Golden Age antecedents to Marvel characters

C.C. Beck and Bill Parker's Captain Marvel debuted in 1940's Whiz Comics #2 and would go on to become one of the most popular characters of the Golden Age superhero boom. Because he bore more than a passing resemblance to the other caped strongman who started that boom, the company we now know as DC Comics sued Captain Marvel's publisher Fawcett, and the litigation dragged on until superhero comics were no longer popular, and so Fawcett settled in the 1950s, and the character went into limbo for about 20 years.

During that time, Marvel Comics created their own Captain Marvel character, a super-powered alien warrior with the unlikely real name of Mar-Vell, and they quickly copyrighted "Captain Marvel", so that by the time the Distinguished Competition finally revived the original Captain Marvel, DC couldn't use that name in the titles of any of their books. 

This is why since the 1970s, all of DC's Captain Marvel-starring books (and a 1970s TV show, and the 21st century pair of feature films) have gone by some formulation of "Shazam" instead (and the publisher has tried to change the character's name to "Shazam" in the last few decades, with limited success), while Marvel continues to publish books entitled Captain Marvel (and, of course, their film starring one of their Captain Marvels was able to use that name in the title). 

Marvel's Captain Marvel is by far the most obvious and famous case of the publisher using the name of a Golden Age hero for one of their characters, but as I've been learning, it wasn't the first or the last time.

I've been working my way through Lou Mougin's Secondary Superheroes of Golden Age Comics (McFarland; 2019), which is a defunct publisher by defunct publisher survey of the various superheroes who didn't survive the 1940s, which here seems to mean the various heroes who weren't published (or later acquired) by the company that would become DC or the company that would become Marvel.

Thanks to publications as various as Dynamite's Project Superpowers comics, Image's "Next Issue Project", Paul Karasik's efforts with the works of Fletcher Hanks and others, even casual modern readers will likely know the names and stories of many of these also-ran characters (Mougin notes many of these later revivals, of which AC Comics seems to be responsible for a lot of, along with Project Superpowers).

The other reason that several of these lesser Golden Agers' names will be familiar, of course, is that they have since been applied to Marvel heroes (And, to be fair, some DC characters as well). Let's take a look at some of them, shall we?

We just discussed the case of Daredevil recently. That was, of course, the name of a fairly popular hero from Lev Gleason Publications who wore a striking two-color costume divided vertically, wielded a boomerang, fought The Claw and Hitler and who was worked on by such Golden Age greats as Jack Cole and Charles Biro. 

He was around for a remarkable 16 years, not calling it quits until 1956...just eight years before Marvel's Daredevil would make his debut (And, as pointed out in the previous post, there's a chance—a "legend" in Mougin's words—that Marvel's Daredevil was pretty directly inspired by Lev Gleason's, the result of Stan Lee being asked by publisher Martin Goodman to revive the original guy).(UPDATE: Commentor kevhines pointed me to this 2020 post by Tom Brevoort, discussing the creation of Marvel's Daredevil, his story noting Goodman's interest in possibly reviving the Golden Age version.)

The next most popular Marvel hero with a Golden Age forebear was a pretty big surprise to me, as I had never heard of him, although there's a pretty good chance you might have, given how recently he was revived and by whom. 

I am talking about Doctor Strange.

The Marvel character by that name is, of course, a literal doctor whose surname was literally "Strange," a surgeon who, after a humbling car accident, an epic journey and the tutelage of a wise master, became Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, engaging in various mystic adventures. Steve Ditko created him in in 1963. 

The other Doctor Strange debuted in 1940's Thrilling Comics #1 from Nedor Comics, in a long action-packed story that Mougin refers to as "a 37-page marathon." Writer Richard Hughes and artists Alex Koster's Doctor Strange was "a powerful, brilliant scientist who didn't shy away from duking it out with villains," as Mougin puts it, and the character seemed to have far more in common with the Doc Savage of the pulps than the guy who would become the far more famous Doctor Strange a few decades later.

After happening upon a kidnapping plot and being shot, Strange prepares a dose of Alosun, a super-power granting "distillate of sun-atoms" that made him into something of a Superman in terms of speed, strength and invulnerability. A later refinement of his formula apparently also bestowed upon him the power of flight. Though he never adopted a cape or chest-symbol or went in for tights, by the eighth issue of Thrilling he adopted a uniform of sorts: A tight-fitting red shirt and a pair of blue jodhpurs. 

