|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 12, 2022 15:21:09 GMT -5
Have to say that other than the ease with which Hour Man deals with his Miraclo endowed adversary, this was a fun tale. Like you remarked, very fast pacing - jumping from one idea to another so rapidly that if there are any plot holes the brain doesn't have much of a chance to recognize them. I have to say that The Minute-Men don't do anything for me and I'm glad to see that they're nowhere to be found here or in the next issue. I'm kind of surprised that Hour Man's abilities haven't increased as the series has continued - no enhanced vision, no overturning cars, etc. Just as Superman become more powerful as his feature went on, I'd think that whoever's scripting these tales would be tempted to do the same. As a matter of fact, announcing that he's only stronger than a guy who can be trapped inside a fishing net so long as the guy doesn't try to get out seems to considerably downplay his strength. It is weird now that you mention it: the most successful model for a costumed superhero was accumulating more and more fantastic abilities while competitors like Hour Man downplayed them more and more, often to the point where it seems like the writers forgot he even had any super powers (as in the JSA story above). And Hour Man's not the only one; as you're well aware, The Spectre was scaled back (which was probably a more justifiable strategy since he started at virtually limitless powers), as was Dr. Fate, who devolved from a sorcerer to a fist-fighting surgeon who could, by the way, run through the air. And although it was still quite a few years away, leading pulp hero Doc Savage would become far less remarkable and much more ordinary as his series aged. It seems like a recipe for failure, but then again, it might have just been ahead of the curve, as the superhero craze died out in favor of cowboys and plainclothes, all-human adventurers. |
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Feb 12, 2022 16:29:58 GMT -5
Both Spectre and Dr. Fate were powered down at the insistence of DC/AA's Editorial Advisory Board, which objected to those strips' more outre supernatural aspects. This was likely why Jerry Siegel handed the Spectre series off to Gardner Fox, who introduced comic relief Percival Popp the Super Cop in a desperate attempt to keep the series going.
Cei-U!
I summon the bluenoses!
|
|
|
|
Post by chadwilliam on Feb 13, 2022 23:01:29 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #64, July 1941: The good news is, we’re in for another weird one, rather than another Minute-Men story! The splash illustration sets the mood with a puzzled Hour-Man looking at a couple of miniature blue men…  This one really feels like a repurposed Spectre tale - not saying that it is, but that there is nothing other than the substitution of Hour Man for The Spectre which really sets the tone apart. Without intending to, it answers the question of what would happen if a Spectre level foe decided to ransack the city of a more down to earth hero. I couldn't help but note when I was doing those Spectre reviews that all too often, here was a God like hero resorting to everyman fisticuffs to dispatch his enemies, but an approach which felt beneath The Spectre works perfectly for Rex Tyler. Such a dreamlike quality to this one with its 'pieces not quite fitting the ever shifting larger picture' approach. Why does the voice have to take the shape of a bubble? Why does Normo resemble the mad doctor himself? Shouldn't Normo be boss of the little guys if he's a proxy for the scientist? Why then is he a big dumb oaf? What's with that weird pipe the men squeeze into? Like a dream the narrative is there, but new rules and ideas keep presenting themselves. I like Hour Man's momentary "better hope no one finds these clothes before I get back!" concern as he hides his outerwear in an alley. Such a brief lapse back into mundane logic and sanity before things go all Salvador Dali again. |
|
|
|
Post by chadwilliam on Feb 14, 2022 19:50:26 GMT -5
ALL-STAR COMICS #6, August-September 1941  Some really galling dialogue from The Hour Man at the start of this issue when Johnny Thunder is sent after Killer McPanzee as a sort of initiation rite. As Flash and Spectre chortle at the idea of Johnny Thunder going head-to-head with someone who only fancies himself as a bad desperado but is, in actual fact a coward, Hour Man joins in:
"If McPanzee had a gun in his hand, and Johnny was facing him - I don't know who would be more scared!"
Brave words from a man whom we've seen outrace little girls being attacked by lions as he attempts to save his own skin. |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 14, 2022 20:22:28 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #65, August 1941:  SYNOPSIS: It’s another thrilling splash, and this time, it’s not a cheat (except for the second robot there on the ground, so, okay, a bit of a cheat, but nothing worth complaining about)! And it’s a simple logo again, no additional nicknames, just “the Hour Man”, no hyphen, and a caption that previews the story and briefly describes Rex Tyler’s special ability:  Finally, we can officially stop calling him “The Boss”! He is indeed the Mr. Bannerman for whom Rex Tyler’s place of employment, Bannerman Laboratories, is named. And Rex is now Chief Assistant, not the maligned chemist he once was. As Rex’s confidence has grown throughout his career as Hour Man, I suppose Mr. Bannerman’s opinion of him has risen. The lab has received some contracts to perform work for Dr. Darrk, and Rex is curious as to what the subject of Darrk’s work is. Cut to Darrk himself, for a sample of what the fellow’s up to: from the safety of his car, he’s observing as his right-hand man (Butch) and a lady friend (Nan) are conducting an “experiment” in a local jewelry store, where the thug is being shown a selection of high quality diamonds for his “fiancée”. The woman discreetly flashes a black ray from her ring which makes the box of diamonds vanish! Darrk’s invention has the power to turn objects invisible, but the baffled jeweler doesn’t hesitate to accuse the supposed couple, correctly, of stealing the precious gems, as the man passes off the invisible box to his confidante. The guard who’s been summoned is a detective who recognizes the thief (who, presumably unlike Darrk himself, has a bad reputation with the law). The crooks flee amidst gunfire, escaping with the jewels. With the millions he can steal with this device, Darrk will be able to continue his experiments. (I say he stops right there, since he’s already come up with a device so revolutionary and valuable it will upturn the world of physics, earning him fame and fortune with a near-certain Nobel prize!) The suspicious Hour Man can’t figure out what Darrk needs with “so much material” and decides to make the next delivery himself. It’s a dismal looking place, out of keeping with what Rex would expect from a wealthy man. Rex’s delivery raises Nan’s suspicions, since Rex doesn’t know the delivery routine like the “regular man” would. She suspects Rex is a detective snooping around. Indeed, Rex finds the jeweler’s tray from “Giffany’s” (the site of the robbery) but is caught in the act and locked up in the cellar. Good thing they didn’t frisk him, because they’d have found his Hour Man costume worn underneath his street clothes and Miraclo in his pocket! Rex changes to Hour Man, spouts his new catch phrase (“Miraclo do your stuff!”) and…wait…he’s forgotten to do something… He rigs up a dummy dressed in his street clothes, and lays it in the corner to fool anyone who looks into thinking Rex is still unconscious. Making an easy escape from the cellar, Hour Man follows Nan to a motorboat—she’s decided not to hang around with a possibly dead detective, and she’s high-tailing it to an abandoned lighthouse, with Rex swimming behind her. Rex attempts to follow her on land but has to deal with the guard dogs. The sound of their battle gets Darrk’s attention, and he has his man Butch keep the hero busy while he prepares the ominous-sounding Giganto!  Unsurprisingly, Hour Man defeats cannon fodder Butch, and finds Darrk ready when Hour Man enters the lighthouse. Hour Man’s opponent? Giganto the robot!  