184 – Green Lantern Unmasked

In All-American Comics #35 (December 1941), for the first time, a superhero’s secret identity is revealed to one of the supporting cast. Doiby Dickles learns that Green Lantern is actually his friend Alan Scott.

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183 – Seven Soldiers of Marketing

In Leading Comics #1 (December 1941), the marketing team at DC slung together a bunch of their other heroes that weren’t already in the Justice Society of America into a new team, later called the Seven Soldiers of Victory. It was the first superhero team to include sidekicks (Speedy and Stripesy), but about the only […]

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182 – Poison and Candy

In the second issue of Sensation Comics (December 1941), Wonder Woman gets her first villain, Doctor Poison, in this incarnation a Japanese princess named Maru who works for the Nazis. To help defeat Doctor Poison, Wonder Woman enlists another supporting character introduced in this issue of Etta Candy. Bad puns aside, I’m a bit fascinated […]

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181 – Wildcat!

The other important hero that debuted in Sensation Comics #1 (November 1941), is Wildcat. Ted Grant was a heavyweight boxer who got embroiled in some organized crime and had to clear his name. In a cat suit. Works for me! Although his mentor is “Socker” Smith, who Ted accidentally kills in the championship bout, it […]

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180 – Princess Diana Prince

In Sensation Comics #1 (November 1941), Wonder Woman arrives in America with Steve Trevor and proceeds to foil a bank robbery, come up with a secret identity as a military nurse named Diana Prince, save Steve from falling to his death in aerial combat, foil Nazis parachutists, and destroy an entire poison gas facility. Pretty […]

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179 – Captain Marvel, Jr

In Whiz Comics #25 (November 1941), Fawcett introduces Captain Marvel Jr, aka Freddy Freeman, a crippled boy who became the second official member of the Marvel Family. It seems like Fawcett began to realize how big of a hit Captain Marvel was starting to become and had plans to spread it around with new characters, […]

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178 – The Penguin

Yet another iconic Batman villain makes his debut this year, with The Penguin in Detective Comics #58 (October 1941). Um… he looks like a penguin. He wears a monocle and a top-hat. He uses umbrellas to commit crimes. That’s about all I can really say about him from this story.

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177 – Wonder Woman!

In All-Star Comics #8 (October 1941), the third of DC’s “Trinity” finally arrives: Wonder Woman! Tucked behind a Justice Society of America story (in which Hourman and Green Lantern have been replaced by Starman and Dr. Mid-Nite), Dr. William Moulton Marston, aka Charles Moulton gives us the definitive Wonder Woman origin story. This story has […]

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176 – Hawkwoman For Real?

Although Hawkgirl‘s first appearance six months earlier was probably intended to be a one-shot gimmick, Shiera Sanders starts to suit up more regularly near the end of 1941 and even refers to herself as “Hawkwoman” in this story in Flash Comics #24 (October 1941). That’s a little confusing, because the Golden Age version of this […]

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