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Post by dans on Nov 4, 2023 23:28:12 GMT
Were there any Axis super characters in comics before WW2 actually started? Any notable non-super Axis characters? I've got a heroine with super powers who is working with the FBI to foil an Axis sabotage plot (raiding a factory which is secretly producing sabotage munitions) and I'd like to give her more of a challenge than just 'spies with guns'. Any thoughts? Thanks!
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Post by DocQuantum on Nov 5, 2023 0:56:00 GMT
Look to the Pulps for inspiration! There were plenty of dangerous villains of many types in those 1930s stories, though several of them were one-shot characters.
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Post by johnreiter902 on Nov 5, 2023 2:01:27 GMT
Well, lets see. Japan and Germany both had a number of pulp heroes in the 1930s
In Japan there was the Golden Bat and the Prince of Gamma. The Golden Bat was an atlantean magician with Superman-level powers. The Prince of Gamma was an exiled prince from an alien planet with Superman-level powers as well
In Germany, there were a number of Doc Savage-type adventurers, and a number of master detectives. Among these were Rolf Torring (international adventurer), Sun Koh (eugenic superman from ancient Atlantis), Jan Mayen (brilliant inventor with an atomic airplane). Frank Allan, Tom Shark and John Kling were all master detectives.
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Post by redsycorax on Nov 6, 2023 21:16:40 GMT
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Post by dans on Nov 10, 2023 0:39:44 GMT
So, in 1940, was the generic term for a 'sequential art magazine' "comic book" or was it something else? I know the term 'funnybook' is a disparaging reference to comics, but if I were a kid in 1940 and I found a nickle on the street, and was excited and exclaimed to my friend that I was going to the newsstand and purchase a sequential art magazine, what term would I have used?
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Post by dans on Mar 2, 2024 22:33:48 GMT
Are there any supervillains operating in the US on Earth 1 in 1938? Are there any canon disasters around that time that I could use to tie Doc Yale more firmly to our continuity? I need some kind of bad thing to happen to him that he is unable to foresee or successfully forestall using the Book of Magic, but something others can rescue him from... Since the Book can't see the future, this could be something like; he is kidnapped; he is caught in an avalanche, he interferes with a super villain and the villain decides to kill him, he catches some rare disease, just about anything, I guess...
Thanks for your thoughts!
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Post by johnreiter902 on Mar 3, 2024 1:07:22 GMT
Are there any supervillains operating in the US on Earth 1 in 1938? Are there any canon disasters around that time that I could use to tie Doc Yale more firmly to our continuity? I need some kind of bad thing to happen to him that he is unable to foresee or successfully forestall using the Book of Magic, but something others can rescue him from... Since the Book can't see the future, this could be something like; he is kidnapped; he is caught in an avalanche, he interferes with a super villain and the villain decides to kill him, he catches some rare disease, just about anything, I guess... Thanks for your thoughts! The Microwave Man (Action Comics #487) was active at that time. He had a successful career as a supervillain before being abducted by aliens in 1938. |
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Post by DocQuantum on Mar 3, 2024 2:41:21 GMT
Yeah, Microwave Man would be a good choice. He was remembered as the first super-villain.
You could also use any number of typical villains at the time. Even in the comics, there were no true super-villains, only various types of criminals, like gangsters, mad scientists, monsters, sorcerers, gimmick-based crooks, etc. The costumed super-villains (except for Microwave Man, but he's an example of retroactive continuity) didn't really start appearing (except for various non-powered masked crooks) until the late 1940s.
For examples of villains that were popular at the time, you could look at Dick Tracy and his rogues gallery of misshapen crooks. Whatever interests you the most, I guess.
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Post by dans on Mar 3, 2024 13:37:55 GMT
I probably won't do this, but it is an interesting thought... our Earth 1 timeline shows some information about Doc Savage. Is he actually canon in our E1 universe
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Post by DocQuantum on Mar 3, 2024 18:26:18 GMT
Yes, we just can’t write any stories with Doc Savage as a main character because the owners Conde Nast do not approve of fanfic. That’s why, in the present Doc Savage is no longer remembered due to something that happened in the Crisis and all of his adventures that affected history are now thought to have been done by Tom Strong.
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Post by redsycorax on Mar 3, 2024 22:09:46 GMT
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Post by DocQuantum on Mar 3, 2024 22:22:14 GMT
I've already done this with Tom Strong, and I'm in the process of doing so for the other pulp characters. |
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Post by redsycorax on Mar 3, 2024 23:29:04 GMT
Which does raise the interesting question of what happened to those prewar German and Japanese characters after their crimefighting and heroic careers. Did they fall afoul of the Nazis and rightist Japanese miltarists? Were they regime loyalists? Did they 'disappear' or were they forced to emigrate overseas? Or did they despair of humanity altogether and take to the stars?
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Post by johnreiter902 on Mar 4, 2024 3:03:46 GMT
Which does raise the interesting question of what happened to those prewar German and Japanese characters after their crimefighting and heroic careers. Did they fall afoul of the Nazis and rightist Japanese miltarists? Were they regime loyalists? Did they 'disappear' or were they forced to emigrate overseas? Or did they despair of humanity altogether and take to the stars? I actually gave this a lot of thought
Rolf Torring and Jan Mayen both seemed supportive of fachism and the idea of German superiority. I think they would have signed up with the new order. Sun Koh wouldn't nessisarly care, but what he did care about more than anything was restoring Atlantis. If Hitler offered to dedicate the resources of Germany to restoring Atlantis, I think Sun Koh would agree to help the Nazis.
The Golden Bat was also a former Atlantean, and Sun Koh might be able to persuade him to support the Axis Powers. The Prince of Gamma would probably leave the Earth in disgust
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Post by redsycorax on Mar 4, 2024 22:01:33 GMT
Presumably, Torring, Sun Koh, Mayen and the Golden Bat wouldn't have made it back from Atlantis. One thing that also occurred to me after I read your response is a possibly useful retcon that might involve Aquaman's mother, Atlantean Princess Atlanna. We know that she was banished from Atlantis for some unspecified reason (unless you've thought of this already and it's already in 5E continuity). So what I propose is this- Princess Atlanna rescues Lieutenant Tom Curry, a US naval officer after a brutal U-Boat attack. She learns that newcomers who are lobbying Atlantis from Nazi Germany belong to a nightmarish totalitarian regime and want to exploit its technology for their own ends. Atlanna and Tom frustrate the plans of the Nazi sympathiser adventurers, but at the cost of Atlanna alienating the separatist Atlantean government. After the war, she's exiled from Atlantis, but by that time, Tom and she have fallen deeply for one another and she's pregnant with Arthur...
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