He also shortened his name to "Doc Strange" after just ten issues as "Doctor Strange," which is perhaps one reason he's not thought of as a contender for the more famous superhero appellation.

His adventures lasted a respectable eight years before he faded away, not to be revived until AC Comics decided to do so in a 1991 issue of Femforce. (I've never really found the covers of that series particularly appealing, but, after reading Mougin's book, I'd really like to check it out; sadly, as long-lived as it is, it doesn't appear to have ever been collected into any trades.)

But it was Alan Moore's revival that is probably better known. See, Nedor also published 31 issues of a book called America's Best Comics between 1940 and 1949, and that was, of course, the name of Moore's 1999 WildStorm imprint, under which he wrote the books The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Tom Strong, Promethea, Top Ten and other features. 

Apparently leaning into the Nedor connection, Moore reintroduced the Golden Age Doc Strange as Tom Strange in the pages of a 2001 issue of Tom Strong, wherein the older character was presented as an alternate Earth counterpart of the similarly pulp-inspired hero (It was a fortunate coincidence that Doc's first name was previously revealed to be Tom in the Golden Age comics).  

Eventually other Nedor heroes, all of whom had long since lapsed into public domain, showed up alongside Strange, starring in a pair of Terra Obscura miniseries in 2003 and 2004. 

Even more surprising than a character named Doctor Strange appearing in the 1940s, though, was one named Thor. Like the later Marvel one created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1962, he was a mortal empowered by the real Norse god and fought with the mythical Mjolnir (Marvel's Thor, of course, gradually dropped the mortal aspect of Donald Blake as time went on). 

This first Thor appeared in the pages of Fox Comics' 1940-launched Weird Comics, the first few covers of which seem appropriate for the title. (I put that of the second issue above, because it's slightly weirder than that of the first issue. You can seem 'em all on comics.org, of course; Thor doesn't seem to have ever been featured on one, but such caped weirdos as Dart and Ace and The Eagle and Buddy eventually replaced the mad scientists and scantily clad ladies of the first few issues.)

Here's how he dressed, showing considerably more skin than Marvel's later Thor ever would. 

According to Mougin, Fox's Thor was really mild-mannered mortal Grant Farrel, who was berated by his girlfriend for "his lack of adventurousness" at a night club before a "masher" cut in on them. Later, Grant is visited by the real Thor of mythology, who takes him back to his home realm to train him, telling him, "The lightning will be your servant, my magic hammer your weapon."

After his training, Grant saw his girlfriend trapped by spies, descended back to Earth, downed the plane she was on, smashed enemy tanks with his hammer and rescued her, returning to Thor afterwards to get an attaboy: "You have well earned the right to my name and my magic hammer...They are yours to keep."

Obviously, he didn't keep them long, as this Thor's feature lasted only five issues of Weird, although it's interesting to wonder if Goodman, Lee or Kirby might have encountered the feature and saw some potential in it, either filing it away in the back of their heads or completely forgetting about it except, perhaps, on some subconscious level. 

There are several other familiar names in Mougin's book. The most prominent of these is perhaps The Black Panther, a power-less, origin-less, secret identity-less character in a cat costume who appeared in a single story by artist Paul Gustavoson in a 1941 issue of Centaur Comics' Stars and Stripes. 

Like Fox's Thor, he never appeared on a cover, but you can see his skimpy costume (I do like the tail) in the above splash, which I swiped from Tom Brevoort's blog (You can read the whole story there, by the way; as Brevoort notes, this guy doesn't really seem to have anything at all in common with Marvel's much later T'Challa, save for the name).

There's also...

•The Banshee, a masked and caped Irishman from 1941 who pre-figured the 1967 mutant with a sonic scream that would become part of the extensive, wider X-Men cast (although the second Banshee lacked a "The" in his name)

•The Black Cat, a rather long-lived character from Harvey Comics who was a Hollywood actress/superheroine who debuted in 1941, long before the Spider-Man villainess-turned-love interest of the same name, who appeared in 1979 (You may have seen Harvey's Black Cat in 2018's Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Comic, which repurposed some of her original comics for riffing purposes.)

