Captain America Comics #1 (1940)
by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby
Captain America and Bucky are not the only superheroes in this comic.
We also have Hurricane, the hero who asks the question: what if the Flash didn’t wear pants?
But he’s also even more mythologically confused than Marvel Boy, because despite being “the last descendent of the Ancient Greek immortals… he’s also the son of Thor.
In his “moral guise”, which I guess means wearing a hat, Hurricane decides to visit Coast City.
He’s on Earth looking for Pluto, because Mercury didn’t do enough of a good job dealing with him.
Hurricane is not your regular speedster: he can also make cars go really really fast! By DETACHING HIS WINGS and placing them on a taxi!!!
So does the cab take the name from the hero, or the hero gets his name from the cab?
He’s also an almost literal hurricane, defeating the mobsters he was looking for.
His target is an enforcer named “Piggy Perroni”. A little on the nose with that joke name.
(also: Perroni could be a legitimate Italian last name but it doesn’t mean pepperoni, which isn’t even a thing in Italy)
However Hurricane isn’t here to take Piggy out, just to infiltrate his gang.
Or at least that’s what I think they’re talking about, I don’t speak 40s gangster… what does “ya got a queer lookin’ pan” mean?
Yeah, between the phonetic accent and the lingo I’m having a real problem understanding these people.
That’s when Hurricane transforms into his godly form, by which I mean he takes off his pants and his shirt and puts on a silly hat.
Meanwhile, Discount Commissioner Gordon is desperate to find Piggy.
And he gets his wish! I really like the idea of Hurricane being able to borrow his wings to anything to grant super-speed, very creative.
Next, Hurricane goes to a masquerade ball. I’m surprised this is the first time I mention one in the Golden Age, because it sounds like a very stereotypical Golden Age moment.
A masquerade ball attended by FREAKING SAT… ehm, FREAKING PLUTO.
Pluto carries his assassinations by poisoning punch. Really, Pluto? According to this comic you’re supposed to be the ACTUAL god of the underworld: talk about underwhelming!
Since Pluto is here masquerading as the Devil, Hurricane shows up dressed like an angel.
Just to punch him in the face!!!
Unsurprisingly, Hurricane is bulletproof.
Kirby has a looooong way to go before he draws a god fight that feels like it’s as epic as it’s supposed to be.
That’s the only part of the fight we see, but apparently it takes a lot out of Hurricane who then leaves the crime scene with a quick summary of who’s dead.
This think went on so quickly that I’m not entirely sure I follow, but I think Pluto took all the bad guys back with him in the underworld?
And so we end with Piggy getting the electric chair (!!!) and the promise of more Hurricane adventures.
Which, shockingly enough for a minor Golden Age hero for Marvel, actually DO happen!
He continues to have adventures until Captain America Comics #11 in 1941.
Which, fun fact, was published only 2 days before Pearl Harbor.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t a “fun” fact.
By this time, he was being written by Stan Lee; the pencils are credited to “Charles Nicholas”, which is a pen name used by Charles Cuidera, Charles Wojtkoski and Jack Kirby. I doubt it was penciled by Kirby, though, because Captain America Comics #11 was the first Captain America title story NOT penciled by Kirby.
By this time Hurricane was accompanied by comic relief sidekick Speedy, and… uhm, let’s just say these stories have not aged particularly well.
Historical significance: 0/10
Pretty much forgotten.
Silver Age-ness: 7/10
The son of Thor AND heir to the Greek gods? What?
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
I appreciate the creativity of giving wings to anything, but no. Just… just no.
How close is this to the modern character? 0/10
You might be thinking: a Greek god with superspeed and a questionable mythological background coming to Earth to fight Pluto?
Isn’t that EXACTLY the same thing Mercury did?
It is, because they are the same character, as revealed by Roger Stern in 1998’s “Marvel Universe #7”.
First Mercury, then Quicksilver, now Hurricane?
If I had a nickel for every time a Golden Age speedster was later revealed to be a completely different character… I’d have three nickels, but it’s weird it happened three times!
The odd feather on “Pluto’s” cowl is a nod to the traditional costume of Mephistopheles on stage and in opera. You can see an example at the link:
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/portrait-of-an-unidentified-man-as-mephistopheles-215871
Kirby was the most operatic of artists, and I have a notion that he drew on the stagecraft, costuming, and exaggerated physical expression of opera in his character designs for Marvel. Perhaps “Pluto” is an early example? His attire is certainly theatrical.
Just for the record, “ ya got a queer lookin’ pan” means “you have a strange face”.
“Isn’t that old Hitler’s pan?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy_yYFm5oY&t=66s
No comment on the other parts…
In Marvel Universe #6, there’s a cute detail where Hurricane attaches his little wings to a plane to keep it aloft.
It’s interesting how Mercury and Hurricane had different writers, yet the characters look the same and have striking similarities (are gods, fight Satan, etc.) They’re both illustrated by Jack Kirby, so I think we can get an idea of what Kirby brought to the effort by comparing them.
It looks like Kirby created the look of the characters (naturally) and had the notion that the hero was a Greek-style god with super-speed who is bulletproof, fights Satan in his many guises, and has a confused mythological origin. I guess it’s not surprising that Kirby would go on to create the Eternals, and the having the same guy create Mercury, Hurricane, and Makakki makes them similar enough to retcon into being the same person.