Mystery Men Comics
Entry updated 2 February 2026. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1939-1942). Fox Publications. 31 issues. Artists include Dick Briefer, Walter Frehm, Charles Nicholas, Klaus Nordling, Munson Paddock and George Tuska. Script writers include Dick Briefer, Will Eisner, Nathaniel Nitkin, Bob Powell and Fred Schwab. 68 pages with 7-12 long strips, a short text story, plus short strips and filler material.
Mystery Men Comics introduced many Fox regulars, some of whom would go on to have their own comics. The strips are mainly adventure tales (plus a few humorous ones), including science fiction, Superhero and Fantasy, as well as crime, Western, Yellow Peril, spy and Bengal Lancer.
The most memorable strip is Rex Dexter of Mars: in #1 we are informed that "one of the features of the [World's] Fair in 1939, was the rocketing of a Spaceship to the planet Mars piloted by the young Montague Dexter and his wife" (arguably making this an Alternate History, though the fair was still open when #1 was published), but contact is lost when it crashes. The couple survive and have a son, Rex (in #2 he is their grandson), who in the year 2000 departs for Earth in the repaired Rocket; picked up en-route by a modern spacecraft, he is treated as a hero when reaching Earth. Meanwhile in Europe, Boris Thorax dreams of conquering the universe so allies himself with the Moon's inhabitants, promising them American Slaves – this to be achieved by directing a planet towards the USA, so causing the population to flee to within Boris's reach. When the plan is discovered, Rex – for no reason other than he happens to be visiting the President at the time – becomes one of the two men who fly to Europe to defeat Boris: they do, and the planet (presumably a mere planetoid) is diverted into the North Atlantic with no apparent catastrophic consequences. #3 has a cone-shaped planet approaching Earth and Rex investigating, bringing back a giant who runs amok, for which Rex is exiled (girlfriend Cynde accompanying him) and has a series of colourful planetary adventures until returning to Earth in #6 when a meteor scrapes the surface of Asia. Western scientists are indifferent, one dismissing the deaths "of those barbaric people" (see Race in SF), until the flat damaged area begins to spread; then they investigate, finding Aliens like "jelly fish with heads" who need a smooth surface to move on, and hence the Xenoforming of Earth to suit them. Rex is called back from exile to deal with the problem and discovers if the aliens are lifted three feet from the surface the thinner atmosphere suffocates them, so a Scientist friend builds a Ray to duplicate the effect. In #8 aliens heat up the Earth (see Climate Change) to make it habitable for their species and send Monsters to wipe out humanity: Rex is captured and Cynde performs the heroics (see Feminism). #9 finds ice forming a natural telescope on another planet, so when "light rays hundreds of years old float by" the inhabitants see Earth's violent history (see Time Viewer) and are alarmed. #13 has a planet about to explode, resulting in hundreds of mile-long spaceships being used to move the population to another world (see Colonization of Other Worlds), with Rex and Cynde volunteering to pilot two of them and combatting those who want to turn the refugees into slaves (see Slavery).
In #15 Rex and a scientist decide to create a new planet; the latter builds a ray to "nick off a piece of the Sun", but a passing world gets in the way and explodes, a fragment crashing into the Earth to form a crater, within which the spherical debris is suspended "by some anti-Gravity force": hostile life speedily evolves (see Evolution) and overwhelms the mini-planet, spreading to the Earth and attacking Cities. An atomic bomb is used to destroy the crater. Despite almost wiping out humanity, Rex and the scientist appear to go unpunished. #23 has the "Ugly Queen" (who dropped atom bombs on a city because it contained the most beautiful girl in the galaxy) performing an Identity Exchange with Cynde. Rex last appeared in #24.
The Green Mask (see The Green Mask) opens #1, and is misleadingly called "A modern Robin Hood" (being a fairly straightforward costumed crimefighter). #4 has a Mad Scientist building a machine that turns people to stone and a paralysing Ray (which perhaps inspires our hero to use a paralysing gun in #6); otherwise there are few genre elements until #14, when we are informed he has "been given terrific powers" following a "Vita Ray accident ... [that] made him a miracle man" (tying in with his origin story in The Green Mask #1). #26 has a proper costumed Supervillain, The Manx (named after the Cat). In #29 a surgeon replaces criminals' hands to give them new fingerprints. The Blue Beetle (see Blue Beetle) is initially a mundane crime-fighting superhero (though merely masked in his first appearance, he is costumed from #2). As with the Green Mask, sf elements are rare early on, though he uses a miniature "wireless phone" in #1 (see Inventions); in #14 we learn he has been "made almost invulnerable by special armour, and given super-energy by Vitamin 2X" (tying in with his origin story in Blue Beetle #1). #19 has a "smoke-screen formula", #20 "plans of a new invention guaranteed to make criminals confess their crimes" and #24 a deadly "KS" ray.
Fez-wearing Zanzibar the Magician uses Magic to deal with criminals, including travelling back in time (see Time Travel) to fight the Greek Gods (see Gods and Demons) when Zeus steals the Venus de Milo statue to marry her (she is now human and returns to the present as such) (#2). #5 has Walrus Men and in #9 Zanzibar creates a rocket ship. #9 introduces The Moth, a superhero who flies (see Flying) with moth-like wings whose nature is unexplained; in his first story he saves a baby abducted by a Mad Scientist for reasons never explained, and #10 has villains using Technology for Weather Control; his last appearance is in #12 (with a brain-transplanting mad scientist) – to be replaced by another superhero, The Lynx, who's been "endowed with tremendous energy and the power of flight" (#13) by a "famous biologist" (#14) – and assisted by Blackie, the Mystery Boy. In #18 and #22 a crook uses a "hypnoray" device (see Hypnotism), another uses "super short wave pulsations" to get people to do his bidding (#30). #27 introduces The Wraith, a man murdered by gangsters who returns as a wraith (see Eschatology) to seek revenge on criminals and is able to possess the living and dead. The other strips have occasional sf elements: D13 Secret Agent faces a Disintegrator ray (#9) and a "radio wave gun" (#21), whilst pilot Wing Turner deals with a blimp that turns into a giant aeroplane (#12).
Rex Dexter of Mars is the standout strip: often fun, it occasionally uses (and abuses) genuine sf ideas, but is typically scientifically illiterate (see Scientific Errors), though with some lively artwork (such as for #3 and #5). Cynde is a fairly strong character at the beginning, later less so (see Women in SF). Some of the early Zanzibar the Magician strips also have interesting artwork (such as #9), though the stories suffer from his being overpowered. The superhero stories are often dull, not helped by The Blue Beetle and The Green Mask initially just being men in costumes who typically fight mundane gangsters, though the former weakness is dealt with in #14 (see above); their foes throughout are only occasionally of note (this also applies to those faced by The Lynx and The Wraith). Mystery Men Comics' early issues are its strongest. [SP]
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