The Hardly Believable Story Of Hillman Periodicals & Its Comics
by Mark Carlson-Ghost
irboy flew to fantastic heights during the Golden Age of Comics. The colorfully clad aviator graced newsstands for 13 continuous years, longer than Captain America, or the original Flash or Green Lantern. Alex Hillman published Air Fighters Comics and Airboy Comics during the hero’s iconic run and editor Ed Cronin oversaw his adventures from takeoff to landing, but neither man is remembered as well as the hero they empowered. Truth to tell, though, Hillman and Cronin were colorful characters in their own right.
What follows is an interwoven history of Airboy, Hillman, and Cronin during the 1940s and ’50s.
Valkyrie, femme fatale par excellence, also makes her presence known, as do The Heap, a horde of sentient rats, and a host of other quirky characters. Their story, and that of the talented creators who worked on their adventures, has yet to be fully told.
Alex Hillman Before Comicbooks
Publisher Alexander Hillman was born in Chicago in 1900. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia. His mother was
born in the States but came from a similar background. Alexander Hillman attended college at the University of Chicago and majored in Law. He subsequently set up shop as an attorney. One other detail stands out: He was decidedly short, only five foot, four inches tall. But he made sure his presence was always larger.
Most of what is known of Hillman’s early professional career is available from David Saunders’ Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists website and scattered newspaper accounts. Shortly after graduating from college, in his role as an attorney, Hillman was hired to assist publishing powerhouses William Randolph Hearst and Moe Annenberg. His immediate task was in planning construction of an 18-story building in Chicago, the ground floor of which would be a huge movie theatre.
Hillman’s association with Hearst and Annenberg proved to be enduring. At the tender age of 25, Hillman was sent by Hearst and Annenberg to China, where the two men owned a Shanghai newspaper
Alex Hillman With thanks to James Kealy.
and a newly launched radio station. Later accounts, likely supplied by Hillman himself, describe his role in Shanghai as the American Vice Consul, though contemporaneous reports describe his efforts as “publicity work.” As the story goes, Hillman was instrumental in arranging the first-ever radio broadcast aired in China, though one suspects some embellishment of his accomplishments may have accrued over the years.
In 1927, Hillman followed Annenberg to New York City, where some of his boss’ business associates ran the powerful Eastern Distributing Company. One of the company’s subsidiaries published inexpensive (if classic) erotic novels, one of which boasted a foreword by Hillman.
Under the auspices of the Alex L. Hillman Publishing Company, the ambitious young man was soon publishing erotic classics himself, including Don Juan’s Notebook and The Brothel A desire to protect his reputation soon took hold, and Hillman subsequently published erotic novels under his William Godwin Publications imprint. In many ways, Hillman’s adventures in publishing paralleled those of Harry Donenfeld and his journey from publishing the Spicy line of pulps to squeaky-clean Superman comicbooks.
Hillman’s Double Life
For Hillman, a similar double life was emerging. On the more respectable side, in addition to his legal work, Hillman taught as an adjunct at Washington Square College, a progressive stronghold located on the edge of Greenwich Village. It was here he met and romanced his soon-to-be wife Rita, a student there and an ardent lover of art. The two were married in 1932. It was Hillman’s academic connections that led him to publish a dissertation on the social and economic forces at play in the textile industry, which became a classic in its field. Economics, politics, and the arts were Hillman’s true passions. One senses that his early publishing efforts were just a means to achieve loftier goals.
and philanthropist. When Kahn declined to finance his plan to start publishing slick magazines, Hillman quickly adjusted his pitch.
“A bank official I went to told me that all I’d really need is a note signed by a responsible person.”
Kahn replied, “If you could bring me a note signed by someone like me, I’d give you the money myself.”
Hillman’s dream of putting out a line of slick-papered magazines would have to wait until 1938, when he launched Hillman Periodicals. Hillman Periodicals operated as both a publisher and a distributor, not unlike Fawcett Publications, which Hillman sought to emulate. His initial line-up included Real Detective and Crime Detective. Not long after, he added Crime Confessions, Real Romances, My Love Secrets, and Real Story. It was lost on no one that Hillman’s titles attempted to duplicate the general appearance and thus hopefully the success of Fawcett’s True Confessions and Macfadden’s True Story. And this largely became a reality.
Hillman was now doing rather well for himself. The 1940 census lists Hillman, his wife, and their two-year-old son living in a rented apartment on Park Avenue along with three domestic servants.
