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Post by MWGallaher on Jan 29, 2022 10:09:17 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #58, January 1941 While Hourman has been dealing with some weird menaces in his feature as of late, the covers have all been unrelated depictions of less thrilling adventures. I never really thought about it, but I suppose we can consider each of these covers a glimpse at an untold tale, allowing Hourman to rack up a few more heroic accomplishments than we’ve seen in the stories themselves. Maybe those adventures were less interesting ones, like capturing an escaped lion or, as on this cover, rescuing a disabled boy from having his home-made crate-car from being run over by a horrified motorist who was obeying all the traffic laws when this lad darted into his path. Well, let’s see if this issue’s adventure is more substantial. SYNOPSIS: We still have the stock splash with Hourman, Jimmy, and Thorndyke leading the Minute Men, and the caption tells us nothing of interest, as we open on a railway train as it “speeds thru the night…” Inside the baggage car, Bob and Sam are guarding the payroll pouches as the train nears the Carrera Hills stop. Bob doesn’t think there’s any risk of being robbed, since they’ve been switching the delivery days, but Sam readies his pistol anyway. At the station, suspicious men await, and by one’s reminder to avoid “rough stuff if we can help it”, we’re obviously in for some trouble! Indeed, these are “not the regular men”, and they escape with the money pouches, leaving Sam with a bullet wound to the shoulder. Bob and Sam are unable to provide a description to the FBI and Sam is sent off to a doctor to see to his injury. The next morning, Rex Tyler and The Boss discuss the $10,000 robbery which has made the front page of the Morning Star. The Boss suspects the Hour-Man—“a brainy guy”—was involved in this, while Rex, naturally, argues that the Hour Man works for, not against the law. After work, Rex gets a radio call from Minute Man Martin: one of the members is in serious trouble! Rex pops a Miraclo pill and suits up, then races to the headquarters. Jimmy’s characterization of the situation was a bit exaggerated if you ask me, but see what you think: the “serious trouble” of Minute Man Burns is that his brother, Bob (the train guard) has been taken by the FBI under suspicion of being an accomplice to the robbery. Hourman promises to clear Bob (if he’s innocent!), and makes his way to the roof of the FBI building, climbing down the side to break in through a window. Hourman locates the office room where Bob Burns has been left to stew alone, and he enters to get the scoop on what happens. Here’s the gist of it, as near as I can figure from Ken Fitch’s awkward dialog: Bob Burns stopped to buy some gas and the ten-dollar bill he used was detected as part of the stolen money. The FBI were evidently staking out the gas station hoping to see those bills being passed, and they arrested Bob. He doesn’t know where he got the bill, but he had gone to visit Sam and “I loaned him ten dollars—but his bill was okay!”
I think what scripter Ken Fitch meant to convey was that Bob had loaned Sam $10 in the past, and that during this visit Sam repaid the loan, but that Bob trusted that Sam’s cash was honestly obtained money. Maybe Fitch figured if he expressed this too clearly it would give away the “surprise” twist ahead of us. The FBI return to the interrogation, and Hour-Man has no choice but to toss the G-Men around a bit and escape the way he entered, through the window. Bob brags that that mystery man was the Hour-Man, who’s going to clear him of the charges. For once, Hour-Man follows the appropriate trail, and dashes off to talk to Sam. Sam is under police protection at a hotel, so Hour-Man needs to find away past them. Maybe climb to the roof and enter from the window, a technique that proved successful at the FBI building? No, he probably wouldn’t be lucky enough to find Sam’s room as easily as he located where the Feds were grilling a suspect. He’s going to need a peek at the guest register, so he needs to enter through the front. So here’s a new wrinkle in the Miraclo abilities: Seems to me that Miraclo is giving Rex Tyler some Flash-level speed there. We knew he could keep up with motor cars, but moving so fast he’s invisible? That’s new. I’ll assume that he can only achieve that in occasional short bursts. Anyway, once he’s swiped the register, he’s able to head up to Sam’s room, and from outside the door, he hears voices threatening someone. Hour-Man bursts inside to find—Sam, I guess—being ordered to “talk” at the business end of a pistol. Hour-Man subdues the men, who are working for Nick Remos, the gangster. Sam claims they held up the train, and were afraid he had recognized them. So Remos will be Hour-Man’s next stop, and he advises Sam to call for the police downstairs. (Evidently Remos’ men were able to get past the guards without using super-speed.) There are three men in Remos’ apartment, splitting up the loot: Viller, who seems to be the brains behind the train-thieving operation, and two others. Hour-Man bursts in, takes out a couple of them and confronts the final crook, who drops his gun under threat of a good Hour-Man beatdown. It’s a Luger, the same weapon that shot Sam, so Hour-Man accuses this guy of the shooting. No, he protests, this was Viller’s gun, and he only borrowed it. The crooks give in to Hour-Man’s intimidation, and tell him the loot is in the safe. But when Hour-Man opens the safe, it’s booby-trapped with tear gas! Once again, Hour-Man is taken captive and held prisoner at gunpoint. (It’s not specified, but maybe the Miraclo has run out. It sures seems like at least an hour of action has passed since Rex took a dose of it.) Next, in comes Sam himself! He’s Viller’s “helper”, and Viller is surprised that Sam and Hour-Man recognize each other. Hour-Man may be helpless, but he can discreetly activate his short-wave radio so that the conversation following can be overheard by any Minute Man tuned in. Two of those Minute Men, Jimmy Martin and Thorndyke, are being interrogated by the FBI, who want to know the whereabouts of this Hour-Man. Lucky for them, they’re about to find out directly, as Jimmy’s