====== Timeline of Earth-X (prehistory to 1940s) ======

**Return to [[Timeline of Earth-X]]**

===== Ancient History =====

==== 64 A.D. ====

  * Midnight and his assistants (Doc Wackey, Gabby, Sniffer Snoop, and Hotfoot) reach the year 64 A.D. during the reign of Nero from 1944 by using Doc's time pills (which enable both time travel and local language translation) to travel back in time. There they are captured and brought to Nero himself. Thanks to his knowledge of ancient history, Midnight is honored as a prophet by Nero. But when Midnight saves his friends from being killed in the Circus Maximus, they inadvertently cause the Great Fire of Rome before returning to their own time. [Midnight, Smash Comics #52 (April, 1944)]

==== 507 A.D. ====

  * A warrior named [[Konar]] has adventures in Macedonia. ["The Barbarian," Feature Funnies #16-18]

===== Middle Ages =====

  * Tyrone Neville becomes the [[Gallant Knight]]. [Feature Funnies #7]

===== 12th century =====

  * Lord Robert Fitzooth, Earl of Huntington, becomes known as **[[Robin Hood (Earth-X)|Robin Hood]]**, prince of outlaws, and gathers a band of Merry Men in Sherwood Forest near Nottingham, England. Together, Robin Hood and his Merry Men fight against the tyrannical King John and his local representative, the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin Hood's Merry Men, numbering about 200, include Little John, Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, and Allan-a-Dale, among others.
    * While battling in the Crusades, King Richard the Lion-Hearted learns of his brother Prince John's usurpation of the throne and sends his most trusted man Lord Robert the Earl of Huntington back to England. Upon reaching Huntington Castle, Robert discovers that it has been seized by Prince John for disloyalty and given to Sir Gunder. Refusing to pledge loyalty to John, Robert escapes as an outlaw to Sherwood Forest. There Lord Robert is accosted by two men he recognizes as Eban and Durk, his old men-at-arms, who explain that ever since Sir Gunder evicted them from Huntington Castle, they've been part of a band of robbers who rob from the rich oppressors and give to the poor. Lord Robert meets the band and is invited to lead them under an old nickname of Robin Hood, naming the band his Merry Men. Robin Hood and his Merry Men quickly develop a reputation as they war against Prince John's tyrannies. ["Rescue of Maid Marian," Robin Hood Tales (Quality) #2 (April, 1956)]
    * Heading to Nottingham to ostensibly become a forester, Robin Hood is tricked by the King's Foresters into shooting a stag to prove his skill with a bow and arrow, only to be arrested and sentenced to death for killing the king's deer. A young woodcutter named Will Stutely saves Robin Hood's life, becoming the first new recruit of the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest. ["The Outlawing of Robin Hood," Robin Hood Tales (Quality) #1 (February, 1956)]
    * Robin Hood challenges a tall man for passage across a river on a log, and they duel for an hour before Robin finally slips into the water. The man introduces himself as John Little, and Robin Hood names him Little John, inviting him to join his Merry Men. A few days later Robin Hood meets his cousin Will when he comes to join him, and Robin nicknames him Will Scarlet for his red jacket. Another new recruit is Midge the Miller, whom Robin calls Much the Miller. ["Rescue of Maid Marian," Robin Hood Tales (Quality) #2 (April, 1956)]
    * Robin Hood meets a kirtle friar with a sword and, playing a trick on him, ends up sword-fighting with him for over an hour before he invites him to join his Merry Men. The friar introduces himself as Friar Tuck and explains he's on his way to marry Maid Marian to Sir Gunder, an arranged marriage she does not want. Recalling Marian as his childhood playmate, Robin Hood vows to rescue her, and Friar Tuck agrees to help him. After Friar Tuck leads Robin Hood and his Merry Men to the castle in which Maid Marian is held prisoner, Robin finds a way in but is almost killed by Sir Gunder's men before he takes Marian to safety. Maid Marian joins the Merry Men to serve England's cause. ["Rescue of Maid Marian," Robin Hood Tales (Quality) #2 (April, 1956)]
    * Robin Hood and Little John rescue a friend named Tanner, who was taken prisoner by the Sheriff of Nottingham and sentenced to death for being friendly with Robin Hood. After Tanner is brought safely to their camp, he is made one of the Merry Men. ["The Trapping of Robin Hood," Robin Hood Tales (Quality) #1 (February, 1956)]
    * Robin Hood and his Merry Men free the serfs kept in chains in Castle Fury by the villainous Sir Roger the Black, and Robin Hood gives the nobleman's treasure to the serfs, letting them decide how to administer justice. ["The Black Knight of Castle Fury," Robin Hood Tales (Quality) #1 (February, 1956)]

===== 17-18th Centuries =====

  * Captain Tyrone Fortune begins adventures. [Feature Comics #25]
  * Captain Daring begins adventures. [Buccaneers #19]
  * Black Roger begins adventures. [Buccaneers #19]
  * Eric Falton begins adventures. [Buccaneers #19]
  * Adventures on the Spanish Main begins. [Buccaneers #19]
  * Corsair Queen begins adventures. [Buccaneers #25]

==== 1642 ====

  * A brilliant scientist named [[Cyrus Smythe|Dr. Cyrus Smythe]] of London invents a formula that can change living creatures into giants. But after he changes a monkey he experimented upon into a giant, the giant monkey attacks him, and his body is smashed against a cabinet full of chemicals, causing his brain to become immortal even as his body dies. Smythe's brain survives in his coffin for the next 300 years, becoming embittered against all of humanity over that time. [Plastic Man, Police Comics #11 (September, 1942)]

==== 1776 ====

  * The Spirit of America is born as the new flag of the United States of America is flown over the 13 free states. //Note: The Spirit of America is originally known by the nickname of Brother Jonathan (who is essentially the Spirit of New England), and is still known by that name until the War of 1812, when people start calling him Uncle Sam. It is also possible that Brother Jonathan (the spirit of the American people) exists as a separate being who later merges with Uncle Sam (the spirit of the U.S. government).// [Uncle Sam, National Comics #1 (July, 1940)]

==== 1777 ====

  * A patriot named Samuel, wrapped in a replica of the original U.S. flag, is killed while distracting a troop of Hessian soldiers working for the British crown from stopping a wagon train containing supplies for Gen. George Washington and his troops at Valley Forge, shortly before winter. The Spirit of America joins with Samuel to become **[[Uncle Sam (Earth-X)|Uncle Sam]]** (though this name is not known or popularized until the War of 1812), who helps guide America in the decades to come. ["The True Story of Uncle Sam," National Comics #5 (November, 1940); "The Coming of Uncle Sam," Secret Origins v2 #19 (October, 1987)]
  * In Philadelphia, a young girl watches patiently as the first American flag is sewn, and is given a reward of a few threads of the flag in a locket. After she runs out into the rain to show it to Uncle Sam, she becomes seriously ill and dies with the locket in her hands, and is prophesied to awake in many years to come as Usa, the Spirit of Old Glory to watch and defend America. ["Introducing Usa, the Spirit of Old Glory," Feature Comics #42 (March, 1941)]
==== 1789 ====

  * Our Lady of the Shadows University (or La Université Notre Dame des Ombres) is founded on the French Riviera. In the 20th century, students would include Emma Peel (a teacher at the Grimoire Academy) and Delilah Tyler (Hourgirl), while Sandra Knight (Phantom Lady) would act as the school's dean for a short time. [Action #636; The Fight Continues]

===== 19th Century =====

==== 1801 ====

  * Adam Peril, USN, has adventures based in Spanish New Orleans. [Buccaneers #24-27]

==== Circa 1808 ====

  * A young blond American man, son of English parents who fled their homeland to avoid being thrown into debtors' prison, becomes the buccaneer known as **[[Hawk (buccaneer)|the Hawk]]**. Leading a band of men under his own flag, the Hawk preys upon slave traders in the Caribbean, attacking and capturing slave-laden vessels and setting all the slaves free. The Hawk's men include fat Fluth, crooked Bogg, old Caleb, the Indian brave Sagua, and drunken Pierre. The Hawk's arch-foe is the notorious pirate "Claw" Carlos, whom he crossed when they both sought the priceless Incas' Ruby that was currently held by a Spanish princess, and though it was rightfully the Hawk's, he let the princess escape to Spain with it. //Note: Takes place around 1808, when the English Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which outlawed the slave trade, though not slavery itself. The Hawk has been active for several years by this time, preying on slave traders.// [Hawks of the Seas, Feature Funnies #3-12 (December, 1937-September, 1938)]

==== 1810 ====

  * Uncle Sam wins the championship in a hammer throwing contest. ["The Return of King Killer," Uncle Sam Quarterly #2 (Winter, 1941)]

==== 1812 ====

  * Uncle Sam is invisibly present during the War of 1812 as the United States battles Great Britain once more. Previously known under the nickname of "Brother Jonathan," the Spirit of America is referred to as "Uncle Sam" from this point on. ["The Coming of Uncle Sam," Secret Origins v2 #19 (October, 1987)]

==== Circa 1830 ====

  * Quicksilver travels back through time from the year 1949, then loses his super-speed. Becoming a scout with the U.S. Cavalry under the name of Max Crandall, he is later shocked and dismayed when his friends in the local Indian tribes are massacred under the orders of his own commanding officer. A dying shaman returns his super-speed to him through magic, and Max becomes known to Indians as **Ahwehota** (He Who Runs Beyond the Wind) and to Americans as **Windrunner**. After a few years, Max manages to travel through time once more, this time reaching the 1890s.

==== 1861 ====

  * Uncle Sam is helpless to act as brother fights brother during the Civil War. ["The Coming of Uncle Sam," Secret Origins v2 #19 (October, 1987)]

==== 1865 ====

  * Uncle Sam invisibly presides over Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War and making Sam smile for the first time in four years. ["The Coming of Uncle Sam," Secret Origins v2 #19 (October, 1987)]

==== Unspecified years in the mid-19th century ====

  * Jeb Rivers and his young partner Catfish begin adventuring during the great days of the old Mississippi riverboats. [Hit Comics #61]
  * Rance Keane begins adventures with Chaps Shaw. [Feature Comics #22]
  * Two-Gun Lil begins adventures. [Crack Western #63]
  * Arizona Ames, his horse Thunder, and sidekick Spurs and his horse Calico begin adventures. Ames later becomes A. Raines. [Crack Western #63]
  * Bob Allen, frontier marshal begins adventures. [Crack Western #63]
  * Dead Canyon Days begins. [Crack Western #63]
  * The Whip and his horse Diablo begin adventures. [Crack Western #70]
  * Paul Bunyan begins adventures in a small logging village in Maine. [National Comics #1]
  * Sgt. Jim Reynold (brothers named Tom and Pinky) of the RCMP begins adventures. [Feature Funnies #14]

==== 1864 ====

  * Homesteaders Clem and Sarah Gallent are murdered by the Black Gang, a gang of bandits who want their land. The only survivor is their son Donny Gallent, who vows to avenge his parents and spends the next 10 years training to become a vigilante. [The Lone Star Rider, Smash Comics #2 (September, 1939)]

==== 1874 ====

  * Donny Gallent grows up to be **[[Lone Star Rider|the Lone Star Rider]]**, pledged to champion the poor and helpless. The Lone Star Rider rides a white horse named **Light'nin'** and wears a yellow shirt, blue pants and bandana, and a tan cowboy hat. In his **only known case**, the Lone Star Rider captures a fleeing bandit named Snake McCade and delivers him to the sheriff of the town of Sage. [The Lone Star Rider, Smash Comics #2 (September, 1939)]

==== Circa 1890 ====

  * Max Crandall, traveling forward through time from the 1830s, becomes known as **Whip Whirlwind** and battles outlaws in the Old West. After a few years, he manages to travel through time once again, this time reaching the 1920s.

==== 1891 ====

  * Hustace Mulligan, who grows up to be a police inspector and an occasional ally to the Jester, is born. [The Jester, Smash Comics #41 (March, 1943)]

==== 1898 ====

  * Uncle Sam invisibly charges with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. ["The Coming of Uncle Sam," Secret Origins v2 #19 (October, 1987)]

===== 20th Century =====

==== 1910 ====

  * Thomas Wright is born to Maj. Richard and Anne Grey, but while his parents are told that he was a stillbirth, he is secretly kidnapped by an adoption ring catering to the wealthy, and soon adopted by the Wright family. Tom Wright grows up to be a United States senator. //Note: Thomas Wright must be at least 30 years old by 1940 in order to be a U.S. senator, and his extremely strong resemblance to the somewhat younger Richard Grey, Jr. indicates that they may be brothers, if not exactly twins.//

==== 1915 ====

  * Richard Grey, Jr. is born to Maj. Richard and Anne Grey.

==== 1917 ====

  * Major Richard Grey, an archaeologist, leads an expedition into Outer Mongolia, bringing his wife Anne and young son, Richard Grey, Jr., with him. On the night that a shooting star (a meteor) is seen striking a high peak, Yakki raiders led by Gali Kan attack the camp, killing both Richard and Anne Grey and every last man, but the infant himself survives after his mother hid him behind some rocks. After the raiders leave, a vulture takes the child back to its nest on the high peak and begins raising him along with her own chicks, bathed in the glow of the radioactive meteor, which slowly mutates both the boy and the vultures as the years pass, granting the boy telekinetic abilities and limited telepathy, while the vultures gain unusual intelligence and longer life. //Note: Since condors are native only to South America, not Mongolia, the species of mutated birds that raised Richard Grey, Jr., are likely cinereous vultures. Richard, Jr. is probably almost two years old by this time, since he has begun speaking some words.// ["The Man Who Can Fly Like a Bird," Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940); "The Secret Origin of the Black Condor," Secret Origins v2 #21 (December, 1987)]

==== 1918 ====

  * Uncle Sam is invisibly present with American soldiers during the tail end of the Great War, later to be known as World War I. ["The Coming of Uncle Sam," Secret Origins v2 #19 (October, 1987)]

==== Circa 1920s ====

  * Max Crandall, traveling forward through time from the 1890s, becomes known as **Lightning** and battles crooks during the Jazz Age. After a few years, he manages to travel through time once again, this time reaching the year 1986.

==== 1926 ====

  * During a forest fire in the Northwest, forest ranger Frank Vance falls unconscious while searching for his very young missing daughter, Carol Vance. Seeing young Carol walk unharmed from a burning cabin, the Lord of Fire approaches the tot and is so impressed that she shows no fear that he makes her mistress of flame, having immunity against injury by fire. The next day Carol is found in the burned-out ruins of the forest, completely unharmed. Now an orphan, Carol is adopted and raised by the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. John Martin. ["Introducing Wildfire," Smash Comics #25 (August, 1941)]

==== Circa 1927 ====

  * Richard Grey, Jr., now about twelve years old, attempts but fails to fly like the vultures he was raised with. ["The Man Who Can Fly Like a Bird," Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940); "The Secret Origin of the Black Condor," Secret Origins v2 #21 (December, 1987)]

==== 1929 ====

  * A criminal named John Carver goes into a jealous rage when the woman he loves marries actor Richard Stanton, who became a millionaire playing the stock market. Carver plans his revenge. [Crack Comics #1]

==== 1930 ====

  * May 1: Richard Stanton, an accomplished character actor and famous female impersonator, plays the last role of a long and successful career as an old woman when his daughter is born. [Crack Comics #1]

==== 1931 ====

  * Richard Stanton's daughter is kidnapped by John Carver. Although Stanton suspects Carver of the crime, he does not want his wife's name dragged through the mud and does not tell the police, who find no clues. Stanton begins tracking down Carver and his kidnapped daughter himself. [Crack Comics #1]
  * Tom Hallaway spends time hunting in Africa alongside his friend Arthur Henderson, along with Henderson's adopted daughter and his shady half-brother. During this time Hallaway perfects his target shooting skills with a bow and arrow, which he will one day use as a vigilante called the Spider. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #22 (March, 1942)]

==== 1932 ====

  * After his wife dies of a broken heart, Richard Stanton invents the identity of Madam Fatal, his impersonation of an old woman. He spends the next eight years trying to track down John Carver, following the criminal from city to city in search of clues to find his kidnapped daughter. [Crack Comics #1]

==== 1933 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1933 ===

  * Richard Grey, Jr., now a young man who has studied the flight of vultures all his life, discovers that he can fly just like them. With his superior intelligence, he quickly becomes their leader, speaking to them in their own language. One day, after descending into the lowlands to forage for food, Richard is attacked by giant eagles and falls to the ground, where he is found by an old Christian hermit monk called Father Pierre. Being familiar with the condors of South America, Pierre calls the flying man **[[Black Condor|the Black Condor]]** and begins teaching him over the next year how to speak English, which is made easier since Richard Grey, Jr. could speak some words as a baby. The Black Condor's nicknames include the Man of Flight. ["The Man Who Can Fly Like a Bird," Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940); "The Secret Origin of the Black Condor," Secret Origins v2 #21 (December, 1987)]
  * Bela Jat, a Hindu mystic, is sent to jail after his experiments with the supernatural take several human lives. Thanks to Bela Jat's arrest, Police Detective Healy gains enough stature to eventually become the police commissioner of New York City by 1940. Bela Jat remains imprisoned for the next seven years. [The Ray, Smash Comics #16 (November, 1940)]

==== 1934 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1934 ===

  * After a full year, during which time the Black Condor has learned everything he can from Father Pierre, he returns to Pierre's cottage to discover that the old hermit has been mortally wounded by Gali Kan's raiders. After Father Pierre implores the Black Condor to use his ability to fly to do good, he dies, and the Black Condor makes good on his promise, spending the next few years alongside his kettle of vultures waging war on evil in cities all over the world, including Rome, London, New York, Shanghai, Berlin, Sydney, Paris, and Capetown, though he operates out of the public eye for the most part. //Note: Some of the Black Condor's adventures as depicted in newspaper headlines in this story must take place no earlier than 1940. At some point between 1934 and 1940, the Black Condor obtains his amazing black light ray, which has many uses depending on its setting. Given that the Black Condor is skillfully able to later impersonate a man of learning and culture like Senator Tom Wright, he must spend much of his time over these six years gaining an informal education in some of the greatest places of learning in the world, assisted by the ability to learn rapidly and possibly also by slight telepathy.// ["The Man Who Can Fly Like a Bird," Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940); "The Secret Origin of the Black Condor," Secret Origins v2 #21 (December, 1987)]

==== 1936 ====

=== September, 1936 ===

  * Bored of high society, millionaire playboy and former all-American fullback and polo player Brian O'Brien of Park Avenue in New York City becomes **[[Clock (Brian O'Brien)|the Clock]]**, wearing a business suit with a diamond pin, a hat with a black silk mask dangling from the hat to his chin, and carrying a short cane with a hidden spring, and very rarely a pistol. The Clock operates from a sub-cellar located below the heart of the city and has several other sanctuaries in the city, including one that contains several antique and modern torture devices used to intimidate crooks into providing him with information. The Clock is an excellent at hand-to-hand combat and is a master of disguise, occasionally using the identity of small-time crook and drug addict Snowy Winters. The Clock steals money from crooks and sometimes charges wealthy men he's saved, redistributing the money to charity, and he prides himself on never killing his foes. The Clock leaves behind a calling card announcing when he has struck or will strike. Only O'Brien's father knows the Clock's secret identity. The Clock is an outlaw vigilante hunted by Capt. Kane of the NYPD, who eventually becomes his ally. In his first public case, the Clock captures a gang of jewelry thieves led by Bill Hunt, who works as a night watchman at the jewelry store that was robbed. //Note: This story is recycled in the Clock story in Feature Funnies #9, which has basically the same plot but with Joe Taff in place of Bill Hunt, and Capt. Kane admiring the Clock instead of wanting to arrest him; given that the stories are so similar, the later story must be fictional.// ["Alias the Clock," Funny Picture Stories #1 (November, 1936)]