Even Miraclo doesn’t make Rex a match for the mechanical monstrosity, but Rex spies a handy bottle of vitriolic acid, which damages the robot enough for Rex to finish the job. But by the time Hour Man turns to deal with Darrk, the villain and his aides have turned themselves invisible, and are able to render Hour Man senseless on the docks. His Miraclo has worn off, and he overhears the gang discussing their plan to wreck the air express and steal the bonds it is carrying, before the invisibility ray wears off 20 minutes from now. Rex pops a pill, and recalls the success he had with the acid, then heads to the dock. Darrk and Nan have left Butch behind. Hour Man defeats Butch, but Butch has turned against the man who left him to face Hour Man. Together, Hour Man and Butch board a boat and follow.  Darrk zaps the plane with another invention, an explosive ray. He and Nan plan to loot the wreckage and leave Butch behind for good, knowing that Butch now his it in for them both. The pilots manage to land the damaged plane but find Darrk ready to take its cargo. But it’s Hour Man to the rescue! Darrk tries his invisibility trick again, but Hour Man hurls some acid in the direction of the unseeable scoundrel. The pain of the acid burn causes Darrk to re-materialize, and Rex vows to destroy Darrk’s invisibility beam ring. The end!  COMMENTARY It’s another “weird menace” story, this time with a tinge of noir, thanks to the jewelry heist shoot-out and the implied love triangle between Butch, Nan, and Darrk, and Nan’s hesitance to stay in the same house as a dead detective. Add in some vintage science fiction, with the invisibility ray, the downed mail plane and the clunky, saw-jawed robot, and you have one of the better Hour Man stories. It may be a little too ambitious for its short page count, with the interesting elements ultimately getting short shrift, but the Hour Man feature needed some dazzle, and overloading the story with invisible rays, guard dogs, motor boats, plane crashes, a lighthouse, giant robot, and acid attacks ensured an invigorating romp. And somehow, even with all of that, the writer had time to waste panel space on Rex setting up a decoy dummy that would never come into play. And there's even a little bit of chemistry playing to Rex's profession, as he uses some vitriolic acid, better known today as sulfuric acid, to not only damage the robot but burn his invisible enemy! Man, that's pretty brutal, Rex! "You won't die!" Maybe not, but that's one of the most corrosive liquids known, and even a splash is likely to do a lot of damage! The end of the story is worth paying attention to, as it may provide grist for some fan-canon speculation later on...Rex takes responsibility to destroy Darrk's ring, but if you were a scientist with access to an invisibility ray, even if you were a chemist rather than a physicist, wouldn't you hang on to such a remarkable invention and experiment with it? And as the creator of a scientific method of granting yourself power for a limited duration, wouldn't you be intrigued by a device that generates rays that also impart remarkable abilities for a limited duration? |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 16, 2022 7:56:30 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #66, September 1941:  SYNOPSIS: The splash caption promises us the “champion of the impoverished and oppressed” this time. Readers hoping for another bizarre threat will be disappointed when the story opens with Hourman leaving a Minute Men meeting, saying goodbye to Jimmy and Thorndyke…  First stop, roughing up a brutish coal company employee who refuse to refund a poor lad who is attempting to return a wagonload of coal that won’t burn. Hour Man, with his chemistry expertise, is able to see that this “coal” is slate painted black. The coal-seller refunds an amount greater than the sale price, but claims ignorance as to the origin of the counterfeit coal. Hour Man returns with the boy to see his impoverished neighborhood, while the coal-seller informs his boss that Hour Man is onto them. The boy’s mother is bedridden, in a hovel (but, true to Bernard Baily’s artistic inclinations, it is at least a spacious hovel!). Hour Man delivers the refund, and learns about Councilman Drew, who is fighting on behalf of the poor at tonight’s city council meeting. Drew’s impassioned plea leads to a riot at the council meeting, as a contingent of violent citizens objects to the implication that there’s anything wrong with their town! It’s up to Hour Man to quell the conflict before it elevates to an assassination.  Councilman Drew helps the scripter shortcut any contrived detective work by telling Hour Man that he suspects “Big Benny”, the town’s political boss, and coincidentally the owner of a slate quarry, of being behind the coal swindle affecting the town’s poor. He also owns the slums, and is holding out for an unreasonable price to tear them down. Hour Man races off so fast he skips (apparently) a word balloon: Drew: “Say, where are you going?” Hour Man” And if I’m right, I’d better get fortified with Miraclo now!” Meanwhile, Big Benny is conspiring with the mayor to protect himself from Hour Man’s interference. The mayor, at Benny’s urging, orders the police to protect the quarry and to shoot Hour Man on sight, and the cops comply: “Okay, you’re the mayor! I got a wife and kids to support!” Hour Man evades the police guarding the quarry by climbing a crane and making a super-powered dive, then begins documenting the slate-painting activities with his camera. He’s spotted (as he usually is when he attempts any espionage) by the mayor himself, visiting the operation! The action at the slate quarry is furious, and Hour Man escapes when gunfire triggers an avalanche of slate. He’s managed to learn that Big Benny is a friend of the mayor’s, and that Benny is heading to the tenement district to “get” Drew. Hour Man catches up to the mayor himself, and forces his cooperation, as the mayor drives them to the slums. Drew is known to visit “Widow Wilson” every other night, and it’s at her place that the hit will go down! Widow Wilson is, of course, the bed-ridden mother we met at the start of the story. When a masked Benny attempts the murder, Drew fights back, and Benny inadvertently knocks over an oil lamp, setting the rotten wood of the hovel on fire!  Benny makes his escape from the growing blaze, but is met at the door by the Hour Man. Hour Man coerces a confession by stranding Benny on the roof of the burning building until Benny folds, incriminating the mayor himself. The arresting officer apologizes for his role: “I only obeyed orders, but now I know!” Drew’s a forgiving sort, and even tells the cop to “do a good job and you’ll be the next mayor!” And the problem of poverty is ultimately solved when the burned-down district is replaced with the brand new Hour Man Apartments at low cost rent!  COMMENTARY: I noticed that right after beating up the revolting citizens at the council meeting, Rex, who’s obviously already operating at full Miraclo power, fortifies himself with another dose. This is something we haven’t seen before: taking a second pill before the first has explicitly worn off. This is treated matter-of-factly, but it does give some foundation for the eventual retconning of Miraclo as being addictive. While it was disappointing not to get another weird menace story, for a social service style of story, this wasn’t bad. It was overly-simplified, obviously, and the revolt at the city council meeting is hard to swallow but then again, hot-headed citizens who object to acknowledgment of real problems and resort quickly to violence are with us to this day. The creators of this strip are clearly intent on upping the action, as Hour Man does a lot more than chase cars now. Baily has become a lot better at depicting acrobatics and dynamic battle, and I’m still not tiring of his sole-baring Baily dives! And I kind of appreciate a story that harkens back to Hour Man’s early days as a defender of the oppressed. What better hero to be honored with low income housing erected in his name? |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 16, 2022 16:46:33 GMT -5