radio relays the sounds from Remos’ apartment: Sam is one of the mob, and he took a shot in the shoulder to “make it look good.” Hour-Man “subtly” slips in the precise location where he’s being held, musing about what his Minute Men would do if they knew where the crooks were. Viller scoffs—in his country, boys are trained to be fierce soldiers! Now that they know the spot where their hero is being held, Jimmy and Thorndyke—who hates his name—race off to Hour-Man’s rescue, followed by the FBI. Back at 188 Elm Street, Sam suddenly remembers Hour-Man’s radio link with his Minute Men, forcing Rex to fight. I guess the Miraclo was still going after all, or he managed to pop another pill undetected: Jimmy and Thorndyke, joined by a gang of Minute Men who also heard the message, are waiting on the street to thrash the bad guys, who are then turned over to the FBI: “Here are your saboteurs. You’ll find enough evidence on their person to jail them for a long time!” (Wait, “saboteurs”?! They’re train robbers, aren’t they? We didn’t see them sabotage anything!) COMMENTARY: Well, we’re definitely back to the incoherent standard of scripting Ken Fitch has been reliably delivering. He makes no sincere attempts to justify the random plot points strung together. Like, why would Sam have to shoot himself to “make it look good”? I think I can deduce what was being implied: the fact that the robbers knew the secret schedule for the payroll delivers points to one of the guards being an inside man. Since Sam was shot, the FBI figures it couldn’t have been him, so it must have been Bob. So they tail Bob until they can catch him passing one of the bills with numbers matching those of the stolen cash. I don’t think that kids in 1940 could be expected to unwind all that without some help. I was about to throw up my hands in defeat here in 2022 when I finally grasped it. But I’m still unable to explain why Nick Remos’ men are trying to get Sam to talk under threat of a bullet to the head. He wasn’t on the outs with the gang, since a page later he strolls into the boss’s apartment, apparently quite welcome. Was it staged to convince Hour-Man that Sam was a victim? No, they quite clearly couldn’t have know Hour-Man was there. And why the heck, if Sam was indeed part of the Remos mob, would he have told Hour-Man that these were Nick Remos' boys? One reason only: Fitch can't come up with another way to put Hour-Man on the right trail. Also of note: Fitch now has The Boss suspecting Hour-Man of being a criminal, which is not consistent with his suggesting Rex wear and Hour-Man costume to the ball in the previous ALL-STAR story. I suspect Fitch is just following the lead of other comic book heroes of the time, many of which were, like The Green Hornet, a likely inspiration, pursued by the police who don't realize they are the good guys. It's hard to square this attitude with Hour-Man being an idol to the wholesome Minute Men of America all across the country, but maybe those fake Hour-Men in that other story have raised some new suspicions? And also, Hour-Man's not going to improve his reputation with the authorities by breaking into the FBI building and battering agents trying to do their jobs. The demonstration of Jay Garrick-level superspeed is something I suspect we won't be seeing any more. It seems many of the lesser Golden Age heroes started off with some grand powers and downscaled as their careers played out; we see the same with The Spectre and Dr. Fate, to name a couple. Fitch tries to play up the Minute Men of America, but they don't contribute much. I'd hope that Hour-Man could have taken care of two fleeing men on his own if he'd wanted to, but nice of him to give a gang of boys a chance to whip up on a couple of grown men. It's just good that no innocent men happened to be exiting the apartment around then! And the team continues to put some focus on Thorndyke, even though he hasn't done much to stand out so far. I guess him resenting his fancy-sounding name is supposed to be funny. Take note that when he doffs his hat, he's just a regular-looking little kid under Baily's pen at this stage. He'll become more bizarre and clownish-looking as he becomes a bigger part of this feature.
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Post by MWGallaher on Jan 30, 2022 8:33:14 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #59, January 1941 This will be Hourman’s final hour in the cover spotlight. For the rest of his run in ADVENTURE COMICS, another character—Sandman, Starman, or Manhunter—will be responsible for grabbing the browser’s attention at the newsstands. In the untold adventure behind this cover, Hourman prevents a thief from cracking the safe in someone’s mansion. This doesn’t quite jibe with his initial approach of assisting the oppressed; whoever owns this estate should be able to afford their own security team, so maybe he’s actually here to stop the thief from making a mistake that would lead to time behind bars, at the behest of a concerned wife or mother! We have another untitled tale from Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily leading off this issue, so let’s check in with the Man of the Hour... SYNOPSIS: “Because of their excellent work against crime and criminals”, the introductory caption tells us, “the Minute Men of America, sponsored by the Hour-Man (in reality Rex Tyler, a chemist) have been given a week-end vacation at a camp in the hills…” That’s a fancy way of saying Rex is taking some of the local boys on another camping trip, as we’ve seen before. At the story’s start, three of the Minute Men have arrived at camp, and are waiting for their hero to show up. Instead, Thorndyke is next to arrive, and he’s in a panic! Someone might be drowning! Thorndyke leads the other to the lake, where the victim is retrieved and revived via artificial respiration. The man they saved is confused, but recalls that he was running away from something, got lost, and fell. He’s still eager to run, but two men arrive to take this man, Mr. Grant, back to the sanitorium. When Jimmy Martin protests, the guards pull a gun to hold the boys at bay, warning them not to “interfere with the law!” But Hourman arrives: Hourman does his thing and his thing is whaling on men just doing their jobs. The