=== November, 1936 ===

  * The Clock meets a mystery-woman calling herself **[[Orchid (Earth-X)|the Orchid]]**, who typically wears all-green, all-purple, or all-red outfits and is the only daughter of a wealthy father. In their first meeting, the mystery-woman guesses that a disguised man on the bus is really the Clock, based on the fact that he's wearing a blond wig but has dark hair beneath it; leaving him a note to meet the Orchid at a restaurant called the Hotspot that afternoon, she vanishes and returns home to tell her father about it. That afternoon, the Orchid meets with the Clock, still in his disguise, and explains that she wants him to secure records from her father's crooked former business partner, which are guarded by henchmen. The Clock refuses an offer of payment, so the Orchid accuses him of being a coward and plans to secure the records herself. That night, she is caught by one of the guards and attacked when she defends herself, only being rescued just in time by the Clock, who arrives and fights off three guards. The Clock cracks open the safe and tells the Orchid to take whatever she wants, after he has secretly stolen a stack of securities he plans to give to needy families, then binds the guards and calls Capt. Kane of the NYPD to pick them up. The Orchid vanishes, leaving behind a note of apology and a hope that she'll meet him again someday. Despite himself, the Clock finds her quite intriguing. ["Baffled by a Flower," Detective Picture Stories #2 (January, 1937)]

==== 1937 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1937 ===

  * Darrel Dane begins dating Martha Roberts. ["Doll Man," Secret Origins v2 #8 (November, 1986)]

=== February, 1937 ===

  * February 13-14: A gangster named Clarence "Muscles" McGee tries to frame the Clock for murder, but after the Clock finds out who is behind the frame-up, he forces McGee to sign a confession. //Note: This story is recycled in the Clock story in Feature Funnies #11.// ["Murder by Proxy," Detective Picture Stories #5 (April, 1937)]

=== June, 1937 ===

  * While investigating the murder of multimillionaire C. Mortimer Smythe and the theft of a diamond worth $3 million, the Clock is nearly captured by Capt. Kane of the NYPD. //Note: This story remains unfinished, but since the Clock and Capt. Kane become allies around this time, it's likely that Kane lets him go.// [The Clock Strikes, Funny Pages #10 (April, 1937); The Clock Strikes, Funny Pages #11 (June, 1937)]

=== August, 1937 ===

  * [[Ned Brant]] begins adventures in sports. [Feature Funnies #1]
  * [[Jane Arden]] begins adventures. [Feature Funnies #1]
  * [[Lena Pry]] begins adventures. [Feature Funnies #1]
  * [[Dixie Dugan]] begins adventures. [Feature Funnies #1]
  * [[Slim and Tubby]] begins. [Feature Funnies #1]
  * [[Jim Swift]] begins adventures. [Feature Funnies #1]
  * [[Crack Casey]] of the U.S. Navy has a **single adventure** in Shanghai, preventing two men from robbing a young woman who is the ward of a German man. //Note: This story has never been completed.// [Crack Casey, Feature Funnies #1 (October, 1937)]
  * Adventures under the big top at Bangs Bros. Mammoth Show Circus begin, featuring world-famous clowns Flip Flanagan and Butch Snyder, daredevil Hal Thompson, child of the circus Myra La Belle, ringmaster Silk Fowler, the fat lady Lotta, the bearded lady Mademoiselle Fringe, the midget Major Speck, young circus fan Red O'Hare and his dog Whiskers, and circus worker Speed Jackson. Jeff Bangs is the circus owner. [Big Top, Feature Funnies #1 (October, 1937)]

=== September, 1937 ===

  * Millionaire playboy T. James (Jimmy) Harrington II, a former college football player, becomes **[[Hawk (T. James Harrington II)|the Hawk]]**. In his only published case, the Hawk captures a crook who beat up and robbed an old millionaire named Moore of $100,000 he was planning to donate to the city orphanage. The Hawk wears a green business suit with a gray hood over his head along with claws on his fingernails. The Hawk is assisted by Link and Rollo, the only two other men who know his secret identity. The Hawk is hunted by Deputy Inspector Pat Doyle, lifelong friend of Harrington's late father, T.J. Harrington, Sr. //Note: The Hawk is already active by this time, since he's wanted by the police.// ["Introducing the Hawk," Feature Funnies #2 (November, 1937)]
  * [[Toddy Lott]], a young schoolboy who is the son of Richard Lott and his wife, begins adventures as a little scamp alongside his gran'pa and his friends Myrtle, Foggy, and Packy. //Note: According to the Toddy story in Feature Funnies #7, Toddy Lott's father is Richard Lott (who won medals in the Great War), his uncle is John Lott, his grandfather is Angus Lott (who fought in the Spanish-American War in 1898), his great-grandfather is Abe Lott, and his great-great grandfather is Thaddeus Lott (who fought in the American Revolutionary War in 1776).// [Toddy, Feature Funnies #2 (November, 1937)]

=== October, 1937 ===

  * The Clock teams up with the Orchid a second time to capture a crook called Monk, leader of a gang of crooks operating a protection racket. //Note: The story makes reference to an earlier meeting of the Clock and the Orchid, which was probably published in Detective Picture Stories #2.// [The Clock Strikes, Feature Funnies #3 (December, 1937)]
  * Robert Mason disappears after a disagreement with his father, wealthy chemist Prof. Mason, and adopts the identity of **[[Jester (Robert Mason)|the Jester]]**, a mystery-man dressed in a green, red, and yellow medieval jester costume with a domino mask and a small mustache, who is wanted by the police for his vigilante actions. The Jester is athletic and has good hand-to-hand combat skills, but often relies on his pistol. //Note: According to the Jester story in Smash Comics #22, the Jester has been active for several years by 1941, indicating he was one of the first mystery-men to appear in the 1930s, along with the Clock, the Orchid, the Hawk, and Madam Fatal, as well as the Black Condor, who was not well known until later on. Very little is known of Robert Mason's background.// ["Madam Fatal Meets the Jester, the Man Who Laughs at Death," Crack Comics #10 (February, 1941); The Jester, Smash Comics #22 (May, 1941)]

==== 1938 ====

=== January, 1938 ===

  * **Jim Swift's** last chronicled appearance. [Feature Funnies #6]

=== February, 1938 ===

  * [[Clip Chance]] (at Cliffside) begins adventures with sidekicks Slim and Chink. [Feature Funnies #7]
  * The Clock exposes a notorious criminal called [[Owl (Baldy Getzmore)|the Owl]] as Baldy Getzmore, a former rum-runner, arranging for Capt. Kane of the NYPD to be present as he opens Getzmore's safe to find the Owl's mask within. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Funnies #7 (April, 1938)]

=== March, 1938 ===

  * Capt. Kane of the NYPD asks for the Clock's help to prove a felony charge against a powerful gang boss named Maroni, who threatens to have Kane transferred far away if he doesn't cooperate with his criminal schemes. After witnessing Maroni and his gang robbing a silk warehouse, the Clock chases Maroni by car, and the gangster crashes over a bridge and drowns in the river. //Note: This story establishes that the Clock is Brian O'Brien, wealthy son of Mr. O'Brien of Park Avenue. At some point between this story and the Clock story in Crack Comics #1, Brian O'Brien's father dies, since by that time no one living knows that he is the Clock.// [The Clock Strikes, Feature Funnies #8 (May, 1938)]

=== May, 1938 ===

  * [[Archie O'Toole]] begins comical adventures. [Feature Funnies #10]

=== August, 1938 ===

  * Richard Spencer becomes [[Black X]], a secret agent ("Espionage"). [Feature Funnies #13]
  * [[Captain Cook]] of Scotland Yard begins adventures. [Feature Funnies #13]

=== September, 1938 ===

  * After New York City Mayor Willis is murdered, Police Commissioner Litz orders Capt. Kane to find anyone to arrest in order to appease the public, while they continue searching for the real killer. Refusing, Kane instead appeals to the Clock to solve the case. In his disguise as drug addict Snowy Winters, the Clock soon discovers that a gunman named Butch McGloin was hired to kill the mayor. After confronting McGloin, the Clock gets a description of the man who hired him and correctly deduces from a distinctive tattoo that it was Police Commissioner Litz. After the Clock tells Kane where he can find the killer, Capt. Kane finds Litz tied up on a chair. //Note: Police Commissioner Litz is forced to resign and is probably brought up on murder charges, and is succeeded by Police Commissioner Chase as seen in the Clock story in Feature Comics #25. Mayor Willis is succeeded by Mayor Tull as seen in the Clock story in Feature Comics #22.// [The Clock Strikes, Feature Funnies #14 (November, 1938)]

=== October, 1938 ===

  * The Clock is framed for the murder of playboy Stanford Pell by gang boss Tony Malta, and he soon clears his name. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Funnies #15 (December, 1938)]

=== December, 1938 ===

  * [[Richard Manners]], a detective, begins adventures. [Feature Funnies #17]

==== 1939 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1939 ===

  * The Black Condor and his kettle of vultures are present when Gali Kan leads his Yakki raiders on a village in Hindustan, and he manages to take vengeance for Father Pierre's death by killing Gali Kan himself, never realizing he's also avenging his own parents' murders. ["The Man Who Can Fly Like a Bird," Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940); "The Secret Origin of the Black Condor," Secret Origins v2 #21 (December, 1987)]

=== March, 1939 ===

  * When the Clock interrupts a bank robbery by Boss Marco and his gang, who use nitroglycerin to blow their way into the Acme Diamond Cutting Co. from the building next door, he is captured. Marco unmasks the Clock and recognizes him as Brian O'Brien. Tying him up to a post, Marco and his gang drive off to find a phone booth to reveal the Clock's identity to the newspapers, but when they hit a tree, causing the nitroglycerin bottle to explode, the Boss Marco Gang is killed. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Funnies #20 (May, 1939)]

=== April, 1939 ===

  * **Richard Manners'** last case. [Feature Comics #21]

=== May, 1939 ===

  * May 7: Brian O'Brien (the Clock) visits the 1939 New York World's Fair and stops a pickpocket. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #21 (June, 1939)]
  * May 30-31: New York City District Attorney Ted Downs supposedly commits suicide just as he was about to expose the biggest graft scandal the city's ever known, and the evidence goes missing. After the Clock investigates, he discovers that New York City Mayor Tull is the murderer, and Capt. Kane arrests him. //Note: District Attorney Ted Downs is succeeded by District Attorney Dan Nolen, as seen in the Clock story in Feature Comics #28. Mayor Tull is succeeded by Mayor Kozer, as seen in the Clock story in Crack Comics #1.// [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #22 (July, 1939)]

=== June, 1939 ===

  * Daniel Dyce, a promising young attorney who is a look-alike to his client, criminal Jake Horn, agrees to replace him so that Horn can see his wife Mary and their newborn son. But after he's been sentenced to life imprisonment as convict #711, he discovers that Horn has been killed in a hit-and-run. He begins to dig a tunnel to freedom. Horn's body, meanwhile, goes missing from the morgue shortly after he is pronounced dead. Possibly Jake Horn revives but retains no memory of his previous life, eventually becoming the mystery-man known as Destiny. [Police Comics #1; "The Marksman: Unusual Suspects, Book Two"]
  * Hugh Hazard uses Bozo the robot, created by villain Dr. Van Thorp, to fight crime as **[[the Iron Man]]**. [Smash Comics #1]
  * [[Chic Carter]] has first public case as a crime reporter for the //Daily Star//. //Note: Chic Carter is already well established by this time. There is also an almost-identical Chic Carter of Earth-2 who became the Sword as well. His existence on Earth-2 does not negate the existence of the Earth-X Chic Carter.// [Smash Comics #1]
  * [[Abdul the Arab]] (Abdul Bey), son of tribal leader Ali Bey, begins adventures. [Smash Comics #1]
  * [[Wings Wendall]] begins adventures. [Smash Comics #1]
  * June 2-3: Kent Thurston, a former New York-based private detective who gave up his practice after receiving his inheritance, dons a long, hooded red cloak and carries both a gas-gun and a pistol as the vigilante called **[[Invisible Hood (Kent Thurston)|the Invisible Hood]]**, continuing his work for justice in secret. In his first public case, the Invisible Hood captures a jewel gang that steals sapphires taken from India years ago and demands $2 million from the Maharajah of Raas to get them back. //Note: The Invisible Hood is already known at the time of this story. The Invisible Hood is evidently patterned after the Shadow. Kent Thurston is a pilot.// [Hooded Justice, Smash Comics #1 (August, 1939)]

=== July, 1939 ===

  * June 30-July 1: After the famous chemist Prof. Hans Van Dorn is kidnapped by Garrick Spade, the Invisible Hood (Kent Thurston) infiltrates the Spade Gang in order to rescue the scientist and thus keep the secret of invisibility from them. When the Invisible Hood locates Prof. Van Dorn, the chemist treats his hooded robe with an invisibility solution as an experiment, enabling the crime-fighter to gain actual invisibility whenever he wears the robe. The Invisible Hood alerts the FBI that the gang is hiding in a mine, and the gang members are chased by the police and are killed when their car drives off a ledge. Meanwhile, Spade shoots the uncooperative Van Dorn before Thurston can stop him. After Thurston shoots and kills Spade, then reveals that he is secretly the Invisible Hood, the dying Van Dorn makes Thurston promise to use the power of invisibility only for good. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #2 (September, 1939)]

=== August, 1939 ===

  * [[John Law]] begins adventures. [Smash Comics #3]
  * August 29: The Invisible Hood investigates a series of raids on ships by modern-day pirates, and discovers that a gang of crooks has stolen a new submarine prototype along with its inventor, John Webb, forcing him to operate it. Discovering that they plan to sell the advanced submarine to a foreign nation, the Invisible Hood defeats the gang and frees Webb. //Note: Kent Thurston reveals his secret identity to Webb.// [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #3 (October, 1939)]
  * August 29-September 1: The Clock goes undercover disguised as Officer Thomas Carter to work in Police Commissioner Chase's office in order to find out which of his men is working for the Parker Gang. Discovering that the mole is Officer Alvin Morton, the Clock uses Morton to lure the Parker Gang in to be captured. //Note: Sometime after this story, Police Commissioner Chase is succeeded by Police Commissioner Healy from the Ray story in Smash Comics #16.// [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #25 (October, 1939)]

=== September, 1939 ===

  * [[Flash Fulton]] begins adventures. [Smash Comics #4]
  * The German-Soviet invasion of Poland occurs. Janos Prohaska, a pilot in the Polish Air Force, sees his brother and sister killed by Nazi Captain Wolfgang Von Tepp. Prohaska becomes the legend known only as [[Blackhawk]] and begins forming a group of international aviators called the Blackhawks over the next several months. [Military Comics #1]
  * Bart Hawk, a daring American pilot descended from Chief Black Hawk, is in Poland assisting the Eagle Squadron during the German-Soviet invasion. While there, he meets three Polish pilots: Janos Prohaska, Stanislaus Drozdowski, and Kazimierc "Zeg" Zegota-Januszajtis. Prohaska is inspired by Bart Hawk's Native American heritage to begin calling himself Blackhawk. //Note: This is speculation based on an apocryphal origin story of the Blackhawks featuring Blackhawk as an American-born pilot.// [Blackhawk #198]
  * Kent Thurston travels to Florida to help out his old friend John Blaine, and as the Invisible Hood battles the [[Green Lizard]], a masked gang leader. Defeating the Green Lizard, he unmasks him as Blaine's servant, Winters. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #4 (November, 1939)]
  * After the Clock is framed for three murders and the theft of about $250,000 over two weeks, he figures out that the frame-up is being used to shield the criminal's identity. Luring the crook to steal jewels, the Clock captures the perpetrator, "Fingers" Holts, and uses hypnosis to force him to confess his crimes to the police. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #26 (November, 1939)]

=== October, 1939 ===

  * Darrel Dane, a young scientist, invents a serum with the assistance of Dr. Roberts that causes him to shrink to six inches tall. While waiting for the effect to wear off, Darrel his fiancee Martha Roberts (Dr. Roberts' daughter) from a blackmailer named Falco. Since he has even greater strength than normal while at six inches tall, Darrel decides to fight crime as the **[[Doll Man]]**, becoming a private investigator. Martha creates a miniature blue and red caped costume for Darrel to wear as the Doll Man. Darrel begins acting as a private investigator, investigating crimes as Darrel and fighting crime as Doll Man. //Note: Originally Darrel Dane injects himself with his shrinking serum each time he wants to become Doll Man, but he soon takes the serum in tablet form; eventually he doesn't need the serum at all and is able to shrink at will. The cat is named Shere Khan in Secret Origins v2 #8, but the name of the cat is Tippy in the Doll Man story in Feature Comics #28.// [The Dollman, Feature Comics #27 (December, 1939); "Doll Man," Secret Origins v2 #8 (November, 1986)]

=== November, 1939 ===

  * [[Capt. S.R. "Spin" Shaw]], aviator, begins adventures. [Feature Comics #29]
  * New York City District Attorney Dan Nolen is murdered by a car bomb before he is about to expose a city official who took a bribe. The Clock discovers that Nolen's assistant Clyde Neste is the murderer. //Note: District Attorney Dan Nolen is succeeded by District Attorney John Dooly, as seen in the Clock story in Crack Comics #1.// [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #28 (January, 1940)]
  * Doll Man defeats Dr. Rodent, a criminal scientist who robs ships in the harbor and uses trained rats equipped with miniature bombs. //Note: Darrel Dane appears in his Doll Man costume for the first time in this story, although its original appearance is somewhat different, and he has a D insignia on his chest. Doll Man is shown gaining his powers through a syringe injection of his serum, though he soon develops a tablet that he swallows instead.// [The Dollman, Feature Comics #28 (January, 1940)]
  * November 27: After Brian O'Brien's old school friend Ted Holt is shot, the Clock discovers that the gunmen work for a criminal mastermind known as the Reaper, and capture the gang. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #29 (February, 1940)]

=== December, 1939 ===

  * Doll Man battles Germans for the first time when he stops a group of officially sanctioned German smugglers using a U-boat to haul American motors back to Germany. Thanks to this case, Doll Man is first mentioned in newspapers. [The Dollman, Feature Comics #30 (March, 1940)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 24-25: On Earth-2, Rex "Tick-Tock" Tyler successfully completes his Miraclo formula -- gaining enhanced strength, speed, invulnerability, and even vision -- and takes it on a test run for one hour wearing a circus acrobat costume. That night, Tyler also experiences the drug's severe after-effects but is determined to purify the formula to eliminate its addictive qualities. The next day, Tyler places an ad in the newspaper classifieds offering to help the oppressed. He spends the next week modifying the acrobat costume and obtaining an hourglass to time the effects of Miraclo. ["The Secret Origin of the Golden Age Hourman," Secret Origins v2 #16 (July, 1987)]</color>
  * December 27: The Invisible Hood stops the scheme of Sir John Bland, alias the [[Voodoo Master]], who operates from a castle on a man-made island in the middle of a lake near Unionville, using the practice of voodoo to enslave men to do his bidding. The Voodoo Master uses a ray from a glass ball to make the Invisible Hood visible once more while in its presence, enabling his brief capture before he escapes to prime the castle to explode. The Invisible Hood has a sword fight with the Voodoo Master atop his castle and impales him, then flees to safety moments before the castle explodes. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #8 (March, 1940)]
  * December 26-28: After an FBI agent is killed in a car crash, the secret industrial mobilization plans he was carrying to Washington, D.C., are discovered to be missing. Investigating, the Clock deduces that a German agent named Carl Adolf Voss ordered the death and stops Voss before he can leave the country with the plans. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #30 (March, 1940)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 31: On Earth-2 on New Year's Eve, Rex Tyler has his first public case as </color>**[[Hourman|the Hour-Man]]**<color /#ECECEC> in New York City, when he fights a gang of criminals looting the Beaux Arts Ball. [The Hour-Man, Adventure Comics #48 (March, 1940); "The Secret Origin of the Golden Age Hourman," Secret Origins v2 #16 (July, 1987)]</color>

