The more colorful and super-powered Hourman, Rex “Tick-Tock” Tyler, debuted in Adventure Comics #48 (February 1940) alongside the other superhero in that book, The Sandman. He was created by writer Ken Fitch and artist Bernard Baily. Hourman got his powers from taking a bump of Miraclo, a pill that he invented that gave him super […]
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The “gadgeting” of Batman continues in Detective Comics #37 (February 1940) with Bruce adding a night-vision device to let him see in the dark. Note that this is only a couple months after Germans started experimenting with nightvision goggles in World War II!
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The Spectre‘s costume was revealed in-story during More Fun Comics #53 (February 1940). The original setup was that Detective Jim Corrigan is dead, but still walks the earth, and he made the costume in order to fight crime.
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The first superheroine is largely considered to be Fantomah, a woman with supernatural powers who appears in Jungle Comics #2 (January 1940). She leads these ivory raiders to their deaths, so she is more of an anti-hero in my opinion.
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January 1940 also saw the debut of DC’s latest superhero, The Spectre in More Fun Comics #52. The Spectre was created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily. Although the Spectre appears in full “costume” on the cover and on the splash panel, in this first story we don’t get to see him in his green […]
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Timely Comics (the company that became Marvel Comics) debuted a new comic book in January 1940, Mystic Comics, with the improbably-named character of Flexo the Rubber Robot (or Flexo the Rubber Man). That’s right, this was a robot that could stretch, which makes Flexo the first superhero with that power! It’s hard to believe I’ve […]
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The Flash gained a new power in Flash Comics #3 (January 1940) by learning how to vibrate rapidly to appear invisible!
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Speaking of bald, evil geniuses with misshapen heads, Batman gets his own version with Hugo Strange in Detective Comics #36, January 1940.
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