Fantastic Comics #1 (1939)
by Fletcher Hanks
cover by Lou Fine
This anthology series by Fox Feature Syndicate lasted only 23 issues, but it introduced to the world the most insane fictional character ever created: Stardust the Super Wizard.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here: this is the realm of pure madness.
That’s not the cover story. That one belongs to Samson, penciled by Alex Blum (under pseudonym) and possibly written by Will Eisner.
Not a lot to say about him. He’s a descendant of the biblical Samson who fights super-scientists; he’ll be around for about 10 other stories after Fantastic Comics ends.
But no, like I said we are here for Stardust the Super Wizard.
And he is… well he is A LOT.
Criminals hear about his return to Earth on the news (?) and from Plot Convenience Radio.
They are right to be fearful because Stardust The Super Wizard can basically do anything.
But for some reason his immunity to heat and cold is impressive enough to require a separate origin.
The “secret army of spies and terrorists” is prepared to stop him at any cost, including germ warfare (!!!) and atom-smashers (in 1939, so this is even before nuclear weapons).
Until they’re informed by Plot Convenience Radio that all of that won’t work.
Continuing the infodump, Stardust might also be considered one of the earliest cyborg superheroes if he has “artificial lungs”. And also the first superhero with a power suit, if all these powers come from his “star-metal skin”.
While they wait, the terrorists are about to kill the President when they suddenly feel too weak.
And here we have the debut of Stardust The Super Wizard.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO CONSISTENCY IN ANYTHING on his stories, but one constant is the fact that he’s HUGE.
I’ve seen estimations that he’s anywhere between 7’3″ and 9’10” tall (2.2 meters to 3 meters).
I will attempt a count of how many superpowers Stardust The Super Wizard demonstrates IN HIS FIRST STORY.
Please consider this will BY NO MEANS be a complete count of everything he can do in later stories.
So far, including the infodump we have:
-Interstellar flight
-Immunity to heat and cold
-Artificial lungs
-Invisibility
-Become super-bright
-Invulnerability (for some reason listed separately from immunity to heat and cold)
-Create weakness in others
-Transforming into energy
Stardust superpowers: 8
Stardust The Super Wizard saved the President just in time, because then the terrorists BOMBARD THE CAPITOL.
Only to be defeated by his gravity powers and his super-speed.
Stardust superpowers: 10
As mentioned this is 1939, so at this point Superman still had no problems killing people… but compared to Stardust The Super Wizard, he’s an amateur.
What part of “he’s immune to everything” was lost on the criminals???
Just in case you thought his monstrous size was a result of weird perspective.
Also he controls magnetism.
Stardust superpowers: 11
You would think he would just murder them, but first he uses his already established gravity powers.
…and THEN he summons the skeletons of their victims!!!
I’m assuming using teleportation and necromancy, so…
Stardust superpowers: 13
“Something strange is going on” is THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE CENTURY.
This is just so that Stardust The Super Wizard can summon the federal agents to witness the captured terrorists and the skeletons.
And that’s it! Just 6 pages of sheer insanity.
That’s right: Stardust The Super Wizard managed to demonstrate THIRTEEN superpowers in SIX pages, and that’s not even the full extent of what he can do!!!
In fact, let’s have a quick look at the other issues of Fantastic Comics to get a VERY LIMITED estimation of what he can do.
He can disintegrate anything, up to whole factories.
He is super-strong.
He is SOMEHOW able to hold people by their spine without killing them, judging from this page.
I wouldn’t even mention it if this was a one-off thing, but he does this MULTIPLE TIMES.
His ability to control gravity is so great that he can do THIS to a tsunami that looks to be ten times higher than any skyscraper…
…and THIS to a tornado that looks EVEN BIGGER.
He can write letters made of energy.
He can manipulate matter thanks to “beams from a distant sun”.
He can shrink people.
He can convert sunlight into insect poison.
He can focus sunlight into laser beams.
He can freeze motion.
He can make crystal cells from star gases.
He can DEFLECT PLANETS. Specifically Mars.
That was sent into a collision course towards Earth.
While on fire.
In space.
He controls minds. So even if SOMEHOW you find a way to stop this unstoppable god, you won’t be able to do anything about it.
He can MAKE A FAKE EARTH FROM MOON GAS.
Which he can MAKE SOLID.
He can give OTHERS teleportation powers.
Other Golden Age superheroes get a kid sidekick.
Stardust The Super Wizard gets A SUPERPOWERED KID ARMY.
He can turn his hands into tentacles.
And on the subject of tentacles, he can make GIANT TENTACLE MONSTERS MADE OF GOLD.
His gadgets include, in addition to his suit, a Crime-Detecting Ray-Phone(patent pending), a device that can analyze chemicals from other planets, a Radiophonic Thought-Recording Ray™
He has a Panoramic Concentration Unit™, which for some reason is a completely different device.
He has a space prison where he freezes criminals for eternity.
He has an Anti-Cosmic Relayer™ that can scramble radio communications.
He has his own private star.
Which has castles (???) where he lives with a girl he rescued from an evil scientist.
Also he has gas bombs. Not really sure what he needs those for, since he can do anything.
He can do ALL THAT but he sometimes he just punches people, because he’s still a Golden Age hero and that’s the rule.
