Proto-Supers

[fredrik_nilsson]

In my ever-expanding pulp world, I've decided to add the first superheroes (the proto-supers if you want). The JSA was the first true superhero team, so I want to create a pulp hero team with pulp heroes that the Golden Age JSA were based on.

 

Can you help with me completing/correcting this list of JSA members pulp inspiration:

 

The Atom

???

 

Batman

The Shadow and Zorro

 

Black Canary

???

 

Dr. Fate

The H.P. Lovecraft mythos

 

Dr. Mid-Nite

The Black Bat

 

The Flash

The Roman good Mercury

 

Green Lantern

Aladdin of the Arabian Nights and the Lensman

 

Hawkman

The Hawkmen from the Flash Gordon series?

 

Hourman

???

 

Johnny Thunder

Aladdin of the Arabian Nights

 

Mr. Terrific

Is this yet another Doc Savage wannabe?

 

Sandman

Pulp heroes in general, but mainly The Gray Seal or the Green Hornet

 

The Spectre

???

 

Starman

My guess would be Captain Future.

 

Superman

The main sources of inspiration are said to be Samson, Hercules, Hugo Danner and Doc Savage.

 

Wildcat

???

 

Wonder Woman

Besides mythic the Amazons, my guess would be Sheena

[GoldenAge]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

http://my.execpc.com/~icicle/JSAHOME.html

http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/dcuniverse/jsa.html

http://www.toonopedia.com/jsa.htm

http://blaklion.best.vwh.net/dc_links.html

[David Johnston]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

The Atom was apparently inspired by those "the insult that a man out of Mac" ads for body building.

 

The Black Canary's original inspiration seems to have been heroic criminals like "The Saint" but her more direct inspiration could have been The Green Hornet.

A colour/animal combination, and while Black Canary was a heroic thief, the Green Hornet was a hero who pretended to be a mobster and would constantly go around shaking down criminals to let him in on their game so that when they refused or tried to double cross he would have an explanation for why he was taking them down.

 

As far as Hourman goes, his only real predecessor was Superman. He was one of many super strong and bullet proof heros in imitation of that character and his power coming from chemistry was just a detail. However his predecessor in getting vast superhuman power for a brief period of time was

HG Wells' Professor Gibernne in "A New Accelerator". That power was super-speed, for what that's worth.

[fredrik_nilsson]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

Thanks for the help, both of you.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

From Planetary, Issue 1...

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~rkkman/frames/

 

ISSUE 1:

All Over The World

 

Brass' people

PAGE FOURTEEN

 

Pic 1;

FULL PAGE PANEL. Seven icons stand or sit in the center of their hidden complex, a room hewn from rock, chewed out from within the mountain. A bizarre gentlemen's club, a drawing room of the gods.

 

Seven icons, living and breathing, torn out of pre-War literature and made real in a secret base inside an American mountain... (BRASS just entering)

 

 

 

Brass' people, from Issue 5.

 

DOC SAVAGE -- THE RENAISSANCE MAN - DOCTOR AXEL BRASS

The character is, obviously, Doc Savage, but with enough alterations to prevent lawsuits (as with all the boys below). RED hair cut very short, tanned, dressed like a hunter, white hunter, all in white...

(Ellis note 3/99: There was a fuller description of Axel Brass on a previous page of the script)

 

FU MANCHU -- THE INSCRUTABLE ORIENTAL - HARK

We're not going to go the full Fu Manchu route with this guy. I want him dressed very simply, in a black suit, no tie, the only unusual point being his remarkably long, elaborately painted fingernails.

 

TOM SWIFT -- THE INVENTOR - EDISON

All-American genius boy grown up into a strapping lad, slim and hard; white t-shirt, blue jeans, gun holstered on his hip, the long white lab coat pushed behind the holster, goggles hanging around his neck, oil on his fingers. A gunfighter-mechanic, if you like... an inventor-adventurer.

 

TARZAN -- JUNGLE KING - "HIS LORDSHIP"

The English Lord raised by gorillas; tall, muscular, dressed in an fine English suit, shirt, waistcoat -- aristocratic -- a cravat of leopardskin betraying his childhood. Seated, perhaps, fingers steepled in front of him, eyes burning, savagery barely contained beneath the veneer of civilised man.

