(Smash Comics 003, 1939 – Smash Comics 012, 1940)
The Avenger is a cottage-industry villain, which is a term I just made up for particular kind of villain that you saw a fair amount in the Golden Age and then again in 1980s cartoons, wherein battling and thwarting them is the sole focus of a hero’s career – see also Mr H and the Conqueror.
The Avenger is also a revenge-focused villain: he is really Jim Rowan, a man who was swindled out of an unspecified invention decades earlier and now seeks to ruin and murder the thirteen men who did the swindling and have since grown wealthy off of it. This is a pretty reasonable motivation for revenge, and the Avenger might even have managed to come across as a somewhat sympathetic figure if he gave even one single damn about who else he might harm or kill in pursuit of his quest. His various schemes:
– bankrupt airline owner Carter by blowing up his passenger planes mid-flight
– murder electric company owner Amos Reid and frame his son George for the crime
– ruin railroad owner Edgar Karr by wrecking his trains
– incite mob violence against drug manufacturer Roger Carlin by tainting his products and distributing them to the poor
– just some low-effort murder attempts against group member Albert Mills
– ruin Rolls the bus company owner by stealing his buses, passengers and all
– attempt to murder industrialist Roger O. Gates directly (but mistakenly kill a man who looks like him)
– blow up the munitions factory of Mr Arms
There’s also a threat by the Avenger against nonspecific industrialist Albert Lewis that turns out to be bogus because Lewis has been imprisoned and impersonated by Rowan/the Avenger in order to aid his plan to destroy the others. The “death threat” is in actuality a ruse to get detective John Law alone and kill him. This leads to the discovery of another revenge scheme:
– lock Albert Lewis up in an insane asylum and take his place while acting as the Avenger, thus not only framing him but leaving him somewhere where he can’t even tell anyone about it or be counted as even more insane
None of these schemes actually succeed, however, because the 13 men have hired scientist/lawyer/detective John Law (aka the Scientective) to discover just who is targeting them and why. Like fellow Henry Campbell creations Wizard Wells and Dean Denton, Law is a scientific genius who uses his knowledge and inventions to further his crusade against crime. He never quite gets ahead of the Avenger, but he’s cagey enough to thwart his schemes before they can reach murderous fruition. Except for Amos Reid’s murder, of course, because that was the first step in a plan to ruin Reid’s legacy. And that one innocent man who died, that was a shame. The dozens of people who died on Carter’s planes don’t count, of course, because that happened before Law was hired. Look, the important thing is that twelve wealthy men were saved from facing the consequences of their actions.
The Avenger/John Law stories are entertaining stuff but nothing to write home about, mostly because both characters tend to employ what was cutting-edge or unusual science c.1940 that today is either unremarkable (remote controlled aircraft, thermite, dry ice) or is still a bit sci-fi seeming (magnetic levitation, increasing the skin’s permeability via ultrasound) but all of it is applied in this very dry, matter-of-fact, everyone-is-wearing-a-suit way that drains some of the wonder and majesty from the proceedings.
A couple of interesting things about the Avenger:
The Avenger isn’t a habitual costume wearer but he does throw on a hood a couple of times and I thought I’d showcase that. I prefer the red one!
This deathtrap, which involves a rapidly-spinning propeller and a strobe light synched to its movements to create the illusion of a stationary bar, is very fun and unique! Strobe lights! Very futuristic!
Also fun: Law’s method for discovering the identity of the Avenger. He has thirteen phone lines installed, each with its own unique number, and gives one to each of his thirteen suspects. He then issues a provocative statement to the press and simply waits to see which phone rings when the Avenger calls to yell at him. This is, frankly, an amazing hack for any situation involving multiple suspects.
I can only assume that the Avenger’s death came as a direct result of the series being discontinued – John Law, up to this point a fairly nonviolent man, abruptly shifts gears and blows the villain out of the skies with his own drone bomb. It’s an ignominious end to be sure.
REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/13 – a pretty poor showing, due mostly to the Avenger’s desire to draw out his targets’ suffering. If he had gone for the kill straight away he might have done a bit better.
