Daring Mystery Comics #7

Daring Mystery Comics #7 (1941)
written by unknown
pencils by Harry Sahle
cover by Joe Simon

While there are no less than five heroes on the cover, none of them has a particularly interesting history. I’ll talk about them later, but first we’ll focus on the one who is not on the cover…

…one of the last two remaining superheroines that precede Wonder Woman: the Silver Scorpion.
Who, you might notice, does not have a silver costume.

We begin with a detective receiving a call about ghosts.

But that doesn’t worry our protagonist, who dresses up in her costume because she’s going to a masquerade ball. Which, I must point out, are not as frequent in this retrospective as I had imagined.
Honestly, if you remove the giant scorpion symbol on the back it’s not that bad of a costume!

She then decides to stop at the cemetery. As you do.

Well that’s not ENTIRELY random, because the cemetery’s watchman was the one to call for the ghost.

Which is, uhm, not exactly scary.

This page has one of the worst storytelling I’ve seen in a long time.

Yeah this is a TERRIBLE way to arrange the panels.

At least the following page is much better. That’s where she learns that mobsters are hiding in the cemetery.

They’re not exactly a threat to her.

Not really sure what’s the point of setting up a counterfeit operation in a cemetery if you go around dressed as a ghost to scare people.

This is front page news for some reason.

This one had a release date of February 6th 1941, when nothing happened.

And that’s it! Our heroine didn’t even plan to be a superheroine, she just happened to be around wearing a costume.

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Historical significance: 0/10
I said it’s interesting history, not important history.
Technically speaking, Silver Scorpion might be considered the first Marvel real super-heroine, since the original Black Widow is more of an anti-hero.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
The artwork is typical for the times, but as mentioned the panel arrangement is atrocious. As for the story itself… what story???

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How close is this to the modern character? 0/10
Okay why am I talking about this 5 page throwaway story? Just wait.

She has only THREE Golden Age stories, the second being Daring Mystery Comics #8.

If they react this way to HER costume, good thing they’re not facing Phantom Lady.

The other one is the extremely dignified Comedy Comics #9 from 1942.

Lots of laughts in HER story, judging by its first page.

The fact that Silver Scorpion is a woman was barely a factor before, but here it’s essential… because the villain is blackmailing women with a serum that makes them old.

Said villain is Mr. Black, leading me to convince this character can only be written by colorblind people.

She’s contractually obligated to be captured, but she eventually saves the day.

For some reason Silver Scorpion completely missed the first 1975 Invaders series, but Roy Thomas did bring her back for the second series from 1993.
You wouldn’t be able to tell it’s the same person, but AT LEAST her codename makes sense now!

She also gets a proper origin, something she completely lacked in the Golden Age.
This probably makes her the first Marvel superhero in a power armor, by the way.

She next shows up in 2000 on the pages of Thunderbolts, as part of the V-Battalion.
We’ll talk about that once I cover Citizen V, but essentially there’s a 21st century organization that recruits WWII heroes and their descendants.
And Silver Scorpion is among the leaders of the organization.

She’s mostly in the background and doesn’t really do much of importance.
Her epilogue comes in 2001’s “Citizen V and the V-Battalion”, where she reveals she has Altheimer’s.

Her next appearance is in the follow-up series ““Citizen V and the V-Battalion: the everlasting”, from 2004.
At the end of the series you probably assume it’s the last time you see he…

…but Marvel has not forgotten her!
She has a cameo on Captain America #750 from 2023, at the funeral of the original Destroyer.

She should be over 100 years old at this point and she has Altheimer’s… but the V-Battalion had some incredible technology, so don’t count on her dying soon.

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Weird how Marvel’s first true super-heroine didn’t even make the cover, uh?
So let’s have a look at who WAS on the cover, starting from the most easily recognizable: Thunderer.

He has only two Golden Age appearances. According to 2019’s “Marvel Comics #1000”, at some point he went by Dark Avenger.

According to that story, at this point he’s dead. Although we did see him in 1995’s Captain America #442.

Next we have The Fin, another Bill Everett hero with a water theme.
Only 3 Golden Age appearances.

Then there’s Blue Diamond, who only has 2 Golden Age stories.

But he was considered interesting enough to join the Liberty Legion, the OTHER Roy Thomas superhero team created in the 70s but taking place in the 40s.

He’s had a surprisingly weird career. In 1981, Marvel Two-In-One gives us a look at him in his old age.

In the same stoy he’s transformed into diamond by the alien Star Dancer and they later go into space for a while.

And Blue Diamond is a character that was introduced in the same issue that includes Officer O’Krime and Mr. Million.

Then we have Captain Daring, who despite being by Simon&Kirby is just Flash Gordon Ripoff #79…

…and finally The Challenger, “master of a thousand weapons”.

“Starfish Face” might have been a better name for him.

He’s the most successful one, with 6 Golden Age stories. He’s still around thanks to time travel shenanigans.