man the boys saved is John Grant, a patient at Dr. Feher’s sanitorium. The guards argue “And he ran away! You can’t hold him here!” “We know the law!” I thought the law allowed patients to discharge themselves AMA (against medical advice), but maybe things were different in 1940. Hourman hands the patient over to the orderlies compliantly, but a wink to Grant signals he’s on to the fact that Grant fears something. Hourman will be following up, but without his Minute Men, who are to wait at camp and monitor the short-wave: Dr. Feher’s facilities are in a dreary looking area, not the place Rex figures would make for a comfortable recovery in. “With animal agility”, Hourman leaps over the stream and trees that bar the way to the sanitorium. Hourman spies on Dr. Feher, who is hypnotizing his patient, Mr. Carter, into performing some unspecified task. The orderlies arrive with Mr. Grant, reporting that they had encountered Hour-Man. Dr. Feher is concerned about what Hour-Man might have learned, when suddenly the Man of the Hour himself crashes through the window. Feher pleads innocence of any unsavory activities, but then uses mental telepathy to order Carter to knock out the Hour-Man with a step-stool to the skull. Hour-Man is hypnotized, so that he can be made the patsy for the robbery of a safe that patient Carter is being ordered to commit: Hour-Man and Carter are being driven to the city, while Thorndyke and another Minute Man check out Dr. Feher’s place, against orders. On the spooky grounds of the facility, they are taken by an armed guard. Dr. Feher orders the little spies to be taken to “the chamber”, something of which Mr. Carter had expressed a great terror when he was being hypnotized a couple of pages earlier. In the city, we see Feher’s plot playing out: the hypnotized Carter is robbing his own safe, and Hour-Man is to be left behind to take the blame. However, Hour-Man is not really hypnotized at all! His stronger will power allowed him to resist, and he’s been playing along the whole time. He knocks his captor unconscious and locks him in a closet. Hour-Man un-hypnotizes Carter, using his “stronger will”. Carter explains that his personal physician, Dr. Insull, had referred him to Feher for treatment. Assuming that Insull and Feher are working together, forcing wealthy patients to rob themselves under hypnosis, Rex and Carter drive to Dr. Insull’s place to confront him. It turns out that Insull was hypnotized, himself! He’s not an accomplice but instead another victim, forced to refer his wealthy patients to Feher. At this point, Hour-Man’s belt radio activates: Thorndyke is calling for help to escape Dr. Feher’s chamber! “Tick-Tock” (we haven’t seen that used beyond the masthead in a while!) races to the sanitorium, and the other camping Minute Men, being closer but not having Hour-Man’s speed, arrive at the same time. Down in “the chamber” (which is only a brick-walled basement, not an elaborate den of torture, evidently) and just as Feher’s towering servant threatens to burn his name into Thorndyke’s skin with a red-hot poker, it’s Hour-Man to the rescue! In a typically rushed climax, Hour-Man chains the giant, Feher gets the drop on Hour-Man, and a Minute Man saves the day, “breaking up another vicious racket!” And we close on a lame attempt at humor with Thorndyke: COMMENTARY: I’d say this is a cut above Fitch’s usual scripting work, with a more comprehensible plot and few irrelevant diversions: Dr. Feher (“fear?”) has hypnotized one doctor into sending rich patients to his facility, where he hypnotizes those patients into robbing themselves. What doesn’t quite gel is the fear expressed by the involuntary patients Grant and Carter. Dr. Feher is able to fully hypnotize them to do his bidding, so why does he also need to terrorize them with trips to “the chamber”? It serves only to set up the gratuitous threat to the pair of Minute Men who are taken and nearly subjected to torture with a heated poker. Fitch and Baily have decided they want to play up Thorndyke as the comic relief, but they don’t have enough of a sense of humor to do that successfully. He’s just there, with mild attempts at characterization, getting into trouble and complaining about his name. They’re not about to give up, though, as I’ve repeatedly warned. He won’t be a constant presence, but he’ll be an increasing one through the end of the Golden Age run. This is something of a landmark in the character’s chronology. We’re at the end of Hourman’s first year in publication, and at the sixteenth of forty-four Golden Age appearances (when you include his adventures with the JSA), so a little more than a third of the way through that phase of the character’s history, and right at one third of the way through his three years’ residence in the pages of ADVENTURE COMICS, which was published monthly. He’s been a pro bono hero for the common man, a combatant of mad scientists and mundane crooks, leader of a nationwide youth movement, sponsor of a local kids’ gang, and cohort of the world’s premier mystery men heroes. By now, the conventions of the superhero genre are settling in, and Hourman will be more conformant to them, which may make his stories more readable but may make them less fascinating. Bernard Baily, at least, is developing as an artist (or perhaps he is employing more ghosts, as he did on The Spectre); we’ll be seeing some more dynamic action on the pages in the months ahead.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 30, 2022 19:56:06 GMT -5
Rob: The identification of Gilberton the chemistry set manufacturer as identical to Gilberton the comic book publisher comes straight from William B. Jones' "Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History." According to Jones, publishing partner Raymond Haas bought the bankrupt company for a song in '42. Luckily that page of Jones' book is online at Google Books. We've been talking about two different chemistry set makers. The picture on Page 1 of this thread is a "Gilbert" set, made by the A.C. Gilbert Company, which was owned by the Gilbert family until 1964. Raymond Haas bought another company that had also made chemistry sets, the "Gilberton" corporation. Two letters can make a big difference! We now return you to the subject of Hour-Man...