ALL-STAR COMICS #7, October-November 1941  SYNOPSIS: As the new chairman of the Justice Society, Green Lantern raises the need to fund charities that benefit children who have been orphaned as World War II rages across the globe. Hawkman moves that the JSA raise $1,000,000 to support such charities, and our man Hour Man seconds the motion. Each of the eight members is assigned a goal of raising $100,000. Since this will bring them $200,000 short, the overconfident Johnny Thunder pledges to raise $300,000 on his own. The solo chapters will tell how each member attempts to meet their goals. Bernard Baily once again illustrates Hour Man’s efforts, as scripted by Gardner Fox. Rex Tyler is already obligated to deliver chemicals to the Wonders Expedition in Madarini, Mexico, and he doesn’t expect to find potential donors there, but the day job comes first. He’ll get around to the fundraising when he gets back from his trip.  Unbeknownst to Rex, sharing the commercial airline flight to Madarini is “Killer” Blane, who is violating parole to travel in disguise with his gang. Their goal is to retrieve a cache of cash he’s stashed down in Madarini. As the stewardess serves a meal, a lurch of the plane causes Rex to bump into her, spilling coffee on Blane’s aide, Tony. Tony’s ticked, but the disguised Blane apologizes for his friend, playing the gentlemen in order that his cover is preserved. Rex notes the gangster lingo that Tony employees, but dismisses his concerns as an overactive imagination. Since there’s only one taxi at the tiny Madarini airport, Rex, Blane, and the gang share the cab. The cabbie is more perceptive than Rex, though: he has recognized Blane, and plans to report Blane’s arrival to “the General”. Blane appears to be alarmed when the cab drops Rex off at this “Wonders Expedition”, which is excavating the grounds outside town. The expedition’s leader, Arthur Wonders, is happy to see Rex, since he’ll need the chemicals if the expedition does indeed recover the sought-after Aztec treasure, reputed to be buried around here. Upon retiring to his cabin, Rex’s suspicions rise up again, and he suits up as Hour Man to investigate his flight companions. Elsewhere, the General is interested in Blane as well, confident that Blane has buried money hereabouts. The General’s plan is to take Blane prisoner and force him to reveal the hiding place. The pieces are all in place, and Hour Man eavesdrops at Blane’s cabin to learn their plan: the expedition is camped right where Blane had buried his booty, and they’ll need to scare off Mr. Wonder’s crew by disguising themselves as bandits. Lest we think Hour Man is becoming a more competent hero, he has repeated a mistake he’s made before: the General’s men have spotted him lurking outside Blane’s window. They don’t realize they are taking on a Miraclo-powered mystery man who’s not so easy to kidnap!  The ensuing fisticuffs get the attention of Killer Blane, who does recognize Hour Man. Miraclo proves no defense against a pistol butt to the skull, and once again, Hour Man finds himself trussed and gagged, where he’s easy pickings for the General and his men! One of the Mexican bandits intends to finish off our man Hour Man, while the rest go after Blane, prepared to blow the expedition to smithereens as well. Time for some more action, as Rex takes out his assailant and escapes his bonds.  But back at the camp, Blane, the General, and Mr. Wonders converge, with Blane attempting to dig up the ground beneath Wonders’ cot, and the General pulling pistols on Blane and his boys. By the time Hour Man arrives, gunfire is echoing, and Blane is fleeing. Hour Man tackles the crook with the Baily dive, then leaps to catch the grenade hurled at them by the General! Hour Man is able to toss the pineapple away where it explodes far from potential human victims. The General and Blane are captured, and the explosion has uncovered—you guessed it!—the Aztec treasure! A grateful Arthur Wonders offers half the value of the treasure—a check for $100,000—as reward for Hour Man’s assistance, instructing Wonders to pass the check on to Rex Tyler.  Ultimately, only Johnny Thunder fails to come up with any money, but his Thunderbolt summons honorary members Superman, Batman, and the Flash, each of whom has raised $100,000 on their own. The goal of $1,000,000 for war orphans has been met! The appearance of the JSA’s honorary members brings to mind last month’s appeal to readers: is there any news on who will become the next honorary member, and who his replacement will be? By George, there is!  Green Lantern has earned a solo comic, and he’ll be replaced by none other than Dr. Mid-nite! Congratulations are in order to GL, and it’ll be great to have Hour Man joined by Dr. Mid-nite on the team… Uh…wait, what’s this?  “And a leave of absence is hereby granted to The Hourman, whose active duties will be taken up by The Starman!” We see a proud portrait of the new line-up, with cameos of all four honorary members. Hour Man is just gone, like he’s been erased from JSA history. No farewell, no portrait to honor his service with the team, no elaboration on this “leave of absence”. Whatever Hour Man’s weaknesses as a superhero, he deserved better. This doesn’t seem right. And, as documented in some convincing arguments in one volume of TwoMorrow’s ALL-STAR COMPANION, this abrupt membership change may have been a departure from the original plan. The next issue of ALL-STAR reads as an introduction of Dr. Mid-nite as a member, with fellow new member Starman present incidentally, already a member with no fanfare. There’s evidence that in the group pages, Starman has been redrawn. It’s quite possible, and I’d say quite likely, that the original intent was just to induct Dr. Mid-nite as Green Lantern’s replacement, and that Hour Man would have still been on the team, but that it was decided that the new headliner of ADVENTURE COMICS was more deserving of the JSA spotlight than “Tick-Tock”. If the Starman figures in the framing sequence of ALL-STAR COMICS #8 are indeed re-drawings of a redacted Hour Man, an unpublished 6-page Hour Man episode may have even been prepared. It’s quite clear that the Starman solo chapter of that issue was not a revised Hour Man tale, as it was drawn by regular Starman artist Jack Burnley, and contained many Starman-specific characteristics. Of the remaining published Hour Man stories that will run in ADVENTURE COMICS, none of them appears to be recycled from an unused JSA Hour Man chapter. There are none that appear to be padded with two extra pages (to reach the typical 8 pages of an Hour Man solo vs the typical 6 pages of a JSA chapter), and none that deal with the framing premise, which was about victims who’d been driven mad by the villainous Professor Elba. Maybe the story was never written, or never drawn, or “written off”. I’m sure that comics historians will be on the lookout for the unlikely discovery of unused Hour Man pages, but I don’t hold out much hope for that. Anyway, that’s the end of Hour Man’s stint with the JSA in the Golden Age. It was short, it was unremarkable, but he came through with his share of the fundraising drive in a decent final appearance with the team. It’s far from the worst Hour Man adventure, with some nice-looking Baily art, globetrotting the likes of which I wish they’d done in his solo strip, and coherent story-telling. One very notable aspect of this story is that Miraclo is never mentioned. From the printed pages, one could assume that Rex was operating under his normal human abilities throughout this issue. In fact, I’ll just assume that this was the case, and consider this closing chapter an indication of how Rex Tyler benefitted from his time on the team, maturing from the timid, cowardly man he was at the start of his feature to a confident and strong hero, capable of fighting crime without the advantage of his drug. Readers of the time didn’t get an explanation for Rex’s request of a leave of absence. Hour Man’s entry in WHO’S WHO IN THE DC UNIVERSE fills in the gaps by asserting that Miraclo, in its original formulation, had unspecified negative side effects as well as an addictive quality, and these issues were behind his departure from active duty with the JSA. No such problems were explicitly depicted in the stories of the time, of course, and, as unpleasant as we might find it, neither the side effects nor the addictive effects are unreasonable extrapolations. The previous ADVENTURE COMICS installment, as I noted above, did have an aspect that could be construed as suggesting addiction, although I do not contend that it was intended to do so. But addictiveness and side effects are reasonable ideas to layer on top of this character in the more sophisticated comics published decades later. A home-brewed