Flush with cash and ready to venture into still other aspects of publishing, Hillman decided to enter the rapidly expanding and apparently lucrative comicbook market. He tapped Anatole “Tony” Feldman to be the editor of two new comics. A pulp magazine veteran, Feldman had written several “Phantom Detective” stories as well as creating the poetry-writing Big Nose Serrano for Gangster Stories. (An interesting aside: Feldman’s wife—Hedwig Langer— wrote the notorious Nila Rand stories for the racy pulp Scarlet Adventuress under the pseudonym Beech Allen.)
Despite some legitimate credits, Feldman was less well-versed in the ins and outs of comicbooks. The new market would not turn out to be the easy money Hillman anticipated.
Embodying this double life, Godwin established a new subsidiary named Arcadia House Publications, which would devote itself to issuing more acceptable genre romance novels. And another of his publishing ventures, Hillman-Curl, published digest-sized novels under the imprint of Mystery Novel of the Month and Western Novel of the Month.
During this period, Hillman recalled being excited over arranging a meeting during the Great Depression with Otto Kahn, a well-known investment banker
More Than One False Start
Hillman’s first-ever comicbook was Miracle Comics, its debut issue dated February 1940. Miracle’s cover-featured hero was “Sky Wizard, Master of Space.” A brilliant young scientist, Sky Wizard created a floating island in the sky and devoted his time to creating inventions for the betterment of humankind. Despite operating in the present day, the hero dressed in a form-fitting red uniform and a red-crested helmet, which gave him a futuristic appearance. In addition to being in excellent fighting shape, the Sky Wizard could fly via glider-like chute rockets.
Sky Wizard was accompanied by the hot-tempered Kee-Shan and the teenaged children of his pilot, who had been captured by the fiendish Unholy One. The Tibetan mastermind was a reoccurring threat, assisted by Hawk Armand (an unscrupulous French scientist), Vera the Tigress (a turban-wearing international criminal), and a band of winged Himalayan snowmen! All of this was the creation of Emile C. Schnurmacher, an obscure magazine and pulp freelancer.
Schnurmacher also wrote “K-7, Secret Agent,” a male government operative who had a competent and steel-nerved companion female assistant named Yvonne. One of their adversaries, the short-haired Charlotta Sandro—the “most dangerous spy in Europe”—was simultaneously buxom, butch, and deadly. Her partner was named Hercon, a Svengali-like hypnotist who commanded men to do Sandro’s bidding.
Crime On His Hands
One of Hillman’s early magazines, lurid copies of Fawcett’s earlier titles. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
It’s A Miracle!
(Clockwise from above left:) Covers from Hillman’s initial entry into the comicbook field: Miracle Comics #1, 2, & 4 (dated Feb. 1940, March 1940, and March 1941, respectively). All three covers were penciled by Ed
were
Miracle did feature some other costumed heroes. When Dash Dixon was fed a regimen of chemicals in a “perpetual life cabinet,” the athletic police officer emerged with his physical gifts more than tripled. While in action, Dixon, the “Man of Might,” wore a light blue paramilitary uniform of pliable metal with a black showercap-like covering over his head to ensure those energies didn’t escape from his body.
The rest of Miracle’s lineup was largely unremarkable: The Masked Angel, a one-shot, non-descript masked vigilante; The Scorpion, another unremarkable, plain-clothed vigilante; Blanda, a standard white queen of an African tribe; and Spade of the Secret Service and his reoccurring adversary, the imperious Queen of Hearts. Bill Colt, the Ghost Rider, was in the last two issues of Miracle, a garden-variety ranger with no real claim to the evocative moniker.
Hillman’s Rocket Comics followed one month later, having even less to recommend it. This time the lead feature was “Rocket Riley,” who embarked upon interplanetary travel in a rocket ship designed by his friend, the Professor. Accompanying them on their adventures were the lovely Griselda and a stowaway foreign spy named Von Stangle. Said spy was soon in cahoots with Divalo, the dictator of Saturn, who naturally had plans to invade Earth.
Rocket Comics had only one super-hero, Red Roberts, the Electro-Man. Roberts could “transmit his body through wires by electricity but also to stun or kill by using a bolt or flash of electricity.” But, clueless as to what was appealing to young readers in 1940, Roberts did battle with the underworld in a suit and tie.
Two other features are worth noting. The Defender, the Man with a Thousand Faces, had had his own face disfigured by gangsters as a boy. Vowing to wage a relentless war against crime, Robert Larson invented a plastic mask which he could mold into different shapes. Notably, The Defender’s adventures were told by [later] Plastic Man creator Jack Cole. And The Steel Shark was
Kressy; the latter two, at least,
inked by Norman Fallon. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
opponents who lacked a certain panache. That is, at least, at first. As it turned out, it took a woman to turn things around. And what a woman she was!
