Daring Mystery Comics#Characters

{{Infobox comic book title

|image = DaringMystery8.jpg

|caption = Daring Mystery Comics #8 (Jan. 1942). Left to right: Captain Daring, the Fin, the Thunderer, Citizen V, the Blue Diamond, and (inset) the Silver Scorpion. Cover art by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon.

|schedule = Varied (nominally monthly or bimonthly)

|ongoing = Y

|publisher = Timely Comics

|date = January 1940 – January 1942

|issues = 8

|writers = Joe Simon, Bill Everett, Jack Kirby

|artists = Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby

|pencillers =

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|colorists =

|editors = Martin Goodman, Joe Simon

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|sort = Daring Mystery Comics

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}}

Daring Mystery Comics is an American comic-book series published by Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics, during the 1930–40s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Primarily a superhero anthology, it ran eight issues from 1940 to 1942, and is notable for work by Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg, and the team of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.

Daring Mystery Comics #8 (Jan. 1942) features the first appearance of the Golden Age superhero Citizen V, who decades later appears in flashback in the Marvel series Thunderbolts, where his family and the Citizen V identity play a major part. A small handful of other Daring Mystery superheroes have been revived or have made guest appearances in modern-day titles, such as the World War II-set flashback series The Invaders and the feature "Liberty Legion" in Marvel Premiere.

Publication history

Daring Mystery Comics came from publisher Martin Goodman's Timely Comics, which by the early 1960s would evolve into Marvel Comics. The first five issues were nominally edited by Goodman, but were in fact mixtures of material bought from Funnies, Inc. or the Harry "A" Chesler studio, both prominent comic-book "packagers" who produced stories or even complete, outsourced comics on demand for publishers entering the fledgling medium. Timely's first in-house editor, Joe Simon, relaunched the series with issue #6 as his second project for Goodman and remained for the last few issues.{{cite book|last=Murray|first=Will|title=Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery Comics, Vol. 2 | chapter = Introduction | year=2010|publisher=Marvel Publishing, Inc.|location=New York|pages=vi-xi|editor=Cory Sedlmeier}}

Following Daring Mystery Comics #1-8 (Jan. 1940 - Jan. 1942) and a publishing hiatus, the series' numbering continued under different titles.{{gcdb series|id=177|title=Daring Mystery Comics}} In a quirk of publishing involving U.S. Postal Service regulations and mailing costs, and a World War II, paper-supply-related moratorium on launching new series, publisher Goodman somehow continued the series numbering as both Daring Comics for four issues from 1944 to 1945,[http://www.atlastales.com/sT/75 Daring Comics] at AtlasTales.com[http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/dmisc.htm#S1496 Daring Comics (1944-1945)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060106232119/http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/DMISC.HTM#S1496 |date=2006-01-06 }} at The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators and as Comedy Comics for 26 issues from 1942-1946,[http://www.atlastales.com/sT/55 Comedy Comics] at AtlasTales.com[http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/cmisc.htm#S1453 Comedy Comics] at The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators both of which launched with an issue #9.

Characters

Image:DaringMystery6.jpg. Cover art by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon]]

An anthology with no regular star, the series included a number of obscure, mostly single-appearance features. Due to Golden Age comics work often going unsigned, comprehensive credits are difficult if not impossible to ascertain, and in many early cases, a feature's artist is also the uncredited writer.

The best known superheroes to debut in its pages were the Blue Diamond, by artist co-creator Ben Thompson; writer-artist Bill Everett's the Fin; and the Thunderer, created by writer John H. Compton and notable for artist co-creator Carl Burgos. All three heroes were introduced in issue #7 (April 1941).{{cite book |last1=Benton |first1=Mike |title=Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The Illustrated History |date=1992 |publisher=Taylor Publishing Company |location=Dallas |isbn=0-87833-808-X |url=https://archive.org/details/superherocomicso0000bent/page/160 |accessdate=1 April 2020 |page=160}}

In the 1970s, the Blue Diamond resurfaced in period stories in Marvel Premiere, as a member of the homefront World War II team the Liberty Legion. He also appeared in writer Paul Jenkins' 2011 miniseries All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes (2011).[http://www.comics.org/issue/851491/ All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes] at the Grand Comics Database. Two characters introduced here, writer-artist Joe Simon's Fiery Mask, and writer Will Harr and artist Maurice Gutwirth's Laughing Mask, who became the Purple Mask,[http://www.comics.org/issue/664/#11569 "Enter the Laughing Mask", Daring Mystery Comics #2] at the Grand Comics Database[http://www.comics.org/issue/746/#12527 "Mystery of the Swabert Mansion," starring the Purple Mask, Daring Mystery Comics #2] at the Grand Comics Database appeared in present-day stories after awakening from suspended animation alongside 10 other Timely heroes in Marvel Comics' 2007-2008 and 2012 miniseries The Twelve.

