70 Years of Marvel - 1946

With the war over, new comics characters no longer found themselves on the front lines. New heroes, like the Blonde Phantom, took to fighting more conventional battles, against gangsters and jewel thieves, all the while draped in the finest frocks that post-war austerity could muster.

One of Stan's creations, the Blonde Phantom would have, in all likelihood, have vanished into the mists of time, had she not been chosen by John Byrne to be sidekick to She-Hulk, in his 80s relaunch of that title. Here she is, folks!


He's a wacky guy, that John Byrne. Anyway, if comics weren't your thing in 1946, you could perhaps enjoy a visit to the picture house, to see Larry Olivier thesping it up in Henry V, or Jimmy Stewart getting all schmaltzy in It's A Wonderful Life. Meanwhile, British children were faced with the spectacle that was Muffin the Mule...

70 Years of Marvel - 1945

Created by Simon and Kirby, who would shortly thereafter head over the street to DC Comics and create the spookily similar Newsboy Legion, the Young Allies were a group of children who decided to join in the war effort. Consisting of "the fat kid", "the smart kid", "the tough kid" and, um, "the black kid", the Allies were joined by teen superheroes, Bucky and Toro for most of their adventures, which saw them beat merry hell out of any number of Axis leaders. Good on you, lads!

In the real world, of course, WWII was reaching its conclusion, Hitler was killing himself, Roosevelt was winning a 4th term as President, before dying, and America was demonstrating the power of the atom in order to persuade Japan to give up.

70 Years Of Marvel - 1944

Miss America was one of the more successful Timely heroines, though given how few of them there were in the '40s, this perhaps isn't saying very much. Created by Otto Binder, who who would go on to do a power of work for DC, Miss America gained her powers through a not-yet-a-trope lightning strike. She would go on to be a member of the All-Winners Squad, before disappearing at the tail end of the decade.

Years later, Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Roy Thomas, would make use of Miss America in one of his continuity-establishing exercises. According to Rascally Roy, Miss America had married fellow hero, the Whizzer, and the two of them had gone on to have children, two of which were now famous superheroes: Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Later, of course, the Maximoff twins' parentage would be revised somewhat, and the Miss America connection would be severed.

Since then, Miss America's been pretty much gone, other than a brief reappearance, in the pages of X-Statix, a couple of years back. God bless Pete Milligan, for remembering a little bit of Marvel history.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the war was going badly for the Axis Powers, the Normandy invasion and the Battle of Guam among several setbacks. Terrible things continued to happen in various concentration camps, and Anne Frank was on her way to one of them.

July 6th saw the Hartford Circus fire, which killed several hundred members of the audience, when the big top they were, which was waterproofed by means of parrafin and gasoline, caught ablaze, Nasty stuff.

Film fans may note that 1944 saw the release of Double Indemnity, a nice bit of film noir, in which she-vixen Barbara Stanwyck persuaded Fred MacMurray to participate in a spot of mariticide. More related to our topic, Captain America was starring in a Republic serial, which by all accounts was terrible.

70 Years Of Marvel - 1943

In 1943, Germany was losing the Battle of Stalingrad, Italy was giving up the fight altogether, and Josef Mengele was arriving at Auschwitz, where some extremely unpleasant activities were being perpetrated.

Meantime, Timely Comics was publishing All Winners Comics. The All-Winners Squad was, as you may know, Marvel / Timely's first super-hero team. Perhaps confusingly, however, the All-Winners Squad wouldn't actually get together until 1946, 5 years after the launch of All Winners Comics, which, for the moment, would be just another anthology book, albeit one featuring the cream of Marvel / Timely's talent.

In the world of movies, the war was on everyone's minds, with Casablanca taking home the Best Picture Oscar. A very young Roddy McDowell was starring with a dog in Lassie Come Home. Basil Rathbone was churning out a new Sherlock Holmes movie every ten minutes or so. And Frankenstein was meeting the Wolf Man.

70 Years Of Marvel - 1942

By 1942, America was firmly involved in WW2, and so were its superheroes. In addition to Cap, Namor and the Torch, there was a second wave of heroes turning out to help fight the Axis hordes. Let's see, who have we got here..?

First, on the left, we have Captain Daring, who, according to the link, fought the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler in the 31st century. I promise I didn't just make that up, although I suspect International Hero did...
Next up, we have the Fin, an American sailor who discovered that sinking to the bottom of the ocean gives you super-strength. Not one of Bill Everett's finest creations, the Fin vanished without trace at the end of the war. Shame, that.
In the centre, we see the Thunderer, so named because his costume contained a built-in microphone, which he used to amplify his voice, "thundering" at his enemies. So, sort of like Black Bolt, but far lamer than Black Bolt could ever dream of being.
Alongside the Thunderer is Citizen V, who longtime readers of my other blog may recall I have something of an affection for. A British soldier who adopted a secret identity, and who went on a one-man rampage across occupied Europe, striking terror into the enemy, Citizen V vanished without a trace at the end of the war, and was unheard of until 1997, when Kurt Busiek chose to use him, or a version of him, as the centrepiece of the Thunderbolts, a different sort of superhero team. In one form or another, he's been around ever since.
Next to Citizen V is Blue Diamond, a terribly obscure hero powered by a super-magical diamond, who made his one and only contemporary appearance in this very issue, spent the next 30 years in limbo, before being revived (albeit in flashback) by Golden Age aficionado, Roy Thomas.
And lastly, in that box down there, we have the Silver Scorpion, another hero who was plucked out of obscurity to be a member of the V-Battalion, courtesy of a 21st century retcon.

And there you have it, a genuine bona fide Golden Age legion of substitute heroes. Of course, most people were choosing to read about Cap, Namor or the Torch, which is why Ed Brubaker isn't currently writing about the exploits of the Thunderer, or, God help us, the Fin.