"I'm
not a
Batman rip-off...and get off my flying Owl-Mobile!"
Comics in the 1940s were noted for, among other things, a tendency to see what worked, then take elements from it, mix it with a few other things and see if
that new version would sell!
Sometimes the recombination sold better than the original!
For example:
Batman's
still going strong as a multi-media phenomenon, but most of his "inspirations", including
The Shadow
and
Zorro
, are only marginal pop culture characters today (though
both had periods when they eclipsed
Batman)!
On the other hand,
The Owl was one of those who, while interesting, didn't quite hit the heights.
Nick Terry, a police detective who felt the law was too easily manipulated by racketeers and gangsters (and their lawyers) decided that operating
outside the law on behalf of justice would be the way to go!
(Any number of Golden Age heroes, including
The Whisperer
, Black Hood, Guardian, and
DareDevil, had the same concept of one who upholds the law having to indulge in extra-legal methods to achieve true justice.)
He became a Caped Creature of the Night to battle criminals (like
Batman, The Shadow
, and
The Sandman
, among others.)
Nick also used a plethora of themed weapons and gimmicks (including an Owl-Mobile, and Owl-Light) not unlike
Bat-you-know-who and
Green Arrow
. (Although since he
wasn't a millionaire like most of the aforementioned characters, it's never explained how Nick
affords all this stuff!)
His nosy reporter girlfriend (Can you say
"Lois Lane" or
"Vicki Vale" boys and girls?) eventually discovers his dual identity and forces him (ala
Captain America's Bucky) to make her his similarly-costumed sidekick,
Owl-Girl! (think
HawkGirl, but with hyphenation!)
One of his
unique features (he
did have a couple, don't get snarky) was that he wore a full-face cowl with sight-enhancing lenses, predating a similar style later worn by
Spider-Man!
And, he does have a very distinctive look! You won't mistake him for anyone else!
The Owl never had his own title in the Golden Age.
Instead, he was the cover-feature of Dell's
Crackajack Funnies for over a year before being downgraded to the back of the book in
Popular Comics for another year before finally being cancelled.
But, that's not the end of the story...
In the 1960s, with the pop-culture success of
Marvel Comics
and the
Batman tv series
, superheroes were in vogue again!
Curiously, while Marvel, DC, and Archie revived their Golden Age characters, other publishers with old heroes chose to do
new characters instead...with one exception!
Gold Key now owned the Dell super-heroes, and though they did several short-lived
new characters, they
did revive the Golden Age character in their library most similar to
Batman.
Guess who?
The Owl finally got his own comic!
And because they felt it should be as much like the tv
Batman as possible, Gold Key camped it up beyond belief...
It only lasted two issues.
And except for a cameo appearance in a Gold Key horror comic,
The Owl fluttered into oblivion...
But that's
still not the end of the story...
Recently,
The Owl was one of the many
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ revived by Alex Ross in his acclaimed
Project SuperPowers
series.
So, we at
Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt the time had come to expand our line of
Owl collectibles.
(The fact we had just purchased a large comics collection including a near-complete run of
Crackajack Funnies had nothing to do with it, we swear!)
Have a look at the
classic covers we've emblazoned on items from t-shirts to blank sketchbooks, to mugs and many other goodies.
And pick up
Project SuperPowers
, the best Golden Age of Comics revival on the stands today!
(You thought we were gonna do a "Whooo..whooo" joke of some kind? We're saving that for later...)
as of yet, we think we'll be seeing him soon!