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Post by MWGallaher on Jan 31, 2022 8:28:05 GMT -5
Rob: The identification of Gilberton the chemistry set manufacturer as identical to Gilberton the comic book publisher comes straight from William B. Jones' "Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History." According to Jones, publishing partner Raymond Haas bought the bankrupt company for a song in '42. Luckily that page of Jones' book is online at Google Books. We've been talking about two different chemistry set makers. The picture on Page 1 of this thread is a "Gilbert" set, made by the A.C. Gilbert Company, which was owned by the Gilbert family until 1964. Raymond Haas bought another company that had also made chemistry sets, the "Gilberton" corporation. Two letters can make a big difference! We now return you to the subject of Hour-Man... ...and I'll betcha neither of them included instructions for making a simple tear gas ring!
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Post by MWGallaher on Jan 31, 2022 10:09:05 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #60, March 1941 While Sandman retakes the honor of cover feature (for only a single issue this year, but he’ll fight his way back into the spotlight with the assistance of Simon and Kirby!), Hourman retains his position leading off the issue on page one, where the splash panel drops the boring “March of the Minute-Men” image for a more dramatic shot of Hour Man punching a gun-wielding thug, having already knocked out one of them. This issue’s introductory caption strikes me as something of an exaggeration: “To his employer [are they ever going to give The Boss a name?!] the famed Hour-Man is merely Rex Tyler, a chemist! But to evil-doers, he is the man they most fear; and now, with his Minute-Men of America, the Hour-Man has become doubly dangerous…” It appears that we’ve dropped the “meek and mild” characterization of Rex Tyler for good now. By this point, as I argued before, the standards in the super-hero genre have stabilized and propagated, and the outright cowardly Rex Tyler of the first year’s stories is obviously unfeasible. SYNOPSIS: This issue’s tale begins in a gang leader’s hideout, where the crooks are plotting how to deal with the biggest threat to their criminal enterprises. No, not the Hour Man, the Minute-Men! Yes, it seems this gang of boys is their major concern at the moment, and the gang leader has a plan, which starts with one of them collaring a smart-mouthed, apple-stealing lad for a talk with him and his pals. The thug meets with the gang of boys, offering to guide them out of “this small fry stuff” and into the big leagues of organized crime. Their task is to stir up trouble on the streets claiming to be Minute-Men! After literally upsetting some apple carts, they spoiled the Minute-Men’s reputation so much that the coppers raid a Minute-Men meeting to haul these boys in: Hour Man lets the cops take Captain Jimmy Martin in to the commissioner for questioning, and stays behind to rally the rest, encouraging them to go on patrol to find the kids trying to discredit the organization. He takes a dose of Miraclo and leaps from a rooftop into the window across the street, where the commissioner is grilling young Captain Martin. That’s not the smartest move; the commissioner is outraged that Hour Man is heading this gang of hoodlums, and calls the Boys in Blue to arrest the Hero in Yellow and Black. Hour Man jumps back out through the window, leaving Jimmy to take the fall, remarking “I hope you fellows know that I’m only fooling and that I’ll be seeing you soon!” A message comes in on Hour Man’s radio belt: it’s Thorndyke reporting some tough kids who look like they’re up to no good at 19th and Park. Sure enough, the ruffians are about to, um, destroy some baby strollers left on the street. Hour Man saves the prams, and puts the squeeze on the punks, who spill their guts to rat out “Ratty” Malone’s gang in the Eastside pool room. Thorndyke escorts the captive gang member to HQ in one of the (stolen!) baby carriages, a delightful act of humiliation worthy of the upstanding youth organization the Minute-Men of America. But one of Ratty’s men has witnessed this, and calls to alert his boss. Maybe Miraclo gives Hour-Man some enhanced intuition, because he’s anticipated that he might be expected at the billiards parlor. Entering from the back door, he has the element of surprise as he begins to tackle the gang… …until he’s taken out by a billiard ball to the head: After implausibly escaping by aiming a pool cue through the skylight with his feet, and then somehow cutting through his bonds with the shards of glass—I can’t figure out how he managed that, and neither could Bernard Baily, so it happens off-panel—Hour-Man calls the Minute-Men to action via shortwave, and orders them to “inform the police commissioner to bring Jimmy Martin as well!” I don’t see how these boys will have sway with the commissioner, who’s already turned sour on the Man of the Hour, but maybe that’s why crook-dom is more scared of them than they are of Hour-Man. Their destination is the docks where, as Ratty has informed our hero, the gang intends to rob a silk shipment from China, leaving Hour-Man’s hourglass to frame him for that heinous heist. Hour-Man foils their plans, engaging in some more dynamic action than has been the norm for this feature: The commissioner has indeed arrived along with the legitimate Minute-Men. The young punks are disillusioned by seeing the adult gangsters cowed before the mystery man, and see the errors of their ways. Captain Martin graciously recruits them into the Minute-Men of America, and the commissioner revises his opinion of Hour-Man, who’s “done a lot for law and order in this city! There’s no law against public-spirited citizens like you!” Hour-Man departs the scene after explaining that he cannot reveal his identity yet, and in the final panel, we get text plugging The Spectre in MORE FUN COMICS. COMMENTARY: The script feels livelier this time around, with Ken Fitch using lines like “Miraclo, do your stuff!” When I saw this over in ALL-STAR, I argued that it was uncharacteristic of Ken Fitch; was I wrong, or is Fitch striving to do peppier dialog following Gardner Fox’s lead? There’s an exchange at the end of the story, where Hour-Man directs the commissioners attention in the opposite direction before leaping away unseen—another light-hearted moment that seems different from the duller scenes of previous tales. We also see Baily called upon to depict more action, mixing it up hand-to-hand in several panels. They’re clearly trying hard to amp up this feature. Hour-Man does get captured again, but it’s not the fault of a mis-timed dose of Miraclo, but a cue ball to Hour-Man’s yellow-cowled noggin. His means of escape is ridiculous and unconvincingly rendered, but it’s creative, at least. But lest we doubt that it is indeed Ken Fitch behind the keyboard, we do get his frequent drifting off-course, moving from a plan to discredit the Minute-Men to an out-of-nowhere plan to rob a silk shipment (!) and frame the Hour-Man. And then there’s the confounding actions like turning Jimmy over to the cops, then intruding on the interrogation to bad consequence. I think this is the first time that any specific attention was drawn to the hourglass hanging from our hero’s neck. It’s buried in an easily-missed line of dialog and immediately forgotten by Bernard Baily, who did his own lettering, so he can’t be forgiven for writing that Ratty was going to leave his hourglass at the scene of the crime, and then showing him wearing it on the same page. When the script goes to that notable and unexpected level of detail, you’d think they would follow through. But they have acknowledged it, but without attributing any significance to it other than decoration. I believe in the Silver Age it was implied to be a timer for his hour of power, and if I were a kid in 1941, I’d guess it might hold a few Miraclo pills for quick access.
