Nickel Comics #1

Nickel Comics #1 (1940)
by Bill Parker & Edwin J. Smalle Jr.
cover by Jack Binder

The hero origins retrospective is currently going through 1941, but let’s get back to the previous year to cover a Fawcett hero far less known than Captain Marvel.

We get a rather standard superhero origin, from being an orphan…

…to being a young genius…

…to creating a cure against crime. Wait, what?

Sounds legit. Can’t imagine why they wouldn’t let this guy be a cop.

But they end up hiring him as a forensics expert thanks to his GIANT FINGERPRINT CARDS.

The rest of the police force doesn’t respect Jim, with the only exception of the chief’s secretary. She’s going to be important later.

Jim then tests the “crime-cure” on himself, and he’s disappointed that it doesn’t work.
How exactly WAS this supposed to work, however? If this is supposed to be a cure that makes a criminal… what effect was it supposed to have on someone who is NOT a criminal???

Turns out that if you’re not a criminal, the serum makes you jacked!
By the way, this was published several months before Captain America, by as much as nine months depending on the source.

We do get a gloriously insane reasoning behind why this gave Jim superpowers.

Somewhere, a biologist is crying.

Despite being drawn like everybody else, Jim is now so muscular he doesn’t fit any regular clothes… and yet he manages to get into the police headquarters without anyone noticing anything different about him.

Jim decides to destroy the serum. Notice even his soon-to-be love interest doesn’t notice he’s supposed to be way more muscular than the day before.

The serum also gave Jim super-intelligence. Enough to build a Gravity-Regulator Helmet™…

…but still dumb enough to think this is a good look.

(I really need to find a new meme for this. There are WAY too many stupid costumes in the Golden Age.)

And that is why this is Bulletman, ladies and gentlemen. Not just because “bullet” was already his nickname at the police station, but because his gimmick is flying head-on at his enemies.

What do you mean “if my editor will believe me”??? You have a whole crowd of eyewitnesses!!!

So Bulletman takes on the criminal that was threatening to blow up a building. I have to say, for an early Fawcett book the action scene isn’t that bad.

You would think that, as a forensics expert, Bulletman would AT LEAST wear gloves!
Not that it matters, because everyone is still too incompetent to catch him.

You would think the story would already be over, considering the Golden Age standard length, but there’s still time to introduce Bulletman’s first supervillain: the unimaginatively named “Blackmask”.
Who is THIS close to being called a supervillain, but they decide for the surprisingly rarely used “super criminal”.

There’s not enough time to put on your helmet, but there’s enough time to throw a vial of phosphorus? Or did you just happen to have that in your hand?

So after another action scene…

…he then rescues the hostages and arrests Blackmask’s goon.

And that’s seriously the end, with a focus on someone taking pictures of Bulletman.

Nickel Comics would only last 8 issues. It was an unusual publication for the times, costing only 5 cents instead of the typical 10 cents (for half the length) and publishing every two weeks instead of four. Considering its fate, it wasn’t a winning strategy.

But there’s another reason why I’m covering Bulletman…

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Master Comics #13 (1941)
written by unknown
pencils by Al Carreno
cover by Charles Sultan

…his more successful run on Master Comics, where he soon gets his partner Bulletgirl.
As a superheroine, she technically pre-dates Hawkgirl by a few months, as well as every single other superheroine we’ve covered so far!
I would’ve covered her earlier but it took some time to find decent scans.

Bulletman and Bulletgirl are shown together SO often that it’s hard to imagine she didn’t debut for a while.

But only on a technicality: remember how I told you that the chief’s daughter would become important? That happens once she learns Bulletman’s secret identity.

Yeah how could the secretary of the chief of police who is also the daughter of the cop who is always trying to figure out your secret identity have helped you in any way? It’s common knowledge that you can’t fight crime if you have ovaries, right?

And that’s just the risk of sexism. Considering the track record of the 1940s, is there anything more risky to tackle?

Don’t do anything racist don’t do anything racist don’t do anything racist…

Well what do you know, I should’ve given 1941 more credit: they don’t go racist!
Then again this is before Pearl Harbor, so the racism wasn’t AS constant in comics.

Bulletman finds the boss of the criminal operation, and immediately gets himself captured.

Since Bulletman doesn’t give any resistance, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s allowing them to capture him. After all he has super-strenght!

And that is the occasion for Bulletgirl to rescue him.

Way to go keeping her secret identity, Bulletman!!!