concoction that grants temporary super powers, tested on oneself without proper clinical trials? That sounds like some kind of mega-steroid, and we in the real world know those can have some bad side effects… and they can have a nearly-instantaneous effect, just like Miraclo. I remember my first steroid experience, when I had a bad case of poison ivy as a teenager. The docs at the Navy hospital in Millington shot me up, and by the time I got to the car the poison ivy welts were fading from my skin like magic! That would not be my last bout with poison ivy, and the next time, I got another steroid shot, with similar instant effect. So I wasn’t too concerned the third time, and we headed back to Millington for another miracle cure…only that time, the doctors had decided that, even as effective as they were, steroids weren’t appropriate solutions. I was disappointed to have to endure the itchy agony throughout its natural course, relying solely on the utterly useless calamine lotion. So if we accept the 80’s explanation of Hour Man’s leave of absence, Hour Man’s final mission with the JSA may indeed have been performed without benefit of Miraclo. With non-powered mystery men like the Atom and Batman on the team, maybe Rex figured he could hold his own now without any boosters, and this was his first try. Perhaps, looking back on it, he decided he couldn’t hack it without the Miraclo and took his leave, with the intent of getting off of Miraclo for good, but not wanting to do so under the eyes of his crime-fighting comrades. Not that he would do so immediately, though. Assuming the publication order of his adventures was roughly chronological, Rex still has four more Miraclo pill-powered episodes ahead of him. As we know, after the revelation of Earth-2 in the 1960's, Hour Man would be welcomed back into the reunited JSA, so we can be confident that his departure was, as described, a requested leave of absence, rather than the JSA’s cover story for booting him from the team. He left in good standing and returned to serve honorably. And so I close with Hour Man’s final panel shared with his Golden Age comrades, the full roster of the Justice Society of America, eleven of DC's and AA’s greatest costumed mystery men, the slate of characters with whom they launched the idea of the comic book superhero super-team:  |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 17, 2022 14:19:00 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #67, October 1941:  We’re back to another wordy but impactful logo, with a cool hourglass adorning it, and no introductory caption:  SYNOPSIS: Rex Tyler is driving south in a professional role, delivering an important chemicals to farmers who need the product for cropdusting. When a plane appears heading for a crash, Rex takes a Miraclo pill, dons his Hour Man garb, and races to the plummeting aeroplane. The pilot has fainted from fright, so it’s up to Hour Man to leap aboard with a Miraclo-powered jump, attain the cockpit and land the “out-moded crate”. The pilot is revealed to be a young boy with only two hours of flight experience. He’s been forced to fly as a cropduster under the threat of a beating! From cover of the brush, two men fire at the Hour Man, angered that he’s talking to young Willie, and their boss “Big Red” wouldn’t like that! The gunfire makes Hour Man angry, so he beats the tar out of the thugs, who work for Meade Crop Dusters, the very company to which Rex is delivering chemicals. Resuming his civilian identity, Rex continues to the company and finds it heavily guarded. Inside, Rex is introduced by Meade to “Big Red” himself, one of Meade’s employees. Rex spots Meade giving Big Red a covert signal as Rex is escorted to his quarters, where he is to stay the night. When Big Red later escorts Rex to dinner, Big Red explains that the many young boys here (who look beaten and malnourished) are wards of the state, sent here to learn “useful occupations”. After a fine meal, one of the goons who attacked Hour Man appears and excuses himself to Big Red: “I got a little business outside!” Rex retires to his room, changes to Hour Man, and heads off to track the thug. Eavesdropping at the boys’ cabin, Rex witnesses the cruel guard beating the children, trying to find out who the mystery man was that Willie was talking to. Time for action! Hour Man tears into the men, and the boys themselves join in on the beat-down! Reinforcements arrive, so Hour Man gathers Willie in his arms and leaps through a glass window, retreating to a far corner of the airport. Here, Will explains that he was caught trying to escape, so that he could go to where the governor is speaking, five miles away, and rat on the Meade company for abusing these reform school lads: five kids have already died in plane crashes! Gathering Willie in his arms again, Hour Man leaps the electric fence, leaves Willie in a safe spot, and runs to the governor’s speaking event. He kidnaps the governor and runs with him back to Meade, where Willie pleads his case. Next the governor, who’s heard only good reports of the company, is given a quick tour of the appalling conditions under which the boys are forced to live. He’s shown the claptrap planes and the jig is up! Meade and his boys prepare to hightail it, but Hour Man does a Baily dive, the police arrive, and abusive men are arrested. Again in his Rex Tyler identity, our hero appears from his room at the Meade facility in time to hear the governor promise the boys that things will be different from now on. The governor expresses thanks to the Hour Man: “I wish I could meet him and tell him so!” (Well, you’ve already met him, Gov’, and I think he’ll figure it out if you make good on your promise! COMMENTARY: Well, it’s another social justice story, with a shaky premise that isn’t quite spelled out explicitly: the kids are worked as pilots because the planes are unreliable, and reform school boys are expendable. It’s not much of a story, but it is notable in retrospect, because the depictions in this story can be used to support the retconning of Miraclo being a problematic drug. The first thing that struck me was that when Rex and Willie are fired upon, the caption says: “Angered, the Hour Man charges the guards, his speed so great that the trigger cannot be touched again!” While it’s justifiable, this is the first time I can recall Hour Man being described as “angered”:  His response is pretty violent: he not only socks one guy in the head so hard his hat flies off (a favorite touch of Baily’s!) but he tosses another head-first through the air, commenting “Be thankful I didn’t lose my temper!” I’m not sure Rex stayed as even-tempered as he thinks he did, here. Sure, in the comics, this kind of violence is conventional, and ordinary humans recover quickly from fights that would result in concussions and broken necks in real life, but Hour Man’s actions have without a doubt been getting more extreme. I’m not suggesting that the creators were trying to imply anything; they were certainly only upping the action to make the feature more exciting. But this does give later retconners a foundation to characterize Miraclo as having negative side effects. This could be viewed as something akin to ‘roid rage, and Rex’s conscious acknowledgment may have led to his request for leave from the JSA. Later in the story, he’s even wielding a nondescript foreign object against Big Red, from behind:  Red’s reaction—“It’s killing me!”—is a pretty strong one, and that fist to the head that follows looks to be delivered with the full force of Miraclo behind it. So while I understand the distaste that some have for retconning a wholesome Golden Age concept into a distasteful one, it's a reasonable way to explain away several aspects of this feature's history that not only doesn't contradict what the stories depicted, but can be seen as supported by what was on the page. We'll only have two more issues where Rex explicitly takes Miraclo pills, and this will be the last issue that shows him actually popping one into his mouth, I think, so DC seem to have developed conscious concerns about depicting him getting powers from swallowing a drug. |
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Feb 18, 2022 5:58:31 GMT -5
The switch from pills to the black light ray was almost certainly dictated by the Editorial Advisory Board for exactly the reason you suggest.
Cei-U!
I summon the new no-no!