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Post by chadwilliam on Jan 31, 2022 20:06:32 GMT -5
I've enjoyed the past two adventures and hope that they're indicative of where the strip is heading. I've noticed that while things seem to be getting more dynamic, we're not being exposed to Hour-Man exhibiting his phenomenal strength as much as we have been in past adventures. I wonder if this is to avoid the question of why a guy who could overturn a plane or leap from ground level to the top of a building needs a bunch of ten year old kids to assist him and the question of why, if Miraclo gives him such tremendous powers, he doesn't share it with The Minute-Men. I suppose Fitch reasoned that the only thing which looks worse than a superhero who pops pills is a superhero who gives or sells them to kids.
I wonder if after the strip ended, Fitch felt a bit bristly about Daredevil and his Little Wise Guys who gained a fair deal of success with the superhero paired up with a kid gang idea. Not that The Minute-Men are anywhere near as interesting as what was going on over at Lev Gleason, but I can't help but wonder if, with just a little bit more effort put into developing the gang's individual personalities, Hour-Man would have found that hook which set it apart from all the other heroes on the stands. It's kind of a brave stance to take - bring in a gang of kids and risk making the hero look less important - so I have to imagine that Fitch sees the potential of the idea. Just too bad that he wasn't quite capable of seeing it clearly enough to know how to make it pay off. Like I said, I'm starting to enjoy this feature, but I can't honestly say that it's doing anything which would justify its long-term existence.
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Post by MWGallaher on Feb 1, 2022 8:20:31 GMT -5
I've enjoyed the past two adventures and hope that they're indicative of where the strip is heading. I've noticed that while things seem to be getting more dynamic, we're not being exposed to Hour-Man exhibiting his phenomenal strength as much as we have been in past adventures. I wonder if this is to avoid the question of why a guy who could overturn a plane or leap from ground level to the top of a building needs a bunch of ten year old kids to assist him and the question of why, if Miraclo gives him such tremendous powers, he doesn't share it with The Minute-Men. I suppose Fitch reasoned that the only thing which looks worse than a superhero who pops pills is a superhero who gives or sells them to kids. That would be a bad look. Based on developments yet to come, it's evident that they were realizing the parallels to drug usage, and sharing it with kids, nope, that's right out. At this point, I don't think there's been any evidence that the Minute-Men even know about the source or limitations of their hero's power: he always takes the Miraclo surreptitiously before the club meetings. There was that time that he sent Jimmy to retrieve his tin of pills, but Jimmy doesn't seem to have been in on the nature of those pills. (Which, come to think of it, would have seemed awfully suspicious, wouldn't it? Why does Hourman want me to bring him this can of pills?) I've glanced ahead through the stories yet to cover, and there's at least one where Jimmy assists Rex while wearing an Hourman costume of his own--we'll have to see if he gets a children's dose of Miraclo to go with it! I wonder if after the strip ended, Fitch felt a bit bristly about Daredevil and his Little Wise Guys who gained a fair deal of success with the superhero paired up with a kid gang idea. Not that The Minute-Men are anywhere near as interesting as what was going on over at Lev Gleason, but I can't help but wonder if, with just a little bit more effort put into developing the gang's individual personalities, Hour-Man would have found that hook which set it apart from all the other heroes on the stands. It's kind of a brave stance to take - bring in a gang of kids and risk making the hero look less important - so I have to imagine that Fitch sees the potential of the idea. Just too bad that he wasn't quite capable of seeing it clearly enough to know how to make it pay off. Like I said, I'm starting to enjoy this feature, but I can't honestly say that it's doing anything which would justify its long-term existence. The Little Wise Guys are a good comparison; we can also point to Newsboy Legion and the Guardian, but Simon and Kirby seem to have intended Guardian to be second fiddle in the feature from the start, which wasn't at all the case in Daredevil. I've gotten the impression that turning this strip into the Minute-Men and phasing out Hourman--which is what happened with Daredevil--was being contemplated. Instead, the feature struggles to find that hook, imitating, with the boys being tried out as comic relief like Doiby Dickles or sidekicks like Robin, rather than innovating. One approach, which I suggested before, would have been to make Hourman a roaming hero, calling on Minute-Men in different cities as he adventured throughout the country. That might have put a crimp in his secret identity, but his role as a professional chemist has only occasionally played a significant role in the plot, usually just so his abusive Boss can send him into a situation. He could take his mythical Gilberton Chemistry Set along on his travels, righting wrongs and justifying the nation-wide youth organization that has apparently collapsed into a local one.