==== 1940 ====

=== January, 1940 ===

  * After a German spy ring steals plans for a poison gas and plan to make gas in every large city in the United States to strike at the same time across the country, the Clock captures the chemist Heizer before he can duplicate the gas. [The Clock Strikes, Feature Comics #31 (April, 1940)]
  * [[Stephen Zero|Zero]], ghost detective, has his first known case as he takes on only supernatural-based threats and mysteries. Zero originally has an office on the thirteenth floor of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, and has an unnamed female assistant/secretary, but soon begins operating exclusively out of a house. Zero sometimes uses a mirror with an X-cross marked on it against spirits. Zero employs a machine called the Super Q-Ray to detect and make visible ghosts and spirits. [Zero, Ghost Detective, Feature Comics #32 (May, 1940)]
  * [[Bruce Blackburn|Capt. Bruce Blackburn]], counterspy, begins adventures. [Feature Comics #32]
  * [[Rusty Ryan]] of Boyville begins adventures with sidekicks Ed, Pierpont, Lee, and Alababa. [Feature Comics #32]
  * [[Perry Scott]] begins adventures, finds gold of Atlantis. [Feature Comics #32]
  * **[[The Voice]]** (Mr. Elixir) begins adventures. [Feature Comics #32]
  * [[Samar|Samar of the jungle]] begins adventures. [Feature Comics #32]
  * After Prof. Roberts invents a deadly gas and is kidnapped by a gang working for German spy Anton Bock, Doll Man tracks down the spies to a small New England town called Deep Haven and frees Roberts with the help of Martha Roberts and the local police, who capture the nest of spies. [The Dollman, Feature Comics #32 (May, 1940)]
  * [[Wizard Wells]] begins adventures. [Crack Comics #1]
  * [[Molly Maloney]], also known as Molly the Model, is a working model with strawberry blonde hair who is based in New York City, where she lives with her father. Molly's boyfriend is a prize-fighter named Danny, whose manager is called Nifty. In her first published adventures, Molly is saved by her boyfriend Danny from a masher who turns out to be the boxer he was scheduled to fight, Molly's father gets into an automobile accident along with Molly and Danny while driving Nifty's new car, Molly's legs are photographed for a Stylish Stockings ad shown on billboards across the U.S., and Molly and Danny go on a double-date with Nifty and a girl named Honey. [Molly the Model, Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940)]
  * [[Lee Preston]] of the Red Cross begins her adventures as a nurse and pilot. [Crack Comics #1]
  * U.S. Navy Lt. Jim Lockhart invents and designs a navigable torpedo, but when his commanding officer Captain Wells refuses to let him build it, he resigns from the Navy. As a private citizen, he builds the craft he calls the //Red Torpedo// with the assistance of his fiancée [[Peggy Norse]] (also called Meg) in a secret workshop on a remote cove. With the rest of the world at war, Lockhart dons a red mask and costume and calls himself **[[Red Torpedo (Jim Lockhart)|the Red Torpedo]]** after his unique submarine. After Adolf Hitler orders the sinking of a ship sent by the United States, the Red Torpedo stops a German U-boat's attempt to sink the ship full of refugees escaping war-torn Europe, then escorts the ship safely to its convoy. //Note: The Red Torpedo is nicknamed the Robin Hood of the Deep, or the Robin Hood of the Sea.// [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940)]
  * Richard Stanton, a wealthy character actor and famous female impersonator who has been dressing up as an old woman under the identity of **[[Madam Fatal]]** to fight crime for the last eight years, has his first public case. He tracks down John Carver, who kidnapped his infant daughter in 1931, but Carver dies before he can reveal where Stanton's daughter is. Madam Fatal lives alone with a pet parrot named Hamlet. //Note: Since Richard Stanton is known to have had a long career as a character actor by 1930 and was a soldier in World War I, he is likely in his mid-forties and was probably born sometime before 1900.// [Crack Comics #1]
  * January 24-25: Millionaire playboy Tom Hallaway becomes a crime-fighting vigilante called **[[Spider (Tom Hallaway)|the Spider]]** in New York City, combining expert archery with trick arrows, and leaving the Spider's seal as his calling card. In his first public case, the Spider battles the Crickets, a powerful gang who begin a crime wave that includes looting the city's treasury safe and jewelry stores, destroying an ocean liner and looting its gold shipment, and murdering several people all in one night. The next day the Spider is nearly killed by the Crickets, who want him out of the way as a potential threat, but he tracks down the leader and knocks him out the window into the river, where he presumably drowns. The Spider is assisted by his chauffeur, a former safe-cracker named [[Chuck Harry]]. //Note: Since Tom Hallaway is known to have been a big-game hunter by 1931, he is likely over 30 years old by the time he becomes the Spider. In the Spider's arsenal is a deadly rubber net kept in a compact form until thrown to the ground, causing it to explode and throw itself over his enemies, and then it constricts enough to suffocate.// [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940)]
  * January 25: Brian O'Brien (the Clock) encounters a pickpocket who is his virtual double named [[Pug Brady|Pat "Pug" Brady]], who explains that a string of poor luck brought him low from his college days, when he was a star boxing and football champion, and from when he was a business owner along with his father. But when Pug was forced to kill a man in self-defense, his father died during his trial, and though he was later acquitted, he lost his business and couldn't find work for months. Brian offers Pug a job. Meanwhile, District Attorney John Dooly is shot by a gunman working for a gang lord called Big Shot, who wants Dooly to drop his investigation. The Clock confronts the gunman, but is soon unmasked and tied up until Pug arrives, having followed him there. After the gunman is killed in in a fight, the Clock impersonates him to meet with Big Shot himself, where he learns Capt. Kane is the next target. With Pug's help, the Clock breaks into Big Shot's hideout and rescues the kidnapped Capt. Kane, unmasking Big Shot as New York City Mayor Kozer. Later, Brian pledges Pug to secrecy as his assistant and realizes that he can pass for his twin. Pug Brady ties a handkerchief over his face whenever he assists the Clock. //Note: This story indicates that Brian O'Brien's father must have died by this time, since Pug Brady is now the only living person who knows Brian is the Clock.// [The Clock Strikes, Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940)]

=== February, 1940 ===

  * The Red Torpedo destroys a new German battleship that threatens to give the Nazis complete domination over the Atlantic Ocean. [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #2 (June, 1940)]
  * Roger Kent dies, leaving his tiny kingdom in India to his niece and nephew, Andrea and Denny Kent. Ali Kan, an Indian prince, proposes to Andrea Kent in an attempt to annex the province of Raj, but she turns him down before learning of her inheritance. Traveling to Raj, the Kents' party is attacked by desert bandits secretly working for Ali Kan, killing Denny before Ali Kan rushes in as planned to rescue Andrea. As Ali Kan brings Andrea back to his palace, the Black Condor spots the massacre and, discovering Denny Kent still alive, learns that Ali Kan is responsible. The Black Condor manages to rescue Andrea and brings her to Raj to reunite her with Denny, who is recuperating, then helps defend Raj against Ali Kan's invaders, using his paralyzing black-ray gun on them. Andrea Kent is made the new queen of Raj as the Black Condor leaves with his vultures. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #2 (June, 1940)]
  * **Toddy Lott** has his last published adventure as an ordinary young schoolboy. [Toddy, Feature Comics #31 (April, 1940)]
  * February 23: The Clock encounters the Orchid a third time when, with the help of Pug Brady, he saves a young heir named Harvey Gibbs from being killed before he can receive his inheritance. [The Clock, Crack Comics #2 (June, 1940)]
  * February 23: The Invisible Hood battles the [[Green Ghost]], a criminal wearing a green outfit and hood over his face who is responsible for several robberies, and who is seemingly invulnerable to bullets. The Invisible Hood unmasks the Green Ghost as two men using identical costumes -- a lawyer named Ward, and Jack Gray -- one of whom fired at the other with blanks, making it seem bullets could not harm him. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #11 (June, 1940)]

=== March, 1940 ===

  * Joe Hercules, possessing an incredible strength he was born with, has first public case as a modern-day **[[Joe Hercules|Hercules]]**. [Hit Comics #1]
  * A corrupt French Foreign Legion commander Cracket sends a troop of Legionnaires into the desert to die, and after several days without food or water, Tom Corbet is the only survivor. Discovering an oasis with a pool of strange, phosphorescent water, Tom drinks of it and gains great strength and neonic power, enabling him to perform amazing feats, such as matter transmutation, energy blasts, force-fields, heat, and flight, as well as some psychic abilities. Using those powers to become **[[Neon the Unknown (Tom Corbet)|Neon the Unknown]]**, he discovers the plans of a retired millionaire named Morgan Crookes, who has rallied the tribal people of Africa, South America, and Australia together to conquer the world from several secret bases hidden in the jungles of those continents. Neon the Unknown leads a company of the Foreign Legion (who don't recognize him) to destroy these bases, along the way battling the tribal armies, which are equipped with modern planes and armaments. Neon cripples Crookes' army, toppling his plans for world domination. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #1 (July, 1940)]
  * Richard Raleigh, an assistant D.A. in District Attorney Tom Darrow's office in Superior City, becomes the **[[Red Bee]]**, a fighting man assisted occasionally by a trained bee named Michael. The Red Bee saves Darrow's life and helps him bring down Boss Storm, a corrupt political boss who has controlled city politics for decades. //Note: The Red Bee is already known before this story begins. Superior City is located on the Eastern Seaboard, not the Great Lakes area, and thus is not located on Lake Superior as some suggest. The Red Bee drives a red car equipped with an automatic driving device and an alto-gainer (which sends him to a specified upper floor from the street below via a carefully calibrated spring). Michael is likely not a bee after all, but a hornet or wasp, as he is shown stinging a man multiple times without perishing, meaning he didn't lose his stinger; another possibility is that the Red Bee actually has several bees that are each called Michael. The Red Bee may possess some slight telepathic control over bees.// [The Red Bee, Hit Comics #1 (July, 1940)]
  * [[X-5 Super-Agent]] begins adventures. [Hit Comics #1]
  * [[Jack and Jill Doe]], super sleuths, begin adventures. [Hit Comics #1]
  * [[Casey Jones]] begins adventures. [Hit Comics #1]
  * [[Douglas Strange]], Scotland Yard agent, and his twin brother [[Rodney Strange]], former boss of a London gang, begin adventures together as the Strange twins. [Hit Comics #1]
  * [[The Old Witch]], a teller of weird tales, begins adventures. [Hit Comics #14]
  * [["Prop" Powers]], an aviator, begins adventures. [National Comics #1]
  * [[Sally O'Neil]], policewoman, begins adventures. [National Comics #1]
  * [[Kid Dixon]], a prize-fighter, begins adventures. [National Comics #1]
  * Jock Kellogg, an English playboy in London, loses his wealth but gains a magic cloak handed down to him by his ancestor, the great wizard Merlin. Using it, he becomes the world's greatest sorcerer, **[[Merlin the Magician]]**. [National Comics #1]
  * **[[Wonder Boy]]** comes from the vacuous depths of outer space and has first public case. [National Comics #1]
  * [["Pen" Miller]], the cartoonist detective, begins adventures. [National Comics #1]
  * [[The Kid Patrol]] begin adventures. [National Comics #1]
  * Black Condor arrives in New York City for the first time during his travels around the world, where he makes a vow to fulfill his pledge to Father Pierre to be a force for good in a world beset by evil. //Note: The text states that the Black Condor's appearance is the first time the people of New York City saw a man flying through the city streets.// [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #3 (July, 1940); "The Secret Origin of the Black Condor," Secret Origins v2 #21 (December, 1987)]
  * The Spider is framed for kidnapping Thomas Andrews, controlling stockholder of Mercury Realty Corporation, causing share prices to plummet. Suspecting Andrews of faking his kidnapping, the Spider demands the ransom money even as he learns that Andrews' stockbroker is buying shares at a cheap price, then distributes the half-million dollars to the stockholders who lost money on the Mercury shares. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #3 (July, 1940)]
  * The Clock's secret identity of Brian O'Brien is discovered by gangsters, who tell Capt. Kane about it, so Kane arrests Brian on suspicion of being the vigilante, until Brian's name is cleared when Pug Brady arrives dressed as the Clock. [The Clock, Crack Comics #3 (July, 1940)]
  * March 22-25: In a Midwestern town called Glen Valley, an old shopkeeper named [[Uncle Sam (Samuel Smith)|Samuel Smith]] who speaks out against a terrorist group called the Black Legion is found by the spirit of Uncle Sam, who joins with him to gain a physical body and fight injustice as **Uncle Sam**, possessing super-strength, invulnerability, super-speed, and occasional mystical powers, such as the ability to understand all languages. The Black Legion terrorizes Glen Valley, shooting down several citizens while riding motorcycles equipped with machine-guns. The shopkeeper Samuel, thought to have gone crazy by his neighbors for dressing up like Uncle Sam, soon proves useful when he rounds up all the members of the Black Legion in town for the police. That evening in a migrant camp on the outskirts of the western town of Everytown, USA, an old man named Ezra Smith speaks out against the rise of the Purple Shirts, a fascist group led by a man called Scar, assisted by another named Snyle, and secretly run by Andel Cobra, who hopes to topple the U.S. government by capitalizing on dissatisfaction caused by the Great Depression. After Smith is murdered by Snyle, his young grandson [[Buddy Smith]] (a boy with strawberry blond hair) flees and is found by Uncle Sam, who asks him to be his assistant. From their hidden fortress in Box Valley, the Purple Shirts plan to overthrow the U.S. government using tanks and armaments secretly supplied by Gatch Gozan, agent of Nazi Germany. After the Purple Shirts kidnap President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and bring him back to their fortress, Uncle Sam discovers their location from Snyle, who was shot by Scar for being weak, and allows himself to be led inside while Buddy gets help from the U.S. Army. Uncle Sam appeals to the patriotism of several American Purple Shirts, who begin fighting the German Purple Shirts, allowing Uncle Sam to rescue the president while army troops arrive to topple the organization. Uncle Sam take in Buddy Smith as his foster son, settling down in Everytown, and the two spend much of their time traveling around America. //Note: As National Comics #2 indicates, Uncle Sam cannot be photographed unless he wants to be. The Uncle Sam story in National Comics #20 indicates that Uncle Sam is Buddy Smith's actual uncle, indicating that Buddy's grandfather Ezra Smith may be this Uncle Sam's father, making his true name Samuel Smith. This explains why Uncle Sam was given custody of Buddy after his grandfather's death.// ["The True Story of Uncle Sam," National Comics #5 (November, 1940); Uncle Sam, National Comics #1 (July, 1940); "The Coming of Uncle Sam," Secret Origins v2 #19 (October, 1987)]
  * March 23-25: The 10-foot-tall, super-strong lumberjack **Paul Bunyan**, still as youthful as he was 50 years earlier when he became a legend in the logging communities of the north with his giant blue ox **Babe** at his side, moves to the Northwestern United States and gets a job with the North American Timber Co. In his first adventure, Paul stops a rival timber company's plan to flood a populated valley, and he is promoted to chief foreman. [Paul Bunyan, National Comics #1 (July, 1940)]

=== April, 1940 ===

  * An ordinary, timid electrical lineman named Tom Dalton is electrocuted by 10,000 DC volts, then shocked back to life by 10,000 AC volts, causing him to gain super-powers that include magnetism, super-strength, and telescopic vision. He uses those powers to become the fighting **[[Magno (Tom Dalton)|Magno]]**, the Miracle Man. In his first public case, he foils the plans of German agents to capture an American ship and destroys a German U-boat. //Note: Tom Dalton gains his super-powers sometime prior to this story. Dalton adjusts the force of his magnetism by closing his hands on induction coils on his wrists, either pulling at metal objects or effectively flying by pulling himself toward larger metal objects. Dalton's boss and fellow lineman is Mike Harvey, and they work for Atlas Electric Company, sometimes called Acme Electric. Magno is mobile and works from town to town, but his adventures are in the vicinity of Chicago, Illinois.// [Magno the Miracle Man, Smash Comics #13 (August, 1940)]
  * The Red Torpedo discovers and destroys a German submarine base secretly built beneath New York Harbor and run by Baron Krieg. //Note: Sometime after this story, Jim Lockhart (the Red Torpedo) apparently breaks off his engagement with Peggy Norse, who is never seen again.// [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #4 (August, 1940)]
  * Neon the Unknown frees all the prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp, then leads them on a march to Berlin, where he confronts Adolf Hitler himself and forces him to sign a peace pact. //Note: Dachau is called Rachaw, Germany is called Dunland, and Adolf Hitler is called Radolf, so these are all obvious pseudonyms used in the story for real-world places and people. It is obvious from world history that Hitler broke the peace pact and found some way to keep Neon the Unknown from ever reaching him again.// [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #2 (August, 1940)]
  * The Invisible Hood encounters the Golden Dragon, a Chinese warlord who kidnaps relatives of munitions manufacturers in order to gain munitions for his millions of followers in China ready to follow him in his plan to conquer the world. The Invisible Hood captures the Golden Dragon and frees two prisoners: Dan, the nephew of munitions king Thomas Clark, and Mr. Harper's niece Joyce Harper, who has been in the Golden Dragon's custody for two years after her kidnapping and hypnotized into playing the role of his Chinese servant, Luan. //Note: While the Invisible Hood is obviously inspired by the Shadow of Earth-1, the Golden Dragon is likely inspired by the Shadow's arch-enemy, Shiwan Khan.// [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #13 (August, 1940)]
  * April 22-24: A master criminal known as the Asp announces the murder of his victim, wealthy jewel collector Peter Payne, ahead of time and manages to kill him despite his police protection. After the Clock discovers that the Asp poisoned Payne a day before his death, he and his assistant Pug Brady lay a trap for the Asp, and Pug shoots and kills the Asp in self-defense. //Note: The Asp's modus operandi is very similar to the Joker when he first appeared in Batman #1 (Spring, 1940).// [The Clock, Crack Comics #4 (August, 1940)]
  * April 22-24: The Black Condor frees a distant land from control by Mount Doom, a dormant volcano controlled by Sihn Fan, who hopes to one day control the world, and which is equipped with super-scientific equipment supplied by a criminal scientist named De Graf. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #4 (August, 1940)]
  * April 24-25: Langford "Happy" Terrill, star reporter for New York City newspaper //The Daily Globe//, volunteers as part of the crew for Prof. Styne's experimental strato-balloon in order to get the story of traveling into the stratosphere for his paper. But when the balloon enters a cosmic storm, Happy volunteers to close a faulty automatic valve. But on his way to fix it, Happy is stopped by the engineer, Roger Cliff, whom Happy accuses of wanting the balloon to get caught in the storm. After a brief fight, Happy checks the valve only to find that its wires have been purposely crossed. Suddenly, the balloon enters a strange field, and Happy is struck by a bolt of lightning as well as an explosion of electricity from the valve. Stunned, Happy falls from the balloon and instinctively uses his newfound super-powers to save his life and the balloon itself as **[[Ray|the Ray]]**, appearing only briefly as Happy Terrill to the crew before going missing. Meanwhile, inside the balloon Cliff is electrocuted at the same moment and gains super-powers of his own, becoming [[Dark|the Dark]], although he doesn't confront the Ray for another 38 years. The Ray possesses the powers of traveling along light beams, magnetism, magnetically-based super-strength, teleportation, and even some powers to transform objects. It's possible that the Ray's powers are only limited by his imagination, although he is weakened by darkness and regains his powers through external light. In the Ray's first case, he retrieves an explosive gas formula invented and tested by Prof. Styne during the stratospheric experiment, which was stolen by gangster Anton Rox. //Note: A newspaper places this story in April. Happy's editor is named Steve Hine, though on Earth-2 his editor's name is Cory. The full name of the newspaper Happy works for begins with "The Daily..." but is not named until it is called The Star for the first time in Smash Comics #24, and for several issues afterward; later it is called The Daily Globe in Smash Comics #39, which is the most likely full name of the newspaper. It is also possible that Happy worked for The Daily Globe only on Earth-X, but worked for The Star while on Earth-2. Happy Terrill's first name has also been spelled as Lanfor, but the accepted spelling is Langford.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #14 (September, 1940); The Ray, Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #1 (Summer, 1978)]

=== May, 1940 ===

  * Red Torpedo fights his opposite number, a pirate called the Lone Shark (later known as the [[Black Shark]]) who uses an advanced submarine called //the Shark//, and apprehends him after a battle beneath the sea. //Note: Although he is not identified as a German, the Black Shark is known to be a paid spy for the Nazis.// [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #5 (September, 1940)]
  * The Spider battles a foreign mad scientist named Dr. Corsica, who has invented a toxin that supposedly grants great strength, but whose test subjects are all women, all but one of whom die during the experiments. //Note: The last test subject is an unnamed redheaded woman who may have gained super-strength at this time, though it remains unknown if Corsica's toxin injection actually worked. In the very next case, the Spider displays unusual strength allowing him to snap a rope, indicating that he may have used Dr. Corsica's toxin on himself after seeing the redhead's great strength.// [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #5 (September, 1940)]
  * Investigating the crime spree of a murderous masked crook called the Jay Bird, who is able to defy gravity and fly, the Clock discovers that the Jay Bird is able to swoop in on his victims by dangling from a very long, strong cable attached to a plane flying overhead. The Clock and his assistant Pug Brady capture the Jay Bird for the police. [The Clock, Crack Comics #5 (September, 1940)]
  * Doll Man battles and defeats Doctor Python, the so-called master of minds, a mad scientist who collects the heads of brilliant men and somehow preserves the brain, enabling them to work for him. [The Doll Man, Feature Comics #36 (September, 1940)]
  * Neon the Unknown rescues famous British explorer Sir Humphrey Walker from a lost land, a prehistoric jungle island beneath the ice caps at the North Pole that is populated by savages. The two decide to keep the lost land a secret. //Note: This prehistoric land in the Arctic is undoubtedly the same land later visited by the Invisible Hood, as seen in Smash Comics #19.// [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #3 (September, 1940)]
  * After the Philippines officially gains its independence, and American troops leave, Imperial Japan sends in Yiffendi, a supposed rebel leader, to stir up trouble so that Japanese soldiers can march in and take over in the name of peacekeeping. Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith arrive and provide assistance to Filipino soldiers, who manage to topple Yiffendi and his followers, granting the Philippines freedom once more. //Note: In real history, plans for the Philippines' independence were put on hold by World War II until 1946, but Earth-X history is somewhat different.// [Uncle Sam, National Comics #3 (September, 1940)]

