Star Spangled Comics #7 (Robotman)

Star Spangled Comics #7 (1942)
by Jerry Siegel & Leo Nowak

The origin story of the Golden Age Robotman, also known as “Not the Doom Patrol guy” and “wait there’s a Golden Age Robotman?”.

Our protagonist is Bob Crane, a scientist who is about to get a big scientific breaktrough…

…at the expense of his love life.

Only for some robbers to break into his laboratory, wanting to steal his invention.
We don’t know WHAT he invented at this point.

For once, the criminals ACTUALLY USE THEIR GUNS and shoot Bob…

…but then they remember they’re Golden Age criminals, to they just knock out the assistant.

Turns out that Bob’s invention is a robot, which the criminals don’t realize could be valuable.
Okay if they didn’t know Bob was a famous inventor, or if this was set in the 1800s, then I could’ve believed they wouldn’t think this could be sold for money.
But in 1942???

Bob was shot in the stomach, so there’s probably SOME time before he dies. His assistant could call for an ambulance… or he could decide to TRANSPLANT HIS BRAIN.

Sounds legit.

Yeah, uhm, leaving aside the idea that it’s easier to transfer his brain IN 1942 than to cure him from a gunshot wound… is he just putting Bob’s “pulsating brain” inside the metal skull without doing anything else?
Also, they were ready to activate the robot TODAY even without any sort of computer brain ready???

“Life flowing through its veins”? WHAT VEINS?

And then the assistant is arrested for murdering Bob. Which sounds like a joke I would make in this situation but it’s ACTUALLY WHAT HAPPENS.
Since the robot is not active once they arrive, can you blame the police for thinking this?
It’s not shown in the comic but Bob’s corpse MUST be in the lab WITH ITS HEAD OPEN AND ITS BRAIN MISSING.

The premise behind the original Robotman has just as much body horror as his Doom Patrol successor, but you wouldn’t know it from his initial reaction.

Another key difference is that the Doom Patrol Robotman initially wants to kill the man who transplanted his brain in a robot’s body, but the original is the opposite.

Before the Civil Rights Movement, robots were heavily discriminated: they couldn’t get a taxi without being harrassed by the police.

Unable to get anywhere without bein harrassed, Robotman decides to return to his lab.
Which, being the scene of a terrible crime that made front page news, naturally has nobody watching it.
He also makes a not-so-subtle reference to a slightly more famous Jerry Siegel creation.

To disguise himself, Robotman has to resort to pinkface.

Taking the fake name Paul Dennis, he breaks the assistant out of jail.
I was fully expecting the alias to be something like Roe Bottman.

The two bond over their shared love of ludicrous science.

It’s wild just how little thought is given to the horror of what happened to Bob.

After sharing what happened to his assistant, Bob allows his fiancée to believe that the love of her life is dead. Specifically, she still believes that he was brutally murdered by his friend who is now at large.
She wasn’t in the lab when Bob was shot, but I’d say she dodged a bullet with this guy.

You might think I’m being too harsh on Bob: he doesn’t want her to be engaged with a robot, so he’s willing to disappear from her life.
Except he then flirts with her.

Robotman then goes around chasing leads about his own murderers. I have to say that one thing that makes him stand out from the Doom Patrol Robotman is that since the original is a scientist, he’s making his own improvements to his body.

He eventually rounds up the entire gang.

This clears the assistant’s name, since the robbers confess killing Bob.

You’d expect him to reveal that he’s human and that he isn’t dead… at least to his fiancée… but nope, he just likes being a robot better.

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Historical significance: 2/10
There’s a reason why more people remember the other guy with the same name.

Silver Age-ness: 8/10
That is one incredible mask, giving facial expression to a guy who doesn’t have face muscles!!!

Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
The complete and utter lack of angst is already hard enough to swallow given the premise, but then add Robotman not telling anything to his fiancée and dating her anyway.
The artwork is decent enough, but nothing spectacular.

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How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Robotman is most likely the first robot superhero, since Bozo the Robot was actually a guy inside a power suit despite the name.

To quote Don Markstein’s Toonopedia:

It isn’t 100% clear why Robotman kept it a secret that his brain had belonged to the late Dr. Crane. (CUT)
He even managed to keep up a relationship with his old girlfriend, Joan Carter, tho what attracted her to him is another thing that isn’t 100% clear.

Robotman doesn’t keep his origin a secret for long. Already in Star Spangled Comics #15 he has to admit who he is, during a trial where he’s being accused of being a menace to society.

But it’s all good because he saves the jury, so they declare him a human being.

In 1944’s Star Spangled Comics #29 he gets a sidekick that he designed himself: Robbie The Robot Dog.

Robotman had a pretty decent run: his serial continued on Star Spangled Comics until #82 in 1948, never making it to the cover. He was then moved to the backup feature of Detective Comics, from #138 all the way up to #202 in 1953.
Which surprisingly makes Robotman one of the longest lasting DC heroes during the Golden Age!

But considering his successor in the Doom Patrol was a lot more successful, he has very few Silver Age appearances. His most prominent role is probably a series of appearances in the 1980s series All-Star Squadron, set in the Golden Age and written by Roy Thomas.

He even has a relationship with a female robot straight out of Metropolis.
The movie, not the city.

And no, I am not joking. She is LITERALLY the robot from Metropolis.

We eventually learn his fate in DC Comics Presents #31 in 1981, courtesy of Bob Rozakis.
Turns out that Robotman went into suspended animation after being buried in a cave in one of his adventures.

In the meantime the assistant that put him in the robot body has died and donated his body to science. So Robotman’s brain gets put into the assistant’s body and he’s human again!

I wonder if he’s still with the robot from Metropolis after that.

I must ONCE AGAIN recommend James Robinson’s Golden Age miniseries, where Robotman is absolutely terrifying.

And that’s all I can say without spoiling the story.