Once again we must line up four scientists, point to them and solemnly intone, “You have wasted your education.” Unnamed Scientist: One of the many lessons that those who live in a comic book universe should take to heart is to try to avoid angering any scientists you might come into contact with, and particularly not to go out of your way to antagonize them. Richard Manners never learned this lesson and ended up transformed into a small bronze statuette…
(More Fun Comics 052, 1940) What we have here is one of the big boys. Not quite a Tier One super-hero – for that to be the case, remember, your non-comics-reading parents have to have heard of him – but certainly a high-ranking Tier Two. He also might just be the first instance of the “guy who dies too early returned to Earth to do good” origin story. He definitely predates Mr Justice and the Wraith, at least, and though…
There’s a certain type of guy who just wants to put on a costume and belong to a group. This usually ends poorly. the Narcotic Gang: These fellows really know how to make heroin smuggling look grandiose, although the weird antennae-hoods really take the shine off of their cool double-breasted robes. Despite all the ceremony and cool rings and whatnot, they are brought to justice by reporter Red Logan without much trouble. (More Fun Comics 031, 1938) the Night Raiders:…
It’s going to be more Bobby and Binks and the Magic Crystal of History. Remember, this is all technically cannon to Earth-Two continuity, and so is very interesting if you care about that kind of thing. And if not… sorry. Peter the Hermit: Bobby and Binks check out the life of Peter the Hermit, a wandering religious man who is credited as the inspiration for the First Crusade, seen here as he influences the Pope (unnamed here but that’s Pope…
Just what does 1937 have in store for Doctor Occult? Not much, I’m afraid. More Fun Comics 022, in which Occult seemingly dies but is in fact one of the victims of the Lord of Life’s extortion scheme, establishes a bit more about the relationship between him and Rose Psychic, to whit, that she was/is in love with him. This has no impact on any subsequent appearance of either character. More Fun Comics 032 also features a development in the…
We’ve been doing a second pass on some comics I read early on in this project, and so here are a few more guys who I chose not to include but absolutely should have: Henri Duval: A series of men have been murdered in unlikely-to-impossible scenarios, with the only common denominators being that they were all judges at a recent art exhibition and that they all have the initials “HD” marked on their foreheads. This is a case for Doctor…
(New Fun Comics 006, 1935) Doctor Occult debuts in the final two issues of New Fun Comics and then appears in More Fun Comics through to issue 033 in 1938. Much of his deal is summed up in this single page that is the entirety of that first appearance: a trenchcoat-clad supernatural detective with a mystic symbol that kind of looks like a hypno-coin and an assistant named Rose Psychic*, Doctor Occult is the very first DC Comics character who…
(Miracle Comics 004, 1941) Bullet Bob Dunn is a fellow who we don’t actually know a lot about, but whatever he did to earn the nickname “Bullet” it was also the sort of thing to attract the attention of eccentric professors like Krug here, who has a vehicle called the “Under-Sea Projectile” and a location to take it to but evidently no desire to go there himself. Bob on the other had doesn’t even bother to change out of his…
The major development for the Blackhawks post-origin is of course the introduction of more named Blackhawks, and they get on that almost immediately: The second Blackhawks story, in Military Comics 002, introduces six new Blackhawks all in one go: Stanislaus, Andre, Hendrick, Boris, Zeg and Olaf. I wouldn’t call them especially distinctive personalities in this first appearance, particularly as the story’s focus is less on the Blackhawks and more on the fellow in the yellow scarf, an RAF flyer…
As explained in the last real person round-up, Bobby and Binks’ adventures in time mean that these pocket histories all technically take place in the comic book universe that will eventually become DC Comics’ Earth-Two*, and thus are fodder for this feature. Plus there are, like, so many historical figures in them and there’s a part of me that really cares about getting those numbers up. *this is important for later when we can look back and say just how many of these guys…