Crash Comics
Entry updated 27 January 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1940). Tem Publishing Co Inc. 5 issues. Artists include Pagsilang Isip, Rudolf Johnson and Jack Kirby. Script writers include Jack Kirby and Robert Turner. 68 pages per issue, each with 9-11 strips of varying lengths, plus a two-page text story. Stories were a mixed-bag of genres, but sf and fantasy dominated (mainly because for #1-#3 the Strongman strip was 19 pages long and the Shangra 10 pages).
"And the day came when the mysterious forces binding man to the Earth, fell before the onslaught of his science ... [and space] yielded to the piercing flames of his countless machines" – and, in 2140, protecting these new frontiers is the Solar Legion, a space police force (see Crime and Punishment) organized by Adam Starr. In #1-#3 he fights space pirates such as Arthak and his fish-men from Venus, who tie him to a stake to be devoured by a giant hairy worm (#2), and Black Francis, in the canals of Mars (#3). #4 has him arriving on Saturn (see Outer Planets) where the armies of Mayo and Zara the Evil battle for supremacy. Mayo, concerned Starr will try to prevent him killing Zara, orders his death – fortunately an eclipse is imminent and Starr pretends he is its cause (see Clichés). Mayo is impressed and Starr helps him defeat Zara. In #5 the "potentate of Jupiter" tries to assassinate Starr when he arrives to set up a branch of the Legion on the planet. Helped by some good artwork, #2 and #3 are the best tales. Jack Kirby wrote all the scripts but only seems to have drawn the stories for #1-#3 (certainly, though in a similar style, the artwork for #4-#5 is not as imaginative as its predecessors).
Monocle-sporting playboy Percy van Norton (asked "Have you ever done anything useful in your life?" he answers, "Er – er, I don't think so.") is secretly the Superhero Strongman – "the perfect human" with "the strength of a hundred elephants, the speed of a racing car and the skin with the toughness of a rhinoceros. He fights ever on the side of American ideals" (see Superman). His Superpowers are the result of studying a "secret book of yogi". Though he fights crooks in #1, he subsequently battles dictators (one is called Nilats). There are no genre elements aside from Strongman himself: the closest being a quick-drying cement-firing gun in #5.
The Blue Streak, aided by "his faithful servant and friend" Tago (who appears to be from the Far East), is a "defender of the people" and "sworn enemy of cruel and ruthless dictators". For example, in #1 he rescues a Scientist from a Bologvinian concentration camp so they can work in his secret laboratory. We are told our hero has "superhuman qualities" though aside from being athletic, quite strong, and wearing a bullet-proof vest he seems unremarkable.
Shangra was born 200 years ago in Tibet: the seventh son of a seventh son, with "great mastery of Magic, supernatural ability and sorcery" he has discovered the secret to eternal life (see Immortality). He wishes to retire, so when two American reporters arrive in Shangraland he tries to marry the male, Jack, to his great-great-great granddaughter, then crown him king and transfer his powers into him. The reporters flee but Shangra Teleports into their plane and forces it to crash: a vehicle – which looks like a Spaceship – arrives to take them back to Shangraland, whose city has a futuristic appearance. To buy time, Jack reluctantly becomes king, then again escapes: all four are eventually captured by a guerilla leader, so Jack permits the now weary Shangra to transfer his powers: #5's story ends with the group about to return to Shangraland. After #1 the story focuses on Jack, with Shangra amiably turning up occasionally to magically frustrate his escape plans.
#4 introduces a new superhero: orphaned when his family is murdered in the Indian jungle, baby David is rescued and raised by a tigress (see Cats; Tarzan). He becomes "endowed with all the facilities of the cat family": this involves seeing in the dark, agility, having eyes that glow in the dark (which in practice involves them emitting beams of light) and having nine lives (he is killed in each story, then comes to life: "That was an unearthly sleep."). Returning to civilization as an adult he becomes Cat Man, fighting crooks and foreign agents – in #5 the latter have a "blood freeze Ray" (responsible for his temporary death) and a flying half-sphere that drops on intruders and smothers them.
Blue Streak and Strongman were bland superheroes who had dull adventures, though Cat Man is a little more interesting. Of note, perhaps, is the focus on stopping dictators, with the USA entering World War Two the following year. With a protagonist who is not the strip's title character, Shangra is unfocused and dithers, with a series of captures and escapes – possibly the intention had been for Jack not only to take on Shangra's mantle but his name as well? However, Solar Legion has its moments, whilst Cat Man's habit of dying in each story is unusual: he would go on the have his own comic. [SP]
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