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[FraBig]

Hello everyone, and happy new year!

It's been a few weeks I'm desperately trying  to remember a character I've seen somewhere in a public domain comic on this site, but I really couldn't get any help from the Google searches I've made.
He's a superhero, with a red costume (I can't remember if he wears a mask) and he has the ability to become intangible, almost like a ghost or an astral projection, when he uses a machine of his creation. Beware, this is probably a single appearance character, or at least he had very very limited appearances. He's from the early Golden Age, let's say from 1940 to 1942.
The image I have in mind is this character chasing after a train or something similar. I could swear I've seen this character somewhere, but I can't really recall his name nor Google has been of any help.

Thanks for the help!

[SuperScrounge]

He's a superhero, with a red costume

Well, that narrows it down to around 500. 

he has the ability to become intangible, almost like a ghost or an astral projection, when he uses a machine of his creation.

That's the unique aspect. All the characters I can think of with intangibility had it as a power not a machine.

I don't think the Centaur's Masked Marvel could become intangible, but maybe it was an issue I never read or forgot about. For some reason it seems like it might be a Centaur character, but I can't think of any.

[FraBig]

I had the same feeling it was from Centaur, but it surely wasn't the Masked Marvel, as I know that one fairly well.

[paw broon]

I've been racking my brain Fra and come up with nothing.  Immediately I thought of The Vision, but the costume is wrong (I'm terrible with colours).
We could have mass flick through the Centaur files, I suppose.
Is it possible this bloke is a villain?
Man O War can appear via smoke or explosions  (actually I don't really understand how he does it) but the costume is wrong.

[FraBig]

I found him!

Thanks to the help of the Public Domain Super Heroes Wiki, I managed to quickly skim through their database and I finally found the character I was looking for.
He's a single-appearance character, published by Lev Gleason, who appeared in Silver Streak Comics #1. His name is Spirit Man.

Here's the issue: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=76179

The panel I had in mind was him chasing after a truck! (page 61)

Thanks to everyone who jumped in to help!

[fethiye]

Nice to hear that your found

[crashryan]

Congratulations on finding Spirit Man. I'd never heard of him, of course. Many early Lev Gleason characters were very weird, and Spirit Man is a perfect example. Note how he murders all the bad guys. Gold thieves they may have been, but they didn't kill anybody.

[The Australian Panther]

Note how he murders all the bad guys. Gold thieves they may have been, but they didn't kill anybody. 

The instances of 'Heroes' casually murdering the bad guys, in more than a few early golden age comics, never ceases to astonish me.

Frabig, would you consider doing a collection of one-off obscure superheroes like this?     

cheers!

[SuperScrounge]

I found him!

He's a single-appearance character, published by Lev Gleason, who appeared in Silver Streak Comics #1. His name is Spirit Man.

Congratulations!

What's embarrassing is that as I was looking through the issue I thought, "This is familiar." Turns out I had read it last April so SHOULD have remembered it. D'oh!

[FraBig]

The instances of 'Heroes' casually murdering the bad guys, in more than a few early golden age comics, never ceases to astonish me.

That's true, especially if we consider that some superheroes were all about not killing criminals even back then. I guess different writers had different ideas of what a superhero should or shouldn't do. Today the superhero archetype is much more codified than it was at that time, and that's another cool aspect of Golden Age comics.

Would you consider doing a collection of one-off obscure superheroes like this?

That's actually a neat idea, Panther! I already have some characters in mind. I only need to decide whether I should do it based on publisher or just a random anthology of one-off superheroes I like...

Turns out I had read it last April so SHOULD have remembered it.

Lol, it happens all the time to me too, especially if I'm not researching about something but I'm just casually reading some issues.

[SuperScrounge]

Oddly enough JessComicVideos did a video on this guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8SMRrP5kN4

Coincidence or did Jess read this thread?

[FraBig]

Wow! That's such a peculiar coincidence!

It's a possibility he saw this thread indeed.

[gregjh]

I mean, don't Judge Dredd and Punisher murder bad guys too? Although those are usually the really bad guys.

[SuperScrounge]

And don't forget AAU Shuperstar. 

For a 1970s comic ad hero I don't think he left a single opponent alive. I found it amusing that a character with Golden Age standards was appearing in Bronze Age comics.