Detective Comics #20

Detective Comics #20 (1938)
by Jim Chambers

While “Detective Comics” is synonymous with Batman, he’s not the first superhero to debut in the series.

He’s not even the first DC character still around to debut in the series: that honor goes to Slam Bradley, who is even older than Superman and debuted in Detective Comics #1.

But Slam Bradley is by no definition a superhero, so he doesn’t really qualify for this retrospective… unlike the Crimson Avenger.

We begin with lawyer Myron Block defending a guy accused of murder.

This gets to the attention of Lee Travis, publisher of the Globe Leader newspaper.
Is it just me, or is “Globe Leader” a very WEIRD name for a paper!?!?

Block works for a racket that provides him a convenient witness to acquit the murderer.

This is important because Lee Travis is not just a newspaper publisher, he’s also a vigilante who wears a mask and has an Asian chauffeur as a sidekick.

The Crimson Hornet Avenger also has a gas gun to knock out his enemies.

And he also pretends to be a criminal, which he uses to convince Block that he needs him as his lawyer.

So to recap: we’re talking about a newspaper publisher who at night is a masked vigilante with an Asian chauffeur as a sidekick, who uses a gas gun, and who pretends to be a criminal.

The Crimson Hornet Avenger tells Block that he’ll read on the papers the reason why he wants to kill the District Attorney.
So as Lee Travis he just calls the DA.

Well at least that’s the answer he SHOULD have received. This is the real panel.

Basically, the Crimson Hornet Avenger is pretending he wants to murder the DA in order to get Block on his side, when Block is really the one responsible.
So from his perspective, the plan is not bad at all. But I question why the District Attorney would EVER get on board with this, unless he knows the real identity of the Crimson Knockoff?

Also, Block might be great at getting fake eyewitnesses, but he’s just terrible at this whole crime being because there are some huge red flags about this being a sting. Or I guess crimson flags.

Kind of weird that this is the second DC hero in a row to have an Asian servant. I guess that if Batman had a butler right from the beginning, Alfred would’ve been Asian.

I barely know anything about Green Hornet, but… did HIS gimmick of pretending to be a criminal actually make sense? Because I think this is just working against Crimson Copycat.

And that’s how Block gets himself arrested: HIS fingerprints were on the gun, but the Crimson Hornet Avenger wears gloves.

If there was already THAT much evidence against Block, I question whether threatening the District Attorney was really necessary.

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Historical significance: 2/10
Despite his impressive age, the Crimson Avenger never really made a big impact.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
I admit my bias of never really liking most crime stories of this era, but I don’t think this holds up. The “pretending to be a criminal” aspect is noteworthy… but then again the Green Hornet has already done that, so it’s not THAT unique. Not to mention it doesn’t really have a huge impact on the story itself.
And it goes without saying for the era, but characterization is nonexistent. I’m not holding it against the story since it was the style, but it doesn’t help.
As mentioned I’m not super familiar with the Green Hornet, and I have no experience with his radio serial so some of the stuff Crimson Avenger copies might have originated from the 60s TV series or have been added after 1938.

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How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
The Crimson Avenger has an impressive career. He ditches the pulp hero look in Detective Comics #44 from 1940 for a much worse look.

Wing later gets his own costume in Detective Comics #59, and he looks even worse!!!
“Wing” is his actual name, by the way… his full name is “Wing How”… which was fine when he was just the chauffeur, but he keeps it as his superhero name!!!

In 1941, he would be among the founding members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
To give you an idea of how much the Crimson Avenger plunged into obscurity… he’s BARELY ever mentioned as one of the Seven Soldiers, who are pretty obscure in their own right.
Also, despite participating in their adventures, Wing was not considered a “real” member. It definitely wasn’t because he was a sidekick: Speedy and Stripesy WERE counted, despite being the sidekicks of Green Arrow and Star-Spangled Kid.
Maybe “the Eight Soldiers of Victory” didn’t sound as good.

After the Golden Age ended, the Crimson Avenger wouldn’t turn up until 1972 on a Justice League story… which also revealed Wing died to save the universe.

He was eventually killed off in 1981’s DC Comics Presents #38. It’s a bittersweet ending, but at least he goes out being a hero.

Despite being little more than a footnote post-Crisis, he still has some significance: since Crisis meant there was no longer a Superman active in the Golden Age, the Crimson Avenger is sometimes credited in-universe as the first superhero of the modern era.

 There IS a modern Crimson Avenger running around, Jill Carlyle. I haven’t read any story with her, but apparently she’s both the heir to the original and a “Spirit of Vengeance”.

I can’t say anything about her as a character, but that’s a neat design! Too bad it doesn’t have anything to do with the Crimson Avenger’s… they probably just wanted to use the name and worked in a flimsy connection.
Which makes sense, since the name is easily the coolest thing about the Crimson Avenger.