Rather than drawing an entire scene for the cover, Biro took the lead character and juxtaposed him with engaging copy. In likely collaboration with Cronin, Biro utilized dramatic lettering, posing the question “Who is Airboy?” A literal splash of color at the top of the cover added confidently, “Only 10 cents—nothing like it!!”
Inside, Airboy—the joint creation of Biro, Dick Wood, and artist Al Camy—looked to be a boy of about 12 or 13. Young Davy Nelson lived with Padre Martier, a monk who dreamt of building an airplane based on the aerodynamic principles of a bat. The plane he imagined would have wings that could flap like a bird, hover at will, land on a dime, and grasp enemy planes with its steel talons!
It turned out that the padre had borrowed money from an unscrupulous banker named Sessler, putting the monastery of Capistrano and its orphanage up as collateral. When the banker realized the plane would be a success (and as a result he wouldn’t end up with the monastery’s land), he sabotaged the plane, an action that also resulted in the monk’s death. Believing in the padre’s dream, Davy rebuilt the plane, subsequently bombing Sessler’s casino and ending the banker’s life in turn.
Airboy dressed in jaunty red, blue, and yellow aviator togs. Yellow shirt studs made a giant V on the boy hero’s chest. He soon squared off against a Nazi superboy named Kultur—the young fellow sported a monocle, after all—but otherwise Airboy faced
Enter Valkyrie
Airboy’s adolescence arrived with the force of a whip against his bare back when he met the volatile Valkyrie and her Nazi Air Maidens in Air Fighters, Vol. 2, #2 (Nov. 1943). When Airboy can’t bring himself to shoot a girl, he ends up the captive of the villainous aviatrix. It turns out OK, though, because the Air Maidens can’t stand to see the young pilot tortured by their leader. Engineering Airboy’s escape, the Air Maidens face the impending threat of the lash themselves. Valkyrie seeks out the bare-chested Airboy. Lounging seductively against him, the femme fatale suggests a deal:
“The girls are to be whipped! If you tell me how to fly your plane, I can free them!”
Airboy is wary, but Valkyrie draws him closer, sealing the deal with a kiss.
But she reneges on her promise, only to be betrayed herself by the Nazi commandant who refuses to free the Air Maidens.
“Now I can see the evil of my tricky ways,” Valkyrie laments. She proceeds to shoot her superior and uses Birdie to save Airboy from impending execution.
The Air Apparent
Charles Biro’s cover and the Al Camy-drawn splash page for the first “Airboy” adventure, in Air Fighters Comics, Vol. 1, #2 (Nov. 1942). The script was reportedly written by Biro & Dick Wood. Alex Hillman must’ve had some confidence in the new Air Fighters, since he re-launched it as a monthly. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
Charles Biro a few years later; photo courtesy of Shaun Clancy.
Al Camy Real name: Al Cammarata. Photo courtesy of Jim Kealy.
But, as will be seen, that final tussle with Sky Wolf wouldn’t spell the end of the menacing Heap.
The Other Air Fighters
Unlike most other comicbook anthologies, all the features in the revived Air Fighters were conceived with clear care, which likely reflected Biro’s involvement. The Iron Ace had a unique origin. A French physician named LaFarge is the last of his family’s ancestors. But the good doctor is unafraid of death, because of the legend of the Iron Ace. As he explains, pointing to an empty suit of medieval armor and accompanying sword: “When the last of kin is killed by an invader, the Iron Ace will live again.” Captain Britain of the R.A.F. is soon shot down near Dr. LaFarge’s castle. The doctor shelters the downed pilot and the Nazis shoot him for his trouble. Britain proceeds to don the ancient armor to defeat the Germans. The last thing the dying doctor sees is The Iron Ace come to life, avenging his death, who goes on to equip his plane with “fabrikoidmicro iron” which can slide over the body of the aircraft with a push of a button.
The Black Angel, an expert pilot, was secretly Sylvia Manners, the American niece of Lady Lawton, who is often frustrated by her apparently timid relative. Unusual for most Golden Age heroines, The Black Angel possessed a formidable rogue’s gallery: Baroness Blood, a voluptuous Nazi pilot; Madame Claw, Japanese operative who sports a hook for a left hand; Miss Hun, an attractive mistress of disguise; and Yellow Eyes, the assassin son of the fabled Rasputin.
Rounding out the Air Fighters line-up were The Flying Dutchman, whom the Germans regarded as a genuinely unnerving figure of mystery, and The Bald Eagle, who was half white, half Native American, and all bald. The Flying Dutchman’s most notable foe was the Deathless Brain of Java, one of the first disembodied villainous brains in comicbooks. The writers who scripted these features are no longer known, but the initial artist for The Iron Ace was Fred Kida; for The Black Angel, John Cassone; for The Flying Dutchman, Bob Fujitani; and for The Bald Eagle, Harry Sahle.