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 18, 2022 9:13:15 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #68, November 1941:  SYNOPSIS: Bernard Baily’s been getting really stylish with his opening pages. This splash doesn’t even show our hero, but instead a conducting skeleton. This story has an actual title, discreetly tucked into the introductory caption: “Death at the Opera!”  Rex and Regina are taking in the opera, which, thanks to Regina and her society friends’ fundraising, has been revamped this season with new talent. Attending the season opener is Frenessi, the previous conductor, thought to be bitter about being replaced, despite have earned a lot of money in his prior seasons. As Maestro Ravel takes up the baton to begin the opera, a flame bursts from it. The house lights go out, and the image of a theatrical mask is projected onto the stage curtain. A voice booms out: “There shall be no opera! The Mask has spoken!” When the lights come up, Ravel is dead, slumped over his music stand. The house electrician explains that the baton was charged at high voltage, somehow shorting out the light system. The cops arrive and bully Rex out of the way, with Regina disgusted at “meek” Rex allowing himself to be ordered around by the police. On the cab ride home, she claims she’s just upset at the tragedy, but what really bugs her is that Rex is too “wishy-washy” to help! Rex seems to know what’s really bothering her, but he has to keep his secret, taking Miraclo (off-panel!) and changing into his costume to look into the opera house murder. Hour Man sneaks in and begins looking for the baton, when he is interrupted by “Tony”, who starts a fight and then flees the stronger hero. But from the stage rafters, a hooded man—The Mask himself!—drops a sandbag onto the Man of the Hour, leaving him to be taken by the police and accused of murdering Ravel.  One cop holds Rex at gunpoint while the other summons the paddy wagon. The cop has previously been sympathetic to the Hour Man, seeing him as an aid to the police, but the evidence against Rex leaves the cop resistant to Hour Man’s pleas of innocence. When the cop is distracted by the arrival of the house electrician (who is investigating tampered circuits in the opera house), Hour Man does what Hour Man does best (well, besides chasing cars!): he socks the policeman and runs away! The cop thinks he’s left the building, but Hour Man is up in the rafters, where he discovers a record player with a recording of the Mask’s threat: this was what was played during the light outage when Ravel was killed! More cops arrive, and this time they spot our hero, who grabs the record and the electrician and retreats to a safe location elsewhere. The electrician identifies the record as the invention of his assistant, Tony Fabbio: a remote controlled record player. The electrician points Rex to Tony’s home address. Hour Man arrives in time to discover Tony dying; Tony was killed by The Mask for refusing to go along with The Mask’s plans to kill all his enemies, starting with Regina Bannerman! Tony dies before he can reveal who The Mask is, so Hour Man heads off to project Regina.  The Mask has arrived at Regina’s balcony, where he cuts the lights and flashes the mask icon, using the same special flashlight he used at the opera. Hour Man arrives in time to save Regina, The Mask is revealed as Frenessi, who stabs himself rather than face his punishment.  COMMENTARY: Like some of the better late Spectre stories, this is like a Poverty Row b-movie horror show squeezed into eight pages: the angered ex-conductor carries out his revenge by murdering the society folk who had him replaced, under the guise of an eerie villain. Three violent deaths—two stabbings and one electrocution—add some thrills to a transparent excuse for a mystery: The Mask’s identity was obvious from page 1. A flashlight projection and a remote-controlled record player aren’t much of a gimmick, and as an electrical engineer, I can’t quite fathom how the charged baton short-circuited the electrical system unless it were hard-wired to power, which wouldn’t make for a very convenient baton. I’ll assume it was, and Ravel just didn’t notice until it was too late. Whoever the scripter was, he seems to be trying to revive Rex’s Clark Kent-like characterization, and Regina’s role as the love interest who disdains Rex and admires Hour Man. It’s not going to stick, but the feature is going to try emulating another bigger success before long in its attempt to stay in print. Speaking of Regina, there’s an apparent lapse in continuity in this issue: The Boss’s niece is identified as “Regina Bannerman”, sharing the same last name as her uncle, of Bannerman Laboratories. Previously, in issue 3 of ALL-STAR COMICS, she was identified as “Regina Paige”. Let’s play Roy Thomas for a minute here: From ALL-STAR #2, we know that Mr. Bannerman had a late sister Clara, who was married to Robert T. Davis. One possible scenario is that Regina was Clara’s daughter from a first marriage to a Mr. Paige. When Paige died, Clara remarried Mr. Davis. If Clara died soon after marrying Davis, Davis may have been reluctant to take responsibility for Regina, who then became a ward to Mr. Bannerman. Perhaps Regina was formally adopted somewhere between stories and took the new last name of Bannerman. This would explain why Mr. Bannerman seems so involved in his niece’s life, such as arranging for Rex to escort her to parties, seemingly setting her up to date Rex. Despite his frequent beratement of Rex in the early installments, Bannerman must have seen promise in the meek chemist, as evidenced by Rex’s recent promotion, and The Boss may have seen a marriage to Rex as a way to keep Bannerman Laboratories “in the family” when he retired. Note again that Hour Man’s use of Miraclo is conveyed in a text box, rather than an image: “And a moment later, having taken his discovery, Miraclo…” Yes, the Advisory Board has apparently come down on depicting drug usage, so the creators are taking care to avoid showing that until they can come up with a solution that preserves the premise without pill-popping. I want to note something about Bernard Baily’s art. In addition to his trademark “Baily dive” (showing the hero diving into the panel with the reader looking at the soles of the character’s boots), another distinction he’s adopted is almost constant overlapping across panel borders. Figures, captions, and speech balloons pass into or through the panel gutters in almost every instance, giving a sense of momentum, dimensionality, and clutter (which counteracts his tendency to widen his spaces, such as sidewalks, streets, rooms, and landscapes). It’s not convenient for taking neat-looking screenshots for computer display, but it’s an effective technique on the printed page. One reason Baily could get away with this more than many of his contemporaries was because he was also the letterer and inker (or at least directly in charge of any ghost artists who handled any of these tasks). He was inventive with his captions, often placing them to the left of the panel rather than the traditional top. You could empty the panels of all art and still be able to identify it as a Baily page! |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 19, 2022 6:06:22 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #69, December 1941:  Strap yourselves in for the strangest Hour Man story ever! It's the most shocking adventure ‘Tick-Tock’ Tyler has ever experienced. There is a lot to unpack in this one, so my commentary on this chapter will follow in a long, separate post, so for now, enjoy as Hour Man confronts the menace of Dr. Wizen and his Gorohs!  SYNOPSIS: Rex is relaxing at his boarding house room, waiting for dinner and reading a paper, when he notices a bright star outside the window, approaching him. It reaches Rex’s room, and the dwarven dr. Wizen appears before him. Wizen proudly proclaims that he knows Rex Tyler’s secret identity of the Hour Man and rips off Rex’s outer clothing to reveal the black and yellow costume beneath. In costume but minus his hood, Rex attempts and fails to capture Wizen who taunts: “What can you do without Miraclo? Your days of criminal-catching are over!” Rex finds himself unable to raise his hands to take Miraclo, apparently under Wizen’s mental command. Wizen then summons his Gorohs, a pair of bizarre brutes with huge hairy torsos and oversized bald heads! Even without Miraclo, Rex fights back, only to find the Gorohs intangible to his attack. Rex only knocks himself out, and Wizen takes possession of Rex’s Miraclo stash and then instructs the Gorohs to put Hour Man’s mask on him and carry him into the space chariot waiting outside.  The chariot flies off to Wizen’s planet, from where he shall begin his campaign of terror to conquer the universe, but he wanted to be sure Hour Man is unable to interfere. In Wizen’s palace, a Goroh holds Hour Man while Wizen prepares to zap our hero with a strange machine, but Hour Man escapes the beast’s hold. Dashing for the Miraclo, Rex tries to evade the rays from Wizen’s machine, but soon finds himself struck by the beams and unable to resist Dr. Wizen’s commands! In a hallucinogenic sequence, Hour Man, Wizen, and the Gorohs begin to fly about the room, then soar back to Earth, to Bannerman Laboratories’ defense factory, where the company manufactures explosives.  Hour Man is shocked to find that Mr. Bannerman is being forced to work for Wizen, as well. The sight of the hero raises momentary hope in The Boss’s mind, but he is shocked to learn that not only is Hour Man a slave to Dr. Wizen, but that he is Rex Tyler, when Wizen compels Rex to unmask before his supervisor! The shock renders Bannerman in hysterical laughter, while Hour Man finds himself regaining control of his body, thanks to contact with Earth’s air! Hour Man’s first move is to retrieve those Miraclo pills with a pick-pocket move on Dr. Wizen’s robes. Between panels, he pops a pill, and Miraclo does its stuff, powering up the Hour Man!  After a few panels of beating up the Gorohs, Dr. Wizen screams to Bannerman to do something, but before Bannerman--whom Rex decries as a spy—can act, Hour Man has Dr. Wizen by the collar. Hour Man tosses Wizen away from him to deal with a newly-arrived Goroh, but Bannerman sees that Wizen is going to land on the dynamite in the facility. Next thing you know, the entire factory goes up in a massive explosion, leaving only Hour Man, Bannerman, and Dr. Wizen outside the wreckage. This is surely Rex’s low point in the hero business: “Oh, what have I done? Innocent men—dead!” Baily gets his word balloons on the final page off-kilter, but Bannerman encourages Wizen to kill Hour Man, so Dr. Wizen takes some of his own “Enormo K-2 formula”. (If there were any doubt that the appearance of drug consumption was an editorial concern in this feature, it looks to me like Baily drew Wizen drinking this formula out of some glass or flask that was painted out, although it could have just been an awkward way to draw Wizen popping a pill.) The Enormo K-2 formula turns Dr. Wizen into a giant, and, as Rex’s hour of power wanes and a leering Bannerman watches on in sadistic glee, Wizen puts his massive hands around Hour Man’s throat and strangles him to death.  |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 19, 2022 16:43:13 GMT -5
[CONFIDENTIAL TRANSCRIPT, p. 5]:
“So, Doc, it all turned out to be a crazy dream. My landlord, Mr. Meadows, came in to wake me up for dinner. I think it means I need to get back in there and tackle some real problems, like these gangs of saboteurs that the FBI has been rounding up lately. What do you think it means?”