=== June, 1940 ===

  * Denny Colt has first public case as **[[the Spirit]]**. //Note: Denny Colt, the Spirit, exists on Earth-X because reprints and original stories featuring the character later appeared in Police Comics, and the Spirit is referenced as a crime-fighter along with Blackhawk and Plastic Man in the Human Bomb story in Police Comics #35.// [The Spirit Section, June 2, 1940]
  * **The Voice** has his last known case. [Feature Comics #37]
  * After the [[Kite Men]] attack New York City from above with powerful bolts of electricity, the Black Condor battles them but is captured and hypnotized by mad scientist [[Karlo Klug]] into leading an attack on Washington, D.C. There, Black Condor revives from the spell when he is attacked, and he manages to defeat the Kite Men, discovering that their unnamed leader is a white-bearded dwarf. //Note: With this story, the Black Condor remains in the United States.// [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #6 (October, 1940)]
  * Neon the Unknown stops an invasion of America from the nation of Kampfland, who use the Trans-Atlantic Bridge -- a bridge joining America with Europe, known as the greatest engineering feat of mankind -- to march troops toward America. After halting the soldiers' advancement by destroying one section of the bridge, Neon forces the leaders of Kampfland to sign a peace treaty with the leaders of the USA, before repairing the bridge and allowing American tourists to drive to Europe in peace. //Note: The so-called "Bridge of Peace" was probably torn down not long after this story and used to build war supplies.// [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #4 (October, 1940)]
  * Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith discover artificial floating islands that turn out to be a secret mobile Japanese base for spying on the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet. When an attack on the west coast begins, Uncle Sam tows the islands toward the California coast, bringing them into close enough range for the Navy's coast artillery to bomb and destroy them. [Uncle Sam, National Comics #4 (October, 1940)]
  * The Ray battles a disfigured mad scientist called Cadava, who causes destruction to part of New York City with a powerful beam that causes buildings to crumble. Cadava and his assistant Soo Choo are drowned, while the Ray saves the kidnapped Diane, Cadava's one-time fiancée before he was disfigured. The Ray uses his powers to help rebuild the shattered towers of New York City. [The Ray, Smash Comics #15 (October, 1940)]
  * June 20: Brian O'Brien (the Clock) perfects a non-lethal weapon called the paralyzer, while his assistant Pug Brady perfects a phosphorescent liquid that glows only when a violet ray light is applied to it. After a green-skinned member of the Skull Gang breaks into Brian's apartment, they use the inventions to trail the crook back to the Skull Gang's headquarters, where the Clock and Pug capture the leader and all the members. [The Clock, Crack Comics #6 (October, 1940)]

=== July, 1940 ===

  * Darrel Dane is sworn in as a special detective of the New York Police Department in order to help investigate a series of bombings of stores and factories, which turn out to be the work of toy-maker Kurt Killdor. [The Doll Man, Feature Comics #38 (November, 1940)]
  * **[[The Ace of Space]]** (Ace Egan) begins adventures, battles the Slogons. [Feature Comics #38]
  * In his first public case, [[Quicksilver (Max Mercury)|Quicksilver]] the Laughing Robin Hood battles a mad scientist named Von Lohfer, who places half of the New York City Police Department under his hypnotic control using a hypno-chemical, then used them in a revenge scheme against industrialist J.B. Rockland by having them wreck every building and factory he owns. Quicksilver uses his amazing super-speed and acrobatics to stop the hypnotized officers, save Rockland, and capture Von Lohfer. //Note: Quicksilver's origin has never been revealed; though we know he is also called Max Mercury, this is likely a stage name he used when he was a circus acrobat. His real name has not been revealed, but it might be Max Crandall. Quicksilver also has a strong knowledge of chemistry, indicating that his origin may be chemical in nature.// [Quicksilver the Laughing Robin Hood, National Comics #5 (November, 1940)]
  * Barry Moore, a talented character actor in film, disguises himself as a Chinese man to fight crime as **[[the Scarlet Seal]]**. [Smash Comics #16]
  * Spotting his old enemy the Black Shark kidnapping a water-breathing woman on the sea floor, the Red Torpedo trails him into a huge cave deeper in the ocean than he'd ever gone before. After he's attacked by a giant lobster-like monster, the Red Torpedo is saved by three [[Mermazons]] (mermaid Amazons), who bring him back to the crystal citadel of Merezonia. The ruler, [[Klitra|Queen Klitra]], tells the Red Torpedo about her enemy, the King of the Caverns, who seeks to enslave the Mermazons. Meanwhile, the Black Shark captures the Torpedo's submarine and delivers it to the King of the Caverns, who orders the Black Shark to use it to smash Merezonia's crystal walls. The Red Torpedo regains his craft by short-circuiting it with huge electric eels before the Black Shark can reach the city, and he captures his foe. Klitra boards his ship and shows the Red Torpedo a weak spot in the cavern to invade the home of King of the Caverns, allowing the Torpedo to capture him. Leaving the king in Klitra's custody, the Torpedo returns to the surface with the bound Black Shark. //Note: This story and subsequent stories indicate that the Black Shark is very easily able to escape from jail.// [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #7 (November, 1940)]
  * Brian O'Brien (the Clock) is forcibly recruited by a hooded gangster called the Devil, leader of gang of thieves called the Robbers from Hades, who uses a chemical solution to keep his gang members in line by making them experience extreme heat that can only be relieved by the gang leader. Pug Brady comes to the Clock's rescue, and the Devil and his gang are all killed, while the Clock figures out a cure for himself just in time. [The Clock, Crack Comics #7 (November, 1940)]
  * The Spider begins using //the Black Widow//, his powerful, silent, missile-like, super-fast, bulletproof vehicle feared by all when it roars down the street. The Spider is also shot several times and patched up by Doc Horton. //Note: The Spider's chauffeur is first called Chuck in this story, though he was previously called Harry; thus his name may be Chuck Harry.// [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #7 (November, 1940)]
  * New York City is afflicted with a plague of madness, randomly affecting people over several days and causing several deaths and much destruction. Neon the Unknown discovers that the madness is caused by a dust dropped by a plane overhead. Tracking it back to its source, he discovers a secret Nazi base in Nova Scotia, Canada, and destroys the laboratory producing the fear dust. A scientist creates an antidote, and Neon cures everyone still afflicted with madness, then destroys the rest of the fleet attacking the East Coast. ["A Metropolis of Madmen," Hit Comics #5 (November, 1940)]
  * After a string of unusual disappearances of planes, buildings, and battleships, Kent Thurston (the Invisible Hood) learns from his friend Prof. James the truth. A year earlier, during an expedition, his colleague Prof. Hill discovered the jeweled case of Ra Tutkamen, which was reputed to nullify and reverse gravity on any object, causing it to float off into space. But Dr. Robb murdered Hill in order to steal the artifact, and has been using it in this latest string of large thefts. The Invisible Hood travels to Robb's island to confront him, and Dr. Robb dies while trying to escape, destroying the jeweled case in the process. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #16 (November, 1940)]
  * July 18-19: The Ray battles [[Bela Jat]], a Hindu mystic with several magical powers, including creating a physical double of himself out of thin air. Bela Jat attempts to take revenge on Police Commissioner Healy, the district attorney, and the judge who were the three men responsible for sending him to prison seven years earlier, but the Ray saves their lives and battles his henchmen, the giant Shimego and the dwarf Gar. Commissioner Healy saves the Ray by throwing a knife into Bela Jat's back, killing him. //Note: After this story, the Ray resumes his civilian life as Happy Terrill, reporter for the Daily Globe.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #16 (November, 1940)]
  * Paul Bunyan captures a group of German soldiers when they parachute into the Northwest, intent on establishing a military base for use in a future strike against the U.S. //Note: This story firmly establishes that most (if not all) of Paul Bunyan's adventures in National Comics take place in the present.// [Paul Bunyan, National Comics #5 (November, 1940)]
  * In the Southwestern USA, the Black Condor battles the Yaho, a giant clay statue brought to life through a supernaturally endowed amulet means by two members of the nearly extinct Waquo Indian tribe, who seek revenge on the white man for driving them out of their land. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #7 (November, 1940)]

=== August, 1940 ===

  * Bruce Blackburn first becomes **[[the Destroying Demon]]**. [Feature Comics #39]
  * Red Torpedo lures the Black Shark into a duel in order to stop a German raid on a British ship called the //Glory//. [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #8 (December, 1940)]
  * The Black Condor battles a group of thinking machines called the Spinning Death, invented by and given artificial intelligence by the Asian mad scientist Lung Woe, who is killed by the original thinking machine. The Spinning Death replicates itself and begins attacking American cities, killing thousands until the Black Condor stops them by their only point of weakness. //Note: The Spinning Death machines resemble the Daleks of Doctor Who; thus, surviving Spinning Death machines might also be connected to the artificial intelligence that took over the Nazi Empire in the late 1960s and replaced Nazi officials with androids under its control.// [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #8 (December, 1940)]
  * Baron Hoff sets fires on almost every dock in New York City, causing a massive fire that circles Manhattan, which acts as a distraction so that he can fly into the city on his Magno-Gyro and rob a large bank. Quicksilver fights the fire by throwing special gas capsules of his own invention at them, then stops Baron Hoff with the help of a newsboy. [Quicksilver, National Comics #6 (December, 1940)]
  * Trailing a criminal gang out west, Doll Man discovers a hidden village populated by Puritans who have lived there for over 200 years without contact from the outside world. Doll Man defeats the gang of modern-day criminals after they take over the town, and leaves them to face Puritan justice. [The Dollman, Feature Comics #39 (December, 1940)]
  * The Red Bee battles a midget mad scientist called Kulak, who equips his murderous men with masks and electrified swords and belts, and who presumably dies when the hotel he uses as a headquarters collapses during his fight with the Red Bee. ["The Swords of Death," Hit Comics #6 (December, 1940)]
  * The Ray battles and helps capture a clarinet-playing musician named Stradivous, who has the power to entrance people with his music and is causing ship captains to sink their ships by playing his clarinet over the radio. [The Ray, Smash Comics #17 (December, 1940)]
  * August 17: A mad scientist named Fritz Cardif, operating from a glass fortress on the vast reaches of unexplored desert, terrorizes America with his invisible ray, which can ignite any explosive from a distance, and which he has used to destroy several coastal forts from afar. When troops are sent to capture him, he destroys all means of attack -- whether infantry or bombing planes -- before they can even come near him. Neon the Unknown vows to stop him and reaches Cardif's fortress, where Cardif succeeds in temporarily canceling out Neon's neonic powers and capturing the hero. Tying Neon to a rocket, he launches it toward Washington, D.C., intending to destroy both Neon the Unknown and the Capitol in one fell swoop. But Neon escapes as his powers are restored, and he sends the rocket back to Cardif's fortress, destroying it and presumably killing Cardif and his men. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #6 (December, 1940)]
  * August 18-19: Dethroned crime czar "Snoop" Carone employs a super-strong, invulnerable, and dim-witted giant from Mongolia called Stuporman to retake the underworld by having him murder his rival, Scallio. Investigating, the Clock and Pug Brady discover Carone is behind the murder, and when he confronts the gang leader, the Clock battles Stuporman on a rooftop and tricks him into leaping off the roof by dodging at the last second, causing Stuporman to electrocute himself on high-tension wires before falling to his death. [The Clock, Crack Comics #8 (December, 1940)]

=== September, 1940 ===

  * Bruce Blackburn appears as **the Destroying Demon** for the last time. [Feature Comics #40]
  * **Lee Preston's** last adventure. [Crack Comics #9]
  * The Red Torpedo rescues Dr. Freiheit, a leader of an opposition group against the Nazis in Germany. [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #9 (January, 1941)]
  * Doll Man stops and exposes a sabotage ring operating on the East and West Coasts. [The Dollman, Feature Comics #40 (January, 1941)]
  * The Ray uncovers a plot by a female crook named Miss White and seven dwarfs who used to have a Vaudeville act to loot a gold shipment from a train. After the seven dwarfs kill Miss White so they won't have to share the loot with her, the Ray destroys them and their train wrecking machine with a blast of power. [The Ray, Smash Comics #18 (January, 1941)]
  * Four Lamas in Tibet combine their mystic mental power to cause the peaceful President Karla of a Central European country to go to war. Neon the Unknown brings the president around the world to find the location of the four Lamas, based on how strong their hold is on him. After a mental battle of wills between Neon the Unknown and the four Lamas over several hours, the Lamas' heads literally explode from the strain. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #7 (January, 1941)]
  * Uncle Sam discovers that the Germans are secretly invading America using a fleet of giant underwater destroyers called sub-tanks, which are able to crawl across the ocean floor, thus evading detection. Rallying people on Long Island, he and a group of men from Montauk, New York, fight off the invasion and destroy the fleet. When the soldiers pledge to restore democracy to their own nation, Uncle Sam lets them return home, since there is no state of war between the United States and Germany. ["Uncle Sam Leads the Way," National Comics #7 (January, 1941)]
  * Magno battles an unnamed mad scientist in a facility hidden in a swamp, who has transformed several young men into fanged half-men he uses as slaves while keeping several older men prisoner. Magno discovers that his electric current can restore these half-men back to normal, and once he frees the prisoners, he destroys the facility. [Magno, Smash Comics #18 (January, 1941)]
  * September 1-2: The Spider is captured by the police after he is thought to have bombed a tailor shop. Chuck busts the Spider out of jail with the //Black Widow//, the Spider's missile-like vehicle, and the Spider leads the police to the real bomber, clearing his name. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #9 (January, 1941)]
  * September 14-16: In Big City, Station UXAM radio announcer Dave Clark adopts the identity of **[[Midnight]]**, originally a radio show character, when he learns that the Carleton Construction Company has been building with inferior concrete, causing first an apartment building and then the Tri-State Dam to collapse. As Midnight, wearing a business suit, hat, and a mask, he brings Morris Carleton to justice and decides to keep up his mystery-man act. Midnight also meets Rod Reilly briefly at Carleton's party. //Note: According to Secret Origins v2 #28, Big City is New York City. Midnight wears reversible suits so he can change into the black-sided suit at a moment's notice. The Secret Origins story also states that Dave Clark spent most of the 1930s traveling around the U.S. and making money as a bare-knuckles boxer before becoming a radio announcer. Dave Clark's boss is station owner Mr. Beale.// [Midnight, Smash Comics #18 (January, 1941); "The Secret Origin of Midnight," Secret Origins v2 #28 (July, 1988)]
  * September 15-16: The Invisible Hood battles and captures [[Doctor Moku]], a man in a hooded red cloak who uses the so-called "scarlet death" to make obedient zombies out of wealthy men. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #18 (January, 1941)]

=== October, 1940 ===

  * Doll Man joins the U.S. Army Reserve as Darrel Dane and saves President Roosevelt from an assassination attempt by Nazi spies. //Note: Since Darrel Dane is not shown in the army after this story, he is most likely in the U.S. Army Reserve rather than a regular U.S. Army recruit.// [The Doll Man, Feature Comics #41 (February, 1941)]
  * Ace of Space's adventures end as he joins the Army Air Corps. [Feature Comics #41]
  * After the Red Torpedo helps aid England during the Battle of Britain, the Germans use the Black Shark as a hired spy to capture him, but the Red Torpedo escapes. [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #10 (February, 1941)]
  * Jim Slade, a press photographer for the //Daily Press// (also called the //Evening Star//), is the mystery-man **[[Tor the Magic Master]]** (also called **Tor the Magician**), who various magic powers, including hypnotism, levitation and flight, illusion, shape-changing and stretching, and matter creation and transmutation, among others. After his first few adventures, he begins uttering backwards spells, giving him nearly unlimited magical abilities, but requiring him to always use backwards magic from that point on. He also sometimes uses a crystal ball for divination. Traveling as a press photographer to cover crime and fifth columnist activity, he dons a tuxedo and red cape and wears a mustache as Tor the Magic Master. A possible love interest is a red-haired reporter named Lucy Stone. In his first known case, Tor travels to the South American nation of Amazonia, where he crushes a fifth columnist ring in that country, then brings back photographs for his newspaper. [Tor the Magic Master, Crack Comics #10 (February, 1941)]
  * Neon the Unknown smashes an anti-American bund run by fifth columnists in the United States. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #8 (February, 1941)]
  * The Invisible Hood discovers a prehistoric savage land hidden in the Arctic and kept warm by volcanic streams, where he learns that a criminal named Gordon Stack has enslaved the Cro-Magnon men led by Belthor to drill oil wells. //Note: This prehistoric land in the Arctic is undoubtedly the same land previously visited by Neon the Unknown, as seen in Hit Comics #3.// [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #19 (February, 1941)]
  * Magno stops a plot to transform a commercial airplane from each major American city into a bomber in order to conduct bombing strikes simultaneously across the country. The leader is a white-haired, bearded American man whose identity is unrevealed but who apparently works for the Japanese. [Magno, Smash Comics #19 (February, 1941)]
  * Quicksilver stops a crook named Albert Cruch, who buys an experimental running repeating bomb delivery system so that his gang can loot every bank in New York City. [Quicksilver the Laughing Robin Hood, National Comics #8 (February, 1941)]
  * October 16: Paul Bunyan volunteers for the U.S. Army. Not long after reaching an army camp on the west coast, Bunyan almost single-handedly staves off a Japanese invasion from the sea. [Paul Bunyan, National Comics #8 (February, 1941)]
  * October 16-18: After a two-week crime spree by a criminal posing as the Clock, framing the real Clock for robbery and murder, the police offer a $50,000 reward for his capture. The Clock and Pug Brady are too late to save the next victim, an eyewitness, but Brian O'Brien has Pug electrocute him in order to have an out-of-body experience and communicate with the dead eyewitness in the spirit realm. After being clinically dead for two minutes, Brian is resuscitated by Pug and reveals that he knows former liquor czar Scat Bison is the impostor committing crimes as the Clock. After the Clock contacts Captain Kane of the NYPD, he confronts Bison at his home and extracts a confession, clearing his name. [The Clock, Crack Comics #10 (February, 1941)]
  * October 16-23: A crook impersonates the original Jester and begins a crime spree over a week involving the theft of a box of securities, a million-dollar payroll, a valuable necklace, and a daring bank robbery. Meanwhile, Richard Stanton (Madam Fatal) visits his friend, chemist Prof. Mason, and learns that his son Robert Mason disappeared years ago after a falling out. After Prof. Mason completes a formula for the U.S. government, the Jester imposter arrives to steal it and knocks out Stanton, then kidnaps Prof. Mason for his boss. Stanton awakes, having recognized the Jester as one of Ratney's mob, and visits Ratney while dressed as Madam Fatal. Prof. Mason realizes that Ratney planted Paxton as his assistant to find out when he would finish his experiment, then one of his men impersonated the real Jester in order to pin the blame on him. The real Jester arrives and rescues Prof. Mason with Madam Fatal's help, then escapes before Ratney's men can kill him, but not before Madam Fatal recognizes the Jester from a birthmark on his hand as Robert Mason, Prof. Mason's missing son. //Note: Although the story does not state it outright, it is clear that the real Jester is not a crook after all, but another mystery-man wanted by the police. According to Smash Comics #22, the Jester has been active for several years already. Sometime after this story, Robert Mason passes on the role of the Jester to rookie cop Chuck Lane, who wears a similar but modified version of the costume and uses somewhat different methods.// ["Madam Fatal Meets the Jester, the Man Who Laughs at Death," Crack Comics #10 (February, 1941)]