Air Fighters, with its colorful covers and action-packed interiors, proved to be a reader favorite from the start, thriving throughout the war years. Despite its notable success, it was Alex Hillman who grounded the title late in 1944—with its Winter issue—due to developments entirely unrelated to sales! The reasons for Hillman’s decision, however, must wait until Clue Comics, Air Fighters‘ sister title, is accounted for.
The Boy King & The Giant
In collaboration with Charles Biro, editor Cronin also launched Clue Comics with a January 1943 issue. Its lead feature was “The Boy King and the Giant.” As their origin story has it, when the Nazis invade Swisslakia and kill its reigning king, it is time for Prince David, the Boy King, to awaken a sleeping giant created by Nostradamus. It is a golem-like creature that has slept buried in the earth for centuries.
As for the former prince, The Boy King had no unique abilities, but is visually distinctive, sporting black, thigh-high boots, red leggings, fur-lined cape, and a form-fitting purple top. Naturally, The Boy King also wore a crown. The Giant, in contrast, was a huge unadorned stone-like figure, powerful and nearly indestructible. He could crush planes and battleships with his hands and blow back missiles with a single breath.
Bob Fujitani some years after he co-created “Flying Dutchman.”
Harry Sahle (artist/co-originator of “Bald Eagle”), drawing one of at least two versions of the “Silver Scorpion” character he helped originate for Timely Comics in the early 1940s. Courtesy of Will Murray.
(Below:) Two of the artists who co-originated heroes for Air Fighters Comics, Vol. 1, #2. We’ve already glimpsed Fred Kida earlier… and, sadly, no photo of John Cassone has surfaced.
Succession – 1943 Style
By the second issue (Feb. 1943), Sy Barry had apparently taken over full art chores on the lead feature. Writer uncertain. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
Hillman’s Magazine Line Grows
Happening at the same time as the changes to Airboy Comics (the launching of The Heap in his own feature) and the new Clue Comics (starring Gun Master), Hillman also expanded his slick magazine line. Hillman’s continuing contact with Moe Annenberg’s enterprise, now run by his son Walter, empowered Hillman’s 1946 acquisition of the mogul’s fan magazine Screen Guide. A more sensational men’s magazine named Sensation soon followed, though it quickly morphed into Sensational Crime Confessions and later still into Sensational Detective Cases. The relatively more innocent People Today was also added to the mix.
Hillman’s connection to Annenberg is worth noting. The incestuous and interlocking ownership connections between DC’s Harry Donenfeld, American Comics Group’s Ben Sangor and Fred Iger, and Trojan’s Frank Armor are well-documented. But the cooperation between these publishers and related distributors appears to have been even broader. And Alex Hillman was part of that wider network.
David Saunders notes that a 1947 lawsuit accused a powerful consortium of distributors of attempting to monopolize magazine (and by extension, comicbook) distribution. Among the defendants in that suit were Annenberg, Donenfeld, Hillman, Hearst magazines, S-M News Company, and finally Irving Manheimer of the Publishers Distributing Corporation and the Macfadden magazine group. While the suit was ultimately dropped, it shed light on otherwise shady cooperative arrangements.
My Date Comics & A Heroine You’ve Never Heard Of
Some have called Hillman’s My Date Comics the first romance comicbook, but it really was closer in spirit to a teen humor title. That said, it was a very creative and frankly unusual one. The lead feature was Simon & Kirby’s “Swifty Chase,” whose misadventures over the course of four issues were ultimately usurped by his pal, the aspiring rascal Housedate Harry. Other My Date draws included Ginny, a teen girl feature, and a random light romance story each issue.
By far the most unique feature in My Date Comics was titled “Ultra Violet.” It focused on the adventures of Violet Ray, a teenage girl with a potent imagination. When the situation called for it, she could use that imagination to transform herself into a voluptuous adult version of herself known as Ultra Violet. Violet used her strange power to right romantic wrongs, though always with comic complications.
Ultra Violet was sort of a Captain Marvel fantasy for girls who had no desire to imagine themselves fighting criminals. While by
The cover of Hillman’s My Date Comics #1 (July 1947) was reportedly penciled and inked, believe it or don’t, by Jack “King” Kirby—with a probable inking assist from his partner Joe Simon. Small wonder Simon & Kirby co-created the very first true romance comicbook title only a year later, huh?
