Russkie-Smashers/ChiCom-Crushers AVENGER "One Man War!"

As the Red Chinese threaten to invade/annex Taiwan yet again...

...let's look at how one of our favorite Russkie-Smashers was also a ChiCom-Crusher in a story (from 1955) that shows an amazingly-similar concept!

With both the North Koreans and the Red Chinese threatening the world...again...we believe it's only fair and right that we add them into the weekly rotation of Smashers, Crushers, and Clobberers, especially since most of the characters we've been re-presenting fought them along with the Russkies!

In this tale from Magazine Entertainment's Avenger #3 (1955) by writer Gardner Fox and artist Bob Powell, the Russkies are supplying the ChiComs with the armament and tech, while today the roles are reversed as technologically-superior Red China provides tech and armament to a struggling Russia!

Note: there are historical tie-ins, since the Russkies supplied the North Koreans with aircraft and pilots during the Korean War, and now the NKs are supplying ex-KGB guy Putin with armaments against Ukraine.

In addition, the Red Chinese assisted the North Koreans with arms and troops during the Korean War.
Technological Note: All the Asians (both good and bad) in this story have a skin tone of 50% Yellow!
While it's an improvement from the "bright lemon" 100% Yellow used during the Golden Age, it's still not quite correct!

Next week: another of our Russkie-Smashers shows versatility as a ChiCom-Crusher or NoKo-Clobberer!

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Golden-Age Greats

Heroes vs Villains!

(Though, technically, The Avenger is a Silver-Age Hero!)

Russkie-Smashers YOUNG MEN COMICS "Sub-Mariner (and Namora) in 'Pirates vs Pirates' "

 Even we make mistakes!

Last week's story wasn't Prince Namor's first Russkie-Smashing adventure!

This was!

When you look at the first couple of pages, it's easy to not realize this tale from Atlas' Young Men Comics #27 (1954), penciled and inked by Bill Everett (with a layout assist by Bob Powell), involves Russkies, so our inadvertent mistake is understandable.

Tomorrow:

Before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever...

Namora and the Mayans
at our "sister" RetroBlog
HEROINES!

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Timely's Greatest
Golden-Age Sub-Mariner
by Bill Everett
Post-War Years
(Note: the Young Men Comics and other 1950s tales were actually post-Golden Age, and were technically Atlas Comics stories, as shown in the Marvel Masterworks: Atlas-Era Heroes reprints of those same stories!)

Russkie-Smashers AVENGER "Red Hand of Terror!"

In the 1950s, whenever Russkies threatened free people anywhere in the world of comics...

...The Avenger was there to end their depredations!

Don't be surprised that next Monday's story is entitled "Birth of the Avenger!"...and will answer those particular questions!

This cover-featured tale that leads directly into that origin was written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Dick Ayers!
BTW, the cover was rendered by Bob Powell!

Russkie-Smashers AVENGER "Man Who Played Spy"

As we showed last week, there were (and still are) Americans working with the Russkies!

But what about Americans the Russkies claim are working with then...who aren't doing so?

And Russkies, as usual, go down again!

Written by Gardner Fox, illustrated by Bob Powell.

Be Back Next Week for Another Exciting Russkie-Smashing Adventure!

Russkie-Smashers AVENGER "Invader from the Sea"

This cover-featured tale from the final issue of Magazine Enterprises' Avenger (#4 in 1955)...

...features The Avenger doing what he does best...rescuing an innocent from Russkies!
Or does it???

The Avenger isn't quite the wholesome, "gosh, gee-whiz" gullible fool the Russkies believed he (and most Americans) were!

To be fair, if the Russkies used an Italian, or Spanish, or Black female agent, she wouldn't have been so obvious!

Be Back Next Week for Another Exciting Russkie-Smashing Adventure!

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE "Television Peril"

Doc Savage, though incredibly-popular in pulps, never made it big in comics.

But it wasn't for lack of trying, as this never-reprinted tale from Shadow Comics #91 (1948) shows!

Oddly, Doc, who doesn't hesitate to utilize captured equipment (like the HellDiver submarine*) in his fight against evil, doesn't adapt this teleportation device in later stories to enable him to reach distant locales faster than otherwise possible!

The writer is unknown, but the art is by Bob Powell's art studio, which was "packaging" (providing editorial and art services) for several titles for the publisher.
Doc Savage went thru a couple of incarnations in the 1940s.
He started out as a backup in Shadow Comics for three issues before receiving his own 20-issue book featured a bare-chested version wearing a hood with a mystic jewel from Tibet that gave him various powers as needed by the scriptwriter.
After the title was cancelled, Doc returned to the back of Shadow Comics, where he was portrayed as a better-than-normal (but not superhuman) investigator battling weird threats, staying to the end of the title in 1949.

Note: there's lots of currently-available Doc Savage material (pulps, comics, movies, and even radio shows), all well-worth picking up (most of them are in my personal collection), but we're be showing only the stuff not included in those volumes!

*The HellDiver was captured by Doc in The Polar Treasure.

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