Mystery Men & Women:

The A's

  Abdallah: 1937, Funny Pages vol 2 #3/14 (Comic Magazines Co/ Centaur/ Chesler). Abdallah is a mighty fighter and horseman in his father's army in some undisclosed country and time. With his father's blessing, he travels, looking for adventure and goes to the Magic City of King Barbar. He promptly falls in love with the Princess Ahloo and must prove to her father his courage. He's given the quest to descend into a valley of death, ruled by prehistoric monsters. Slaying such a beast proves his love.
  Adventure, Incorporated: 1941, Bang-Up #1 (Progressive). John Pierce and his business partner Buck "Bud" White are "Adventure, Incorporated," and will do "any job, anywhere, any time. We specialize in work others cannot do, in work others fear to do" which takes them all over the world. John and Buck/Bud have no powers but are good at the skills all crimefighters need ala fighting, shooting, and flying. John has dark hair and wears dark suits while Buck is Blonde and seems to like to dress in all white judging by the first issue. Apparently, halfway through the story, the writer forgot Buck's name and started calling him Bud.
Air Man: 1940, Keen Detective Funnies #23 (Centaur). When Drake Steven's father Professor Claude Stevens, a famed ornithologist, is murdered and he gets nowhere with the police, Drake puts together a costume and goes hunting the criminals as Air Man. His costume consists of a pair of gas-filled wings, a jet-pack, and he carries bombs as well as guns.
  Airboy: Nov. 1941, Air Fighters Comics #2 (Hillman). Davy Nelson's father was a government scientist and whose friend, Martier the monk, designed an unusual bat-winged plane. Yet, the plane crashes, killing his friend. Davy fixes the plane, names it "Birdie" and uses it against tthe Axis powers during the war and other evils afterwards while wearing the costume of Martier, which was handed down through generations since the French Revolution. One of the greatest comic book aviation heroes
Airmale: 1943, Prize Comics #34 (Prize). Scientist Kenneth Stevens discovers he is lighter than air after a chemical he was working on enters a cut on his hand. Developing a gravity control device, he embarks on a career as Airmale. When his nephew Bobby is sent to live with him, he takes him into confidence and treats him with the same chemical. Bobby adopts a similar costume and becomes Stampy.
  Air-Sub "DX": 1940, Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 n3 (Centaur). Air-Sub "DX" is one of those marvelous golden-age multipurpose vehicles, in this case a flying submarine of the future armed with a dissolving gun. is actually a flying submarine. It is desired by Curly, a despot of an undersea country but he's continually foiled by the pilot and inventor of the sub, Professor Gray, his lovely daughter Rita and hunky assistant Tim. Tim eventually wears something similar to a costume and becomes acting captain of the sub. Strip is done by Carl Burgos of Human Torch fame.
Ajax, the Sun Man: 1940, Doc Savage Comics #2 (Street & Smith). Ajax comes to Earth from the sun's core. He uses his various heat powers to fight crime as Ajax and in his civilian identity he is Jim Wilson, a policeman. His powers include the ability to generate great heat, invulnerable to heat (and explosions), flight, and super strength. Although his powers can be sapped by extreme cold.
  Jack & Judy Alden: 1942, C-M-O Comics #1 (Centuar). The lad Jack (age 13), his sister Judy (15) and their cousin Dan Wilkens (16) solve mysteries. The first issue of this comic doubled as a catalogue, listing clothes and accessories worn by the various characters.
  Alias the Dragon: Unlike the Alias the Spider strip, this is his whole superhero name. A police scientist, he uses knowledge gained at the police station and his own personal flame thrower to tackle the crooks. He's not above leaving them dead.
Alias X: 1941, Captain Fearless #1 (Holyoke). In the first story, he's already been active for a year, capturing criminals and leaving a calling card saying "With compliments, Alias X". With a public wanting his story, he comes forward the publisher of the Gazette and the Commissioner, and tells how he was a man for the sake of the story named Joe Smith, a taxi driver in a small mid-west town, when he finds himself arrested and convicted for being the driver of some bank robbers who also killed the guard. He spends two years in jail before he escapes with 5 other convicts! He then devotes his time to mastering disguise and able to track down the real killers. But, the day he captures them, he'll come clean and reveal his real identity. NOTE: Ok, the story has a few holes that X tells them. He takes pains not to give his real name or the name of the town he was from, but he tells the name of the murdered man and details of the crime and his conviction. And, why is he here looking for the gang instead of the town that it happened?