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Post by MWGallaher on Feb 1, 2022 8:22:57 GMT -5
ALL-STAR COMICS #4, March-April 1941 SYNOPSIS: The FBI has called in the JSA for its first assigned mission: to defend a variety of American businesses and institutions such as newspapers, munitions plants, and colleges from a subversive organization that is undermining America and democracy as “ our colleges are overrun with alien teachers and students, preaching hatred for democratic ideals! Telling young men and women of America that freedom is useless—outmoded! Soapbox orators stir up class and race hatreds! Strongarm tactics are being used against our patriotic but helpless workers!” I’m not going to get into my 21st century opinions on the six panels of illustration-crowding rhetoric the FBI director spouts off, let’s just see what Hourman is assigned to do… Regular Hourman artist Bernard Baily illustrates the six pages depicting Rex Tyler’s mission for the JSA. His assignment letter reads: “To the Hour Man: Proceed to oil fields in Red River Oklahoma! Investigate subversive activities of group known as the “Grey Shirts.” They are seriously hampering the country’s oil output!!” At the Grey-Shirts’ secret meeting place, Masters, a.k.a. “L-2”, is reporting to Captain Erdner to report that two guards have been added to the oil field’s roster today. Erdner orders Masters to “arrange to have the guards die mysteriously!” From Masters’ field, the Grey-Shirts will be in a good position to dynamite or burn all of Oklahoma’s oil fields. But Erdner passes along his Great Leader’s concern that mystery men have been upsetting his plans across the country—as we readers know, those are the men of the JSA. Masters, the foreman at the field, strangles both of the guards simultaneously with a crane cable as they patrol the area that night, bringing to four the total of mysterious guard deaths this week. Ordered to recruit more guards, the job is posted at $50 per day, but there are no takers among the citizens of Red River. As Rex Tyler, our hero takes the job, although he is suspicious as Masters tries to dissuade him from hiring on. With a little snooping, he confirms his concerns, overhearing Masters plotting Rex’s murder: But it won’t be Rex Tyler guarding the oil fields, but a Miraclo-powered Hour-Man, who recites what appears to be his new oath: “Miraclo do your stuff!” before popping a pill and proceeding to the place where they plan to put him to pasture! Hourman tackles his enemies, but rather than take them to the authorities, he lets them both get away, suspecting that Masters is a more valuable catch. When he reports to Masters again as Rex Tyler, Masters is concerned, since the murder plot has obviously gone wrong. He later heads off to report to Erdner, little realizing he’s being trailed by the Hour-Man, presumably having taken another dose of his miracle drug and bringing his car-chasing skills to the service of the Justice Society and the U.S. government: The Grey-Shirts who were allowed to escape are reporting that Hour-Man was their attacker, but Masters can’t believe that the man he hired could have been the famed hero, who is, at this moment, eavesdropping at the window. But from his position, Hour-Man can’t see the approach of another Grey-Shirt, “Panzer”, who wallops him from behind. But Hour-Man’s head has hardened since being struck by a billiard ball in his previous adventure, so he’s able to quickly recover and go into battle with the Grey-Shirts, and then proves he can run away from cars as well as he can run after them: He grabs Panzer’s valise, hoping it will contain evidence, and does what he does best: run after their car! Unfortunately his dosage wears off, and all he can think to do is throw Panzer’s bag at the car as it gains distance. It might seem crazy, but this car is a convertible, with the top down, and ordinary human heads aren’t nearly as impervious as Hour-Man’s Miraclo-enhanced skull, so a hurled bag to the back of the driver’s head sends the Grey-Shirts careening into an oil well, where the spies go up in flames. “A deserving end”, according to the Man of the Hour! Rex finally gets the time to investigate the contents of Panzer’s bag and finds a letter from a Fritz Klaver in Toledo, and off he goes to Ohio! The other JSAers have also found clues pointing to Klaver in Toledo, so Hour-Man convenes with his team-mates to confront the last Grey-Shirts, who are barricaded in Klaver’s mansion. The spies are no match for the mystery men, who wrap up the mission with the unexpected assistance of Johnny Thunder, who transports them all—heroes, spies, and even the Klaver mansion—back to the FBI in Washington, where Hour-Man and his colleagues receive praise from the head G-Man himself! COMMENTARY: So, Hourman in the JSA—does it make sense? When I first directed my thoughts at that question, it seemed unwise to have a team member whose powers might expire in the middle of a mission. And yes, that might be a problem if this were the Justice League of America, where the entire team might be relying on one another as they battled Starro or something, but the Justice Society operated differently: the members, at least during Hourman’s tenure with the group, assigned individuals to work missions solo, with the team possibly uniting to do a little wrap-up at the end…and if The Spectre is with you for that wrap-up, it’s not going to be an issue if the Miraclo wears off. As long as Hourman can accomplish his assigned mission, everything’s aces. He’s been able to accomplish plenty of things on his own so far (with no little amount of collateral damage, granted, but still…), so the JSA isn’t taking too much of a risk to sign him onto the team. This particular adventure is nothing remarkable. At least he doesn’t rely on his Minute-Men to do half his job for him, but since this is his first formal adventure outside the vicinity of Cosmos/Appleton since the founding of the organization, it might have been nice to see one or two of the remote MMA members out there in Red River. But--as I mentioned in the previous post--the nation-wide organization seems to have dissolved...