(Above:) Artist Dan Barry turns high school student Violet Ray into the mature, adult female called Ultra Violet—who’ll soon make mental mincemeat of school principal “Chromedome.” Scripter unknown. Courtesy of CBP. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
“Ultra Violet” Lite
(Left:)
no means an action hero, Violet could technically be seen as having super-powers. Her story in the first issue of My Date Comics (July 1947) left it unclear whether her transformation into Ultra Violet had actually happened, but her three subsequent appearances clearly portray her transformations as real. In her second story, the narration clearly declares that Violet’s “dream self becomes real” without any further explanation.
Though Violet and Ultra Violet looked largely the same, their only differences in age, glamor, and confidence, no one ever seemed to catch on. And while a more seductive outfit always accompanied her Ultra Violet guise, both sets of clothes were always green and her hair remained an attractive brown. Dan Barry was the artist for at least the first three stories and may have written them as well. He often did both for Cronin.
Readers apparently were unimpressed. My Date Comics never saw a fifth issue.
Crime Comics With A Twist
With its June 1947 issue, the ill-fated Clue Comics morphed into Real Clue Crime Stories. The complete transition from hero-focused stories to ones that focused on criminals was not immediate. For three issues there were left-over stories of Gun Master in the back of
the comicbook. In the fourth there was a final Iron Lady adventure. That issue also saw the last of the Simon & Kirby material. Regardless, the shift in format was clear.
Of course, Ed Cronin wasn’t about to have his crime comicbook be like all the others popping up with increasing frequency on the newsstands. With its very first cover, Cronin’s dark, sardonic sense of humor was evident in a Joe Simon cover.
A handsome young gangster was using generic cardboard images of police for target practice.
“Hey, look, Ma!” he proudly exclaims. “How’s that for shootin’?”
“You’re doing fine, Herman,” Ma Barker answers, barely looking up from her knitting. “You’ll be killing cops in no time at all!”
In short order, tongue-in-cheek “crime” covers unrelated to any interior story were the order of the day. For example, the cover of Real Clue Crime, Vol. 1, #10 (Dec. 1947), featured a gangster hawking a used car “as is” to a naively interested bystander. But, unnoticed by the oblivious buyer, one of the gangster’s colleagues is hurriedly pushing a corpse’s protruding feet into the trunk. “A bargain,” the crook assures the unsuspecting dupe!
Less than a year later, with a March 1948 cover date, Crime Detective Comics joined Real Clue Crime in Hillman’s line-up.
The addition of a second crime title coincided with the arrival of a writer who would become a household name in the comicbook industry. Hillman was one of the first companies Bob Haney wrote for, several years before he found a more permanent home at DC Comics, writing offbeat but inventive stories for titles as varied as Teen Titans, Metamorpho, and the Batman team-up era of The Brave and the Bold
But in 1948 Haney was a young World War II veteran, incongruously utilizing the GI Bill to obtain a master’s degree in French history at Columbia University. Discovering writing comicbooks to his liking, Haney was pleased to find that the equally erudite Cronin warmed to him. Later assistant Herb Rogoff recalled how Cronin deeply respected college graduates, having never gone to college himself (Amash interview, Alter Ego #42, p. 7).
In an interview with Michael Catron published in The Comics Journal #276, Haney described how Cronin encouraged him to develop crime stories based on actual events. And not just tales of modern gangsters, as was the rule in most other crime titles, but involving 19th-century episodes as well. Cronin seemed skilled at playing to the unique talents of those who worked for him. With a French history scholar like Haney, Cronin welcomed stories that highlighted the history of criminal enterprise in France! Assuming stories taking place in France were always or almost always written by Haney, Cronin published over a dozen such stories.
Haney became one of Hillman’s top writers between 1948 and 1953. He turned out lots of American crime stories, enjoying mixing creative story elements into a tale loosely based on historical events, but also would soon also write Western and romance stories as well as the company widened its scope.
It Don’t Hurt, Ma… I’m Only Bleedin’!
Joe Simon’s solo cover for Hillman’s Real Clue Crime Stories, Vol. 2, #4 (a.k.a. #16, and in a very real sense #1). Courtesy of the GCD. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
Bob Haney
The comics writer in a cheery mood, some time after his debut for Hillman’s comics. Thanks to the Bronze Age of Blogs.
(Directly below:) Nordling’s leggy logo from the Spirit Section #158 (June 6, 1943) in the Philadelphia Record. [TM & © Estate of Will Eisner.]
(Bottom:) Lady Luck’s Blood Drive logo from Spirit Section #134 (Dec. 20, 1942) in the Chicago Sun. [TM & © Estate of Will Eisner.]