Amazing Man: 1939, Amazing Man #5 (Centaur). Orphan John Aman was chosen as a child during the days of WW1 by the Tibetan Council of Seven to be raised and trained to mental and physical perfection; he gained superhuman strength, amazing control of his body, and incredible mental powers (including a low level of telepathy). Also, through the intervention of a woman from the outside world, he was injected with a serum that allowed him to become a green mist (at times, this was also his super-hero moniker). He had to pass some grueling tests which include fighting a cobra using only his teeth, survive a knife being thrown into his throat among others. When he turns 25 he is deemed ready leave the lamasary to fight crime in the larger world. For reasons never fully explained, one of the lamasery's top monks known only as the Great Question opposed Amazing Man's training. He had tried to discredit Amazing Man while he was growing up but had failed. Once Amazing Man was released into the outside world, the Great Question continued to try to discredit him, using an amazing variety of criminals under his control as well as mentally controlling Amazing Man at some times. In issue #11, Amazing Man returned to the lamasery and underwent a purifying fire which "cured" him of his more sinful emotions ie much of his more bloodthirsty tendancies. It also made him immune to the Great Question's mind control. It's at this time he is given the shield & harness that makes up his costume. They are indestructible so serve as some armor as well as a reminder of who he is. The seal also negates the need for routine injections to become the Green Mist, allowing him to internalize this power. It was following this that he became friends with Zona Henderson. In May, 1941 Stars and Stripes #2, it is said that the Council of 12 (guess they have grown since the early days) will give Zona powers to help Aman. However, the following issue has her still normal. In issue 23 of Amazing Man Comics (later in 1941) Zona doesn't show powers but her brother Tommy gets some. The Great Question (now called Mr. Que, Que, the Great Que) has grown so powerful with his armies, science and black magic and now allied with the Nazis, Amazing Man telepathically calls on his friend Nika, head of the mystic Council of 12 to grant him more power. Unknown to him, Zona's visiting brother is secretly watching and he receives a portion of that power and becomes Amazing Man's sidekick. Both are able to fly at this point.

Created by Will Everett, Amazing Man had all the violent and angry tendancies that Namor became known for. Modern heroes Iron Fist and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt were based on this golden-age hero.

amazona
 Amazona: 1940, Planet Comics #3 (Fiction). Blake Manners is the sole survivor of an arctic expedition and he discovers the remnants of an ancient race of super-humans that had otherwise perished during the last Ice Age. When he returns to America, it's with the beautiful and super-strong and tough Amazona who'd fallen in love with the reporter.
American Ace: 1939, Motion Picture Funnies Weekly (Funnies, Inc). Perry Webb is the American Ace, an American adventurer and ace pilot that gets involved in a war between two small European countries: Attania and Castile d'Or. Note: Of special interest, this character was called American Ace appearing in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly (1939) which was printed but never published as a give-away. What's really unusual is the publisher of that book was Funnies, Inc, a company formed by several of the Centaur staff including Will Everett and Carl Burgos. Thus, that particular book also had the first appearance of Namor, the Sub-Mariner. In addition to this failed experiment, they were hired to produce strips for Marvel Comics #1 which would have an expanded version of Namor's story in Marvel Comics #1. American Ace himself would also appear in Marvel Comics #2 and 3 before getting the name change and moving to Centaur. Thus American Ace/Lt. Lank had what seems to be 4 appearances total yet at 3 different companies.
American Crusader: 1941, Thrilling Comics #19 (Better Publications). Meek and somewhat distracted Professor Archibald Masters interupts an "atom smasher" experiment and is exposed to radiation. When he later wakes up, he finds that he feels invigorated. Turns out, he's charged with superpowers (strength, flight, invulnerability). He then puts on a patriotic costume and fights crime, while maintaining his "Clark Kent" demeanor to keep his id a secret from would-be girlfriend Jane Peters. He would take on a youth named Mike as a partner when he gained superpowers through an experiment.

American Eagle: 1942, America's Best Comics #2, 6,7,10-12,14 (Better). Scientist Tom Standish and young pal Bud Pierce gain superpowers from a black ray device and use those powers to fight crime, Nazis and saboteurs as the patriotic duo of American Eagle and Eaglet. The Eagle's costume was blue (sometimes purple) with red and white stripes. American Eagle's longest run was in Exciting Comics: 22-47 except issues 28 & 39. It was here, starting with issue 22 in 1942 that he first teamed up with Eaglet.

Arrow: 1938, Funny Pages v2 #10 (Centaur). Ralph Payne puts on a costume and use his incredible archery skills to fight the bad guys when he feels he cannot do enough as a U.S. Intelligence agent. The Arrow is the first of comics' archery based mysterymen.

