I'm not really familiar with the D.C. Thompson characters, but I have to say King Cobra looks really interestingly-designed. Somewhat unusual too, to say the least, to see a hero character associated with reptiles, particularly snakes, which have been used endlessly as the motifs for villain characters. But then again, that was true of bats before Batman came along!
I recently spent some time sifting through all of the Harvey Comics titles here, and sorting out their various
superhero features, so let's have a go at a team of Harvey heroes. I guess this is sort of like pulling a bit of Roy Thomas schtick, creating a Golden Age superteam that didn't really exist at the time per se, except on numerous Alex Schomburg covers.
So let's start there, with the heroes most commonly depicted together in scenes from covers of SPEED Comics:
Shock Gibson
Captain Freedom
Black Cat
War Nurse (Pat Parker)
That's still a little light for a superteam, so let's add some more Harvey heroes:
The Human Meteor, Duke O'Dowd (from CHAMPION/CHAMP Comics)
Red Blazer (from POCKET Comics and ALL-NEW Comics)
The Zebra (from POCKET Comics and GREEN HORNET)
Scarlet Nemesis & The Black Orchid (*see below) - Slim pickings for female superheroes at Harvey, apart from their two SPEED stars, so I drafted these one-timers.
And I guess I shouldn't need to explain that we can't have the Green Hornet and Kato (wanted criminals) on a superteam, right?
Harvey actually had a ton of superheroes that made scant appearances, but never went anywhere:
The Phantom Sphinx - 4 appearances in POCKET Comics #1-4. Resurrected Egyptian wizard.
Satan, Lord of Evil - 4 appearances in POCKET Comics #1-4. Yes, the biblical Satan actually starred in his own comic book series. Seems like Harvey Comics' answer to The Claw over at Lev Gleason.
The Night Hawk - 1 appearance in ALL-NEW COMICS #1. Interesting-looking fellow with a dark blue costume, green trunks and boots. Large (Thor-sized) wings on the sides of his mask, and what look like talons on the tips and heels of his boots. Nice artwork.
Scarlet Nemesis & The Black Orchid - 1 appearance in ALL-NEW COMICS #2. "Operating a private detective agency by day, Rocky Ford and June Allen assume the roles of the mighty Scarlet Nemesis and The Black Orchid for their nightly crusade against crime, their identity unknown to each other." -- Fascinating premise! (PS... Do not hire them, they are terrible detectives.) Also some very nice artwork, with nicely designed, contrasting costumes.
The Scarlet Phantom - 1 appearance in ALL-NEW COMICS #2. Jack Winstead, ace reporter, gets an invisibility suit from his scientist father after he's shot by criminals. But if he's invisible, how can they tell what color he is?
Rocketman & Rocketgirl - 1 appearance in HELLO PAL #1. These characters made a few appearances from other publishers, I'm not sure exactly where, in stories supplied by the Chesler studio. Not sure whether they first appeared before or after Fawcett's Bulletman & Bulletgirl. Nice-looking artwork, anyway.
The Scarlet Sentry - 1 appearance in HELLO PAL #2. He looks like a super-Canadian Mountie, with the traditional hat, jodphurs, brown boots, yellow gauntlets, broad belt, and an all-red costume with a diagonal leather strap across his chest. He's bulletproof at the very least (although strangely vulnerable to a simple blackjack to the back of the skull), although his origin and powers are never explained. Makes me wonder where Harvey was purchasing his material. Leftovers from some shop work previously commissioned but never published? I like this guy! Maybe I'd draft him too.
Fly-Man - 2 appearances in SPITFIRE Comics. An early creation of Sam Glanzman, this guy comes off as a cross between DC's The Atom (Al Pratt) and Tarantula. He's short, like a fly-weight boxer. So... Fly-Man. No relation to the later Archie Comics' character written by Jerry Siegel in the mid-'60s, based on the earlier Simon & Kirby Fly.
Captain (Red) Cross - 1 appearance on the cover and in a 4-page text story in WAR VICTORY Adventures #3. The character seems like a male counterpart to War Nurse, and the single story is a teaser for a feature that never appeared anywhere (it was the final issue of WAR VICTORY).
The Wasp - 3 appearances in SPEED Comics #3 & 5, CHAMP Comics #19. Why Harvey felt they needed a knockoff of the popular Green Hornet, which they already published, I'll never know. Maybe the realization dawned after the first few appearances.
The Hand - 2 appearances in SPEED Comics #12-13. A disembodied, super-strong hand (and occasionally arm, when required). Able to float in the air, move about under its own power, change size, and write in letters of fire in the air. Origin not explained. Weird, but effective! Too strange for a superteam, though.
Mr. Q - 2 appearance in GREEN HORNET #11-12. Mr. Q wears a blue costume with red trunks, boots, gloves and mask with a big letter Q on his forehead and ? emblem on his chest. He's Operator 17 of the FBI (Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet, so naturally he calls himself Mr. Q). He uses smoke pellets to make his appearance as if out of nowhere, and a Q-gun that shoots harmless anaesthetic darts.
Robin Hood - 4 appearances in GREEN HORNET #7-10. "ROBIN HOOD LIVES AGAIN! None suspect that young Doctor Fairbanks is also the modern Robin Hood - Who strikes terror into the hearts of the wicked" And he does that wearing short pants. Very much 'Green Arrow', but some nice artwork.
Scarlet Arrow - 2 appearances in BLACK CAT #5 & 6. Same deal as above, but with a more elaborate, quasi-historical costume, complete with broad-brimmed, feathered hat, knee-high boots, pointy mustache and beard.
The Red Demon - 4 appearances in BLACK CAT #4-7. A judge who takes on the role of a masked vigilante in a devil costume in his spare time, to speed the process of justice along. It played a bit like Marvel's Daredevil, if you were to subtract the Black Bat/Dr. Midnite aspects of blindness. Yes, they really did like scarlet or red at Harvey.
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Topic: What's your dream Superhero team? (Read 1936 times)