•Boomerang, a 1944 hero who fought crime alongside an archer named Diana, unlike the same-named character from 1966, who used the weapon for ill

•A couple of different Chameleons, a heroic master of disguise from 1940 and a crook from the 1940s; the Spider-Man villain from 1963 therefore seems to combine elements of both

•Dr. Doom, a civilian supporting character in the feature The Echo from Chesler's 1941 Yankee Comics. He would seem to have been a waste of a perfectly good villain's name, a name that Kirby and Lee's formidable character would begin putting to far better use in 1962

•Hydroman, a Bill Everett-created hero from a 1940 issue of Eastern Color Publishing Company's Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics who could, like the 1981-debuting Spider-Man villain, turn himself into water, not unlike a reverse Human Torch. Spidey's adversary would, of course, add a hyphen to the name

•At least two different guys named "Wonderman", one-word, a Fox Comics hero from 1939 who was very Superman-like and a Nedor Comics hero from 1944 who appeared in a feature called "Brad Spencer, Wonderman". Marvel's Wonder Man Simon Williams would debut in 1964, distinguishing himself from those prior Wondermen by separating his name into two words.

I'm sure there were other recycled names, but those are the ones that jumped out at me while reading. 

As for DC Comics, they too would later debut names that had previously been applied to Golden Age characters, though far fewer and none so famous as Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Doctor Strange or Thor. This is perhaps because so very many of the Golden Age's original characters ended up being absorbed into the DC comics line, and the attendant DC Universe shared setting.

Among the Golden Agers whose names DC fans might recognize are...

•Amazing-Man, an Everett-created hero from 1939 whose abilities are owed to training in Tibet; the green-and-yellow clad African-American hero that Roy Thomas introduced in a 1983 issue of All-Star Squadron had a different origin and powers, but his secret identity revealed his debt to the earlier hero: Will Everett

•Multiple Black Orchids, including a 1943 Harvey Comics character and 1944 Tops Comics character. Both were masked females with no powers, though the latter had a gimmicked ring. The 1973 DC character would sport a far more elaborate flower-inspired costume than either of her forebears, as well as array of superpowers. At this point the DC character is probably better known for the incarnation from disgraced writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean's 1988 miniseries, presaging her later, '90s absorption into the Vertigo "universe"

•Black Spider, a costumed detective from 1940 who fought crime with, in Mougin's description, "a cache of poisonous spiders along with his dukes and a gun." He therefore wasn't much like the Batman villain who debuted in 1976 at all

•Cat-Man, a cat-themed hero from 1940 who seemed to be a Batman riff with various cat powers, including, at the outset, nine lives. Like the Batman villain introduced in 1963, the hyphen in his name seemed to come and go (The Golden Ager just reappeared recently in a Jeff Parker-written Cat-Man and Kitten comic from Dynamite, by the way)

•The Mad Hatter, an intriguing-looking, hat-less caped hero who wore purple and spoke in rhyme and debuted in 1946, pre-dating the much more famous Batman villain of 1948 by just a few years

•The Unknown Soldier, Ace Comics' masked, patriotic-themed hero debuted in 1941's Our Flag Comics #1, and seemed to be in the mold of The Sheild and Captain America more than that of 1966's disfigured master of disguise from Star Spangled War Stories and, later, his own comic

Namor's adventures in clothing

Namor, The Sub-Mariner generally wears one of two outfits—a green, fish-scale Speedo or a black pantsuit with a short-sleeved, open-chested top and bat-wings.

Why is he always showing so much skin? Is he an exhibitionist? Is it really hot underwater? Is that the style in Atlantis? Or could it simply be that Namor has a really hard time finding clothes that fit him and complement his unusual body type?

See, as artist Carl Pfeufer demonstrated in "Terror of the Boiling Sea" from 1943's Marvel Mystery Comics #42, Namor has an incredibly broad back, and a tiny, thin little face, which swells into a gigantic, triangle shaped forehead. No wonder he just put on the first pair of swim trunks he could find and left it at that, rather than trying to find a sharp looking shirt that his deltoids didn't shred every time he tried throwing a Nazi, or wouldn't make his head look more wedge-like than it already did.

