Friday, March 29, 2024

FOUR FAVORITES #20 (NOVEMBER 1945)

Yep.  These are favorites.  Who am I to argue?

First, we have Magno.  When Magno & Davey visit the movie capital of the world they did expect to be "hurled into a seven-reel thriller that dealt with certain death!  Magno had (you guessed it!) magnetic super powers, including invulnerability and the power to fly.  No one, probably not even the writers, know how he got his powers.  Magno came full-blown, complete with costume, but he also wore ordinary clothes, but in both cases he was known simply as Margo -- no other name was given for him.  He was created by pulp writer Paul Chadwick, who created Secret Agent X under the house name "Brant House; not to be confused with the much later comic book creator of Concrete.  Since comic book writers of the 40s were blissfully unaware of hints of pedophilia and grooming, many comic books heroes had a young sidekick.  For Magno it was Davey Landis, who got his own costume and superpowers.  Magno ran in Super-Mystery Comics from July 1940 to February 1947, and was also featured in the first 26 issues of Four Favorites.  While Magno and Davey are visiting a movie set, glamorous movie star Lana Sherman exits her dressing cottage and is immediately attacked by her pet dogs and is killed.  Why? And who is responsible?  And what's more important, who told the artist that he knew how to draw mouths -- the mouths on all of the characters look almost as grotesque as their chins (which are also horribly drawn). And don't get me started on the poor depiction of arms...

The next favorite is Unknown Soldier.  This was the first Unknown Soldier in comicbookdom, first appearing Ace's Our Flag Comics (August 1941).  After five issues, he was switched to Four Favorites, where he remained until this issue.  Unknown Soldier did not have a super costume; he wore ordinary brown army issue -- although of a tighter fit that is standard.  He did have a mask, though.  But Unknown Soldier was not an ordinary G.I.; in fact, he wasn't a human being at all.  He was the spiritual embodiment of all the American soldiers who had died for freedom since the country was founded.  He could fly and was very strong and had a "nitro gun" which shot explosive charges.  For his final outing, Unknown Soldier is after a Japanese spy who is murdering innocent Chinese.  The Chinese do not realize that the spy is Japanese and not Chinese, even when he is in from at of them, because the artist is so piss-poor at drawing oriental faces.  Other Unknown Soldiers would eventually appear from different comic book publishers.

Our third favorite is Lash Lightning, who teams up with Lightning Girl to battle the werewolf of Wetheridge.  Flash Lightning was originally Robert Morgan, who got his super abilities from a "land of eerie mystery" (code name for Egypt), and was then sent out into the world with the Amulet of Annihilation from The Forces of Right.  He was introduced in Sure Fire Comics #1 (June 1940).  A year later he dropped the initial letter to his name and became Lash Lightning.  In June 1942, he got his sidekick, Lady Lightning; when he accidently sent thousands of bolt of electricity through his, friend Isabel Blake.  Whoopsie.  But all was well,  It gave Isobel a few superpowers and the ability to communicate psychically with Lash.  The pair fought for The Forces of Right through issue #22 of Four Favorites, including this encounter with a werewolf.  Not that it's important, but Lady Lightning has pin-point pupils.

Finally, we come to out fourth favorite:  Captain Courageous, who faces off against the arch-villain Captain Nippo.  Care to guess his ethnicity?  What can I about Captain Courageous other than he has a large blue sea star sucking on his face?  I really don't think I need to go any further than that.

Check it out.  And ponder why Ace doesn't publish comic books any more.


https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=88887&comicpage=&b=i

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