=== November, 1940 ===

  * Zero, ghost detective, time-travels to thousands of years in the future and battles Loro, Mogur, and other Martians. //Note: These Martians of the far future are human and obviously descended from settlers from Earth.// [Feature Comics #42]
  * Quicksilver stops the bombing of New York City by a group of Fifth Columnist bombers, then hitches a ride back to their Grand Canyon headquarters and destroys it. [Quicksilver the Laughing Robin Hood, National Comics #9 (March, 1941)]
  * Neon the Unknown returns to the French Foreign Legion, revealing that he is really their former fellow Legionnaire Tom Corbet, and that he survived death in the desert to become the famous hero. Neon then discovers a secret tunnel joining North Africa with Gibraltar and stops an invasion of Axis troops on British-held Gibraltar, then destroys the tunnel. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #9 (March, 1941)]
  * November 5-6: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected for an unprecedented third term in office. Presidential candidate Horatio Brown, defeated in the election, is given an offer by the Devil himself to become dictator if he steals the defense plans for the Panama Canal. The next night Brown does so and packs to move into his own island kingdom. ["The Man Who Sold His Country," Uncle Sam Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * November 15: Midnight battles a sorcerer named [[Chango the Magician]], an old Vaudeville star with real magic who uses Pig Latin spells to control objects and bring them to life, enabling them to flee from their owners and walk, run, roll, or fly into his hands. Midnight finally stops Chango when he steals the U.S. Bullion Depository building, stopping it mid-flight out of Fort Knox. [Midnight, Smash Comics #20 (March, 1941)]
  * November 15: Paul Bunyan is put in command of a special detail of U.S. Army soldiers to intercept an invasion force of 10,000 Japanese soldiers who have infiltrated Canada. Bunyan and his men stop the Japanese invasion through a mountain pass at the Canada-U.S. border, and the enemy forces surrender. //Note: Paul Bunyan leaves the U.S. Army shortly after this story, though how is not explained; possibly he was given an honorable discharge for being well over 35 and thus too old for service, despite his virtual immortality.// [Paul Bunyan, National Comics #9 (March, 1941)]
  * November 14-16: U.S. Senator Tom Wright goes against the wishes of a crooked political boss [[Jaspar Crow]] from Skull Creek, who virtually controls the Senate, when he decides to vote against a bill. When Crow has Wright shot and leaves his dying body on a country road, the Black Condor finds him still alive but mortally wounded and discovers that they are physically identical. Delivering Wright to [[Dr. Foster]], the Black Condor impersonates him and votes against the bill, then learns that Wright has died. Dr. Foster convinces the Black Condor to take Wright's identity, but Wright's fiancée [[Wendy Foster]] (Dr. Foster's daughter) is not informed that the real Wright is dead. Meanwhile, after the Black Condor prevents Crow's men from killing Senator Gibbs, Crow flees the country. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #11 (March, 1941)]
  * November 25-26: When German U-boats begin escaping with stolen munitions from ships in American waters, the Red Bee discovers the men behind the scheme -- Mr. Hanson the owner of Hanson's Munitions Works, and U-Boat Captain Von Storm -- and puts an end to it, preventing the premature outbreak of war. [The Red Bee, Hit Comics #9 (March, 1941)]
  * November 24: The Spider uncovers a plot by his old enemies the Crickets to steal the jewels of a German refugee named Baron Karl Von Ernst, whom they kill with a bomb. Preventing them from stealing the jewels, the Spider confronts the gang leader called the Big Cricket before his men can kill the Spider. The Spider then manages to trap the Crickets to Cobb's Mill, where the police arrive to arrest the whole gang except the leader, whom the Spider personally kills before he can shoot the police. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #11 (March, 1941); Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #12 (April, 1941)]
  * November 24-25: When a locket in an old cemetery in Philadelphia is opened, the spirit of the girl who died in 1777 is released and reborn as **[[Usa the Spirit of Old Glory]]** according to an old prophecy. Usa uses her mystical flag and the torch of liberty (or torch of freedom) against all evildoers, and is alerted to danger whenever her flag droops. In her first case, she stops a female teacher from indoctrinating American children with Nazi propaganda, and shows her the error of her ways by mystically flying her over Nazi Germany to witness the ruin and destruction of the nation and its leader, Adolf Hitler. She later rescues the teacher after Nazi spies seek to kill her for deserting their cause. The next day, Usa saves President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from a Nazi bomb threat as he visits a munitions plant, then saves the //S.S. Althea// from being destroyed by saboteurs, instead ensuring that the Axis mastermind behind all these plots, Otto Fluger, is killed by his own explosives. //Note: Usa is unable to act against anyone hiding behind the U.S. flag.// ["Introducing Usa, the Spirit of Old Glory," Feature Comics #42 (March, 1941)]
  * November 29-30: Darrel Dane (Doll Man) celebrates Martha Roberts' birthday and ends up helping solving the murder of a pet shop owner and helping the owner's daughter Jane recover the treasure of the //Black Albatross//. //Note: This story indicates that Martha Roberts' birthday is on November 29, but this date is tentative.// [The Doll Man, Feature Comics #42 (March, 1941)]

=== December, 1940 ===

  * December 15: The Red Torpedo prevents an invasion of Manila in the Philippines. For the first time, the Red Torpedo's submarine now displays the ability to fly or leap short distances out of the water long enough to act as a short-range bomber. //Note: After this story, the Red Torpedo is switched over to Earth-2.// [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #12 (April, 1941)]
  * In his last known solo case, **Magno** saves an archaeologist named Van Nest from a group of unknown occultists seeking the power of Kali-Hana, the scriptures of ancient, deadly powers from ancient Egypt. //Note: After this story, Magno is switched over to Earth-2.// [Magno, Smash Comics #21 (April, 1941)]
  * After a case in Chinatown involving gun smuggling to Japan, the Red Bee is switched over to Earth-2. [The Red Bee, Hit Comics #10 (April, 1941)]
  * When Senator Tom Wright (Black Condor) attempts to push through a bill granting better conditions to miners, it is defeated thanks to the political machine of Jaspar Crow, who has set himself up in an exploitative mining operation in Pennsylvania. After Crow frames the murder of a foremen on the miners, turning the sympathy against them in the hopes of quelling a possible strike, the Black Condor prevents further bloodshed but fails to capture Crow himself. The mining bill passes after a second vote. //Note: After this story, the Black Condor is switched over to Earth-2.// [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #12 (April, 1941)]
  * Neon the Unknown stops a plot in South America by Nazi fifth columnists who try to use natives to cause disruption and sabotage throughout South American cities. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #10 (April, 1941)]
  * Happy Terrill saves the life of a freckled, dark-haired eight-year-old boy named [[Jack Budworth|Jackie "Bud" Budworth]], who is orphaned when a plane is shot down over the Pacific. The Ray stops a raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by Japanese planes commanded by a pirate called [[Captain Blue]], who wants war in the Pacific in order to create the New Pacific Empire for himself after the U.S. and Japan weaken themselves from fighting each other. After Jackie learns that Happy is the Ray, Happy brings him back to America with him. //Note: Jackie may have already been orphaned before this story, so it wasn't his parents who died in the plane crash but a guardian he didn't have much affection for, since at no point is he ever shown to be grieving for lost parents. Jackie was never given a surname in the comics, and from his next appearance onward, Jackie would be known only as Bud; ergo, we propose his last name to be Budworth. Although Jackie learns the Ray's secret identity in this story, he has forgotten it by his next appearance, suggesting that the Ray used hypnosis powers to make him forget.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #21 (May, 1941)]
  * December 12: Midnight meets [[Gabby (Earth-X)|Gabby]], a monkey given human-level intelligence and the ability to talk through scientific experimentation by scientist Alice O'Day, the culmination of ten years of research. After Alice is killed by criminals who want her formula, Midnight adopts Gabby as his sidekick. At this time Midnight begins using his vacuum-gun, which fires a line of fine silk cord with a suction cup at the end of it. [Midnight, Smash Comics #21 (April, 1941)]

==== 1941 ====

=== January, 1941 ===

  * Zero, Ghost Detective, meets the Reaper (Death). [Feature Comics #44]
  * Rookie patrolman Chuck Lane (the direct descendant of a real court jester) takes ovzer from Robert Mason as **[[Jester (Chuck Lane)|the Jester II]]** in New York City, wearing a somewhat modified version of the original Jester's costume. Unlike the original, the Jester uses no pistol but solely relies on his superb athleticism, including acrobatic feats. The Jester has a keen sense of humor and often announces his arrival by jingling the bells on his costume. Chuck's supervisor Police Inspector Hustace Mulligan has a personal quarrel with the Jester, who constantly mocks him by throwing a rubber ball with a jester's hat and a cartoon face drawn on it, which he later names Quinopolis. In his first case, which takes place on Chuck's first day on the job as a patrolman, the Jester stops a group of crooks who have fooled a wealthy old woman named Mrs. Van Cornish into giving her wealth to them. //Note: This story establishes that the Jester has been around and wanted by the police for several years, though this must apply to the previous Jester, Robert Mason, rather than Chuck Lane himself.// [The Jester, Smash Comics #22 (May, 1941)]
  * January 13: Happy Terrill (the Ray) becomes the guardian of the orphaned Jackie Budworth, nicknaming him "Bud" and giving him a Ray ring that shines a signal light. Bud is kidnapped from his bed and brought to a hidden fantasy land called Elixir, ruled by King Peveral. The Ray arrives and fights off an invasion by a mad ruler named Kulik, who is assisted by Captain Blue. After crashing a flying ship he took, Bud later awakes in his bed; it was all supposedly a dream, although it may have really happened. //Note: This story takes place during the winter, as evidenced by snow everywhere.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #22 (May, 1941)]
  * January 13: Adolf Hitler, frustrated by how such figures as Neon the Unknown have thwarted his plans again and again, consults the last living necromancer in Germany, Damus the wizard. Damus summons Neon the Unknown and has a wizard's battle with him until Neon manages to convince Damus to leave Hitler's service and flee the country. //Note: Adolf Hitler is called Otto Shickler in this story, but Shickler is a thinly veiled version of Hitler.// [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #11 (May, 1941)]
  * January 13: While visiting London, England, Kent Thurston saves James Gotham from a murderer, then visits Gotham Castle with him on the night that Gotham becomes the new owner of his family estate. As the Invisible Hood, Thurston uncovers a plot by Gotham's stepbrother Baxter Slade to kill Gotham in order to obtain possession of Gotham Castle himself and discover there the hidden treasure of Sir Thomas Gotham. During their battle, Slade tumbles off the roof of the castle to drown in the moat below, while James Gotham finds the real treasure and instantly becomes a wealthy man. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #22 (May, 1941)]

=== February, 1941 ===

  * **Rusty Ryan** forms **[[the Boyville Brigadiers]]**, a team of six patriotic young men in flag-inspired costumes. [Feature Comics #45]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Red Torpedo again battles Black Shark, who is paid by Imperial Japan to kill the Red Torpedo, but he defeats him with the help of an unnamed native girl who warns him of the plan. //Note: The Black Shark of Earth-X was previously shown to be a bald man with a goatee, while the Black Shark of Earth-2 is evidently a younger man with a full head of dark hair and a goatee who strongly resembles Black Jack, the enemy of Aquaman; in fact, the timing suggests that the Earth-2 Black Shark becomes known as Black Jack shortly after his last battle with the Red Torpedo and before his first battle with Aquaman later this year. However, the Black Shark seems to be an inventive genius, unlike Black Jack, but it's possible that he simply has an inventor working for him.// [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #13 (June, 1941)]</color>
  * A wave of sabotage sweeps across America, damaging most of the country's arsenals. In Mammoth City, Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith take a stand to prevent the sabotage of Mammoth Arsenal, the destruction of which is intended to be the signal for a German invasion of the United States. [Uncle Sam, National Comics #12 (June, 1941)]
  * The Invisible Hood battles the Crystal Queen and Caglio the magician, who steal the ancient Blue Crystal and use its strange powers to kill people with the Blue Death and fire destructive blasts. But the Crystal Queen and Caglio end up killing each other after arguing over control of the Blue Crystal, and the object is apparently lost in an explosion of her fortress, which the Invisible Hood alone survives. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #23 (June, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, after a political crime lord named Grotoff kidnaps and replaces District Attorney Hawkes, the Red Bee frees Hawkes and the other prisoners, bringing down Grotoff's plans to take control of the Eastern Seaboard's leaders. //Note: The District Attorney is named Hawkes as of this issue, indicating that the Red Bee is now on Earth-2, where he is now based not in Superior City, but possibly Queens, NY.// [The Red Bee, Hit Comics #12 (June, 1941)]</color>
  * February 12: Neon the Unknown exposes a secret pact between Adolf Hitler and Tchebitsky, the leader of the small country of Slovia, to allow Nazi Germany to annex it, and he leads a revolution that ousts Tchebitsky and fights off a German invasion. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #12 (June, 1941)]
  * February 12: After Bud is kidnapped, the Ray rescues him from a crook called the Beetle who uses him to deliver a stolen contract for supplies meant for war-torn China to Long Woo, a Tong leader in San Francisco's Chinatown. //Note: After this story, the Ray and Bud are switched over to Earth-2.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #23 (June, 1941)]
  * February 11-13: After a gang boss called the Crab tries to extort $5-million from New York City and makes good on his threat by killing several policemen in an explosion, Capt. Kane summons the Clock for help. The Clock captures the Crab Gang. [The Clock, Crack Comics #13 (June, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>February 12-13: On Earth-2, the Black Condor investigates the murder of an inventor named Carl Stark by thugs in order to gain a remote-control bomb detonator that they use to destroy several buildings at once with pre-planted bombs. The Black Condor also prevents the Senate from being destroyed in the same way and discovers that the man behind the attacks is U.S. Army General Korn. After his arrest, Korn claims that he was the real inventor of the remote-control detonator and used Stark as his front-man. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #13 (June, 1941)]</color>
  * February 21: Midnight investigates a string of bank robberies by an eccentric old scientist named [[Mortimer "Doc" Wackey]], who uses a formula to turn adults into babies almost instantly. After Midnight and his talking monkey Gabby confront him, Doc Wackey turns Midnight into a baby until Gabby uses an untested antidote to change him back to normal. After Midnight chases down the fleeing Doc Wackey, he offers him a chance to become his partner against crime, and the mad scientist accepts. //Note: Doc Wackey creates several more inventions, including a wrist radio for Midnight and his aides, and the Visoscope, which enables them to view any location. Prior to reforming, Doc Wackey's partner in crime was Prof Porgy, as revealed in Smash Comics #35.// [Midnight, Smash Comics #23 (June, 1941)]

=== March, 1941 ===

  * Chic Carter, crime reporter, has first public case as a mystery-man named **[[the Sword]]**. [Smash Comics #24]
  * Wings Wendall dons a new costume. [Smash Comics #24]
  * **The Scarlet Seal's** last case. [Smash Comics #24]
  * Usa the Spirit of Old Glory foils a plan by Nazi German General Von Roth to attack the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, with an army of German and Fifth Columnist soldiers. [Usa, the Spirit of Old Glory, Feature Comics #46 (July, 1941)]
  * Usa the Spirit of Old Glory assists the FBI to capture a gang of Nazi saboteurs. By this time Usa has taken a job at a large munitions factory, working with several other young women in the shell department. //Note: The FBI man called the chief is most likely Tim Healy, whose Earth-2 counterpart later employs Joan Dale, alias Miss America.// [Usa, the Spirit of Old Glory, Feature Comics #47 (August, 1941)]
  * Merlin the Magician personally presents a huge diamond called the All-Seeing Eye to Prime Minister Winston Churchill for England's war effort. [National Comics #13]
  * **Wizard Wells'** last adventure. [Crack Comics #14]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Red Torpedo again battles the Black Shark, who is working as a pirate for Imperial Japan in the China Seas. With the help of the U.S. Marines, the Red Torpedo destroys the fleet of submarine raiders disguised as whales. [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #14 (July, 1941)]</color>
  * When the great physicist Dr. Albert Einstein is the latest in a string of scientist kidnappings, Neon the Unknown tracks him down and discovers that the scientists have all been abducted by a renegade scientist named Dr. Marko. Working in a remote location on a river island near the Grand Canyon, the scientist are forced to create new gases and war materials to be sold to Germany and Japan. Neon puts a stop to the operation, frees the kidnapped scientists, and arrests Marko and his henchmen, delivering them to the FBI. //Note: In the story, Einstein is called Dr. Enfield, but it is obviously the same man with the same appearance as Einstein.// [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #13 (July, 1941)]
  * The Invisible Hood travels to Panama and is taken to the hidden Mayan city of Tempera, ruled by the tyrant Chac Mool, who overthrew the real ruler Chima and works with Nazi agents planning to blow up the Panama Canal. The Invisible Hood defeats the false ruler and the Nazi agents and restores Chima to the throne. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #24 (July, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>March 13: On Earth-2, the Ray captures a group of Nazi spies led by a circus performer named Vera. //Note: As of this issue, Happy Terrill works for a newspaper called The Star, indicating that this story and those following take place on Earth-2.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #24 (July, 1941)]</color>
  * March 12-14: Doll Man gains a one-time only partner in young Ray Corley, who learns his secret identity and who goes to school with Tommy Roberts, younger brother of his fiancée Martha Roberts. //Note: This story is set in the spring.// [The Doll Man, Feature Comics #43 (April, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>March 12-15: On Earth-2, Jaspar Crow (of Earth-2) hires a man to discredit the Black Condor by masquerading him and causing strife amongst steel workers who go on strike against the horrible conditions Crow forces them to work under. The real Black Condor intervenes and terrorizes Crow into signing a humane labor contract. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #14 (July, 1941)]</color>
  * March 15: Rod Reilly, an idle millionaire playboy, becomes a crime-fighter named **[[Firebrand (Earth-X)|Firebrand]]** in order to take down the crime syndicate that controlled New York City, but the police mistakenly believe that the Firebrand is the leader of the syndicate. The Firebrand is assisted by his manservant, ex-prize-fighter [[Slugger Dunn (Earth-X)|"Slugger" Dunn]], who left the ring to become Firebrand's only confidant. Rod has recently become engaged to a debutante named [[Joan Rogers (Earth-X)|Joan Rogers]]. Rod's father is wealthy steel tycoon [[Emerald Ed Reilly (Earth-X)|"Emerald" Ed Reilly]], while his mother is unnamed. Firebrand is a top-notch athlete who possesses incredible acrobatic skills and is able to scale a building using suction-cups. Firebrand leaves a flaming torch of justice wherever he strikes against crime. ["Bust-Out in the Big House," Freedom Fighters #12 (January-February, 1978)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>March 15: On Earth-2, Rod Reilly becomes the Firebrand under nearly identical circumstances as his Earth-X counterpart, except that the Earth-2 Reilly has a sister, Danette Reilly. ["Bust-Out in the Big House," Freedom Fighters #12 (January-February, 1978)]</color>
  * March 22: One evening while waiting on the steps of the United States Capitol, Sandra Knight saves her father [[Henry Knight|Senator Harold Henry Knight]] (a former judge) from getting shot by an assassin named Ace Diamond, and calls herself a "phantom lady" while doing so. Modifying a useless black-light ray device sent to her father to create her blackout ray, Sandra decides to start adventuring as a costumed mystery-woman called **[[Phantom Lady (Earth-X)|Phantom Lady]]**, and soon creates a yellow and green costume for herself, as well as equipping the front and the back of a black roadster with blackout rays. Don Borden, a State Department investigator, is Sandra Knight's fiancé. //Note: While the Earth-2 Sandra Knight received a black-light ray from Prof. Abraham Davis, the Earth-X Sandra Knight may have received the invention from a different inventor entirely, possibly having some connection with the Black Condor's black light ray. Sandra Knight of Earth-X may have a cousin named Ted Knight, but he never becomes a mystery-man like his Earth-2 counterpart, who becomes Starman. Phantom Lady's blackout ray is originally called a black lantern. Sandra Knight is trained in Jiu-Jitsu.// ["Carnival of Death," Freedom Fighters #15 (July-August, 1978); "Catch a Falling Starman," All-Star Squadron #41 (January, 1985)]