It's not like Namor spent the entirety of the Golden Age in a pair of swim trunks though. He'd occasionally wear clothes, for one reason or another, and he occasionally made them look good. For example, Namor in a sailor suit— Not bad, eh? That's from the same Pfeufer story the above panels are from, and it certainly seems to have a slimming effect on Namor's hot air balloon torso.

He wasn't too happy to get into those clothes, though.

You see, in "Terror of the Boiling Seas," Namor witnesses a few American naval ships being destroyed and their sailors badly scalded when the seas suddenly begin to boil. When he investigates, he finds submerged heating discs underwater, capable of generating enough heat to boil the seas. He follows the cords to an underwater Nazi base, and, in order to get close enough to the Head Nazi in Charge, he must don clothing: He might not like wearing a Nazi sailor's suit, but I think it's very becoming, and the hat hides his grotesque forehead. Disguised thusly, he's able to eavesdrop on the dastardly Nazis, and think sarcastic thoughts about them: Namor's not so hot at undercover work, of course, and when an officer asks him what he's doing, he can't help but respond defiantly, which results in the officer calling him "Swinehund! Backtaler!" and pistol-whipping, well, luger-whipping Namor off the dock and into the water with a splat.

Rather than resurfacing, Namor takes off all his clothes, rips open the door to the secret base, drags the heating discs inside, beats up everyone inside the base and then, when they next try to turn on the heating discs, they inadvertently turn their own undersea base into an exploding inferno.

A mystery unraveled, a Nazi plot foiled, hundreds of enemy soldiers killed, and Namor owed it all to clothes!

After the war, Namor continued to flirt with garment wearing, at least according to The Golden Age of Marvel Comics, which collected not only the above story, but also the simply titled story "The Sub-Mariner" from 1953's Young MEn Comics #24, by Namor's creator Bill Everett.

In this story, a half-dozen cargo ships have all sunk near a coral reef off the shore of a tiny island, for no discernible reason. Investigators find that the strips have had their cargo stolen and are all stripped bare.

Namor's old girlfriend Betty Dean reads about it in the newspaper to her roommate, who is engaged in doing her hair while wearing only a slip:
Both Betty and her roommate are attractive, by the way, as the narrator is sure to point out upon their introduction.

Betty decides to give Namor a call about these ship-sinkings, and she spends a few word-packed panels telling her roommate all about Namor and his origins.

Everett produces this panel, of a highly polished Namor, reflecting the bright Antarctic sun off his bare torso: Note the Avenging Suns new swimsuit, an intermediary suit between his Golden Age swim plain blue swim trunks, and the green fish-scale ones he'd wear when fighting the Fantastic Four.

When Namor arrives though, he's wearing an entirely different outfit. Behold—
Betty's roommate obviously approves, in the very next panel she shouts "Whatta hunk of man!" as Betty and Namor make plans to parachute onto the island to investigate the sinkings (Sadly, she gets airsick, and must be left behind).

On the island, Namor discovers that a small band of robots are responsible for the sinking and salvaging operation, and Namor asks Betty, her shirt as unbuttoned as far as possible, to call it in.
The Navy doesn't buy it. "LIsten to this crackpot report! Some gal's gone off her rocker," says the message receiver, "Bah! She's crazy! Request denied!!" says the guy in charge.

Betty's so mad, she just might spill out of her top!
Namor tries to reassure her that they'll think of something.

Let's see...how to deal with this robot invasion without the help of the Navy... Hmm...
Oh yeah! Violence!

Namor destorys a bunch of robots, plays possum so they'll take them to their leader, learns they're actually an invasion force from Venus, buries them under a mountain of coal from one of the cargo holds, digs a small hole for them to escape from so that they can only leave single-file and then slaps each one's head off as it comes out until they agree to surrender.

Their leader does so, but as soon as Namor brings him on to the island, the ship blasts off for outer space, and the captured robot collapses dead, its electronic signal shut off.

The Navy's still not sure what to believe, but they search for evidence of Namor and Betty's story anyway. Meanwhile, our hero and his friend have donned matching outfits!
Aw, isn't that adorable?

Clothes didn't really help Namor on this adventure at all, at least not with the robot-fighting, but they did help him make an impression on the ladies, and show his close-ness to Betty at the end there, so, once again, we see clothes have exerted a positive influence in Namor's life.