“Yesterday’s” Comic> Police Comics #1

Is he wearing a see-through shirt?

Police Comics #1

Quality Comics (August, 1941)

ORIGINAL COVER ART: Gil Fox

Here we go again, with a ton of stories courtesy of the “Millennium Edition” reprints. This comic is known for the debut of Plastic Man, but other DC characters came from here, just minor ones who never had their own cartoon show. They still found a way to have minor appearances in the DC Universe in later years.

Firebrand

writer unknown  ARTIST: Reed Crandall

Rod Reilly is another millionaire playboy who is secretly a superhero. They also give him a fiance for some reason. Like many superheroes of the time, Firebrand has a sidekick who has no secret identity and is treated like a vigilante by the police. He didn’t have to wait for the New 52 before they slapped the name on a character…well, go read Battle Of Bludhaven some time…or better yet, read or watch a review. It wasn’t very good. Luckily, Rod’s adventures were canon and his sister and another guy would take on the name at later dates.

Our first look at the hero who leaves a burning torch as his calling card begins when he spots a steeplejack near his apartment being shot at. He learns that a “protection racket” is actually a front for smugglers. It’s a decent enough story, not bad but nothing spectacular. Still, it’s better than the next offering

711

WRITER/ARTIST: George E. Brenner

In theory, a prisoner who finds a way to break out of prison and uses what he learns to fight crime and then sneaks back into prison sounds like a good idea that just wouldn’t work today. The origin of 711, however, tends to fall apart. An attorney pretends to be his look-a-like friend who’s about to go to prison for life just long enough to see his newborn son born and help his wife. However, he gets run over on the way to the hospital, which means nobody will ever know Daniel Dyce isn’t Jacob Horn…despite the fact that the obituary clearly states his name as Jacob Horn, who should be in prison with life without parole. Nobody even checks into this? Horn is able to dig his way out but decides that since he can’t reclaim his name (apparently nobody is missing Mr. Dyce despite his being a “promising young attorney”…I guess Jacob was his only friend and nobody else would be wondering what happened to him) decides to remain in prison and use what he overhears from prisoners to fight crime as….his own prison number that a judge somehow was able to decree is the only name he will now be known by because judges can do that apparently.

I don’t even know where to start breaking that apart, even for the 1940s, so let’s go to the case for this story. Daniel/Jacob/711 overhears that a man is coming to the prison to pay for the most cliched crime of the time period–swindling widowns and orphans–is planning to serve his sentence and run away with the money afterwards. So 711 makes it his mission to find the money and return it to those it was stolen from. My god, the cliches and stupidity are fighting for dominance on this one. Not only does this not stand up, I’m not even sure it worked for that time period. I almost expect this to end up on Atop The Fourth Wall someday, or at least my RU colleague Writrzblok’s show Way Or No Way. This is hopefully the worst of the comics in this issue.

Then there’s a comedy bit where a scientist tries to kill a cop with a killer plant only for the cop and plant to play cards. Still better than 711.

Eagle Evans: Flier Of Fortune

WRITER/ARTIST: Clark Williams

Evans is an American pyplane pilot helping the British forces along with fellow American and cameraman Snap Smith. Oh aren’t we clever? This story finds the two investigating an Arab against orders to prove he’s actually in league with the Axis powers and not as neutral as he claims. Names aside, this was a pretty good story, even if it has nothing to do with the police or regular crimefighting.

Chic Carter

WRITER/ARTIST: Will Eisner

The most interesting about this one is that the title character is the reporter and not his superhero alter ego, The Sword, a guy who carries a rapier to fight crime. Here we find Carter sent to cover a dying art collector who tells his heirs he’s donating everything to an art museum because all they care about is his money. Somebody kills him before the will can be changed and then goes after the heirs. Carter and his Sword identity have to investigate because the detective assigned to the case is a goof. It’s a good story, but I don’t even know if he needs a superhero identity, at least in this story.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for….

Plastic Man

WRITER/ARTIST: Jack Cole

It’s pretty obvious Quality thought Firebrand would be the big breakout of the comic since he’s front and center in the comic and on the cover. Instead it’s the tale of “Eel” O’Brien, left behind by his fellow crooks after a robbery attempt goes wrong he ends up in a sanctuary with superstretch powers thanks to acid getting into his wounds. Since the monk showed him the kindness he never received in life, Eel sees this as a second chance and goes back to defeat his former gang, one of whom dubs him “Plastic Man”, and he decides to continue to pretend to be a crook as a cover for his new life as a superhero.