Captain Marvel & The One-Shot Villains
The Top One-&-Done Wrongdoers Of The World’s Mightiest Mortal –Part II
by Carl Lani’Keha Shinyama
Last time, our author began a rundown of his top-ten list featuring Captain Marvel’s diverse one-shot villains who never got to see life past their impressive single outings. The most prominent and obvious of this group of characters was Black Adam—excluded from this study in favor of more arcane candidates deserving of more appearances in Fawcett’s comics pages. Last time we were re-acquainted with Merman, Thor, Delilah, Vampire Burglar, and Spider Man … and now, here are the final five best one-shot lawbreakers that Captain Marvel faced in the Golden Age. —P. C. Hamerlinck
5. MR. POWER (The Marvel Family #26, Aug. 1948)
Comics history is littered with villains who got stronger the longer their fights went on. One of those lawbreakers (and perhaps the first of them) was Jug Jasper, a.k.a. Mr. Power!
When Professor Phogg made a demonstration during a pool game, he explained that when the first ball hit the second ball, the first ball stopped because the second ball absorbed all the kinetic energy of the first one. He claimed that if that principle could be applied to humans, a man could gain extraordinary power. Phogg returned to his laboratory to create a liquid solution that could make him the most powerful man on Earth (presumably stronger than Captain Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Mortal).
Unfortunately for the Professor, a man named Jug Jasper— whose thin physique may not have been 120 pounds, soaking wet— was listening to him at the pool hall and followed him back to the laboratory. Before the Professor could drink his “science juice” Jug pried the drink from him and seemingly drank it in a single go.
Jug decided to test the concoction and see if it actually worked. He got the bright idea to assault a police officer—but the cop wasn’t fazed, and actually recognized Jug. The “science juice” failed… or so Jug thought.
The officer retaliated with his club stick, bopping Jug on the head… but something strange happened. The blow initially hurt Jug, but in the next moment he was beginning to feel stronger. Indeed, his thin musculature had gained mass and he was noticeably broader-shouldered and -muscled than he had been just a moment before. Realizing the serum worked, Jug returned the
favor, which sent the officer airborne.
Meanwhile, Billy Batson arrived at Professor Phogg’s laboratory for a scheduled interview. When he entered, Phogg was on the ground, apparently the victim of an attack. He told Billy that Jug had assaulted him and that the solution Phogg created, which Jug drank, would have given him terrific power.
Billy quickly left in pursuit—unfortunately, in his haste, he did not hear the professor explain that Jug now had the ability to absorb kinetic energy, which was what made him stronger.
The boy reporter caught up shortly and found Jug and the police officer in the middle of their confrontation. In that instant, he changed into Captain Marvel—and, as he was wont to do, struck a preemptive blow against Jug, which sent himself flying away from the officer, who was on the ground from Jug’s previous blow.
To Captain Marvel’s incredulity, his punch did nothing. So what did he do? He threw three more punches at Jug, each of them harder than the one before. The effect? None, except that Jug was now considerably more muscled than Captain Marvel was. Hulking, in fact.
Still, despite his newfound physique, Jug was not yet as strong as Captain Marvel, and needed to escape Cap until he was. However, Jug knew he was now strong enough to throw an automobile and tossed one at innocent bystanders, which allowed
Well, Maybe His Name Was A Hint! Our lead-off batter, Mr. Power, seemed unstoppable on C. C. Beck’s cover for The Marvel Family #26 (Aug. 1948). [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics.]
him to flee. To his delight, with all of the kinetic energy that he absorbed, he found that he was able to sprint twice as fast as he used to.
With time to think, Jug worked out how the professor’s serum worked. The more punishment he took, the stronger he got. With this revelation, he decided his name from then on would be… Mr. Power!
Captain Marvel, meanwhile, went to enlist the help of Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. against Mr. Power. When Captain Marvel explained to them that he couldn’t knock out Mr. Power, Mary didn’t believe him.
Just then, Mr. Power appeared and challenged the entire Marvel Family. Junior, then Mary, and finally Cap took turns landing powerful blows against Mr. Power—
—who was completely unaffected by them and demanded that the Marvels “stop pulling [their] punches!”
Then Mr. Power made his first and last mistake. He demanded that the Marvel Family keep hitting him. Captain Marvel instantly knew that something was off about that and he told Mary and Junior to back off, to which the latter two were incredulous. Cap was beginning to understand the situation, even if Mary and Junior didn’t.
Captain Marvel insisted that they follow him out of the building. As they left, Mr. Power demanded that they fight him, and he instead became the aggressor, punching and kicking the Marvel Family. As he did so, Captain Marvel ordered the other two to ignore Mr. Power.
To learn how to stop Mr. Power, Captain Marvel said that they had to go to Phogg’s laboratory, where the professor could explain everything. And off flew the Family. Mr. Power, having heard Captain Marvel, sprinted in pursuit.
Arriving at the lab, Phogg explained to the Marvels that the more they hit Mr. Power, the more powerful he got. This made clear why Mr. Power begged for them to hit him.