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Post by Cei-U! on Feb 1, 2022 9:11:34 GMT -5
FYI, the Minute-Men make no appearances in All-Star during (or after) Hour-Man's time with the JSA, further evidence that scripter Gardner Fox (and presumably AA editor Sheldon Mayer) felt no obligation to be "faithful" to the Fitch version.
Cei-U! Just as well, if'n you axe me!
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Post by mikelmidnight on Feb 1, 2022 12:19:07 GMT -5
I've glanced ahead through the stories yet to cover, and there's at least one where Jimmy assists Rex while wearing an Hourman costume of his own--we'll have to see if he gets a children's dose of Miraclo to go with it!
I have written fanfic with Jimmy Martin as Minuteman, using enough Miraclo to give him power for one minute, and Thorndyke/Second Sweep, using enough Miraclo to give him power for one second.
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Post by MWGallaher on Feb 1, 2022 12:23:37 GMT -5
I've glanced ahead through the stories yet to cover, and there's at least one where Jimmy assists Rex while wearing an Hourman costume of his own--we'll have to see if he gets a children's dose of Miraclo to go with it!
I have written fanfic with Jimmy Martin as Minuteman, using enough Miraclo to give him power for one minute, and Thorndyke/Second Sweep, using enough Miraclo to give him power for one second.
I love it! Far more clever than anything Ken Fitch came up with!
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Post by Commander Benson on Feb 1, 2022 14:17:20 GMT -5
All you need now is a cross-over with Roger Ramjet and his American Eagle Squadron.
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 3, 2022 0:39:31 GMT -5
FYI, the Minute-Men make no appearances in All-Star during (or after) Hour-Man's time with the JSA, further evidence that scripter Gardner Fox (and presumably AA editor Sheldon Mayer) felt no obligation to be "faithful" to the Fitch version. Same thing I noticed with Percival Popp being absent from the title during The Spectre's affiliation with the team even as he was hogging the spotlight in More Fun.
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Post by MWGallaher on Feb 3, 2022 5:56:24 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #61, April 1941 With this issue, Starman debuts as the lead and the cover feature of ADVENTURE COMICS. With Hourman’s permanent demotion to backup feature, let’s take a quick look at his companions in the magazine. Starman was debuting with striking artwork by Jack Burnley. DC seems to have had high hopes for this feature, in which astronomer Ted Knight invents the Gravity Rod, a device that draws powers from the stars , which he uses as a costumed mystery man. Starman is not only Hourman’s triumphant rival for the cover, he, with Dr. Midnite, will also succeed Hourman in the Justice Society. Dropped in favor of Starman was Barry O’Neill, who therefore was not appearing, as of this issue. This feature had begun over in NEW FUN COMICS #1, February 1945, and moved over to ADVENTURE COMICS with its 31st issue. O’Neill was a wealthy playboy adventurer and as one of the inaugural features of National Periodicals first comic book, the termination of his strip was notable. [ from ADVENTURE COMICS #60] Next up is Mark Lansing, an exotic adventure serial from Howard Post Purcell, scripted largely (but not exclusively) with captions. The dialog appeared in both captions and in occasional speech balloons, but generally, it looked like Post wanted to evoke the format of newspaper strips like Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon, in form if not content. Underneath a boring “Facts” page by Henry Boltinoff is an ad for Prize Comics. I’ve come across a few of these ads in this run of ADVENTURE COMICS. Prize Comics was published by, well, Prize Comics, a comics rival to DC, but DC seems to have been willing to accept advertisements for this competitor. Next is Federal Men by Jerry Siegel and Chad Grothkopf. This plainclothes agent action feature started all the way back in issue #2, January 1936, when the title was NEW COMICS, and was originally a Seigel and Shuster project. Then comes Steve Conrad, Adventurer, by Jack Lehti, who is better remembered for his Crimson Avenger strip in DETECTIVE COMICS. This is a globetrotting adventure series like Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates. Steve appears to have a sidekick who is a grotesque Asian caricature. Here he meets Sparky Watts, but it's not the humorous superhero of the same name created by Boody Rogers. For more variety, next we find Peter and His Pup by Ray McGill, a humor strip about a little boy and his talking dog, and a Quiz Page by Boltinoff that asks and answers a variety of trivia questions. The Hourman story follows, and behind it comes Paul Kirk, Manhunter, by Ed Moore. The character would soon transform into a costumed hero, but for now he’s a plainclothes adventurer. Cotton Carver, Defender of Barluna, was a fantasy serial by Jack Lehti. It’s a fun little strip, hampered by a title that doesn’t convey the tone of the comic very well. After the obligatory text story comes Creig Flessel’s Sandman. This character will be a mainstay until the next overhaul of ADVENTURE COMICS, but after 7 more installments, he’ll be getting an overhaul, ditching the cool gas mask for a boring superhero suit. Now that we’ve checked out the competition, let’s look at this issues Hour-Man adventure from Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily. This one looks to be in the Spectre-ish vein, so maybe we’re in for a treat… SYNOPSIS: This one opens with Hour-Man speeding (on foot, of course) to where some gun-wielding thugs are loading crates onto a truck. When Hour-Man politely asks what’s going on, one thug takes aim for a killing shot! Hour-Man rushes him, grabs him by the collar and hops on top of the