So did he get himself captured on purpose, or is he really that incompetent?

I haven’t read any other Bulletman story between the first one and this, but… he destroyed the serum, where did she find another one?
Also, that helmet designed for him fits her remarkably well.

She is kind of impressive, taking care of the entire crew of the boat where Bulletman landed.
By apparently electrocuting everyone!

And that’s the end!

How do they still have secret identities? They’re not even wearing glasses!

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Historical significance: 5/10
Bulletman is surprisingly popular in the Golden Age, possibly because there weren’t THAT many flying superheroes when he debuted. That popularity couldn’t keep him around afterwards.
However, this is the first instance of a superhero couple, which increases the significance quite a bit.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Killing germs gives you super-strength and enough super-intelligence to build a gravity-defying helmet.

 Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Far from the worst Golden Age stories I have reviewed, but equally far from the best.
Bulletman is the kind of blank slate you’d expect from early superheroes, with his only gimmicks being his flight and him being a scientist… less frequent in 1940, but unimpressive now.
Bulletgirl is equally generic, and aside from being “the girl” she doesn’t really have her own gimmick. From what little I’ve seen, even her super-strength is downplayed when compared to Bulletman… even assuming she has it, because that doesn’t seem to be consistent.

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How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Excluding other members of the Marvel Family, Bulletman was arguably Fawcett’s second most popular character after Captain Marvel.
He was the star of Master Comics until 1949, although he was eventually replaced on the cover by Captain Marvel Jr.
He even received his own series, lasting 16 issues from 1941 to 1946.

Probably taking inspiration from the Marvel Family, Bulletman and Bulletgirl were eventually joined by Bulletboy…

…and even Bulletdog.

Fawcett Comics ceased publications in 1953, and DC Comics eventually acquired the rights of its characters. Bulletman would make his DC debut in 1976’s Justice League of America #135.
Which is also the same issue where fellow Fawcett refugee Ibis showed up again.

He’s made a few appearances here and there, together with Bulletgirl of course.
The helmet was carried over by their daughter Deanna, debuting in 1997’s “The Power of Shazam!” #32. She eventually took the name Windshear.

A new successor was created in 2005 by Grant Morrison, on the pages of Seven Soldiers Of Victory, taking the name Bulleteer.
She’s technically unrelated to Bulletman: her skin was turned into indestructible metal by a science accident that killed her husband.
She couldn’t even fly at first, but gained the ability later.

The connection is that, before his death, her husband wanted them to be a superhero couple.

The original Bulletgirl is not a fan. If I’m not mistaken, this might be the most recent Bulletgirl appearance excluding flashbacks.

Bulleteer has a few appearances here and there.
She’s an interesting character, but the Bulletman connection is extremely flimsy.
I don’t even think we’re ever given an explanation on how she learns to fly… from one appearance to the next, she suddenly does.

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There’s nothing else of note in Nickel Comics #1, except a few adventure serials and Discount Mandrake #37.

But you might have noticed that the cover of Master Comics #13 features Minute Man, who debuted two issues earlier.
He’s technically the second oldest patriotically themed superhero, after The Shield.

You can tell he’s from before the Comics Code Authority just by looking at his nemesis Illyria.

I’m not going into details because the scans are absolutely atrocious, but it’s kind of hilarious that Minute-Man seems to be vastly more competent than Hourman.

He also pre-dates Captain America as the first superhero pretending to be a bumbling soldier.

He was a moderately successful character, lasting on Master Comics until 1944’s issue 49. He even received his own series in 1941, lasting just three issues.

He didn’t really leave a big mark on the industry, however. He’s managed to make a few appearances over the years, but he’s quite forgettable.

He’s even mentioned in an unflattering way in a book co-written by Kurt Mitchell and Roy Thomas.
Do you have an idea of how lame of a Golden Age hero you must be if even Roy Thomas doesn’t care about you?

The strip began as a lazy imitation of Captain America: given a top-secret commission to ferret out and smash subversive threats to the nation as the patriotically garbed Minute-Man, Jack Weston posed as an ordinary private as cover. There was no origin, no explanation for his extraordinary fighting prowess, no kid sidekick or grotesque Nazi villains, for Minute-Man was stuck in the world of fictitious fascist nations that Simon and Kirby scorned as too timid for the times.

Kurt Mitchell and Roy Thomas, “American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944”

To be fair to Minute-Man, he can’t entirely be an imitation of Captain America since he’s an earlier character.