=== April, 1941 ===

  * The full membership of the [[Blackhawks]] ([[Blackhawk]] of Poland, [[Stanislaus Drozdowski]] of Poland, [[Kazimierc "Zeg" Zegota-Januszajtis]] of Poland, [[Chuck Wilson]] of Texas, [[Hans Hendrickson]] of Holland, [[Andre Blanc-Dumont]] of France, [[Olaf Bjornson]] of Sweden, [[Boris Zinoviev]] of Russia, and [[Ian Holcomb-Baker]] of England), a flying squadron comprised of international pilots, begin first chronicled adventures. [Military Comics #1]
  * Aviators [["Loops" McCann]] and [["Banks" Barrows]] of the Red Dragon Squadron (Loops and Banks) begin adventures in China. [Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * Captain "Wild" Bill Dunn and Boomerang Jones pilot the //Blue Tracer//. [Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * [[Archie Atkins]], desert scout, begins adventures in Africa. [Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * [[Col. Shot]] and [[Slim Shell]] (Shot and Shell) begin adventures in the U.S. Army Corps. [Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * Jerry Noble, son of Senator Walter Q. Noble, accompanied by his pet eagle Sam, has his first public case as the [[Yankee Eagle]], assisting the U.S. Navy as a Naval Intelligence agent. The Yankee Eagle has the unique ability to communicate with and influence all animals, allowing him to train them to perform complicated actions such as performing the duties of the entire crew of a large Navy ship. Left independently wealthy after his mother's death, Jerry has a ranch stocked with several free-roaming animals outside of San Diego and has a servant called Chalky, who acts as his all-around assistant. [Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * Millionaire playboy [[Del Van Dyne]], fired from a pilot's job at Universal Airlines in New York City, decides to fight for the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.), since America hasn't yet entered the war. Meanwhile, five criminals (safe cracker [[Butch O'Keefe]], cattle-rustler [[Hank]], forger [[Peewee]], con man [[Slick Ward]], and pickpocket [[Gramps]]) escape from prison and try to commandeer Van Dyne's plane, only to find themselves on a trip to England, during which time he convinces the ex-convicts to fight the Nazis instead of returning to America where they'd be marked men. Impressing R.A.F. Col. Rider by stopping a German bombing raid with a single stratoliner, the six impudent men demand their own squadron with their own uniforms. Given a difficult first assignment and expected to fail, the men capture attack plans from Gen. Von Plump at his headquarters in Ostend, then return with only one casualty when Peewee is shot in the back. Col. Rider gives the men the promised uniforms (with prison stripes) and promises support, and they form an independent "Foreign Legion of the air" called the [[Death Patrol]]. Since they take the most difficult assignments the R.A.F. gives them, they often need new recruits as replacements for those who have fallen. //Note: It's possible that some of the Death Patrol's later adventures only take place on Earth-12, as they become progressively more cartoonish and unbelievable.// [Death Patrol, Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * [[Capt. Foghorn]], a privateer like his ancestor John Paul Jones, begins adventures on the four-masted schooner Albatross, a deceivingly advanced ship built in the form of an old schooner, and even equipped with a Q-boat; the ship's crew are all children, and the Captain's officers are first mate Bob Wayne, bosun Dick Martin, and Marmaduke "Freckles" Van Weyden. [Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * In his first published case, the Firebrand fights crooks with a protection racket aimed at window-washers and steeplejacks who murder anyone with a sniper rifle who doesn't agree to pay them. He soon discovers the protection racket is merely used as a front so that a thug working for a diamond smuggler named Baron Von Hanson can take a murdered window-washer's job and case offices where valuable items are kept. Firebrand forces the Baron to donate the stolen jewels to a war relief fund, then flee the country. Firebrand is wrongly assumed by the police to be the head of the protection racket. //Note: Firebrand has been active prior to this case and is believed by police to be a criminal. Slugger Dunn is also referred to as Slugger Shea on another occasion.// [The Firebrand, Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * Daniel Dyce finally completes a tunnel leading out of the prison he's in after two years imprisonment, but stays and becomes the mystery-man known as **[[711]]**, secretly operating both in and out of the prison via the secret tunnel. [Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * [[Eagle Evans]], flier of fortune, along with his sidekick photographer Snap Smith begin adventures. [Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * [[Steele Kerrigan]], a 20-year-old prisoner, is pardoned by the Governor after he stops a prison riot while serving his third year at State Prison (after being tricked by a gang to act as a lookout when he was 17), and becomes an amateur crime-fighter. [Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * Newly elected D.A. Bill Perkins has first public case as the mystery-man known as **[[the Mouthpiece]]**. [Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * [[Dick Mace]], a young American detective, begins adventures. [Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * U.S. Navy Lt. Roy Lincoln of Washington, D.C., a chemist and the son of a famous explosives expert, assists his father to create a new super-explosive called 27-QRX. After German agents kill his father, Roy ingests the explosive capsule to keep it from them, inadvertently gaining invulnerability and the power to cause explosions with his hands, and accidentally destroys the lab, killing the four Nazi agents. Roy creates an invulnerable suit from the same kind of fibro-wax used to house the explosive capsule, which is equipped with an air-lung allowing him to swim underwater, and becomes the mystery-man known as **[[Human Bomb|the Human Bomb]]**. Discovering that the German Consul is behind the murder of his father, he uses his explosive power to kill him. //Note: Roy Lincoln is engaged to be married to Jean Caldwell, a strawberry blonde woman. Roy is a reserve member of the U.S. Navy. The Human Bomb later uses his ability to create explosions from his hands to propel himself through the air with giant leaps.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2 at Wake Island, Red Torpedo battles and captures Black Shark again, who uses a powerful //Bat Plane// while working alongside Japanese soldiers. [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #15 (August, 1941)]</color>
  * Test pilot [[Tex "Spitfire" Adams]] begins adventures in his Spitfire. [Crack Comics #15]
  * Neon the Unknown finds mines placed in New York Harbor that destroy war supplies heading to England. He soon discovers and destroys an underwater Nazi base with an arsenal large enough to invade the United States. //Note: This is probably the same rebuilt base that the Red Torpedo destroyed one year earlier in Crack Comics #4.// [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #14 (August, 1941)]
  * An epidemic of blindness plagues factories with defense contracts all over America, and the FBI discovers that all or most of the men hired to replace them are members of the Black Legion, the fifth columnist organization. Uncle Sam also discovers that military personnel are also going blind. Uncle Sam meets with President Roosevelt and the Congress to come up with a plan to fight the Black Legion. Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith find the Pacific Island base used by the Black Legion and discover their plans to make not only all of America's armed forces blind but the entire country in preparation for a massive invasion. Uncle Sam causes all the Black Legion workers to become blind, and the U.S. Army Air Corps brings down all the planes over the Atlantic before they can drop the blindness powder on the country. Then everyone afflicted with blindness is cured by an antidote created by a team of government doctors. The Black Legion in America is rounded up and arrested, and President Roosevelt publicly thanks Uncle Sam. [Uncle Sam, National Comics #14 (August, 1941)]
  * Paul Bunyan leaves the North Woods and begins traveling throughout the Western United States, briefly getting a job as a cowhand at a ranch in the Colorado foothills before moving on to other adventures. [Paul Bunyan, National Comics #14 (August, 1941)]
  * April 12: In her first case as a costumed mystery-woman, Phantom Lady saves a bomb inventor named Raphael from Wenner, a man who planned to steal his uranium explosive and sell it to foreign powers. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * April 12: Wealthy young socialite Carol Vance Martin becomes **[[Wildfire]]**, the mistress of flame. Wildfire can fly and create a sheath of flame around her, and she is able to command fire and reshape it into various forms, such as a physical hand that can hold people without burning them. Wildfire can also throw precise flame-darts, create an impregnable shield of flame, and even create small flame-beings that can act independently. In her first known case, Wildfire saves a new munitions plant used for U.S. defense after it was set on fire by saboteurs. Learning that they work for the Green Masked Bund, Wildfire tracks them down to their headquarters, where she rescues the kidnapped Senator Raymond, who has been forced to sign a letter advocating that the U.S. refuses aid to other democracies. //Note: Wildfire has appeared in public before this story, since she is already known by name.// ["Introducing Wildfire," Smash Comics #25 (August, 1941)]
  * April 12: The Spider foils the plans of a Nazi saboteur named Hansel, who sets off five explosions in a week to sabotage the city's work on a tunnel under the river in New York City. The Spider escapes a murder attempt by Hansel and his men, and kills Hansel before the police arrive. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #15 (August, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>April 10-13: On Earth-2, the Black Condor again battles Jaspar Crow, this time in Miami, Florida, when Crow uses a freighter line to smuggle guns to revolutionaries in Cuba, and Crow is arrested and charged for his crimes for the first time. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #15 (August, 1941)]</color>
  * April 12-19: "Eel" O'Brien, a criminal wanted in eight states and a top safe-cracker, is shot and doused with acid at the Crawford Chemical Works in Mammoth City. Fleeing into the swamp and the mountains, Eel is found by a monk named Brother Willis and brought to a mountain retreat called Rest-Haven, where he soon discovers that his body has become completely pliable and elastic, allowing him to stretch and become any shape at will. Deciding to turn over a new leaf and fight crime with his powers, Eel finds a rubber costume and becomes the mystery-man known as **[[Plastic Man]]**. In his first case, he captures his old gang, led by Skizzle Shanks. [Plastic Man, Police Comics #1 (August, 1941)]
  * April 21: The Jester nabs a group of Nazi saboteurs after they target the Navy yard. [The Jester, Smash Comics #25 (August, 1941)]
  * April 22: **USA the Spirit of Old Glory** has her last case of this era before transferring her magic to Joan Dale to become Miss America. [USA, the Spirit of Old Glory, Feature Comics #48 (September, 1941)]

=== May, 1941 ===

  * Having an hour to spend before a meeting, //Daily Star// reporter Joan Dale falls asleep at the foot of the Statue of Liberty and wishes for the power to do good; then the spirit of liberty herself (which is actually USA the Spirit of Old Glory) grants Joan the magical power of transmuting anything or anyone (including herself) and several other magical powers, such as teleportation and telekinesis, and the ability to imbue personalities into objects she's transformed. Using her powers to defend an old man, Joan is called **[[Miss America (Joan Dale)|Miss America]]** by the old man, inspiring her to become a mystery-woman, originally operating in an ordinary red dress. Investigating the bombing of a factory in Newark for her paper, Joan uses her powers to find the saboteurs and learns that the factory owner Mr. Grost is the leader of the saboteur gang, but when she warns FBI Inspector Jeff Healy, she's not taken seriously. Taking matters into her own hands, she prevents another bombing, then forces Grost to deliver a signed confession to the FBI. //Note: Unlike the Post-Crisis version of her origin involving Project M, Miss America's Pre-Crisis origin and powers are clearly magical in nature, and she is even referred to as a girl magician. Secret Origins v2 #26 places this story in May.// [Miss America, Military Comics #1 (August, 1941); "The Secret Origin of Miss America," Secret Origins v2 #26 (May, 1988)]
  * Quicksilver uncovers a plot by the leader of the Lansmen (an offshoot of the Black Legion) to create local revolutions across America, beginning in Smithtown, for the eventual purpose of weakening the United States for a German invasion. [Quicksilver the Laughing Robin Hood, National Comics #15 (September, 1941)]
  * After a German bombing blasts off the top of soldier Tad Wilkins' head, the still-living brain of 17th century scientist Dr. Cyrus Smythe is placed in his body by mistake, and he is assumed by the doctors to have amnesia. [Plastic Man, Police Comics #11 (September, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>May 11-12: On Earth-2, Black Condor battles the plans of Jaspar Crow, who hires a killer known as the Ghost-Gun Killer in order to scare the owners of a factory to sell it to him. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #16 (September, 1941)]</color>
  * Doll Man uncovers a Nazi plan to use Devil's Island off the coast of French Guiana as a base for an invasion, and he calls in the U.S. Army Air Force to bomb the island after a Luftwaffe fleet arrives. [The Doll Man, Feature Comics #48 (September, 1941)]
  * Gen. Alfredo Muerte leads a revolution on the Caribbean island nation of Libertad. Rod Reilly, vacationing at his family's estate in Miami, Florida, along with his fiancee Joan Rogers and his father "Emerald" Ed Reilly, flies into Libertad and crushes the revolution by capturing Gen. Muerte and restoring the popular president to power, as well as ensuring that the rebels do not escape with the nation's gold bullion supply. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #2 (September, 1941)]
  * Roy Lincoln brings his father's incomplete notes on the 27-QRX super-explosive to the War Department in Washington, D.C., where he and Major Adams are shot by a German agent in the sub-cellar vault. Before he dies, Adam tells Roy about a threat to national security on Calona Island. As the Human Bomb he follows the assassin and hitches a ride on a submarine to Calona Island, an island that sank fifty years ago. There he discovers a plot to destroy all of America's Atlantic seaports by a Nazi group called the Suicide Squadron, and summons the U.S. Navy to capture the entire U-boat base there. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #2 (September, 1941)]
  * When the Hermese Embassy in Washington, D.C., burns down, killing the ambassador, the tiny Asian nation of Herma blames the U.S. and threatens war. Phantom Lady discovers that the fire was caused by agents of Imperial Japan, who plan to step in and take over Herma in the guise of protecting it from the U.S. Phantom Lady finds and rescues Ambassador Kivoya of Herma, ending the threat of war between the U.S. and Herma. //Note: Imperial Japan is referred to in this story as Kioland.// [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #2 (September, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Red Torpedo again battles Black Shark, who invades the Red Torpedo's South Seas island base with a troop of Japanese soldiers in order to capture the Red Torpedo's craft. The Red Torpedo saves the captured Admiral Gates with the help of his daughter Mary Gates, but is unable to retrieve his craft from the Black Shark. [The Red Torpedo, Crack Comics #16 (September, 1941)]</color>
  * Much of America's defenses are blown up by a fantastic weapon -- a mobile cannon with a long-range able to accurately bomb its targets from afar -- invented by a brilliant Nazi scientist whose name remains unknown. Uncle Sam puts a stop to the cannon and arrests the scientist. [Uncle Sam, National Comics #15 (September, 1941)]
  * Neon the Unknown discovers that Nazi agents are planting bombs in the basements of skyscrapers in New York City, intending to blow up all major buildings as a prelude to invasion. Neon confronts Adolf Hitler himself a second and final time as he prevents him from carrying out his plans. //Note: Adolf Hitler is called Herr Schickler in this story. After this story, Neon the Unknown is switched over to Earth-2.// [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #15 (September, 1941)]
  * After Dr. Roberts is kidnapped by Nazi agents, who seek the secret of his new ray, which he's building for the War Department, Doll Man tracks down the kidnappers and rescues Dr. Roberts. ["The Red Light of Doom," Doll Man Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>May 11: On Earth-2, while investigating the assassination of a government official in Washington, D.C., the Ray uncovers a Nazi spy ring that has its own poison gas factory. The Ray smashes the ring and brings its leader to justice. [The Ray, Smash Comics #26 (September, 1941)]</color>
  * May 11: The Invisible Hood discovers a plot by a Nazi spy named Zergon (disguised as Lt. Jergens of the U.S. Navy) to steal the //Waterbug//, an advanced submarine invented by Prof. Saxon, in order to sell it to Nazi Germany. After the Invisible Hood saves the lives of Prof. Saxon and his daughter, Jane Saxon, they take the original model of the //Waterbug// into battle with the stolen current //Waterbug//, destroying both it and Zergon and his men. //Note: After this story, the Invisible Hood is switched over to Earth-2.// [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #26 (September, 1941)]
  * May 10-12: Plastic Man gets a job with the Mammoth City Police Department under Captain Murphy when he captures both a Canadian opium-smuggling ring and Senator A.J. Simms, who is involved in the ring. [Plastic Man, Police Comics #2 (September, 1941)]
  * The Jester captures a young man named Terry Hills after he stages the elaborate murder of his father using radio in order to receive an early inheritance of $10-million. //Note: After this story, the Jester is switched over to Earth-2, as indicated by Chuck Lane's superior officer Inspector Mulligan being renamed Detective McGinty as of the Jester story in Smash Comics #27.// [The Jester, Smash Comics #26 (September, 1941)]