Other heroes included the Challenger, drawn by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski under the pseudonym Nick Karlton;[http://www.comics.org/issue/1362/#19447 "Meet the Challenger", Daring Mystery Comics #7] at the Grand Comics Database Dynaman, by artist and possibly writer Steve Dahlman;[http://www.comics.org/issue/1010/ "The Origin of Dynaman", Daring Mystery Comics #7] at the Grand Comics Database and the superheroine the Silver Scorpion, created or co-created by artist and sometime-writer Harry Sahle using the pen name Jewell, which comics historian Michael J. Vassallo believes marked a collaboration with another, unknown artist.[http://www.comics.org/issue/1362/#19443 "The Silver Scorpion", Daring Mystery Comics #7] at the Grand Comics Database

The final three issues contained work by the commercially popular team of writer-inker Joe Simon and penciler and sometimes co-scripter Jack Kirby. They collaborated on the covers of #6 (July 1940) and #8 (Jan. 1942), the former of which also featured a 10-page Simon & Kirby story introducing the single-appearance superhero Marvel Boy (the first of several Marvel Universe characters to take that name), and 10-page story starring the previously introduced Fiery Mask. Issue #7 (April 1941) contained an eight-page Simon & Kirby story introducing the obscure Captain Daring (taken over for the next and last issue by artist Frank Borth, and continuing as Captain Dash in Comedy Comics #9).[http://www.comics.org/issue/2124/#27891 "Scourge of Fear", Comedy Comics #9] at the Grand Comics Database. One of the first superhero parodies — Stuporman, by Harry Douglas who signed his name "Harry / Douglas" leading to much confusion and many theories over the possibility of two creators[http://www.comics.org/issue/1010/#15477 "The Man After the Man of Tomorrow", Daring Mystery Comics #6] at the Grand Comics Database — debuted in issue #6 (Sept. 1940).

Non-superhero features included "G-Man, Don Gorman", a single-issue cover character by unknown creators, though inked by future notable Dick Briefer; "Soldier of Fortune, John Steele" and "Monako the Master Magician" a.k.a. "Monako, Prince of Magic", both by artist co-creator Larry Antonette (under the pseudonym Dean Carr for "John Steele");[http://www.comics.org/issue/628/ Daring Mystery Comics #1] at the Grand Comics Database "K-4 and the Sky Devils", by uncertain creators;Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery Vol. 2 credits Jack Alderman, but historian Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. disputes this at the Grand Comics Database entry for [http://www.comics.org/issue/664/#11567 "Introducing K-4", Daring Mystery Comics #2], which lists the creative personnel as unknown for reasons given there. "Whirlwind Carter of the Interplanetary Secret Service", by writer-artist Fletcher Hanks;[http://www.comics.org/issue/790/#13038 "Mars Attacks", Daring Mystery Comics #4] at the Grand Comics Database the jungle-lord adventure "Trojak the Tiger Man", by artist co-creator Joe Simon using the byline Gregory Sykes;[http://www.comics.org/issue/664/#11565 "King of the Jungle, Daring Mystery Comics #2] at the Grand Comics Database artist co-creator Ben Thompson's single-appearance Western "Robin Hood of the Range", featuring the first of two Marvel characters called the Texas Kid;[http://www.comics.org/issue/628/#11168 Untitled story, Daring Mystery Comics #1] at the Grand Comics Database and the college football-set Flash Foster at Midwestern, by writer and artist Bob Wood.[http://www.comics.org/issue/628/#11171 "The Football Fixing Scheme", Daring Mystery Comics #1] at the Grand Comics Database

The comic's first five covers were by artist Alex Schomburg.

=Complete List of Features=

The Fiery Mask (January 1940; June 1940; September 1940)
John Steele, Soldier of Fortune (January 1940) [final]
The Texas Kid (January 1940) [final]
Monako, Prince of Magic (January 1940; May 1940-September 1940) [final]
Flash Foster at Midwestern (January 1940) [final]
Doyl Denton, Phantom of the Underworld (January 1940) [final]
Barney Mullen – Sea Rover (January 1940) [final]
Zephyr Jones and His Rocket Ship (February 1940)
The Phantom Bullet, Scourge of the Underworld (February 1940) [final]
Trojak, the Tiger-Man (February 1940-June 1940) [final]
K-4 and His Sky Devils (February 1940-June 1940) [final]
Mr. E. (February 1940) [final]
The Laughing Mask/The Purple Mask (February 1940-May 1940) [final]
Dale of the FBI (April 1940) [final]
Breeze Barton (April 1940-June 1940) [final]
The Phantom Reporter (April 1940) [final]
Marvex the Super Robot (April 1940-June 1940) [final]
Captain Strong of the Foreign Legion (April 1940) [final]
Whirlwind Carter of the Interplanetary Secret Service (May 1940-June 1940) [final]
G-Man Don Gorman (May 1940) [final]
Little Hercules (June 1940) [final]
The Falcon (June 1940-September 1940) [final]
Marvel Boy (September 1940) [final]
Stuporman (September 1940)
The Flying Flame (September 1940)
Dynaman (September 1940) [final]
Tigerman (September 1940) [final]
The Thunderer (April 1941; January 1942) [final; revamped as Black Avenger]
The Fin (April 1941; January 1942)
Blue Diamond (April 1941; January 1942) [final]
Officer O’Krime (April 1941; January 1942)
The Silver Scorpion (April 1941; January 1942)
The Challenger (April 1941)
Mr. Million (April 1941) [final]
Captain Daring (April 1941; January 1942) [final; revamped as Captain Dash]
Citizen V (January 1942)
The Li’l Professor and the Robot (January 1942)
Tubby an’ Tack (January 1942)

Collected editions

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery Vol. 1 (collects Daring Mystery Comics #1-4)
Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery Vol. 2 (collects Daring Mystery Comics #5-8)

In other media

The Thunderer appeared in the "Six Forgotten Warriors" episode of one of the Spider-Man animated television series.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}