Captain Marvel requested Phogg make an antidote—which, Mr. Power, having just arrived, heard. Cap and Family guarded the professor from Mr. Power. Panicking, Mr. Power began wailing punches at the Marvel Family, which robbed him of his power the more he threw… until finally, all of his power was gone.
The Marvel Family had been hammering Mr. Power and giving him power, but they reversed the dynamic. Now instead, Mr. Power was hammering them and giving all of his power away… which was the plan all along. There was no antidote, so Captain Marvel made Mr. Power think there was one and let him go to work against the Marvel Family, giving up all of his power.
Though Mr. Power would go to prison as a weakling, he didn’t lose his ability to absorb kinetic energy. With his powers still intact, Mr. Power could’ve been a regular nemesis for Captain Marvel in a broad range of exciting encounters. But the villain was never heard from again.
“The Marvel Family Battles Mr. Power” was illustrated by Kurt Schaffenberger and edited by Wendell Crowley; the writer is unknown.
4. DUKE TITANO (The Marvel Family #29, Nov. 1948)
Now there’s a name that will conjure up images of a mighty foe! It should, for Duke Titano was the “World’s Mightiest Crook”!
With a name like Duke Titano, it’s easy to picture a mighty villain with super-strength and durability. After all, he did have the look to go with the name, what with the broad shoulders and wide chin. In truth, unlike Mr. Power before him, Duke’s greatest super-power was will power, which made him, a man with nothing but criminal and malicious intent, “the most dangerous man alive” according to Captain Marvel. Indeed, if Duke wanted anything to happen, all he needed to do was will it to happen. If he wanted to get ice cream, all he needed to do is will it to come to him. Same if he wanted a bank vault to open.
When we met Duke Titano for the first time, he was in jail with a head injury that he had sustained from Captain Marvel. It wasn’t quite known just how strong and durable Duke was, only that he rated Captain Marvel’s Atomic Punch, which was one of Cap’s powerful specialty punches. Duke was complaining to the prison doctor that he was still feeling woozy and that his head felt funny.
But little did he know that his injury was the result of what happened next: Duke wanted the iron door to his cell to rip off its hinges and let him out—and it did.
Confused at what just happened, Duke left his cell and haphazardly supposed that he might have done so on just pure will power. Standing outside of his cell, Duke saw the prison doctor and decided to see if his guess was right by trying his newfound
Power Play
For a time, the Marvel Family were perplexed on how to defeat Jug Jasper— a.k.a. Mr. Power. [Shazam heroes, Mary Batson, & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]
powers on the doctor—by means of which he successfully willed the doctor to do a somersault in mid-air. The bewildered doctor was determined to learn how Duke got his new ability, and resolved to look through his medical books for an answer.
Duke left the scene, but not before evading a police officer and stealing a car by willing the ignition to start the motor without a key—and flying off with it like an airplane. At this point, Duke realized his true potential and believed it would lead to big things for him.
Titano took over Tullytown, cutting off all outside communication at the town’s central telephone exchange, where he willed all of the jacks on the switchboard to come out. As Billy Batson was on the phone with someone in Tullytown when the town’s phone lines went dead, he got suspicious and decided to check it out—as Captain Marvel, who flew towards Tullytown and heard police sirens blaring, confirming Billy’s intuition.
When Captain Marvel arrived, he saw Duke spinning a police car like a top in the street, tossing out the officers that were inside it. Cap instantly recognized Duke Titano and asked him how he obtained his abilities.
“I did it by will power, m’boy! Plain old will power! That’s
something even you can’t lick!” Duke then willed the police car to slam into Captain Marvel, dumping an entire fruit cart over Cap that allowed Duke to make his escape with a bike … which he willed it to fly him away.
Captain Marvel realized that any crook with will power as his super-power was the most dangerous man alive, by default. He would have unlimited control over things and people.
Cap pursued Duke and found him in the town’s rail yard, where he had willed all the trains not to enter or leave the town, and was ready to do battle against the World’s Mightiest Mortal. He willed a locomotive to smash into Cap, flattening him into the tracks. Of course, being invulnerable to all physical harm, he was unharmed, a fact that he pointed out to Duke: “Oh come now! Hitting me is plain silly!”
That didn’t deter Duke. He intended to knock Captain Marvel into the next county—which he did! Duke went to the local radio station and broadcast that he was the town’s new mayor, new police chief, as well as everything else!
Captain Marvel found Duke at the radio station, and Duke was ready for a rematch. He willed himself to be as strong as Captain Marvel. So when Cap struck him with a blow, Duke shook it off and gave one of his own. At that moment, the prison doctor from earlier arrived on the scene and found out why Duke suddenly had super will power: Captain Marvel’s blow that put Duke in jail in the first place had jolted his mind and given him that ability. The doctor said that if Duke could be put to sleep, he’d lose the super-power.