=== June, 1941 ===

  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Red Torpedo invades the Black Shark's island stronghold and retrieves his stolen craft, which he flies to a secret island. [The Red Torpedo Vs. the Black Shark, Crack Comics #17 (October, 1941)]</color>
  * [["Chop-Chop"]] (Weng Chan, a.k.a. Liu Huang, a.k.a. Wu Cheng) joins the Blackhawks, first as a cook and later as a pilot. [Military Comics #3]
  * Justin Wright becomes **[[Just 'N' Right]]** and has a **single case**. [Doll Man #1]
  * The Spider battles an invasion of the Green Horde, green-skinned monster men from beneath the earth in Manhattan, armed with green rays and a green gas that causes many people to become paralyzed. Defeated by the horde, the Spider is brought to the underground world to meet the leader, who claims that his brain controls his men and that he can blow up every surface city at the touch of a button. The Spider overcomes the leader and chokes him to death, causing all the invaders to collapse and die, and he reverses the paralyzing green gas. //Note: After this story, the Spider is switched over to Earth-2.// [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #17 (October, 1941)]
  * Doll Man and Dr. Roberts foil a Nazi fifth columnist plan to ship faulty aluminum ore to aircraft manufacturers. [The Doll Man, Feature Comics #49 (October, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Neon the Unknown smashes the super-technology gathered by mobster Scar Lioni, boss of Rackets, Inc. In retaliation, Lioni has his scientists invent an anti-Neon device to neutralize the hero's powers, and after 14 days they come up with an idea. In another week, they finish building it. Using it, they magnetically pull Neon there from afar and make a failed attempt to kill him. Neon captures Lioni and his gang before they can flee the country. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #16 (October, 1941)]</color>
  * Firebrand uncovers a plot to swindle poor Oklahoma farmers out of their land, which holds large pockets of oil beneath them, all to supply the Axis with millions of barrels of oil. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #3 (October, 1941)]
  * After Don Borden is kidnapped by a Nazi spy nest, Phantom Lady frees him and helps subdue the spies after being framed for the kidnapping herself, and Don begins to notice her resemblance to Sandra Knight. //Note: After this story, Sandra Knight begins wearing a green domino mask whenever she becomes Phantom Lady, in order to disguise herself a bit more now that she is better known; this is, of course, a retcon from All-Star Squadron, which pictured her first in a green mask and then in green-tinted goggles.// [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #3 (October, 1941)]
  * Darrel Dane is briefly framed for murder by a couple of confidence men with a fake oil field, and even Martha Roberts and Dr. Roberts think he's guilty, until Doll Man clears his name. ["Black Gold," Doll Man Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * Darrel Dane battles a costumed thief called the Black Gondolier. //Note: Martha Roberts is again referred to as Darrel Dane's fiancée in this story.// ["The Black Gondolier," Doll Man Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * A famous Hollywood director named Emil Von Blon receives the help of the U.S. Navy to film a massive naval battle supposedly for a patriotic movie. Uncle Sam's sidekick Buddy Smith gets a job reading a script in a submarine, while Uncle Sam observes while aboard one of the battleships. But the battle ends up being absolutely real, sinking the //U.S.S. Idaho// and the //U.S.S. Oregon//. The spirit of George Washington himself warns Uncle Sam that this supposed movie battle is a real invasion of America, and Uncle Sam uncovers Nazi agents supposedly hired as extras for the film take over several ships, while a German fleet several miles out in the Atlantic awaits the signal to join the invasion. Uncle Sam and Buddy each work to stop the invasion, but after it is all over, the general public still believes it was all just special effects done for a movie. //Note: After this story, Uncle Sam is switched over to Earth-2.// [Uncle Sam, National Comics #16 (October, 1941)]
  * June 9: Roy Lincoln is invited to the White House, where President Roosevelt asks him to become the head of a new naval chemical research laboratory in Washington, D.C. There, the Human Bomb discovers that the President has been blackmailed by the threat of a purple mist. The Human Bomb tries to save the President when a group of armed Nazi assassins enter the White House, hidden by the purple mist. The Human Bomb helps navigate the President's limousine through the purple mist outside, which is full of hidden German tanks and war vehicles, until President Roosevelt is safe from the assassination attempt. Then the Human Bomb returns and stops the rest of the Nazi strike force. //Note: Roy Lincoln's fiancée, seen here for the first time, is Jean Caldwell.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #3 (October, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>June 9: On Earth-2, the Ray uncovers a Nazi laboratory built below the site of a more recently built U.S. Army base and stops the Nazi agents, who are armed with advanced tanks and an atom-smasher ray. [The Ray, Smash Comics #27 (October, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>June 9: On Earth-2, after his scientist friend Dr. Bond is kidnapped on the streets of Metropolis, the Invisible Hood discovers that a mastermind called the [[White Wizard]] has constructed a fantastic underground city below Metropolis and, with the help of three other kidnapped scientists, has been building advanced weaponry in order to seize control of Metropolis. Although the Invisible Hood saves the four scientists, stops the villain, and escapes from the underground city before it explodes, the White Wizard himself escapes by car. //Note: The fact that this story is set in the city of Metropolis, home of Superman, indicates that the Invisible Hood is now on Earth-2.// [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #27 (October, 1941)]</color>
  * June 9: Wildfire saves the town of Pleasantville from the Fire Cult and its leader the Fire-Devil, masked men who set the town ablaze in an effort to extort $50,000. [Wildfire, Smash Comics # (October, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>June 5-10: On Earth-2, the Black Condor again battles Jaspar Crow, who forces a harsh new tax bill for American Indians to go through, causing strife. The Black Condor learns that Nazi agents have provided arms to the Indians and incited them to violence, and he stops the riots, exposes the German agents, and defeats the tax bill. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #17 (October, 1941)]</color>
  * June 9-10: Doll Man battles a winged super-villain called [[Vulture (Aylmer)|the Vulture]], who uses a compact energy machine to fly, guiding his flight with mechanical wings. The Vulture is a short man named Aylmer who owes money to the mob and goes on a theft spree in New York City, and later strikes dead his father, a pet shop owner. Doll Man saves Martha Roberts, who is kidnapped by the Vulture when she wears the valuable Ronker Diamond, but the villain escapes. //Note: Although they were shown to be engaged as early as the Doll Man's origin story, this story implies that Darrel and Martha are merely dating, and that he hasn't yet popped the question.// ["The Vulture," Doll Man Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * June 22: German troops successfully smash into the Soviet Union. //Note: In Earth-X history, the Nazis were able to largely defeat the Soviet Union before the United States became involved in the war. Because the war on the Eastern Front was much less difficult, the Germans were able to better defend the Western Front.// ["Uncle Sam Wants You," All-Star Squadron #31 (March, 1984)]
  * June 22: While battling Nazi spies on Earth-2, Uncle Sam suddenly has an urge to create a vortex that allows him to return from Earth-2 to Earth-X. There, he learns that the Nazis have been more successful in their war plans on Earth-X, and that there are no powerful masked mystery-men to defend freedom. //Note: Uncle Sam is unaware at this time due to a Nazi occult spell that he is from Earth-X, and he either does not remember the handful of mystery-men that still exist on Earth-X, or does not take them seriously since they have no powers.// ["Uncle Sam Wants You," All-Star Squadron #31 (March, 1984)]
  * June 24: After Captain Murphy issues Plastic Man an ultimatum to bring in another criminal or get kicked off the Mammoth City Police Department, Plastic Man brings in pinball racketeer Baldy Bushwack. //Note: After this story, Plastic Man is switched over to Earth-2, as indicated by his change of costume, which replaces the black left side of his costume with the same red color as on his right side, as well as by Plastic Man's relocation to New York City in subsequent issues.// [Plastic Man, Police Comics #3 (October, 1941)]
  * June 22-26: Senator Northrup Bristol hires Curwen, a famous sculptor, to create realistic masks allowing his hired men to impersonate more than half the U.S. Senate, at the same time kidnapping all those senators, so he can pass a slavery bill conscripting children as young as twelve to a government camp for a year's worth of training. Senator Mason speaks out against the bill, and a mob of angry parents marches on Washington, D.C. But Bristol's uniformed men, the Steel Helmets, fight off the crowd. When President Roosevelt refuses to sign Bristol's slavery bill, he has the President replaced by a double, Curwen himself. Soon, the Steel Helmets arrive to pick up all the kids, including Uncle Sam's ward Buddy Smith from their home in Everytown. Buddy escapes and tells Uncle Sam that the camps are selling kids like slaves for work in steel mills and the like, but the children of America continue to be lawfully rounded up by the Steel Helmets to go to Bristol's camps despite the public being against it. Senator Mason, the only man in Washington brave enough to stand against Bristol and his men, is assassinated on the Senate floor. Uncle Sam goes to President Roosevelt and is puzzled when Roosevelt's dog Fala doesn't recognize him. A man named Joe made into an Uncle Sam impostor by Curwen has the real Uncle Sam arrested. Eventually, the real Uncle Sam overcomes his double, and while battling the Steel Helmets, Uncle Sam has a vision of the future Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and immediately decides he must prevent it. Bristol accidentally kills himself with dynamite in an attempt to kill Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith. The two then discover the imprisoned President Roosevelt and the missing senators in a hidden room exposed by the dynamite. Uncle Sam confronts the false President Roosevelt at a steel mill as he makes a speech calling for war, and he and members of the U.S. Marine Corps arrest Curwen and the Steel Helmets, freeing the nation's children. //Note: This story and the others in this issue take place on Earth-X, according to All-Star Squadron #32.// ["Forged Faces," Uncle Sam Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941); "Crisis on Earth-X: The Prequel," All-Star Squadron #32 (April, 1984)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>June 28: On Earth-2, Hourman retires from crime-fighting and takes a leave of absence from the Justice Society of America. [All-Star Squadron Annual #3]</color>

=== July, 1941 ===

  * Two mad scientists, Dr. Link and Dr. Blink, gather the brains of 50 of the worst killers in the world and use them to somehow transform a two-bit hood into a Frankenstein-like powerful figure intended to be the greatest criminal the world has ever seen -- [[King Killer]]. King Killer turns against his creators and leaves to go on a crime spree, then forms a gang that builds fortified cities for him in the desert. After crime seems to disappear in America for several weeks, King Killer uses his influence in Washington to make the desert county of Rex, containing his Rex City (his capital) and other cities, into its own state. Then criminals are able to escape into Rex to avoid prosecution for their crimes. When Uncle Sam learns that the bank president is being kidnapped, he impersonates him and allows himself to be kidnapped and taken to Rex himself. Uncle Sam then prevents King Killer from emptying the Everytown Prison. A mob of American citizens and police then march on Rex City, and Uncle Sam personally battles King Killer, his physical match, destroying Rex City in the process. After King Killer takes Buddy Smith as a hostage, Uncle Sam manages to overcome King Killer, who is imprisoned in a specially constructed, solid steel prison in Everytown, but King Killer vows his revenge. //Note: This story takes place in the summer.// ["The King of Crime," Uncle Sam Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith travel to the Panama Canal, where they prevent the assassination of President Vargas of Panama, then fight alongside the people of Panama and U.S. soldiers against German soldiers called the Black Guard on the ground. Uncle Sam prevents the canal from being bombed by mines, then stops a Black Guard ship flying the U.S. flag from destroying the canal. As the U.S. Navy arrives at the Panama Canal to fight off the remaining Black Guard ships, the ship Uncle Sam and Buddy are on explodes, and they manage to land in the ocean miles away but unharmed. They soon reach a tropical island with a population of 20,000 ruled over by failed 1940 U.S. presidential candidate Horatio Brown, who tells them the Panama Canal will soon be destroyed thanks to his betrayal, but after Buddy shames Brown, he decides to stop the German plans himself to redeem himself. Taking a plane, Brown reaches Panama before Uncle Sam and Buddy, and destroys the hut containing the switch set to explode the Panama Canal, killing himself and the German spies within. [Uncle Sam, National Comics #17 (November, 1941); "The Man Who Sold His Country," Uncle Sam Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * The Steel Helmets under the control of Senator Northrup Bristol stage a coup and manage to overcome Uncle Sam himself after the people lose faith in him due to a newspaper smear campaign, causing him to lose all his strength. Killed in a bomb, Uncle Sam is sent to a heavenly realm where he meets the spirits of other wartorn nations and is determined to return to Earth to fight back. Meanwhile, Bristol puts himself in the White House and controls the United States as a dictator. Buddy organizes a group of kids into an Uncle Sam Club, causing Uncle Sam to slowly regain his strength as he fights to return to the earthly realm. Upon his return, the Steel Helmets mount an army to fight him, and Buddy gathers true Americans to fight for Uncle Sam in Everytown. During the battle, Uncle Sam's full strength returns, and the Steel Helmets are overcome. Bristol is shot by his own men after he tries to escape. ["The Steel Helmets," Uncle Sam Quarterly #1 (Autumn, 1941)]
  * After Rod Reilly develops a new combat bomber capable of taking off or landing on only 50 yards of field, two Nazi agents working for exiled German consul Wilhelm Strasse steal it. Rod becomes the Firebrand and retrieves his plane, leaving a group of German spies and soldiers to be captured by the U.S. Navy. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #4 (November, 1941)]
  * Phantom Lady saves Don Borden and the English ambassador from two Nazi spies named Kurtz and Heine, who sabotaged a dirigible before a test flight with a time bomb and replaced the American crew with Germans. //Note: Don Borden sees Phantom Lady face to face and does not recognize her as Sandra Knight, indicating she has already begun using a green mask, even though it's not pictured in this story. Phantom Lady is switched over to Earth-2 after this story.// [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #4 (November, 1941)]
  * Roy Lincoln discovers a liquid that, upon exposure to his explosive hands, becomes charged with deadly explosive power like nitro-glycerine. Later, as he and his fiancée Jean Caldwell take a plane to Havana, Cuba, to meet her parents, Roy spots a German U-boat approaching a tanker. Becoming the Human Bomb, he leaps out of the plane and destroys the torpedoes the U-boat fires on the tanker, then disables the U-boat, allowing the tanker to tow it to Havana where the crew are taken prisoner. //Note: After this story, the Human Bomb is switched over to Earth-2.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #4 (November, 1941)]
  * Darrel Dane (Doll Man), Martha Roberts, and Dr. Roberts travel to Java, where they learn about plans for a secret Axis sneak attack at the U.S. military base in Manila, Philippines, from Dr. Roberts' disgraced old friend Grimm. After Grimm is murdered to silence him, Doll Man stops the attack from occurring, and despite his past traitorous actions Grimm is honored as a hero. //Note: After this story, Doll Man, Martha Roberts, and Dr. Roberts are switched over to Earth-2.// [Doll Man, Feature Comics #50 (November, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Red Torpedo prevents the Black Shark from seizing a sunken treasure found in a wreck off Cocos Isle. The Black Shark briefly turns against the Japanese after they break a bargain with him, then offers to capture the Red Torpedo but is instead captured by him along with a Japanese admiral. //Note: The Black Shark escapes custody again after this story.// [The Red Torpedo and the Black Shark, Crack Comics #18 (November, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, the Spider battles and captures the Crow, a homicidal maniac with a genius-level mind and the most feared man of the underworld. //Note: The Spider decides to take over the Crow's criminal operations at this time, ostensibly to turn them toward something good, but this has a corrupting effect on the Spider.// [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #18 (November, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, **Neon the Unknown** has his last solo adventure as he discovers a giant gun cannon operated by the Germans on an island in the Caribbean that has been accurately shelling vital facilities in the U.S. Destroying the giant gun, Neon delivers the Nazis directly to the U.S. Army at Washington, D.C. [Neon the Unknown, Hit Comics #17 (November, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, the Invisible Hood travels to the Pacific coast to investigate a so-called "invisible raider" that lurks in the clouds and has destroyed several coastal defense factories. After witnessing several planes emerge from the clouds to kidnap two U.S. Navy planes, the Invisible Hood follows them into a huge Zeppelin dirigible containing an armada of German planes. Discovering that kidnapped defense chief Roy Mason is kept prisoner there, the Invisible Hood rescues him and the papers he was carrying to Washington, then fights his way out and destroys the Zeppelin. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #28 (November, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, while investigating a small plant, Senator Tom Wright (Black Condor) learns it is run by his old foe Jaspar Crow. The Black Condor soon discovers an underground factory where several scientists kidnapped over the last few months have been hypnotized and put to work making disintegration rays for a masked figure called the Leader. Wright frees the scientists just before the Leader orders them to be electrocuted, but too late to stop a submarine equipped with a disintegrator from leaving. Crow escapes, leaving an underling to be unmasked as the Leader, while the Black Condor flies out and drops bombs on all the submarines equipped with disintegration rays before they can destroy U.S. coastal facilities for Nazi Germany. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #18 (November, 1941)]</color>
  * **X-5 Super Agent's** last adventure. [Hit Comics #17]
  * Germany attempts a five-point invasion of England by sea and air one night, and six members of the Death Patrol stop the invasion at each of the entry points. [Military Comics #4]
  * July 8: Miss America foils a gang of fifth columnists when they try to forcefully recruit a young German-born American Hugo Wolsak. [Miss America, Military Comics #2 (September, 1941)]
  * July 9: Midnight and Gabby the talking monkey battle a group of criminals armed with a liquefying ray, who use it to loot Big City while causing destruction. [Midnight, Smash Comics #28 (November, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>July 9: On Earth-2, after training for several months, Madam Brawn and her Crime School for Delinquent Girls take over the protection racket in New York City currently run by Lefty Goon. Plastic Man, having gone undercover as Eel O'Brian to join Lefty's mob, prevents Madam Brawn's girls from being killed in a tank attack, but ends up warning them enough to wipe out Lefty's entire gang when they attack. Plastic Man lets Madam Brawn and her girls go after warning them to leave the city, but Madam Brawn vows to take her revenge. //Note: "Windy City" is most likely referring to New York City rather than Chicago, since Plastic Man's Earth-2 cases all take place in New York City, and New York City's Columbus Circle is pictured on the splash page of this story.// ["Crime School for Delinquent Girls," Police Comics #4 (November, 1941); Plastic Man, Police Comics #5 (December, 1941)]</color>

=== August, 1941 ===

  * Stormy Foster becomes **[[the Great Defender]]** after gaining strength through his own Super-Vitamin. [Hit Comics #18]
  * Rip Graves becomes **[[the Ghost of Flanders]]**. [Hit Comics #18]
  * **[[The Sniper]]** (identity unknown) has first public case, based in Europe. [Military Comics #5]
  * **[[Margo the Magician]]**, daughter of the famous stage magician the Great Presto, has first public case. [Uncle Sam Quarterly #2]
  * [[Don Q]], a spy, begins adventures. [Crack Comics #19]
  * Miss America foils a forgery scheme, then as Joan Dale threatens to quit her reporter job at the //Daily Star// after receiving no respect for her work from the editor, despite being personally thanked by FBI agent Jeff Healy. [Miss America, Military Comics #3 (October, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, the Red Torpedo again battles the Black Shark, who makes a deal with the Nazi high command to destroy the Red Torpedo, and manages to capture him using a device that causes the South Seas waters to freeze into icebergs around the Torpedo's craft. The Black Shark throws the Red Torpedo into a volcano on his island stronghold, but the Torpedo escapes, finds a supply of dynamite, and throws it into the volcano in order to destroy the base. The Red Torpedo then captures the Black Shark upon his return to the island, delivering him into the custody of the British Navy. [The Red Torpedo Vs. the Black Shark, Crack Comics #19 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Rick Raleigh meets Valerie Ransome, who helps him take down a gang of crooks as the Red Bee. Rick and Valerie begin dating, and Valerie quickly becomes pregnant. [The Red Bee, Hit Comics #19 (January, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, while on a case in Texas, the Ray's kid sidekick Jackie "Bud" Budworth suddenly remembers that Happy Terrill is the Ray. [The Ray, Smash Comics #29 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, a mad scientist invents a machine that allows solid objects to pass through steel walls, using it to derail and rob a subway train (causing many deaths) and then a bank vault with the help of his gang. After they capture rookie patrolman, Chuck Lane, he becomes the Jester and captures them all, stopping their crime spree. [The Jester, Smash Comics #29 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Phantom Lady exposes Captain Ortega of Parador as a Nazi spy and stops him before he can sink a U.S. Navy ship. //Note: As of this story, Sandra Knight and Don Borden seem to merely be dating, instead of being engaged as in earlier stories, indicating that Phantom Lady is now on Earth-2.// [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #5 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * A wave of sabotage hits the Eastern Seaboard, destroying the Sampson Powder Plant with explosives, and trapping hundreds of people in flooded subway tubes. The Nazi saboteurs frame the Firebrand by leaving his signature torch outside a bombed powerhouse. After he discovers that the saboteurs have kept his friends the Drakes prisoner in their own beachfront home and used it as their base, the Firebrand captures the saboteurs for the police, though he is still thought to be their leader. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #5 (December, 1941)]
  * August 6-7: The U.S. Naval base on Guam Island is bombed by Japanese bombers, while Japanese warships shell Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At a special meeting of Congress, Uncle Sam warns Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, not to leave the Eastern Seaboard unguarded in order to protect the West Coast. Suspecting a trick, Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith travel to Maine, where they soon discover that a fleet of German ships are about to invade America through New England. Uncle Sam calls Stimson for reinforcements, but only a few fighters can engage the enemy air force providing cover for the fleet. Portland, Maine, is raided by bombers, while German soldiers parachute into Boston, Massachusetts. Uncle Sam and Buddy use shrewd tactics, including setting fire to oil atop the water, to stop the invasion in its tracks and finally force the Germans to surrender. [Uncle Sam, National Comics #18 (December, 1941)]
  * August 7: Midnight once more battles Chango the Magician, who briefly hypnotizes Gabby to work for him, and temporarily turns Midnight into a small dog, before escaping once more. ["The Return of Chango," Smash Comics #29 (December, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>August 7: On Earth-2, Plastic Man once again fights Madam Brawn and her girl gang when they rob the ocean liner //Argo//, but after they knock him out with an explosive, they mold his features into that of Eel O'Brian and intoxicate him with marijuana, causing him to go on a public shooting spree as the Eel before coming to his senses. During their final confrontation, Madam Brawn is killed when she falls onto a spike on the docks, and Plastic Man reveals that he is really Eel O'Brian before she dies. [Plastic Man, Police Comics #5 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>August 7-8: On Earth-2, the Invisible Hood discovers that a solid stone fortress called the Fortress of Doom, built by King Damba on a Caribbean island, is serving as a German base to attack passing British ships. Fighting a German agent known only as the Baron, the Invisible Hood escapes from the Fortress of Doom moments before British bombers destroy it. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #29 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>August 7-9: On Earth-2, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders a complete halt to all foreign assistance, including war relief, and dismantles all U.S. Army encampments. Investigating, the Black Condor discovers that the president has been replaced by a German-controlled double while First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is on vacation. After Wendy Foster is kidnapped, the Black Condor tracks her down and rescues the real President Roosevelt, then takes over a German warship off the coast preparing for an invasion and uses its radio to relay the president's message to revert all his changes. The Black Condor then delivers the warship, along with the captured Nazis, and returns both President Roosevelt and Wendy to America. Tom Wright receives the Congressional Medal of Honor since his first investigation revealed that the president had been kidnapped. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #19 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>August 16: On Earth-2, Roy Lincoln accompanies his fiancée Jean Adams to a diplomat's ball in Washington, D.C. There they witness the murder of Colonel Stanford, an important figure in the diplomatic service. Trailing the killers as the Human Bomb, he discovers that the real Stanford is still alive and being kept a prisoner by a ring of Nazi spies in order to learn his secrets, while the man who was killed was an impostor meant to make everyone think Stanford was dead rather than kidnapped. The Human Bomb rescues Stanford and calls in the police to round up the espionage ring. //Note: The name of Roy Lincoln's fiancée is now Jean Adams, not Jean Caldwell, indicating that he is now on Earth-2.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #5 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * Buddy Smith invents the Bumble-Boat, a type of submersible craft, and Uncle Sam helps him build the first prototype. After testing it for the U.S. Navy, Uncle Sam and Buddy use the Bumble-Boat to evade new submersible German battleships invented by a disgruntled American inventor whose ideas had earlier been ridiculed by the Navy. Thanks to their ability to go underwater, the German battleships evade the Navy fleet and nearly launch an invasion of the Atlantic Coast, before Uncle Sam and Buddy use the Bumble-Boat to torpedo the battleships, weakening them before the Navy can finally destroy them. Thanks to their success, the Navy buys Buddy's plans and soon builds a small fleet of Bumble-Boats. //Note: This story takes place in late August, about a week before school starts.// ["Raiders of the Deep," Uncle Sam Quarterly #2 (Winter, 1941)]