“Well, Rex, first let me thank you for opening up to me about your secret identity. I assure you that as your therapist, everything you share is strictly confidential. Your secret is safe with me.
“Now the first thing your dream indicates to me is that you fear having your role as a masked hero exposed to the world, especially to Mr. Bannerman. This is quite normal, I would presume, for those in your unusual position. Those fellows in the Justice Society, they have civilian identities as well, don’t they?”
“Well, yes, Doc, in our first meeting, in fact, we all shared…”
“No, no! I don’t want you betraying any confidences, Rex! But don’t concern yourself over that aspect of your dream. I’m sure the other boys in your club have the same anxieties.
“I think what we should be exploring is what happened next in your dream. What was it that Dr. Wizen said to you next, again?”
“’What can you do without Miraclo?’, I think.”
“Yes, and then you were paralyzed, unable to take your pill. Do you think you are a lesser person without your drug? Do you feel powerless, too weak to even lift your hands without it, just like in the dream?”
“Hey, Doc, don’t call it a drug! It’s a formula, a chemical, my own invention! I’m not a druggie. And remember what happened next in the dream, I took on the Gorohs without Miraclo!”
“So you did, Rex, and that suggests that you still have some confidence in your own natural capabilities. But recall that without Miraclo, you were unable to even touch the Goroh, and you only harmed yourself in your attempt!”
“Well, I suppose so…Even with Miraclo, I’ve taken my share of damage. It seems to protect me from serious injury but blows to the head have knocked me out plenty of times.”
“Quite reasonable, then, that you should have trepidations about engaging in crime-fighting without your drug—excuse me, your formula.
“Does the ray machine mean anything to you? It seemed to have the same general effect that Dr. Wizen was able to effect mentally on you in the dream, so why do you think your subconscious added that element?”
“Well, I have been doing some experiments with a ray projector…it’s just something I picked up in a recent case, may not amount to anything, I’m not a physicist, you know…but other than that, I can’t think of what it might mean.”
“Well, let’s concentrate on what it did to you in the dream, instead. You were not only powerless to act on your own, but under the complete domination of Dr. Wizen, carrying out his orders. Do you ever feel that you’re not in control of your own thoughts, Rex?”
“Sometimes lately, I’ve felt like maybe I was getting carried away, doing things that I wouldn’t normally do, without intending to.”
“This is as Hour Man, correct?”
“Yes, as Hour Man.”
“While using Miraclo?”
“Yes, usually when I’ve taken Miraclo.”
“Let’s move on to the rest of your dream. It seems to have gotten a little confusing when you returned to Earth, but dream logic is often like that. Mr. Bannerman first seemed like a spy to you, then he was your enemy, and then he was laughing uncontrollably when he discovered that you and Hour Man were the same person. You seem especially concerned that Mr. Bannerman may discover your Hour Man identity.”
“I suppose so. I’ve been using the lab at work to do my Miraclo research—can’t really turn my room at the boarding house into a chemistry lab, can I?—and I don’t know what would happen if he found out. He’s been back and forth on Hour Man the whole time. He always gets upset when I get bad press as Hour Man, ranting about how I must be behind every crazy crime that goes on in this town, falling for all the frame-ups they try to pin on me. But sometimes, he’s a big Hour Man booster, too. I just can’t figure it. I’m pretty sure if he knew I was Hour Man, he’d scotch the way he keeps trying to set me up with his niece, Regina. See, he thinks I’m ‘meek and mild’, since that’s the only way he ever sees me.”
“I take it you pretend to have a timid personality on the job?”
“Yes…well, it wasn’t an act, at first. I used to be a real milquetoast, Doc. Looking back, I was downright yellow. Lately, I’ve felt pretty confident, and it’s aggravating to pretend to be the same as I used to be. I was humiliated a couple of weeks ago when I had to let myself be pushed around by a cop when I was out at the opera with Regina.”
“But Rex, you should obey the police when they’re investigating. There’s nothing unmanly about following their orders, and I suspect Regina didn’t really think less of you for not interfering.”
“No, Doc, I could see it in her eyes. She claimed she was upset about witnessing the murder, but I’m sure she was thinking that I didn’t have the confidence to stand up for myself. She has no idea how much confidence I have now!”
“Would you say you’ve been more confident since you’ve become Hour Man? Even when the Miraclo isn’t active in your bloodstream?”
“Right. I’m becoming more like Hour Man in my ‘off-hours’. I think that’s probably a good thing, don’t you?”
“It could be, Rex, if your personality was a source of dissatisfaction in your life. Were you unhappy before discovering Miraclo and adopting this new persona?”
“I don’t know if I’d say unhappy, Doc, but there’s nothing wrong with being more of a man, is there?”
“Rex, you’ll have to answer that for yourself. Let’s get back to the dream. How did you feel—in the dream—when you recovered your pills from Wizen?”
“I remember being happy about it…smiling…”
“I noticed an interesting detail in your telling of the dream, Rex. You specifically mentioned that you took back Miraclo pills—plural—from Wizen. You didn’t mention the part of the dream where you took the Miraclo, though. In the dream, did you take all of the pills you got back from Wizen?”
“I honestly don’t remember that part, Doc. It would be weird if I did; I’m pretty good about only taking one at a time in real life, but I don’t remember doing anything with the extra pills in my dream, so…maybe…”
“Have you ever tried multiple doses of Miraclo, Rex?”
“Oh, sure, in the early days, I had to experiment to find the right dose. And sometimes when the pill is wearing off, I have to take a second one, if I’m on a mission.”
“I see; you don’t regularly take more than one at a time…back to the dream, now. I want to get to the explosion.”
“Yeah, that was where it turned into a real nightmare. I remember the feeling of immense guilt that everyone in the building died in the explosion.”
“Has anything like that happened in your actual Hour Man activities?”