 

THE SPIDER -- THE MILLIONAIRE

Like The Shadow, only without supernatural powers, and far, far crazier. A genius, but possessed by the need to save the world. Batman with guns and no mood stabilisers. Long leather coat, slouch hat, guns visible. A Spider design down one breast of his longcoat, in grey against the black.

 

G-8 -- THE AVIATOR

Tan leathers, cracked and worn... old-style jacket, fur trim and all... the very epitome of the Thirties flyer.

 

OPERATOR 5 -- THE AGENT - "JIMMY"

The Secret Agent; a thin scar over one eye like Fleming's Bond, American suit and tie (blue, like The Spirit's?); shoulder holster under the jacket, perhaps shades sticking out of the breast pocket. Young, but sharp, knowledgable beyond his years...

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

The Atom was apparently inspired by those "the insult that a man out of Mac" ads for body building.

 

 

I'm not sure, but maybe one inspiration for the Atom was a strongman and vaudeville performer named Joseph L. Greenstein, 'The Mighty Atom'. He used his routine to sell his workout techniques and medicines that he made. Whatever he used, it was successful; he gave his last performance when in his 80's at Madison Square Garden, pulling trains, tying horseshoes in knots, and all.

[David Johnston]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

Sadly there weren't exactly a lot of memorable pulp lead heroines. But there was Burma, one of the femme fatales from the "Terry and the Pirates" comic strip (which started in 1934) and briefly starred in her own strip aimed at servicemen during the war. Or there was Dragon Lady, the Chinese pirate queen, who was the most recurrent enemy Terry had but got a makeover once the United States entered the war and ended up fighting the Japanese.

But you know, probably the most formidable young women in pre-World War fiction were Virgilia Samms (First Lensman) and Patricia Savage (Doc Savage's cousin), who bear a striking resemblance to each each other. I've always kind of wanted to see a series about adventures Patricia has during the times when Doc is off finding new people to lobotomise.

[gojira]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

....As far as Hourman goes' date=' his only real predecessor was Superman. He was one of many super strong and bullet proof heros in imitation of that character and his power coming from chemistry was just a detail.....[/quote']

 

Personally, after watching some of the History Channel's specials on the gansters and mobsters of prohibition, I'm convinced that Superman had a prototype as well.

 

Serveral of the mobsters wore various kinds of bullet proof clothing or armour. This only makes sense, given that they were so often involved in violent shoot outs. The History Channel detailed at least two instances where a mobster was shot point blank, when down, but survived basically unscathed because of his armour/clothing. It was one of those flash-of-insight moments and I thought "Huh, so there really were bullet proof people in the '20's."

 

I've never seen anyone admit that there was an actual connection between mobsters and superheroes, but I think it's reasonable to make the leap. Many mobsters were moonshiners who were, at least in the beginning, seen as everyman-heroes who only broke unreasonable laws. (At the end, those mobsters still in business were especially vile and violent people, and the public had turned against them.)

[fredrik_nilsson]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

Personally' date=' after watching some of the History Channel's specials on the gansters and mobsters of prohibition, I'm convinced that Superman had a prototype as well.[/quote']

I thought it was more or less official that the prototype for Superman was Doc Savage. The power possessed by the golden age Superman are almost identical to Hugo Danners. Besides these two pulp characters there are more than a little influence from Greek mythology, with a "god among men" being sent from the skies.

 

As a character Batman reminds quite a bit about the Shadow. Jimmie Dale had a similar utility belt. Batman has also more than a little resemblance to the Black Bat.

 

Just like Batman is Dr. Mid-Nite influenced by the Black Bat.

 

I would be very surprised if the Spectre weren't influenced the Ghost.

 

Wonder Woman could be a Sheena or Nyoka clone, but I'm not certain.

 

Read the text below. Doesn't it remind of Johnny thunder:

 

The Marshal, a crime-fighting sheriff in a town on America's frontier, appeared in Hotspur in 1941. He knew nothing about guns, but his badge was made from a fragment of Aladdin's lamp, and when the Marshal pinned on his badge he gained magic powers.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

The Atom was apparently inspired by those "the insult that a man out of Mac" ads for body building.

 

Said cartoon was created by and based on the one who IMO was the direct inspiration for the Golden Age Atom, the legendary Charles Atlas: http://www.sandowmuseum.com/atlas.html

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Proto-Supers

 

Of course, there's always the possibility that some of those JSA characters were relatively original inventions in their own right...