Captain Marvel punched Duke into the stratosphere, where the air was too thin for him to breathe, and it rendered him unconscious, thereby ending his threat. When Duke woke up next, he found himself back in prison with his super-power gone.
Duke Titano was a villain who went from being an ordinary plain stock bad-guy to being one of the most unique and powerful in comics—and a scary one at that! Just having will power as a
Shazamic Slugfest
Duke Titano proved to be a decidedly menacing one-time opponent. “Captain Marvel Fights the World’s Mightiest Crook” by Otto Binder, C.C. Beck, and Pete Costanza appeared in The Marvel Family #29 (Nov. 1948). [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]
More Of The Battle Royal
Captain Marvel and Duke Titano “duke” it out. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics,]
After they piled it on at first, Captain Marvel turned it to his advantage. He put one guy through the wall and took another by the leg and clubbed all of the other henchmen with him.
Z, however, was still standing. Captain Marvel punched him through a wall and rendered him unconscious. Believing the job finished, Cap took his leave and changed back into Billy.
Sivana dug Z out of the rubble and transported him back to a hidden laboratory. He revived Z with a drug and worked with chemicals to strengthen the android.
Z vowed that, the next time he faced Captain Marvel, he would not fail.
Revitalized and now stronger than before, Z and Sivana baited Captain Marvel into a trap, when Z hung from one of the steel beams of a half-finished skyscraper as if he were a man in danger of falling.
Of course, Billy couldn’t allow a man fall to his death if he could help it. “Shazam!”—and Captain Marvel hurtled upward and grabbed the man upwards… then realized it was Z! “You think you have no weakness—but it is weak to feel sorry for strangers,” growled Z. “If you had not come to my rescue, you would not be on the brink of destruction now!”
Round 2 began with Z knocking Cap off of the beams. Since these were early days and our hero was not yet fully invulnerable to all harm, his fall would have killed him, so he grabbed onto another beam below. Reeling from the blow, Cap remarked that Z packed quite the wallop.
Z knocked Captain Marvel off of a beam once more, and together they fell all the way down to the street, where they bounced off of the pavement and into the nearby river. Underwater, the battle continued.
Submerged, Z put Cap in a headlock—water entered into Cap’s lungs.
However, Captain Marvel was able to free himself. Swimming towards the surface, he waited for Z to come up as well—but Z never did. Eventually, Cap changed back to Billy.
Sivana retrieved Z from the river. Angry that Captain Marvel had outfought Z, he berated the android for forgetting that water had a peculiar effect on him, weighing him down so he couldn’t swim back up to shore. Z took offense to Sivana’s words. He replied that he should be credited with a draw—and that, if not for the water, he’d have been the winner in his battle with Cap.
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!
After they left the riverfront, Sivana and Z followed Billy, who strolled alone down a street. Seizing the moment, they knocked the boy unconscious and took him back to their hideout at the end of an alley. When Billy awakened, he found himself bound and gagged; Sivana stood in front of him with an evil smile on his lips.
Sivana gleefully ordered Z to set the place on fire as they both took their leave. Desperate with the fire roaring around him, Billy grasped a piece of burning wood with his feet, which were unfound, and set the gag around his mouth afire, which burned it away. (Needless to say, the courageous boy showed an incredibly high pain tolerance.) Then he shouted “Shazam!”
Captain Marvel spied a vault Sivana had left behind. Cap ripped it open and threw all its contents—including plans for scientific weapons—into the fire. Then he burst through the wall and out onto the street where Z was. The android was glad to see Captain Marvel. It was time for Round 3 of their clash.
ALTER EGO #197
The incredible inside story of HILLMAN PUBLISHING—1940 to 1953—by MARK CARLSON-GHOST! Airboy—aviatrix Valkyrie—The Heap—Skywolf, et al.! Art by KIDA, SCHROEDER, LEAV, INFANTINO, ZOLNEROWICH, and some of comics’ finest artists! Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) and MICHAEL T. GILBERT visits Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! DAVE STEVENS cover!
This time, Captain Marvel dominated. Never once did Z land a blow. The World’s Mightiest Mortal rained down a barrage of explosive punches and bombarded Z machine-gun-style. Finally, Cap ended the fight with two more punches which sent Z airborne,
World’s Mightiest Mortal Vs. World’s Mightiest Robot Sivana appeared surprised that his creation, Z, got knocked down by Captain Marvel. [Shazam hero & Dr. Sivana TM & © DC Comics.]