truck. From nearby come cries for help, so Hour-Man tosses his captive onto the heads of his captive’s colleagues in crime and rushes to the nearby museum. The victim who cried for help decides he’d rather Hour-Man catch the thieves, but Hour-Man finds them gone when he checks back at the street. “Well, there’s no use looking for them now!” says the hero whose greatest talent is chasing cars on foot. The museum employee bemoans the loss of “The Monsters of Yesterday” before his concussed brain leads him to accuse Hour-Man of being one of the thieves. The Morning Star’s headline, of course, is HOUR-MAN ON RAMPAGE!! STEALS ANIMATED MODELS OF PREHISTORIC BEASTS!!! Naturally, this feeds The Boss’s irrational conviction that Hour-Man is a menace to society: The real thieves are having a jolly old time over this development, and check in on the Professor, who is being compelled to turn these lifesize dinosaur models into mobile assault machines: Next we’re treated to the delightfully bizarre scene of dinosaurs looting a million dollar art exhibit! The police are helpless against them, but Hour-Man appears and downs a Miraclo pill. He leaps atop a dino head and squirts tear gas from his ring into the model’s interior. The villainous operators suffer from the gas, but they are able to shake the monster’s head and dislodge Hour-Man smack dab into a brick wall, where he lies with a comical “out of it” swirl emanating symbolically from his head: As you can see from above, paper delivery boy Thorndyke has accidentally witnessed the crooks discussing their heist, so he’s taken prisoner. Thorndyke recognizes his upper-class captor as “Mr. Whistle”. He’s a man of high position in the city, but he is too poor now to legitimately purchase the art masterpieces he longs for. Seems it’s a lot cheaper to pay hoodlums to procure it with animatronic dinosaurs. Locked up with the Professor, Thorndyke radios the Hour-Man, who is not only still out like a light, but surrounded by cops who think he’s in charge of the mob: The call has also been received by the other Minute Men, who gather to head to Thorndyke’s aid. Along the way, they spot Hour-Man being held by the cops, and while the cops are watching this massive gang march past, Hour-Man makes his getaway with a burst of Miraclo-fueled speed! Thorndyke has made his own escape, out the window and onto the head of one of the dinosaurs. Hour-Man arrives and rushes the door, heading upstairs to nab Whistle. Whistle retreats into his treasure room, ready to ambush Hour-Man. Hour-Man doesn’t give a fig about fine art, and pushes a sculpture of an athlete through the door. As Whistler fires at the marble figure, Hour-Man rushes in from behind to tackle him. Outside, Thorndyke and company are holding Whistle’s men at bay with dinosaur flames, and we wrap up with Thorndyke proudly declining thanks, spreading the Minute Man creed and closing with a cocky “Ain’t we terrific?” COMMENTARY: I’m always happy to see some bombastic visuals and bizarre threats in an Hourman story, so a fight against animatronic dinosaurs is very welcome. The mechanics of the crime in progress at the start of the story is, in retrospect, hard to process: the thieves are loading modest-sized crates into a small van, from which Professor Whistle assembles 30-foot tall monsters. Did the thieves disassemble them at the museum, crate them up, and load them on the van before Hourman got to the scene? Or were they already in crates, waiting to be assembled by the museum staff? I guess the trick here is to only reveal what was being stolen after that scene has passed, and assume the reader won’t revisit the previous pages once the dinosaurs show up. Heck, I didn’t notice on my first read-through. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Hourman getting framed, so maybe The Boss can be forgiven for his suspicions. I will say that this turn of events isn’t rendered very convincingly, with the watchman’s concussion suddenly causing him to accuse Hourman. The script uses it to establish Hourman’s motivation to clearing this mess up, but wouldn’t any respectable hero go into action once the fire-breathing monsters begin their rampage? Speaking of that rampage, of all the crimes to commit using a pair of proto-Godzillas, looking an art museum is one of the last I’d expect to see. Bravo to Ken Fitch for this surreal touch of lunacy! And the rare silent panel showing the unconscious Hourman is (unintentionally?) hilarious, especially with Baily depicting him planking on the sidewalk! Ken and Bernard once again thrust Thorndyke into the spotlight, awkwardly arranging to get him captured by the art thieves, so that his radio message can summon Rex to the action. When Rex is faced with the problem of Hourman’s frame-up, he moaned that “I’ve got to do something to clear this up! But what? I haven’t a single clue!” The detective work has been one of Hourman’s ongoing shortcomings as a hero, and again and again, Fitch has relied on the convenience of having the Minute-Men call him to the scene. Beyond that, he’s struggling to find something useful for them to do: coincidentally distracting the police by marching down the other side of the street?! Just a few issues ago Hourman was dashing past them at invisible super-speeds. I’ll deduce from his never doing that again that there were some detrimental side effects to that particular exercise of Miraclo powers—we’ll need to make some hypotheses like that in about 10 more issues.
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Post by Cei-U! on Feb 3, 2022 6:50:01 GMT -5
"Mark Lansing" was by Howard Purcell, not Howie Post (whose comicxs career didn't begin until '44). Also, Prize Comics (and other Crestwood titles) were distributed by Independent News (co-owned by Harry Donenfeld), hence the occasional ad in DC/AA titles.
Cei-U! I summon the red pencil!
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