{"id":1813,"date":"2024-07-16T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=1813"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T19:41:03","slug":"minor-super-hero-round-up-017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=1813","title":{"rendered":"MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another fresh hot basket of also-rans, just for you. <\/p>\n

the Mask<\/b>:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Scoop Cody, society reporter, is secretly vigilante crimefighter the Mask. He’s not terrific at concealing this fact – both love interest Elaine and villain Carlos figure it out during the course of the one extant Mask story – but he gets the job done. Of mild interest is that Scoop Cody is also the name of the Marvel’s<\/a> reporter pal. (Star Comics v1 013, 1938*)<\/p>\n

the Phantom Rider<\/b>: <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

The Phantom Rider is your standard masked cowboy, identity unknown. Given their similar names and that they are both Centaur Comics characters it is equally likely that he is a renamed Phantom o’ the Hills as it is that he is a separate creation. His horse is named Thunder. (Star Comics 016, 1938*)<\/p>\n

Air Man<\/b>:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Air Man is Drake Stevens, an ornithologist who embarks on a vigilante career after his father is murdered in an insurance scam on the high seas. He only makes a handful of appearances before Centaur folds, and here are the salient things about him: <\/p>\n

-Air Man is a “realistic” version of Hawkman, i.e., not realistic but in a slightly more plausible way than an antigravity belt. His wings are filled with helium and he has a little jet engine for propulsion (at least, as of his second appearance. Maybe he’s just very slowly gliding around in his first). He also has egg-shaped bombs, which isn’t relevant to the flying but is fun.<\/p>\n

-Air Man is not<\/i> a generic bird-themed hero but in fact an albatross<\/i>-themed protector of the seas, which is a niche that I have not encountered before and the closest that I can think of is the Marvel hero Stingray, and that’s<\/i> just because they both fly and are ocean-based. <\/p>\n

 -Air Man believes in protecting the high seas so much that he breaks up with his fiance rather than just… living in a lighthouse with her or whatever. Super-heroes love breaking up with people and then feeling noble about it. (Keen Detective Funnies 023, 1940)<\/p>\n

TNT Todd<\/b>:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

TNT Todd had been a regular FBI agent having FBI agent adventures in Keen Detective Funnies<\/i> for about a year when he became if not the earliest then certainly our first example of a non-super character getting a super-heroic makeover to fit comic trends (I tell a lie Tex Thomson\/ Mr America has come up before but he made the switch in 1941). While overshadowed by fellow explosion-based hero the Human Bomb a year or so later I must admit to enjoying TNT Todd more on a conceptual level. Just a guy careening through a city via a series of explosions, theoretically helping people. (Keen Detective Funnies 021, 1940)<\/p>\n

*there are several issues of Star<\/i> Comics<\/i> from this time that are not readily available, including issues 012, 014 and 015. This means that both the Mask and the Phantom Rider could have earlier first appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another fresh hot basket of also-rans, just for you. the Mask: Scoop Cody, society reporter, is secretly vigilante crimefighter the Mask. He’s not terrific at concealing this fact – both love interest Elaine and villain Carlos figure it out during the course of the one extant Mask story – but he gets the job done. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,5,1429,144,122,580,151,636,4,6,7,1186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-32","category-5","category-air-man","category-centaur","category-chemical-mutate","category-crime-orphan","category-heroes-of-the-past","category-mask","category-minor-super-hero","category-phantom-rider","category-the","category-tnt-todd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1814,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions\/1814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}