“Nothing like that, but there have been times when…well, when I wasn’t able to save everyone I wanted to, or when someone I was fighting died, that I wish I could have saved…”
“That must be quite a burden for a masked mystery man. From what I’ve read in the papers, some of the cases that The Flash and The Green Lantern and the others have been involved with resulted in casualties. You may need to consider whether that risk is worth continuing to take. In your dream, not only the innocents in the factory died, but you yourself did.”
“Well, so much for the old saw about dying in real life if you die in your dream, right, Doc?”
“That’s right, Rex. I’ve had many patients live to tell me they died in their dreams. You live a riskier lifestyle than they do, Rex. What was the last thing Dr. Wizen said to you in your dream?”
“As I recall, it was ‘Say goodbye to your campaign to help the oppressed! This is your last fight!’ Man, that was a titantic fight!”
“’Titanic’, Rex. There’s no ‘t’ in the last syllable. But anyway, that last comment of Dr. Wizens, in your dream, I think that says a lot about your true motivations, Rex. It’s not about the super powers, not down at the core of your being. It’s about your mission to help those who need help, the ‘oppressed’ as you like to put it. Have the powers been a help or a hindrance to that goal? Are they somehow putting your purpose in this whole Hour Man effort second to the excitement of action? What is it that you’re most passionate about?”
“Well, Doc, I’d have to say it’s the youth of America. You know, I tried to start a nationwide boy’s club, but that was a little ambitious of me, and I couldn’t raise the funds I needed to equip kids with the radios I promised them, so I focused on the local boys, the ones I could connect with on a personal level. That’s where I feel like I’ve really made the most impact. The Society was supportive of that now and then, but it wasn’t their main priority.”
“So this Justice Society might also be a distraction from your true calling, do you think?
“Oh, my, look at the time…oh, I suppose you of all people would know when an hour is about up!
“Rex, I think we’ve made some good progress today into gaining some insight, and I’d like you to consider this before our next session. Do you feel like you are becoming dependent on Miraclo? Is it having negative effects on your personality, leaving you feeling out of control? Can you accept the risk to yourself and to others to continue on as a mystery man? I’d like you to carefully and honestly consider all the options available to you, especially if you think any disasters like the one you dreamed about are possible. The pills, the Society, the secret identity, none of that is really essential to living the life you want or achieving the goals that would make you happy.”
“I’ll give it some thought, Doc. See you next week…”
“I’ll see you next week, Rex.”
|
|
|
|
Post by tarkintino on Feb 19, 2022 18:38:57 GMT -5
ALL-STAR COMICS #7, October-November 1941 So if we accept the 80’s explanation of Hour Man’s leave of absence, Hour Man’s final mission with the JSA may indeed have been performed without benefit of Miraclo. With non-powered mystery men like the Atom and Batman on the team, maybe Rex figured he could hold his own now without any boosters, and this was his first try. Perhaps, looking back on it, he decided he couldn’t hack it without the Miraclo and took his leave, with the intent of getting off of Miraclo for good, but not wanting to do so under the eyes of his crime-fighting comrades. Well, the JSA could not be expected to have a known user on the team, could they? Best they booted him, before Perry White got wind of Rex's secret and ordered that Kent fellow to write a 10-part, weekly series on the "Junkie Society of America"...  |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Feb 23, 2022 6:22:03 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #70, January 1942:  SYNOPSIS: Man, Bernard Baily is really laying on a whopper of a logo!  Rex Tyler and The Boss, Mr. Bannerman, have just been to the cinema. As they leave, Bannerman is scoffing at the fantasy he saw on the screen, a flying carpet. Rex teasingly points out some inventions that once would be thought impossible, when suddenly, a genuine flying carpet comes down from the sky. Aboard the carpet is a bald dwarf in a green costume, who snatches the necklace from a pretty young woman. Bannerman urges his employee to act, but since Rex needs to protect his identity (and presumably his cover as a “meek chemist”), it’s up to Bannerman himself to attempt to apprehend the thief. This riles the rug-riding runt, who now moves in to mow down the man with his magical mat! It’s only Rex’s diving tackle that moves Bannerman out of the path of the carpet, and the dwarf decides to move along with his loot, flying off into the night sky. Rex and Bannerman revive the victim, who brushes off the incredible crime, since her jewels were insured by the Atlas Company. As Rex and Bannerman walk home, The Boss gripes that this is the kind of thing he’d expect from Hour Man, had he not seen the dwarf himself. Rex declines Bannerman’s suggestion to continue their visit up in his apartment, and Bannerman mutters that Rex is probably running home to hide under the bed. Rex is instead donning his Hour Man costume, which has been revised to feature a tightly clinging mask instead of a loose hooded cowl). Hour Man, intent on investigating this “miniature maniac”, notices police cars speeding off, and follows them in case the dwarf has struck again. The narrative backs up a few moments to show us where the cops are heading: it’s a nearby circus, where the owner is conversing with his insurer, Mr. Atlas (who, you’ll remember, had insured the lady’s necklace). The circus was insured for $1,000,000, but it looks like the show’s a success and won’t require Atlas to pay out anything. Walsh, the chauffeur to Mr. Atlas, runs on-panel, reporting that Mrs. Hope’s diamonds—insured for half a million!—were stolen! Before Atlas can process the loss, the dwarf on the flying carpet appears above the circus. Floating above the lions’ car, the dwarf lifts the gate, releasing the big cats to run rampant among the crowd. He crows that this calamity will cost Atlas considerably: $1,000,000! Fortunately Hour Man has arrived on the scene; we don’t see it, but we can trust that he trotted after the police cars—discreetly, since the police always seem to want to arrest him. In fact, once Hour Man has taken the lions out of action, and failed his attempt to leap aboard the flying carpet, the police do just that, even firing at Hour Man as he evades apprehension by the authorities. The circus owner, meanwhile, is vowing that Atlas will pay, since his circus is now exposed to lawsuits. The circus owner, clumsily delivering some expository dialog that Mr. Atlas recognized the dwarf, accuses Atlas of being behind this fiasco. Hour Man returns to the circus to do what he does third best: grabbing an unsuspecting person—in this case, Mr. Atlas—and carrying them off somewhere like a rooftop to interrogate them. Here’s what he learns from Mr. Atlas: The dwarf on the carpet is Globe-o. He and his brother were fired for using Atlas’s factories (his is a very diverse business) for “unlawful purposes”. The two are out to ruin Atlas for what he did to them. Atlas also identifies a fine “thread” from the carpet, which had lodged on Hour Man’s costume, as a fine electrical wire, used by Bert Izzel, an “electrical wizard” who had worked for Atlas. Atlas points Hour Man to Izzel’s home on Beaver Road. So that’s the next stop; Hour Man is confident a visit to Izzel’s house will lead to Globe-o’s apprehension. As soon as he enters, his hourglass pendant reacts strangely. It has an antenna that quivers, indicating “electrical current of some kind here!” Globe-o and his identical twin Dodo are watching from a remote video monitor, and decide to kill off the masked mystery man.  They activate a trap door, sending Hour Man down a slide and into a cage in the basement, next to the chained-up Izzel. Dodo ignores his brother’s order not to get close to Hour Man’s cage, and when he does, Izzel kicks him in the rump, allowing Hour Man to grab hold of the second dwarf and snatch the key to escape confinement. The villains recognize a retreat is required, and Dodo mounts the amazing mat while Globe-o gets it going against gravity by operating the on-switch, on a machine mounted on the cellar wall. At Izzel’s urging, Hour Man upsets the escape by tossing Globe-o into the machinery, wrecking it. This short circuits the magic carpet, and Hour Man races to catch the falling Dodo before he’s as dead as his namesake.  