MINOR SUPER-HERO 029: THE BOYVILLE BRIGADIERS

MINOR SUPER-HERO 029: THE BOYVILLE BRIGADIERS

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(Feature Comics 045, 1941) It’s a tale as old as time, by which I mean about a year: noncostumed adventurers adopting costumed identities to keep up with the oncoming juggernaut that is the Golden Age super-hero boom. In this case, it’s Rusty Ryan and the other unusually muscular teens of the Boyville orphanage, who up until now were more of a high school sports type of bunch, dealing with the plague of unscrupulous gamblers betting on local hockey games and…

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RANCE KEANE MEETS SHARK EGAN: THE CROSSOVER EVENT OF 1941

RANCE KEANE MEETS SHARK EGAN: THE CROSSOVER EVENT OF 1941

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(Feature Comics 045-046, 1941) Golden Age crossovers were a pretty rare thing, other than in places like All-Star Comics where that was the whole idea, but one place you occasionally encounter them is in the kind of adventure strips that filled out the bulk of anthology comics before the super-heroes really got into full market domination mode, and especially if the same person was working on both characters and wanted to have them meet up and say what a good series…

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NOTES: JANUARY 2023

NOTES: JANUARY 2023

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Names: Bulldog Teeters. (Feature Comics 044, 1941) Zero the Ghost Detective getting straight-up punched by a ghost. (Feature Comics 051, 1941) Dates: Johnny Thunder born 7th July, 1917 (Flash Comics v1 001, 1940) Calling Cards: He only ever used ’em a couple of times but the Flash had metal lightning bolt dart calling cards. Costumes: Absolutely the best Hawkman costume variant is the brief period in which he wore a big hat in the shape of a sassy hawk’s head…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 226: THE BLACK BAT

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 226: THE BLACK BAT

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(Feature Comics 043, 1941)  Another example of the classic combination of someone posing as a spooky local legend-figure in order to scare folk away from a valuable area. In this case one Jean Dupre and his mother are trying to use the legend of the giant Black Bat (that they might have just made up) to scare their step sister/ daughter Marie away from the family ranch, which is just lousy with radium ore. It’s a good attempt, foiled by…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 226: THE BLACK BAT

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 226: THE BLACK BAT

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(Feature Comics 043, 1941)  Another example of the classic combination of someone posing as a spooky local legend-figure in order to scare folk away from a valuable area. In this case one Jean Dupre and his mother are trying to use the legend of the giant Black Bat (that they might have just made up) to scare their step sister/ daughter Marie away from the family ranch, which is just lousy with radium ore. It’s a good attempt, foiled by…

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RANKING PATRIOTIC HEROES BY DEGREE OF UNHINGED PATRIOTISM INHERENT TO THEIR CONCEPT

RANKING PATRIOTIC HEROES BY DEGREE OF UNHINGED PATRIOTISM INHERENT TO THEIR CONCEPT

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Thinking about this thanks to USA, the Spirit of Old Glory. Will probably add to this as time rolls on:  TOP UNHINGED PATRIOTISM –Inherently tied to the Myth of their Nation: USA, the Spirit of Old Glory –Embodies the spirit of their nation: Uncle Sam, John Bull, Captain Britain –Draws power from a symbol of their nation: Liberty Belle, Miss America (Quality) –Obnoxiously talks about patriotism all the time and is a jingoistic xenophobe: Don Glory, the Ghost of Flanders –Inspired…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO 028: USA, THE SPIRIT OF OLD GLORY

MINOR SUPER-HERO 028: USA, THE SPIRIT OF OLD GLORY

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(Feature Comics 042-048, 1941) USA, the Spirit of Old Glory might just be the most overtly patriotic super-hero concept ever, which is saying something. Especially as she is a Quality Comics character, a company that also featured Uncle Sam (the literal Spirit of America) and Miss America (literally given her powers by the Statue of Liberty) in their roster. USA was originally a little girl who saw Betsy Ross sew the first American flag and was just so friggin’ jazzed about…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO 027: THE DESTROYING DEMON

MINOR SUPER-HERO 027: THE DESTROYING DEMON

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(Feature Comics 039-040, 1940-1941)  This is a bit of a complicated one. So: “Captain Bruce Blackburn – Counterspy” was a strip that started in Feature Comics 032 in media res with the cover of the titular Captain and his colleague Lieutenant Jackson having been blown. The two then fake their deaths and a government plastic surgeon alters their appearances so that they are virtually identical, thus allowing them to operate as an incredibly efficient spy team with a flawless ability to generate…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO 025: ACE OF SPACE

MINOR SUPER-HERO 025: ACE OF SPACE

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(Feature Comics 038-041, 1940-1941) Pretty fond of the Ace of Space. As you can see above he has the fairly common origin of finding an alien spaceship and [getting powers accidentally from alien technology/ getting powers as a reward for helping the alien/ looting the deceased alien/ taking on the dying alien’s mission and technology]. In this case, he has to defend the Earth from invading Slogoms.  Also, I demand that you appreciate that cool looking alien. What a cool…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO 026: ZERO, GHOST DETECTIVE

MINOR SUPER-HERO 026: ZERO, GHOST DETECTIVE

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(Feature Comics 032-074, 1940-1943) Eyyy, it’s Zero the Ghost Detective! I have a blanket love of the psychic detective genre and unusually for the Golden Age Zero’s cases almost always end up being actually supernatural as opposed to being a crook in a sheet – the above panels are from a case wherein a bitter old man dies and comes back as a three-fingered ogre to drag the rest of his family into death with him. It’s usually something gruesome…

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