National Comics #5 (1940)
by Jack Cole & Chuck Mazoujian
cover by Lou Fine
Uncle Sam may be on the cover, but he’s not the most influential Quality Comics character to come out of this issue.
No, that would be Quicksilver. Better known to modern Flash readers as Max Mercury.
Our villain is a scientist who has invented a formula to hypnotize people. Interestingly, he gets the assistance of the police because he’s their doctor and he uses his formula on them.
That’s when a speedster shows up, defeating the hypnotized policemen.
I have to say that Quicksilver’s enthusiasm while he moves around New York City is quite contagious. Really reminds me of Spider-Man, and not just because of the city.
His future Max Mercury persona will act as the straight man, but in his original appearance he has loads of fun using his powers.
As it’s often the case with Quality Comics, story and characterization are basically non-existent but the artwork is superb.
Also I think his agility seems to take precedence over super-speed.
Again: VERY strong Spider-Man vibes.
He even drops silently from the ceiling to startle the bad guy before knocking him out.
And at page 6 it’s ALREADY the end! See what I meant about the story being non-existent?
Historical significance: 0/10
As said “Quicksilver” will eventually be relevant, but his first story is forgotten.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Just a little.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Bumped by the artwork, but there’s BARELY any story here. Cool idea to have the police doctor brainwashing the police, would be nice to see that explored properly.
How close is this to the modern character? 4/10
He has super-speed and the costume is ALMOST the same. Personality-wise, even though we BARELY see it, not so much.
Quicksilver was remarkably popular at Quality Comics, with a total of 70 stories (all of them on National Comics, plus a single issue of Uncle Sam Quarterly).
His last appearance is from 1949. As mentioned several times, DC Comics bought the rights to the Quality characters in 1956 but didn’t do anything with them for many years.
Which means that, by the time Marvel’s own Quicksilver made his debut in 1964, technically speaking DC Comics already had the rights to a character by the same name!
A Quicksilver story from the Golden Age was reprinted on Flash #214 in 1972, and he might have made a cameo or two in All-Star Squadron (I couldn’t find a reference for it), but the character was mostly forgotten.
Until 1993, when Mark Waid brought him back as Max Mercury on Flash vol.2 #76.
He doesn’t keep anything but the general look (with different colors), but the storyline does acknowledge his acrobatic skills a little.
(he’s not fighting the real Flash here, by the way, this is actually the Reverse-Flash).
But it’s in issue #97 that he gets an origin story, something that he completely lacked in the Golden Age. Turns out Max is actually from the Old West (!!!) and got his powers by a Native American ritual (!!!).
It’s also the same story that adds the fact that he’s used MULTIPLE other identities over the years (he’s also been Windrunner, Lightning, Blue Streak, Whip Whirlwind and Thunderpace. I think most of these are made up by Waid).
First Mercury, now this… what is it with Golden Age speedsters later revealed to also have been other speedsters!?
(also: there’s going to be ANOTHER one of those soon!)
Max Mercury is EXTREMELY important for the Flash lore because he’s the one who introduces us to the Speed Force.
Max then acted like a mentor to Wally West learning all about the Speed Force, but he was also a father figure to Impulse.
After Barry Allen came back as the Flash and Impulse graduated into being either Kid Flash or another Flash, Max Mercury lost some of his importance.
He disappeared into the Speed Force at least once, because of course he did, but I think he’s back.
I’ve lost track of Flash since I honestly find Wally WAY more interesting than Barry, but Max kind of became a second-rate Jay Garrick once everyone started using the Speed Force.
Also I don’t think I’ve seen any writer other than Mark Waid really getting his character.
What else was in the issue?
I’ve already talked about Uncle Sam’s story before, since it talks about his origin.
But we also have the policewoman Sally O’Neil, another Quality regular with 75 stories.
We have another issue of the MERCIFULLY FORGOTTEN Kid Patrol.
Yeah, uhm, don’t expect a Kid Patrol reboot anytime soon. Even though I’m pretty sure it’s in the public domain.
Pen Miller, Cartoonist Detective, is another Quality regular.
This also hasn’t aged well.
We also have Wonder Boy (26 stories in the Golden Age), who pre-dates Wonder Woman.
He’s yet another character who basically has no story but great artwork.
The DC Database is savage in its remarks about Quality characters, stating:
Wonder Boy holds a doctorate in law from a state college, even though he never attended any classes there.
Quality Comics even still has sports stories, which have largely disappeared from other publishers by 1940.
There’s a Paul Bunyan story. Why not, when you have Uncle Sam on the cover.
And, keeping track of the war, we also get war stories by now.
Quality Comics continues to have astonishing variety. You can find the humor comic Windy Breeze…
…followed up by a Merlin The Magician story that goes into horror.
You are so right about the Spiderman vibe. Even the Flash Vol2#76 artwork you used feels a little like Spiderman.
I’m reasonably certain that Quicksilver never appeared in All-Star Squadron. I don’t have a comprehensive collection, but he’s not in the issues featuring a lot of obscure Quality Comics heroes (primarily # 50). I suppose it’s possible he made a cameo in the follow-up series Young All-Stars, but I don’t think he did.
Imagine…a golden age hero too under-the-radar for Roy Thomas!!
You’re probably right about All-Star Squadron: my source was Don Markstein’s Toonopedia which is typically reliable on these things, but if it’s a cameo it must be pretty limited: I can’t find it.
I did, however, find a minor cameo in All-Star Squadron’s spinoff series, Young All-Stars: a group shot of the Freedom Fighters from #27 that includes Quicksilver.
Although there’s another couple of… things that steal the scene in that particular panel.
Ooh – good spotting! That’s what I get for posting hastily, I do have that issue but forgot it had a Quality Comics Heroes group shot to check for an appearance of him. Incidentally, I like that they retconned that group of heroes to be based in Washington DC as a reason why they seldom interacted with the JSA during their published adventures. Between Black Condor being a Congressman and Phantom Lady being the daughter of a Senator (IIRC on both of those), it makes sense for them to be based there.