Daring Mystery Comics #6

Daring Mystery Comics #6 (1940)
by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby

When it comes to ridiculous Golden Age origins, Black Condor can’t be beat, but the first Marvel Boy is still on the podium.
Plus it has historical significance in the most unpredictable way.

It’s also, quite possibly, one of the stories with the highest number of historical and mythological mistakes I’ve ever read. Seriously, compared to this Thor and Wonder Woman might as well be college courses.

Marvel Boy’s origins are linked with Ancient Egypt, where belief in reincarnation wasn’t really a thing (at least not in the way we define the term today).
I’m tempted to ALSO criticize the idea that this extremely white kid with blonde hair is Egyptian, but Egypt was rather racially diverse (as we define the term today) so it’s not completely impossible. Still, because of reincarnation…
Mythological inaccuracies: 1

The secret of reincarnation was lost to history, but not to Hercules. Who is apparently both Egyptian AND not immortal. So two more points.
Mythological inaccuracies: 3

Also, while this guy is called Hercules he’s most definitely NOT the same character as one of the greatest heroes ever to appear on a comic book.

In his death, Hercules’ ghost goes to VALHALLA.
Mythological inaccuracies: 4

I said this story has a surprising historical significance, and it’s not that Marvel Boy is the first character with the name “Marvel” that TECNICALLY belongs to Marvel continuity.
It’s the fact that this is the first appearance of Adolph Hitler in a Marvel comic!
For comparison, he won’t make an explicit appearance in DC Comics until 1942 (in a Green Lantern story. Which of course I’ll eventually review).

Okay I’ll give you “Blitzkrieg” since it’s a German word, but… surely all these others words were already known?

Get used to see A LOT of fifth column stories in the rest of the Golden Age: it’s going to be the new racketeering.

Once in Valhalla, Hercules consults with its ruler Jupiter.
Mythological inaccuracies: 5

Okay this is all kinds of confusing. We’re already in WWII, but Hercules is reincarnated in a baby born NOW? If Jupiter can send Hercules’ soul to the past, fine, but then why would it be necessary to “act at once”?

No wonder he’s the reincarnation of Hercules, that’s the most jacked fourteen year old I’ve ever seen!
Also: if he’s 14 in 1940, that means he was born in 1926 when Hitler was most definitely not planning fifth columns in America. So there are only two possible explanations: either Jupiter really did send Hercules’ soul into the past, or this comic makes no freaking sense.

Ah the 1940s, when a mysterious stranger showing up at your door in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm to deliver a present to your 14 year old son warrants no questions whatsoever.

And yes, Marvel Boy’s real name is indeed M. Burns.

And then the young Burns is awakened by the shadow of… I’m guessing that’s Jupiter?
At least he got lucky: if this was Zeus, I’d be MUCH more worried for him.

The strength of twenty men? THAT’S IT? Talk about a downgrade from the mythological Hercules!!!

The box Jupiter sent contains Marvel Boy’s costume.
That’s right: Jupiter can reincarnate other people’s souls into the past and appear as a shadow, but he has to go through the postal service to send a package.

I guess “Valhalla” lacks a God of Fashion Sense, because this is one ugly costume.

Maybe America really needs superheroes for this war because a freaking Nazi submarine surfaces RIGHT IN FRONT OF NEW YORK CITY and nobody notices!!!

I’m cheating a bit calling this the first appearance of Hitler in a Marvel comic: while it’s CLEARLY him, the Nazis (which are explicitly identified as such) all say “Heil Hiller”.

The submarine was here to deliver a yet unidentified cargo, which is then intercepted by Marvel Boy.

I guess the cargo is more Nazis?

Despite the Jack Kirby artwork, this is one lackluster action scene.

CLEARLY we needed a reincarnation of Hercules to deal with… three armed guys and an unarmed woman.

My German is very rusty (that’s no joke, I do know a little bit of German), but I believe if this was meant as “damn swine” it should be “Verdammt Schweinhund”.
“Schweinhund” is German for “pig-dog”, and for some reason it seems to be one of the three German words comics know in the 40s.
Misspelling it as “Schweinehund” is VERY common in the Golden Age.
And “verdaamnter” is a much, worse misspelling.
Grammatical inaccuracies: 2

That is one heroic face, isn’t it?

Thanks to that letter, Marvel Boy finds and beats up more Nazis.

And so America is safe thanks to one phone call. Which Jupiter could’ve made himself without all this reincarnation stuff if he really cared.

Just imagine: if this story didn’t suck, Marvel Boy could’ve pre-dated Spider-Man by 22 years.

---

Historical significance: 0.5/10

Silver Age-ness: 1940/10

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
  

---

How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Despite the last panel promising “another thrilling adventure”… this is the only Marvel Boy story.

No connection is made between this Marvel Boy and the second one, who ALSO has a single appearance in 1942 and who also gets his powers from Hercules. That’s a story with just as many mythological inaccuracies and a close second to Black Condor for ridiculous origins, so you better believe I’ll eventually cover it.

Also no connection to the 1950 Marvel Boy that today goes by the name Uranian, to the 1977 Marvel Boy that changed his name to Marvel Man in his second appearance and is today better known as Quasar, or to the current Marvel Boy that debuted in 2000.

---

This issue also has the last Golden Age story of the Fiery Mask.
You might remember him from the EXCELLENT 2008 “The Twelve” series by J. Michael Straczynski, but he only has 3 Golden Age stories.

He fights a demon in this one! Don’t ask me why, all Fiery Mask stories make absolutely no sense.

There’s also the aggressively unfunny Stuporman.
It should be noted that, if we go by the cover date, Action Comics was only at issue 28 but Superman was already popular enough to get parodies.

Plus your usual war story. Between “Fiery Mask” and “Flying Flame”, there sure was a lot of fire in Marvel titles… which I guess makes sense, since their first hero was the Human Torch.

Then there’s Falcon. No relation to the more famous Sam Wilson character: this one only has 3 Golden Age stories. And no, he doesn’t fly in the story.

There’s Mandrake Ripoff #73, also known as Monako. He lasts 4 stories.

There’s Dynaman. He only has one Golden Age story and a 2012 team-up with Howard the Duck, of all things.

And finally, there’s Tigerman.

Who I guess is the first black Marvel hero, but despite the promise of more adventures this is his only story.

Compared to what DC and Quality were publishing, the Timely books seems to have less variety in genres and less luck in giving its characters a substatial number of stories.