Bert Izzel fills in the details: he was imprisoned by Globe-o, who used Izzel’s wire in his carpet. Globe-o was so light that he could stay on the carpet as it “flew by electrical impulse”, operated from the basement by Dodo. COMMENTARY: Here’s another story with a heavy helping of fantasy and freakishness. Baily seems to have loved drawing freakish-featured characters, and I wonder how much input he had in the story content, guiding them toward the subjects he liked to illustrate. Judging from the incoherence and sloppiness on display here, I wouldn’t be surprised if this story, whose scripter is not identified at the GCD, was another gem from Hour Man co-creator Ken Fitch. This story is like one of those “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” pages I used to enjoy poring over as a kid. As an engineer, it’s difficult for me to get past the implausible “science” on display here. How could Dodo have operated this by remote control from such a great distance? Why is Hour Man’s pendant acting as an ammeter, detecting electric current? Never mind that current would be flowing in any building with operating electrical equipment, how does that give away the dwarfs in the basement? Dwarfs are not particularly light weight, especially if the carpet could support two of them, and this flying carpet would be a revolutionary invention even if it could support only ten pounds. Why do Globe-o and Dodo have circus-sounding clown names if they are “mad geniuses” who were talented enough to do unspecified work in a factory? Bert Izzel only supplied the fine electrical wire from which the carpet was woven; it was the dwarfs who did the impressive stuff. And speaking of impressive stuff, how about rigging up a suburban house with a huge basement that include trap doors, slides, cages, and a video surveillance system 60 years ahead of its time? Even if we assume that Hour Man found the stolen necklace, Atlas is still on the hook for payout on the circus. None of the audience is going to drop their suit because the lions were released by a vindictive genius freak on a flying carpet! How did Globe-o know exactly what Atlas had insured, anyway? Why would a successful opening night be taken by the circus owner as evidence that “Lucky” Atlas wouldn’t have to pay out anything? Was this a one-night-only circus? Yeah, it sure feels Finchian to me. A few ideas, crammed together and connected in a nonsensical sequence of events, with flimsy attempts to justify presenting them all as part of a single story. One scripting detail that jumped out at me was when Atlas is very specific about identifying the street on which Izzel lives (Beaver Road). Two issues prior, Fabbio’s street name was specified as well. Is this a quirk that indicates the same writer wrote both of these? Then there’s Mr. Bannerman. He’s socializing with Rex, even inviting him up to his flat after their eventful encounter. He disdains him as too timid, even though Rex’s actions saved him (although I question the premise that he really would have been killed by getting hit by a flying carpet with a lightweight dwarf on it). He has an irrational need to complain about Hour Man in an event entirely unrelated and unlike anything that Hour Man’s ever been accused of. And we’re back to the police having it in for Hour Man. At least he doesn’t beat any cops up this time around (by my accounting, the second best thing he’s good at). Perhaps the most notable thing in this story is the panel when Hour Man begins his fight with the lions. The caption gingerly notes only that Hour Man is “fortified by Miraclo, the discovery which for an hour gives him extra-human powers”. Not depiction or description of any consumption, he’s just “fortified”. They are clearly struggling to come up with a way to sustain this feature without ever showing or even mentioning him popping a pill again.  It's the end of an era for Hour Man, just a month shy of two years into his Golden Age run, because next issue, the feature presents a solution to its pesky pill problem! |
|
|
|
Post by chadwilliam on Feb 23, 2022 20:45:26 GMT -5
ADVENTURE COMICS #69, December 1941: Strap yourselves in for the strangest Hour Man story ever! It's the most shocking adventure ‘Tick-Tock’ Tyler has ever experienced. There is a lot to unpack in this one, so my commentary on this chapter will follow in a long, separate post, so for now, enjoy as Hour Man confronts the menace of Dr. Wizen and his Gorohs! SYNOPSIS: Rex is relaxing at his boarding house room, waiting for dinner and reading a paper, when he notices a bright star outside the window, approaching him. It reaches Rex’s room, and the dwarven dr. Wizen appears before him. Wizen proudly proclaims that he knows Rex Tyler’s secret identity of the Hour Man and rips off Rex’s outer clothing to reveal the black and yellow costume beneath. In costume but minus his hood, Rex attempts and fails to capture Wizen who taunts: “What can you do without Miraclo? Your days of criminal-catching are over!” Rex finds himself unable to raise his hands to take Miraclo, apparently under Wizen’s mental command. Wizen then summons his Gorohs, a pair of bizarre brutes with huge hairy torsos and oversized bald heads! Even without Miraclo, Rex fights back, only to find the Gorohs intangible to his attack. Rex only knocks himself out, and Wizen takes possession of Rex’s Miraclo stash and then instructs the Gorohs to put Hour Man’s mask on him and carry him into the space chariot waiting outside. The chariot flies off to Wizen’s planet, from where he shall begin his campaign of terror to conquer the universe, but he wanted to be sure Hour Man is unable to interfere. In Wizen’s palace, a Goroh holds Hour Man while Wizen prepares to zap our hero with a strange machine, but Hour Man escapes the beast’s hold. Dashing for the Miraclo, Rex tries to evade the rays from Wizen’s machine, but soon finds himself struck by the beams and unable to resist Dr. Wizen’s commands! In a hallucinogenic sequence, Hour Man, Wizen, and the Gorohs begin to fly about the room, then soar back to Earth, to Bannerman Laboratories’ defense factory, where the company manufactures explosives. Hour Man is shocked to find that Mr. Bannerman is being forced to work for Wizen, as well. The sight of the hero raises momentary hope in The Boss’s mind, but he is shocked to learn that not only is Hour Man a slave to Dr. Wizen, but that he is Rex Tyler, when Wizen compels Rex to unmask before his supervisor! The shock renders Bannerman in hysterical laughter, while Hour Man finds himself regaining control of his body, thanks to contact with Earth’s air! Hour Man’s first move is to retrieve those Miraclo pills with a pick-pocket move on Dr. Wizen’s robes. Between panels, he pops a pill, and Miraclo does its stuff, powering up the Hour Man! After a few panels of beating up the Gorohs, Dr. Wizen screams to Bannerman to do something, but before Bannerman--whom Rex decries as a spy—can act, Hour Man has Dr. Wizen by the collar. Hour Man tosses Wizen away from him to deal with a newly-arrived Goroh, but Bannerman sees that Wizen is going to land on the dynamite in the facility. Next thing you know, the entire factory goes up in a massive explosion, leaving only Hour Man, Bannerman, and Dr. Wizen outside the wreckage. This is surely Rex’s low point in the hero business: “Oh, what have I done? Innocent men—dead!” Baily gets his word balloons on the final page off-kilter, but Bannerman encourages Wizen to kill Hour Man, so Dr. Wizen takes some of his own “Enormo K-2 formula”. (If there were any doubt that the appearance of drug consumption was an editorial concern in this feature, it looks to me like Baily drew Wizen drinking this formula out of some glass or flask that was painted out, although it could have just been an awkward way to draw Wizen popping a pill.) The Enormo K-2 formula turns Dr. Wizen into a giant, and, as Rex’s hour of power wanes and a leering Bannerman watches on in sadistic glee, Wizen puts his massive hands around Hour Man’s throat and strangles him to death. Such a crazy story - had it been told 25 years later readers would be certain whoever wrote it was on LSD. Speaking of which... The last panel announces that 'Bernard Bailey Creator of The Hour Man also Draws The Spectre A Feature Written by Jerry Siegel, Author of Superman!' Could this have been the case? Was Bailey writing this strip after all? |
|
