====== The Green Mask I (Walter Green) ======

The Green Mask, alias **Walter Green**, is a U.S. mystery man and action-hero based in New York City. His abilities included detective skills and the art of disguise. The Green Mask wore a blue costume with a brown leather belt, blue gloves and boots, a blue cape with a red lining, and a green cowl. ((Mystery Men Comics #1))

Becoming the Green Mask under unknown circumstances, Green quickly made a reputation for himself as a crime-fighter but often played the part of a masked criminal in order to infiltrate criminal gangs, and he was thought to be a criminal by the police. He exposed an insurance fraud ring that collected insurance money for people it murdered, which was secretly headed by a politician named Cyrus Boomer. ((Mystery Men Comics #1)) The Green Mask put an end to the murders in Chinatown committed by men working for the arch-criminal San Sin. ((Mystery Men Comics #2)) The Green Mask exposed a respected citizen named J.J. Faken, who adopted boys from the State Reformatory and taught them to be thieves for him. ((Mystery Men Comics #3)) The Green Mask defeated the master criminal scientist Nicoli, who had invented a small paralyzing gun he used for several major robberies (and which the Green Mask added to his arsenal), and rescued the Police Commissioner's daughter, June. ((Mystery Men Comics #4)) He prevented Janette Lovingston, who had murdered her brothers David and Leon for inheritance money, from killing the last brother Stanley and his daughter Estelle in Africa. ((Mystery Men Comics #5)) The Green Mask stopped a Hindu cult that had robbed and murdered anyone possessing the sacred Taj Lamah jewels that had come from a sacred jewel-encrusted skull. ((Mystery Men Comics #6))

In June, 1940, after Senator Shelby was assassinated by a criminal organization called the Grim Circle, his son [[Green Mask II (Michael Shelby)|Michael Shelby]] gained super-powers through exposure to a vita-ray machine. Green approached Shelby and asked him to carry on the identity of the Green Mask while Green left to fight the Axis in World War II. ((Green Mask #1))