Also obligatory for a Golden Age hero: he might be fighting universe-destroying villains on the regular, but he HAS to deal with fifth columnists.
Although he has a very unique way to deal with them. I’m just going to post the whole page because I couldn’t give it justice with only words.
And the guys he transformed into icicles were THE LUCKY ONES.
Sometimes there are no words.
As you probably figured out, Stardust The Super Wizard is basically like the Spectre: an omnipotent being who deals ironic punishments to criminals.
The best example is probably Fantastic Comics #11, where he traps some criminals on a planet full of gold they can’t use while making them immortal.
I want to highlight two Stardust The Super Wizard stories in particular.
One is from Fantastic Comics #7, where criminals TURN OFF GRAVITY.
Which SOUNDS like it would kill everyone, but Stardust The Super Wizard is able to hold HALF A BILLION PEOPLE under his gravitational control.
The other story is from Big 3 #2 (just go with it). Where, in addition to using his shrinking ray in a horrific way…
…once the criminal’s body has been SHRUNK OUT OF EXISTENCE, Stardust The Super Wizard throws his head into space…
…to be absorbed into the body of a headless giant.
These comics were being published during World War II, and yet I would rather live in the 40s during the war than on the planet from these comics. The world is in peril even more frequently than in the Marvel or DC Universe!!!
We will talk about another historically significant Fletcher Hanks comic book next time, but as if you couldn’t tell… his stuff is completely nuts.
Of note is the Space Smith series (also on Fantastic Comics), especially his third story where he faces the Leopard Women of Venus.
His alien designs in this series are the only ones that rival John Forte’s.
Historical significance: 10 / 
According to the opening narration of every story starting from the second one, Stardust The Super Wizard is “The most remarkable man that ever lived”.
But it took a while for his rise to fame in the real world. A few of his stories were reprinted in the 80s by Raw Books, and more notably in the 2000s by AC Comics.
Possibly his claim to fame were the reprints by Fantagraphics Books on “The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks, in 3 volumes whose titles alone are incredible:
I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets! (2007)
You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! (2009)
Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All! (2016)
Stardust-ness: ∞/10
Stardust The Super Wizard can’t be classified for Silver Age-ness, because he TRANSCENDS it.
In fact, Stardust-ness goes something like this:
Does it stand the test of time? 
/10
On the surface this shouldn’t work. AT ALL. The plot is non-existent, there are no stakes, there are no rules, nobody is ever on-model, nothing ever makes sense.
And yet… how could you not be utterly mesmerized?
Stardust powers (partial list): 30
-Interstellar flight
-Immunity to heat and cold
-Artificial lungs
-Invisibility
-Become super-bright
-Invulnerability
-Create weakness in others
-Transforming into energy
-Super-speed
-Gravity control
-Magnetism
-Teleportation
-Necromancy
-Disintegrator rays
-Super-strength
-Physics-defying spine holding
-Energy sky-writing
-Matter manipulation
-Shrinking ray
-Poison creation
-Solar energy lasers
-Telescopic vision
-Anti-motion ray
-Mind control
-Turning people into ice
-Turning people into animals
-Create planet-sized clouds
-Bestow teleportation powers
-Tentacle hands
-Tentacle golden monster creation
How close is this to the modern character? 9/10
Stardust The Super Wizard is in the public domain.
This means he has made countless cameos, but very few actual appearances; out of these, I think only two are notable.
In 2008, Image Comics capitalized on it by publishing Fantastic Comics #24, by John Keatinge and Michael Allred.
Which answered a question left lingering from the Golden Age stories: whatever happened to that girl he rescued?
First we discover that SOMEHOW terrorizing the planet wasn’t enough to stop all crime forever.
But he finally returns to Earth because it’s in danger again… not because of aliens this time, but because humanity sucks.
Also he’s immortal.
Stardust powers: 31
But Stardust The Super Wizard comes from a simpler time.
Turns out that humanity tamed all superheroes into their servants… but they could never tame Stardust The Super Wizard.
It’s a happy ending, because he can make people young again too.
Stardust powers: 32
Stardust The Super Wizard also makes an unexpected cameo in 2009’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century”, by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.
I can’t really recommend this one: even if you loved the original LOEG, like I did, this one is 99% references and 1% actual plot.
In the text pages of supplementary material, Captain Universe informs us of the last fight of Stardust The Super Wizard.
From what I gather, that is the closest Stardust The Super Wizard ever came to being defeated… but I’m sure he eventually breaks free.
Both appearances seem ALMOST on brand for him… but he doesn’t brutally kill anyone, so it’s not exactly like the original.
Fletcher Hanks doesn’t get a happy ending.
He’s credited for a total of 51 stories (many under pseudonym), but completely left the comic book industry in 1941. Which is very early for the Golden Age, but understandable as Hanks was older than most of his comic book contemporaries: he was born in 1889.
And that’s when things get dark: his wife and four children described him as abusive and alcoholic, spending away the family’s money and disappearing from public records.
His body was found on a park bench in Manhattan in 1976, having died penniless and frozen to death.
But we won’t close the book on Fletcher Hanks on such a depressing note, because next time we will see that he might have created the first super-heroine.