Only 5 to choose from this time and we started with:-
Cat-Man and Kitten: First appeared in Crash Comics Adventures 4 in September 1940 and created by Irwin Hansen. The Merrywether family was traveling through the jungles of Burma when bandits killed the mother, father, and sister. Young David was the only survivor. He was found and raised by a tigress and gradually gained all the powers of the cat family. When he became an adult, he decided to return to the United States. Upon arriving there, he was appalled to discover that the city was full of crime and evil he found. He decided to fight it, both as a private eye in his civilian identity and as the costumed Cat-Man.
Katie Conn was a twelve-year-old girl whose parents were killed in a train wreck. After this accident, her unscrupulous uncle took her in and forced her to steal on his behalf. When David Merrywether, Cat-Man learned of her situation, he put her uncle behind bars and adopted her himself. Katie was already a trained acrobat, and she was grateful enough to want to help. However, Cat-Man was reluctant to let her tag along until she proved herself in the fight. She became Cat-Man’s sidekick, the Kitten.
When World War II broke out, David joined the military. He was never deployed. A year before the war ended, he was discharged under unspecified circumstances and he and Katie moved to Center City, home of the Deacon. While their sidekicks were already good friends, the two crime-fighters barely interacted and only teamed up on two occasions.
In 1945, David Merrywether was given an all-new origin in Cat-Man Comics #27. His mother was now animal trainer Antoinette Burotte, who raised David in the circus among the leopard Zeealia and her cubs, one of whom was named Tamara. However, Antoinette was murdered by a mad circus trainer. As she lay dying, Antoinette made David promise to be a good person and to be good to the leopards as they would teach him things. David was subsequently adopted by the circus and became an animal trainer like his mother, training with the now older Tamara, whom he learned his cat-like abilities from.
Cat-Man had cat-like powers: he can see in the dark, leap many times his length, and climb anything. He also had nine lives. He was watched over by a guardian angel in the form of a tigress who brings Cat-Man back to life if when he is murdered (he had seven lives left as of Cat-Man Comics #3). Some of his supernatural powers were de-emphasised over time. He originally carried a silent-firing pistol called the Power Gun.
This is a bit of generic one, not much to really speak of here. There’s no real hook that I can think of.
The Owlfirst appeared in Crackajack Funnies 25 in July 1940 and was the creation of Frank Thomas. Special investigator Nick Terry, frustrated by seeing criminals set free due to the regulations that seemed to hinder the police force, put on a costume and armed himself with high-tech gadgets (including a blacklight ray that projects darkness), transforming himself into the Owl. He had a fiancée who assisted him as his sidekick named Belle Wayne.
The two main hooks I see here are the blacklight ray that spreads darkness and also the special investigator who feels restrained by the system. This guy could equally be considered a villain for one of the other characters. Maybe his is a story of a guy coming from one side to the other? It’s an idea.
Strongman: first appeared in Crash Comics 1 in May 1940. Percy van Norton was an American playboy who acquired a secret book of yogi. He studied it for years until he became the world’s most perfect man. He has the strength of 100 elephants, the speed of a race car, and skin as tough as rhino hide. He put his super strength and genius-level mind to work fighting crime and foreign invasions. He also carried a boomerang rope.
This is a bit of a Supermanalogue with a touch of the Doc Savage in him and there lies the hook. This is a character who has a belief in how he got his powers that makes little to no sense. How did he get like this? Is he Percy who became the Strongman, or is he something else that got trapped as Percy? I don’t know and that ambiguity seems to me to be the only way to go about this.
Major Victory: This is a character who first appeared in Dynamic Comics 1 in October 1941. This nameless American soldier was a night sentry at eastern Army post Camp Courage. Noticing a light on in the armory, he went to investigate only to have a saboteur throw a lantern in his face, setting him on fire and blinding him. Searching blindly for the bomb, he was able to find it but not defuse it before it exploded, killing him. Spirits take his remains to Father Patriot, who restores his body and brings him back to life with the ringing of the Liberty Bell. He continues to fight for America as Major Victory. When he is needed, Father Patriot rings the Liberty Bell, which only Major Victory can hear and in a flash of lightning, Major Victory is transported to appear before him.
Aside from the fact he was returned from the dead, Major Victory was only once shown with super powers; bullets were shown bouncing off of his chest. However, Father Patriot did once grant him the strength of a thousand men, letting him easily break restraining chains. Father Patriot also gave him a mountain hideout, a super radio receiver, and a plane for his fight against the enemies of freedom.
Two points here, the first is this character’s name was later used by Vance Astro of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who admitted it was an obscure character, so it ties directly to my own fandom, which is cool. The second is the idea that this character is conscripted to serve this Father Patriot and only seems to exist when called upon. He is brought back to life, but doesn’t have a life of his own. That’s interesting in how it can be used to explore concepts of PTSD and how need can push aside our personal desires. This guy had a family, friends, a life, but once he’s brought back, we never even learn his name. That’s a story, what kind of patriot is Father Patriot? Is this the first Major Victory? How many have there been? I like the idea, but it does need expanding upon.
Finally we get to Dynamic Man and Dynamic Boy: first appearing in Dynamic Comics 1 in October 1941.
First Version; Dynamic Man was created by Dr. Moore to fight the forces of darkness personified by the Yellow Spot. The Spot used his evil witchcraft to kill off or enter the minds of American scientists. He could travel as a bat and went into the home of Dr. Moore to kill him. While being stabbed, Moore somehow managed to throw the switch, giving life to his creation. The Yellow Spot’s fiendish plan was put to a stop by Dynamic Man, who released the trapped minds of the other scientists and eliminated the Yellow Spot, who could only be killed in his bat form.
Second version: High school basketball coach Bert McQuade get put through a series of treatments by Dr. Stahl. These result in Bert gaining super powers. Bert puts on a costume and, with brother Ricky as his sidekick, Dynamic Boy, fights crime.
Ricky McQuade is the younger brother of Bert McQuade, the second Dynamic Man. He undergoes the same treatments as Dynamic Man and becomes Dynamic Boy and fights crime with his older brother. In both cases, the Dynamic Man could fly, was strong enough to lift a car, and was invulnerable to bullets and acid. The first origin had above-average intelligence by the virtue of being an android.
The first version is just a retooling of the Human Torch idea that adds a yellow peril villain and given how abhorrent that bit of racist stereotyping can be, it’s nothing I like seeing. The second is interesting if you see that the sidekick is a younger brother, rather than the usual son figure (either ward, nephew or actual son) and how that would change the situation. Would sibling rivalry assert itself? Does Dynamic Boy like being the junior half of this pairing of brothers?
Well that’s this set done, only a small amount to go.
A Munky on Merseyside 