In the early stories, his identity is kept secret though he's wealthy enough to have a butler and lives in New York. His identity is figured out and known by Inspector Carter of the Chicago police.
  Astron: 1941, Doc Savage # 5 (Street & Smith.) On a secret jungle isle, Astron the Crocodile Queen is custodian of Cleopatra's Flame of Eternal Youth. There, she awaits for her Queen's return and is discovered by patrol pilot Cassidy, "the man of the sky" with whom she falls in love. She uses her power over the crocodiles to aide him and the Allies against the Nazis when they discovered her secret isle.
Atlas: Dec. 1941, Choice Comics #1 (Great Publications). Jim Randall is an office clerk and your typical 90 lb weakling. After a disastrous attempt at trying to stop his date's kid brother from getting beat up, he ends up getting pummelled himself. He's later visited by Atlas, the "Greek God of Strength" who feels sympathy for Randall and teaches him his "strange, secret exercises." Using the exercises Randall gains super strength and agility which he then uses to fight crime, as commanded by Atlas.
Atoman: 1946, Atoman #1 (Spark Publications). Scientist Barry Dale worked with the Manhattan Project and after the war the Atomic Institute. When he is thrown from a tall building after refusing to work for some criminals who want to sell the secrets of atomic energy to the highest bidder, he somehow survives the fall. He theorizes that prolonged exposure to radioactive materials worked with the stress of the near-death experience have made him an atomic man, a human atom-bomb. Naturally, he puts on a costume to fight crime. In addition to the stardard super strength, flight, speed, and invulnerability, he also has "atomic vision," and can heat his body to the point that he can weld metal with his bare hands.
Atomic Man: 1945, Headline Comics #16 (Prize Publications). Adam Mann is caught in a "weird chemical accident" while working with U-235. Since this is a comic book, instead of killing him through radiation poisoning or cancer he instead gains atomic based powers that he uses to covertly fight crime and and the new evil, Communism. His powers include super strength, flight, and firing energy from his right hand. He wears a lead glove over his hand to control his power, and removes the glove to activate them.
Atomic Thunderbolt: 1946, Atomic Thunderbolt #1 (Regor Company). William "Willy the Wharf Rat" Burns suffered brain damage from a Nazi torpedo during the War and is chosen by Professor Josiah Rhonne as a human guinea pig. Rhonne is looking for a way to change a person's basic atomic structure to them immune to radiation and nuclear explosions, rendering atomic bombs and fear of atomic warfare moot. An explosion in the lab transforms Willy into the Atomic Thunderbolt, curing his brain damage and giving him fantastic powers. Rhonne and his laboratory on the other hand are utterly destroyed. He is bulletproof, can fly and fire energy blasts. He actually just calls himself "Thunderbolt".
auro
 Auro: 1940, Planet Comics #1 (Fiction House). Auro is orphaned when his parents Prof. and Mrs. John Hardwich crash their spaceship in the wild jungles on the planet Neptune. Auro, grows up to have Tarzan-like adventures in the alien jungles, eventually becoming "Lord of Jupiter". As is the wont of many of the strips in Planet Comics, the character would have a schizophrenic history. He'd eventually adopt a costume of sorts, flying between the various planets of the solar system. In an adventure, somehow an Earthman named Chet Eddison would come to live inside Auro, experiencing what Auro does and helping at times by exerting some of his will on Auro though Auro seemed unaware of his help and influence. The costume in #44 is similar to the one shown here but with a winged cowl, a yellow cape and a lightning bolt instead of a triangle on his chest.
  Avenger I: 1939, The Avenger #1 (Street & Smith). Richard Henry Benson is on a flight from which his wife and daughter disappear and everybody claims he had boarded alone. The shock turns his hair white and renders his face expressionless but which he can now mold almost like putty into resembling anyone he so chooses. A millionaire, adventurer and extremely knowledgeable in enough areas to give Doc Savage a run for his money, he turns his talents and resources into solving his family's disappearance and turn the tables on all crookdom. He meets up with other like-minded individuals and forms Justice, Inc. Originally a pulp hero, he also made the transition to comics fairly intact starting in Shadow Comics v2n1.
 

Avenger II: 1941, The Avenger (Street & Smith). On radio, the Avenger was changed substantially enough to constitute a new character. Scientist Jim Brandon comes up with two inventions: one allows him to pick up thought flashes and the other a capsule that grants him invisibility. He's helped by Fern Collier who knows his secret.
  Avenger III: 1951, Space Detective #1 (Avon). At some point in the future, philanthropist Rod Hathaway becomes the hero Avenger. His secretary Dot helps him as Teena.

 

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