“Acid” as a source for his stretching powers would later become a strange chemical even before DC bought the character from a closing Quality Comics but here it’s acid. Also, plastic doesn’t stretch and the 1940s wouldn’t have blinked at the name Rubber Man, unlike today. (Perverts ruin everything.) That name, however, would stick and Plas would go on to have cartoons, including the 1980s cartoon by Ruby/Spears and a series of shorts for the current “DC Nation” block. He would eventually lose Eel completely until Batman: The Brave And The Bold, where he was depicted as a criminal trying to reform but still being greedy. While I have no problems with that version it’s not one I particularly cared for but still better than the DC Nation shorts. The 80’s show is still my favorite and I do like the idea of Eel going “Green Hornet” style against crime although he would eventually join the police force.

Steele Kerrigan

ARTIST: Al Bryant (writer unknown)

Kerrigan, tricked into being a lookout man, was sent to prison for 10 years. His girlfriend as waited all this time for him, but the guys who tricked him now want him to join up for real. Kerrigan wants to go straight, though, and after being framed for a crime by the gang, who kidnaps Anne to keep her from talking, must break out and both clear his name and save his lady love. This was a good done-in-one story but I don’t see how you make this guy into a character when his story seems pretty done here.

The Mouthpiece

WRITER/ARTIST: Fred Guardinear

A district attorney probably shouldn’t name his superhero identity after a slang term for lawyer (which I don’t think we use anymore) but it still makes sense than naming yourself after your prison number. (Pretty sure this is the last time I take a shot at 711.) This issue sees Bill Perkins looking into a human smuggling operation where the crook drops the customers into the ocean to die if it looks like he’s going to get caught. In case you thought illegal immigration was a new issue or only involved Mexico, you might want to look into this story. It’s a good tale.

Vengeance

WRITER: Robert H. Hyatt (obligatory prose story)

American detective Dick Mace is called to France to help investigate a series of murders on the family of a diamond merchant. Except the culprit is pretty much spoiled at the beginning when it talks about how the merchant and the son of his father’s not-wealthy friend didn’t get along due to their social status and how he bilked the other guy out of a diamond mine he found and tried to sell off. Also, I don’t like a story where children die. The first two victims are an eldest son (no age given but he’s at least old enough to drive) and a nine-year-old girl. The murder then goes after the man’s wife and her babies, the grief sending the merchant to suicide. So the killer wins his vengeance and commit suicide. The story is well told from a critical view but on a personal level I really don’t like the story.

Phantom Lady

ARTIST: Arthur Peddy (they didn’t keep good writer records at Fawcett or Quality, did they?)

Another character who made appearances in the DC Universe. Phantom Lady is really debutante Sandra Knight, who must rescue a man who invented a new powerful explosive from a guy who wants to make a fortune off of it. She doesn’t wear a mask and prefers to hide her identity with a “black light lantern” (not to be confused with the Black Lanterns), which seems like a bad idea as it actually gets damaged the first time we see it in action. Still, she does a good job for a female superhero in the 1940s.

Then there’s the “comedy” of redneck stereotype Dewey Drip. Pass and move on to the final comic.

The Human Bomb

WRITER/ARTIST: Paul Carroll

Another story with powerful explosives and accidental superpowers. To keep the experimental explosive 27-QRX out of the hands of the foreign spies who killed his father for it, Roy Lincoln swallows the capsule containing it. Now he’s impenetrable and things explode at his touch without a special suit. Now a human bomb, Lincoln goes after the big boss and blows him up real good. This is a concept that could only work in the 1940s or in the Golden and Silver Ages. Still, it works for the time as an origin story.

Most of the comics in this comic are pretty good. 711 ws probably the worst and it was still readable with a decent hero. There are plenty of good character here that I want to see more of, like Firebrand, Plastic Man, the Phantom Lady, and even The Mouthpiece and Human Bomb. Maybe Chic Carter, too, These are public domain and worth looking into.