Heroes vs Dinosaurs SUPERMAN "Hunters' Club!"

The Man of Steel  has Faced Numerous Dinosaurs in His Long Career...

...but none under the circumstances in this story from DC's Superman #50 (1948)!

It's amazing how casual most of the characters are about a living dinosaur in this story written by Edmond Hamilton, penciled by Win Mortimer, and inked by Stan Kaye!

Also that Superman leans towards non-violent ways to handle the situation and avoid killing the various creatures!

BTW, it's only been reprinted once...

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Heroes vs Dinosaurs CAPTAIN FLASH "Beasts from 1,000,000 BC"

When America's Uranium Supply is Threatened...

...patriotic Captain Flash & Ricky investigate, expecting to find Russkie saboteurs, but not labor management problems...and dinosaurs!
Note: May be NSFW, using stereotypes of natives common to the era, but no more offensive than the portrayal of Tonto in the Lone Ranger.

Penciled (and possibly inked) by Mike Sekowsky, the cover-featured story from Sterling's Captain Flash #3 (1955) really pulls disparate elements out of the hat in a jam-packed six pages!

You may well ask:

Who the heck is Captain Flash???

Right before The Flash was revived in DC's Showcase #4, there were several short-lived attempts to bring back super-heroes, who had all but disappeared by 1949, replaced by horror, western, and romance comics.
One of the better characters debuted in 1954...
Mild-mannered professor Keith Spencer lived in "Atom City" (an obvious surrogate for Los Alamos), somewhere in the SouthWest USA.

Spencer was also Captain Flash, who could set off a "miniature atomic explosion" inside his body by clapping his hands, which made him super-strong, super-fast, and near-invulnerable for brief periods.

Like most heroes, he had a teen sidekick, Ricky Davis, who, like Bucky (Captain America's partner) and Tim (Black Terror's aide) didn't have a secret identity and was referred to as "Ricky" in and out of costume.
As Captain Flash, most of Spencer's time was taken up either dealing with Communist spies trying to steal atomic technology or disasters created when the technology went awry...which happened with alarming frequency!
Art was by veteran Mike Sekowsky, who later became one of Silver Age's most prolific pencilers, working on numerous titles including Justice League of America, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and Metal Men,

The series only ran four issues before the publisher, Sterling Comics, went bankrupt in 1955.
Ironically, Captain Flash was the company's best-selling title, showing that superheroes were potentially-viable again!

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Nazi-Punchers YANKEE COMICS "Scarlet Sentry in 'Origin' "

He's An All-American Guy...Who Donned a Canadian Uniform to Punch Nazis!

(To be fair, it was bulletproof!)

It's amazing what you could get by mail-order, even in 1941!

The Scarlet Sentry's never-reprinted premiere, illustrated by Charles Sultan, appeared in Red Seal's Yankee Comics #1 (1941), which was published before America entered World War II due to the Axis attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Interestingly, over half the characters introduced in this issue dealt with obvious or implicit German military personnel, spies, or saboteurs!
Most comic (and pulp magazine) publishers realized war was coming, they juest weren't sure when!
After the invasion of Poland in 1939, they started stacking their character lineups with patriotic heroes and heroines ready to "do their bit" for America!

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Nazi-Punchers STORMY FOSTER: THE GREAT DEFENDER "Castle of Kinga Korman"

Though He Primarily-Fought Japanese Spies and Saboteurs...

...West Coast-based "superhero on a budget" The Great Defender took on anyone who tried to interfere with America's homefront wartime efforts!

Shy timid drug store clerk Stormy Foster would don an outfit of t-shirt, gym shorts, track shoes and cape made out of a tablecloth, replace his glasses with a fake mustache, take a super-vitamin pill that gave him super-strength, speed, and limited invulnerability and jump into battle, as you'll now see...

You'll note that drug store delivery boy Ah Choo doesn't recognize co-worker Stormy as The Great Defender.

Either the "replace glasses with mustache" disguise is better than I thought or the writers of this never-reprinted story illustrated by Max Elkan from Quality's Hit Comics #21 (1942) just didn't care.
Stormy's strip ran in Hit Comics from 18 to 34 (1944).
He fought Nazis several more times before the series ended.
He's never been reprinted or revived in new material since!

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Nazi-Punchers / Twice-Told Tale FIREBIRD / BLACKOUT "Secret of the Valkyrie!"

He's a Colorful Nazi-Puncher...

...facing a Nazi woman warrior in a story that's both his first..and final...but not only...story!

Confused?

Keep reading!

"In all his checkered career..."

What "checkered career"?

This tale from Spotlight's Tailspin Comics #1 (1944) was FireBird's only appearance!

But it wasn't this story's first publication!

It's a "twice-told tale", which originally was the final appearance of an ongoing strip about a hero named BlackOut! in Holyoke's Cat-Man Comics #24 (1942).

Berlin-based American newspaper reporter Jack Wayne was arrested on Dec. 9, 1941, when the US declared war against Germany.

Tortured and blinded by the Gestapo, Jack was rescued by the German Resistance and brought to a doctor secretly aiding freedom-fighters, who provided him with a pair of experimental glasses which enabled him to see!

Though not an aviator, the multi-talented ex-reporter operated throughout Germany in Cat-Man Comics #10 through #24, proving equal to any challenge presented!

You'll note the last page of FireBird dropped the original final caption about the character's next appearance.

(Ironic since there weren't any BlackOut tales after this one!)

Plus, the story's splash page was considerably-modified to reflect the character's new phoenix-like name and motif by Spotlight Publications' art director LB Cole, who was noted for his use of color against solid black backgrounds!

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