justice. He soon finds himself with an invite to a rich man’s private gymnasium!
Thanks to an intensive training regimen, Roy is quickly developed into an impressive physical specimen. The Wizard claims that they are equivalent barring the Wizard’s mind-powers, but I haven’t seen Roy bench-press a submarine yet. (Top-Notch Comics 008, 1940)
Kardak the Mystic:
There is a general consensus online that Kardak the Mystic is the same character as the Mystic, who appeared in Top-Notch Comics 001 and 002, but I ain’t buying it. For one, where the Mystic was an ordinary stage magician who used his skills at slight-of-hand to battle crime, Kardak has actual magical power. For another, where the Mystic was already engaged to an unnamed woman in his first adventure, Kardak’s adventures are all set in motion when a girl he just met on a cruise to India is kidnapped by undersea creatures. Certainly, relationships break up all the time, but not the Mystic and Unnamed Woman! Their love is forever!
Kardak’s adventures take him and his gal-pal Lorna from the bottom of the Indian Ocean to Louisiana, where they enter a series of extra-dimensional lands populated by hostile weirdos. It’s a pretty good setup to showcase the power of a magical hero without having story after story of him just destroying regular gangsters.
Kardak also acquires the services of Balthar, a huge dude with a magic turban, and he’s just as annoying as Tong and the other members of the Shirtless Broken English Magicians’ Assistants Collective. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)
