{"id":280,"date":"2018-12-21T08:01:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T16:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/?p=280"},"modified":"2018-12-18T12:05:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T20:05:53","slug":"21-dr-mystic-nee-occult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/21-dr-mystic-nee-occult\/","title":{"rendered":"21 &#8211; Dr. Mystic nee Occult"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"824\" src=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/doctor-mystic-1024x824.png\" alt=\"Dr. Mystic from Comics Magazine #1 (Centaur Publications), 1936\" class=\"wp-image-282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/doctor-mystic-1024x824.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/doctor-mystic-300x241.png 300w, https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/doctor-mystic-768x618.png 768w, https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/doctor-mystic.png 1494w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Dr. Mystic AKA Doctor Occult, 1936<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>March 1936 brings three more companies into the comic book publishing game:&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Centaur_Publications\">Centaur Publications<\/a>, United Features, David McKay.&nbsp; Centaur Publications was formed by two former employees of National Allied Publications, John Mahon and Bill Cook.&nbsp; Their flagship comic book is Comics Magazine #1, which includes a feature called &#8220;Dr. Mystic, Occult Detective&#8221;.&nbsp; The feature is written by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jerry_Siegel\">Jerome Siegel<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joe_Shuster\">Joe Shuster<\/a> and is really just National Allied Publications&#8217; Doctor Occult series with a different name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two-page story does feature a caped (and hooded) giant figure in tights fighting with Dr. Mystic, who has the ability to increase his size &#8220;thru an old, mystic ritual&#8221;.&nbsp; This is the first time a comic book hero used fantastical powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, in this same month, David McKay&#8217;s King Comics #1 features a newspaper reprint of Popeye, the Sailor, whose spinach-chewing brings on bouts of super strength.&nbsp; So either way you slice it, I believe that March 1936 marks the first appearance of comic book heroes with super powers.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that I&#8217;m not trying to take anything away from Superman (still two years away at this point).&nbsp; Superman was the first fully-formed superhero with all the characteristics that we think of today:&nbsp; identifying costume, well-defined powers, origin story, secret identity and supporting cast.&nbsp; I think of heroes with powers like Doctor Occult \/ Dr. Mystic and Popeye as characters that are one step further along on the superhero evolutionary ladder from heroes with an identifying costume and supporting cast like Dick Tracy.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 1936 brings three more companies into the comic book publishing game:&nbsp; Centaur Publications, United Features, David McKay.&nbsp; Centaur Publications was formed by two former employees of National Allied Publications, John Mahon and Bill Cook.&nbsp; Their flagship comic book is Comics Magazine #1, which includes a feature called &#8220;Dr. Mystic, Occult Detective&#8221;.&nbsp; The feature is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,35,14,23,32,24,25,34,33],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-29","tag-centaur","tag-dc","tag-doctor-occult","tag-firsts","tag-jerry-siegel","tag-joe-shuster","tag-popeye","tag-superhero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}