=== September, 1941 ===

  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, **Red Torpedo** has his last solo case as he battles the Black Shark for the last time. [Crack Comics #20]</color>
  * Midnight battles Prof. Craft, inventor of a disintegrating ray that he uses to kill public officials so he can replace them with his own men made their doubles through plastic surgery. Midnight saves the lives of Mayor Smith, District Attorney Kane, and Police Chief O'Donner. //Note: After this story, Midnight, along with Gabby and Doc Wackey, are switched over to Earth-2. Although it is not stated in this story, Prof. Craft is an Axis agent.// ["The Case of the Yehudi Murder," Smash Comics #30 (January, 1942)]
  * Quicksilver stops the plot of Dr. Henry Strugheim, a scientist working in plastics research who has created metal-eating bugs brought to life by heat, which he has sent to sabotage several defense plants, causing widespread destruction of new heavy artillery and bombers used by the U.S. military. [Quicksilver the Laughing Robin Hood, National Comics #19 (January, 1942)]
  * Investigating reports of terrible giants seen in mines, Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith discover Kid-Land, a subterranean world populated by the children stolen by the pied piper of Hamlin centuries ago, who have never grown any older. Buddy helps defend Kid-Land against their enemies in Evil Land, the giants, witches, and goblins banished from Fairy-Tale Land and led by the wicked Witch Queen. Uncle Sam befriends a giant and stops a giant monster kept locked up in a secret chamber for 500 years by the Witch Queen, whom it immediately kills upon being loosed. With a new spirit of peace and cooperation established between Kid-Land and Evil Land, Uncle Sam and Buddy return to the surface to let the miners know it's safe to go back to work. ["War in Kid-Land," Uncle Sam Quarterly #2 (Winter, 1941)]
  * When King Killer escapes from prison, President Roosevelt asks Uncle Sam to capture him, but King Killer provides a distraction from his escape by creating a fake gold rush at Ghost City, where he calls himself Rellik ("Killer" backwards). Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith trail King Killer to Ghost City, where Uncle Sam confronts him, and King Killer seemingly dies in a mine explosion. ["The Return of King Killer," Uncle Sam Quarterly #2 (Winter, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Roy Lincoln is warned by the Black Vanguards to be out of his laboratory by 10 P.M. But when his fiancée Jean Adams arrives unexpectedly just before that time, the Human Bomb tries takes her out of the building before it begins to collapse from a man-made earthquake, and the Black Vanguards, black-clad Nazi agents equipped with flame-guns, arrive in force. The Human Bomb rescues Jean and finds a giant vibrator beneath the laboratory responsible for the earthquake, then traps the Black Vanguards in a vault until the police arrive. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #6 (January, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, a judge paroles Tough Tony, a juvenile member of a gang of tire thieves, into rookie patrolman Chuck Lane's custody at Chuck's request. That night, Tony discovers that Chuck is the Jester and promises not to tell his secret. When the Jester encounters the gang of tire thieves, the leader Dagger Joe assumes wrongly that Tony ratted on him, and Tony decides to help the Jester when the crooks use underhanded methods to fight the mystery-man, such as ganging up on him and slugging him from behind. //Note: This story takes place a year earlier than when it was told, placing it around September, 1941, when the Jester was still on Earth-2. By September, 1942, Tony is no longer known as "Tough Tony" and has fully reformed.// [The Jester, Smash Comics #37 (November, 1942)]</color>
  * Rod Reilly's fiancee Joan Rogers, a volunteer nurse at the Red Cross, discovers that the foreign Dr. Kruger has poisoned an emergency blood reserve at City Hospital with paralysis culture. After preventing the contaminated blood from infecting soldiers at Camp Roberts, the Firebrand saves Joan and Slugger Dunn from Kruger and his accomplices, and Kruger is shot by a hospital guard. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #6 (January, 1942)]
  * September 5: Passing through the Southwest, Wildfire stops a gang of saboteurs armed with freeze guns and saves several oil fields from being set afire. [Wildfire, Smash Comics #30 (January, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>September 5: On Earth-2, the Ray and Bud discover a secret Nazi base beneath a testing field armed with powerful magnetic generators meant to cause the secret test of a new dive bomber to fail. Bud is shot by one of the Nazi agents, and the Ray stops two German agents named Adolf and Von Ribboncounter who escape by plane with the plans for the bomber. The Ray brings Bud to a hospital to recuperate. [The Ray, Smash Comics #30 (January, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>September 5: On Earth-2, Kent Thurston (the Invisible Hood) discovers that his invisible hooded robe has been stolen. Elsewhere, the White Wizard uncovers the secret of invisibility from the stolen robe. Days later, a horde of invisible raiders wearing invisible robes begin a series of raids, causing havoc in Metropolis. Despite lacking invisibility, Thurston confronts the White Wizard and his invisible raiders, managing to destroy all but the original invisible robe, but the White Wizard escapes again. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #30 (January, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>September 5-6: On Earth-2, the Black Condor captures Mysto the Hindu, who is responsible for the thefts of War Department documents and a bank robbery, but the real mastermind, Jaspar Crow, eludes capture. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #20 (January, 1942)]</color>
  * September 20-22: A pall of darkness settles over Washington, D.C., blotting out all light in the city in a black fog. Investigating, Uncle Sam discovers pellets that have been dropped on the city, even as other cities along the Atlantic are similarly struck with the black fog, causing many accidents and a high death toll. After Chicago is bombed with black fog pellets, Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith discover that the Nazi bomber is on Owl Island. Rescued by the U.S. Navy, Uncle Sam uses a weather-control device invented by Prof. Nelson to create an electrical storm first over the black fog-afflicted Denver and San Francisco, freeing those cities. Meanwhile, Buddy stowed away aboard the Nazi bomber and threw black fog pellets inside before bailing out to be saved by Uncle Sam. The German creator of the black fog goes down with the bomber, while German soldiers escape by parachute and are arrested. Later, after all the cities have been freed from the black fog, President Roosevelt thanks Uncle Sam in a public ceremony. ["The Black Fog Mystery," National Comics #19 (January, 1942)]

=== October, 1941 ===

  * [[Hack O'Hara]], a taxi driver, begins adventures. [Crack Comics #21]
  * The Clock meets [[Butch]], a tough-girl sidekick. [Crack Comics #21]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Happy Terrill becomes a war correspondent when he and Bud travel to Syria on assignment. One week later, Happy is seemingly killed by a bomb, while Bud is taken in by a local girl who nurses him back to health. Later, Happy recovers in an underground passage and becomes the Ray, then meets the girl who turns out to be an American reporter, Sue Saunders of the New York Star. The Ray stops a group of Syrians working for German agents who try to destroy the French garrison. The Ray tells Bud to give Sue the story and his photos. ["Who Is Monsieur Le Rat?" Smash Comics #31 (February, 1942)]</color>
  * After the ghost of Simon Bolivar appeals to the ghost of George Washington for help, Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to put an end to the anti-American sentiments there that are secretly financed by the Nazis to create divisions in the Americas. They soon uncover and defeat a Nazi plot using tribes from the Amazon jungle to destroy the coastal defenses of Brazil, with the help of a group of patriotic Brazilians. //Note: This story indicates that Buddy Smith is Uncle Sam's actual nephew.// [Uncle Sam, National Comics #20 (February, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>October 2-4: On Earth-2, after Senator Tom Wright is framed for selling secrets to the press, the Black Condor learns that Jaspar Crow has placed hidden microphones in every committee room in the Senate. Meanwhile, Tom's fiancée Wendy Foster overhears Jaspar Crow making a deal with Nazi Germany to sell them transcripts of all the Senate committee meetings. After the Black Condor saves Wendy, Crow falls from a plane while escaping but manages to survive. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #21 (February, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>October 1-5: On Earth-2, Plastic Man attempts to infiltrate the United Crooks of America organization as Eel O'Brian after committing a major fur robbery. Days later, he is voted in as a member and initiated through hazing. After Eel joins two other members on a job stealing the Swagger gem collection, Plastic Man captures the crooks, then delivers the rest of the organization to the police. //Note: Thanks to this major case, in an untold tale shortly after this story Plastic Man is invited to join the FBI, working under the direction of Chief Branner of Earth-2, since he is already an FBI member by December 6, 1941, as seen in All-Star Squadron. Plastic Man becomes President Roosevelt's FBI liaison as well.// ["United Crooks of America," Police Comics #7 (February, 1942)]</color>
  * October 5: Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith encounter the great violinist Malvolo, whose hands were crushed in a train wreck and replaced with the cursed hands of a killer, causing him to become deranged, and giving him the ability to command a horde of fierce apes. ["The Fiddler of Death," Uncle Sam Quarterly #2 (Winter, 1941)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>October 9: On Earth-2, the Spider chases after the Crow after he breaks out of prison, but the Crow steals his amazing car, the //Black Widow//. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #21 (February, 1942)]</color>
  * October 10: Reserve officers Rod Reilly and Slugger Dunn report for duty in the U.S. Navy as an ensign and a seaman, respectively, assigned to the Destroyer //Russell//, currently performing Atlantic convoy patrol duties. When his ship is attacked by German U-boats, Rod becomes the Firebrand and commandeers one of the U-boats, then sails to a German submarine base and disguises himself as a German officer in order to access the base. Fighting their way through, Rod and Slugger steal a bomber and bomb the base before returning to the American air base, which has been taken over by Nazi spies. Rod and Slugger recapture the base and imprison the spies. //Note: According to All-Star Squadron #1, Rod Reilly is assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona at the U.S. Naval base in Pearl Harbor in the Pacific, contradicting this story and thus indicating that both Earth-X and Earth-2 have nearly identical Firebrands but with some differences; the Earth-2 Firebrand has a sister named Danette, for example, is based in the Pacific on the U.S.S. Arizona, and is injured during the attack on Pearl Harbor, while the Earth-X Firebrand is an only child, is based in the Atlantic on the U.S.S. Russell, and sustains no injuries forcing him to retire from crime-fighting, as proven by the Firebrand story in Police Comics #9, which takes place on December 31, 1941, and features an able-bodied Rod Reilly as Firebrand -- a story that cannot take place on Earth-2. The date of October 10, 1941, comes from All-Star Squadron #5// [The Firebrand, Police Comics #8 (March, 1942)]
  * October 11-12: Joan Dale quits the //Daily Star// and joins the FBI as a secretary working for Tim Healy, though she uses her reporting experience to investigate as if she was an FBI agent. As Miss America she creates a patriotically themed costume for herself; prior to this she used her powers in plainclothes. Miss America foils a plot by Ramon and his dance band working for a Nazi agent named Romboli to coordinate the bombing of Camp Bragg by robot-controlled planes, which is her first true public appearance. //Note: Secret Origins v2 #26 places this story on October 11, 1941, and adds a blue domino mask to her costume. After this story, Miss America is switched over to Earth-2.// [Miss America, Military Comics #4 (November, 1941); "The Secret Origin of Miss America," Secret Origins v2 #26 (May, 1988)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>October 28: On Earth-2, Dr. Foster and Wendy Foster invent Foster Food Pills, a new food concentrate filled with vitamins to send to war-torn countries. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #22 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>October 30: On Earth-2, three weeks after the Crow stole the //Black Widow// the Spider figures out where the Crow is now operating from and recaptures him, reclaiming the //Black Widow//. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #21 (February, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>October 31: On Earth-2, Miss America stops a plot by fifth columnists to use a submarine based below a supposedly haunted house on the New England coast to bomb an ocean liner. [Miss America, Military Comics #5 (December, 1941)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>October 31: On Earth-2, Phantom Lady captures a group of Nazi spies after Sir Edward Hendville is murdered at the English Embassy during a war-relief masquerade. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #7 (February, 1942)]</color>

=== November, 1941 ===

  * Uncle Sam stops a sabotage plot in the factories of Autoville, then single-handedly builds a new town to house the workers, who had previously been forced to live in trailers and shacks. Uncle Sam then captures the leaders of the sabotage group, including businessman I.J. Grab. ["The Man Behind the Man Behind the Gun," National Comics #21 (March, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>Returning to Earth-2, Uncle Sam begins searching for recruits for a team of heroes to fight the Axis on Earth-X. In doing so, he inadvertently gains the attention of Midnight and Doll Man, who begin investigating him, independent of one another. [All-Star Squadron #31-32]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Happy Terrill and Bud remain in the Near East while on assignment. After fellow reporter Sue Saunders reads a scroll revealing the location of the Isle of Darkness in the Aegean Sea, the Ray battles a group of Nazis and Syrians seeking a prophetic scroll, which is destroyed by fire before the full prophecy can be read. The ancient Greek man, having guarded the scroll of the prophet Hippotius without fail for centuries, follow it into the fire, killing himself. [The Ray, Smash Comics #32 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, the Jester stops a series of brutal murders when he discovers that the killer, Sacoris, is procuring corpses for Dr. Reinhart, a famous doctor from Vienna, who ships the bodies to Germany with plans sewn inside them. The Jester captures Sacoris and his gang of Nazi spies. [The Jester, Smash Comics #32 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Sandra Knight, Senator Henry Knight, and Don Borden visit Havana, Cuba, where Phantom Lady and Don round up a group of Nazis planning to take over the island nation in a coup. //Note: Phantom Lady modifies her costume somewhat after this story, replacing the one-piece yellow top with a split-piece top showing cleavage, as seen in All-Star Squadron #2, which also features the green domino mask she must have been wearing for a few months already.// [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #8 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, after Ensign Rod Reilly and Seaman Slugger Dunn take leave from the //U.S.S. Arizona// at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Rod saves a Navy admiral as the Firebrand from a gang of Axis spies seeking information for the Japanese. //Note: This is the only Firebrand story which takes place only on Earth-2 and has no equivalent on Earth-X. Rod Reilly's ship is erroneously stated to be the U.S.S. Tonsalita, but we know from All-Star Squadron #1 that his ship is really the U.S.S. Arizona.// [The Firebrand, Police Comics #12 (October, 1942)]</color>
  * **Madam Fatal's** last case, retires. [Crack Comics #22]
  * Red McGraw becomes known as the [[Dragon]]. [Doll Man #2]
  * In her first well-documented adventure, the mysterious woman known only as [[X of the Underground]] successfully impersonates a male Gestapo officer, and also meets Bob Gray, an American war correspondent who becomes infatuated with her. //Note: The dialogue indicates that X has already been causing trouble for the Nazis, conducting clandestine operations in several of the nations they occupy, for quite some time before the events of this story.// [Military Comics #8 (March, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Miss America puts an end to a group of Nazi agents operating from a steel plant when she discovers they're turning children into criminals. [Miss America, Military Comics #6 (January, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, the Invisible Hood has his last solo case battling saboteurs at a steel plant used for national defense. [Invisible Justice, Smash Comics #32 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>November 4: On Earth-2, Tom Hallaway is made the sole heir of his old friend and fellow big-game hunter, Arthur Henderson, who tells Tom he knows he is the Spider and fears for the life of his adopted daughter if she inherits his fortune. After Henderson is killed by a sniper, Henderson's adopted daughter has her policeman boyfriend try to arrest Tom for the murder. As the Spider he tracks down the real killer, Henderson's half-brother who is now the Henderson family lawyer. Tom confronts Henderson's half-brother and tricks him into confessing that he murdered Henderson. After the half-brother is arrested, Tom ensures that Henderson's adopted daughter receives her rightful inheritance. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #22 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>November 4-5: On Earth-2, after a spate of disastrous weather hits the Midwest, as well as several defense supply areas, Dr. Foster plans to share his food concentrate formula with the chemists of America to help with relief, but before he can do so a robed figure steals it from him at gunpoint. Deducing that the Great Lakes area will be next, the Black Condor visits Detroit just as an unnatural tidal wave rises from Lake Erie. The Black Condor disables a passing plane responsible for the weather changes, and within the plane Jaspar Crow reports to Adolf Hitler himself about his failure, and he is angered when Hitler refuses to pay him for the food concentrate formula. As the Black Condor enters the plane, Crow offers to join forces with him against Hitler for holding out on him, telling him the formula is in a U-boat on its way to Germany. The Black Condor finds the U-boat and takes the formula from its captain, then returns to Crow and is double-crossed as expected. Crow escapes by parachute before the Black Condor can deliver the captured plane to the U.S. Army. Later, the Foster Food Pills are delivered to the stricken areas. //Note: Foster Food Pills, in modified form, are later delivered to resistance fighters in Occupied Europe by the Justice Society of America, as seen in All-Star Comics #14.// [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #22 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>November 15: On Earth-2, after Prof. McSneer uses his gigantic Eight Ball (ten stories high with 15-foot-thick walls) to loot and destroy Denver, Colorado, Plastic Man prevents it from doing damage to Kansas City and captures McSneer. //Note: The Eight Ball is similar to the later War Wheel encountered a few times by the Blackhawks. Plastic Man shape-changes into a giant snake in this story.// ["Eight Ball," Police Comics #8 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * November 24-26: Despite receiving the highest marks in college, Dan Richards graduates at the bottom of his class at Empire City's Police Academy, thanks to being distracted by his work on a private crime laboratory, to the great disappointment of his girlfriend [[Kit Kelly]]. During their first patrol the next day, Dan covers the beat of his Kit's brother Jim Kelly along his own when Jim walks off with crooked politician Al Armand. When Armand tries to pay Jim to kill a crook named Johnny Cosentino while in the line of duty, Cosentino instead murders Armand and frames Jim, and Dan arrives on the scene. Jim is charged with murder, while Dan is suspended until the case can be investigated. Consulting his crime laboratory, Dan looks up Cosentino's usual haunts and prepares to confront him while masked and in costume as **[[Manhunter (Dan Richards)|Manhunter]]**. At midnight, Manhunter and his dog [[Thor (dog)|Thor]] the Thunder Dog track down Cosentino and his gang and terrorize Cosentino into confessing to the murder as well as his other recent crimes, then deliver him to Police Headquarters where he repeats his confession to the chief of police. Thor is trained to keep away from Dan Richards while he's in his civilian garb, only appearing when Dan has become Manhunter, and often only after Manhunter uses a supersonic whistle to call him. //Note: The origin of Manhunter in Secret Origins v2 #22 places this story in late November, a fortnight (14 days) before Pearl Harbor. In Secret Origins v2 #22, Al Armand is called Jerry Armand, while Jim Kelly is called Jim Kelley, Dan is inspired by the Manhunters of the Earth-1 universe to become Manhunter, and he is given a robotic dog named Thor to be his partner, all of which are untrue for the Earth-X Manhunter. Dan Richards' full name is Donald Daniel Richards, but he prefers to go by Dan. After this story, Manhunter is switched over to Earth-2. Manhunter apparently operates in Empire City on Earth-X (which may actually be New York City), but during his very brief stay on Earth-2 he operates specifically in New York City. Manhunter goes through quite a few costume changes after his initial appearance, wearing a different variation of his costume nearly each time he appears for a few months until he settles on a final version; although Manhunter is often depicted with no mask in his early cases, Manhunter always wore a mask while in costume.// [Manhunter, Police Comics #8 (March, 1942); "No Man Escapes the Manhunters, Chapter III: Dan Richards, Manhunter," Secret Origins v2 #22 (January, 1988)]

=== December, 1941 ===

  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, in her last solo case **Miss America** secretly helps FBI inspector Jeff Healy to stop a gang of silk thieves led by the Moth, who dies in a plane crash during his escape. [Miss America, Military Comics #7 (February, 1942)]</color>
  * **Hercules** retires. [Hit Comics #21]
  * **Jack and Jill Doe's** last case. [National Comics #22]
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 4: On Earth-2, the Human Bomb captures a Human Bomb impostor who ransacked the FBI offices in order to grab evidence proving that a publisher named Henry Vogelman is the head of a Nazi propaganda and sabotage ring. //Note: There's snow on the ground, indicating it is either winter or as close to winter as possible.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #7 (February, 1942)]</color>
  * December 7: On Earth-2, Uncle Sam, having recruited the Red Torpedo, Magno, Miss America, Neon the Unknown, and the Invisible Hood, finally travels to Rex Tyler's lab and recruits Hourman, who names their team **[[Freedom Fighters|the Freedom Fighters]]**. Bringing the team back to Earth-X over the Pacific Ocean some miles west of Hawaii, Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters successfully battle a squadron of Japanese Zeros. Miss America uses her matter-creating powers to create out of thin air the Red Torpedo's flying submarine, upon which the team is resting when one Zero divebombs the team and crashes into the submarine, disintegrating the submarine and apparently killing the whole team, although in fact each member survives. The Japanese, meanwhile, call off the Pearl Harbor attack, figuring the chances of a surprise attack are now slim. The U.S. does not enter the war at this time. //Note: This occurs sometime after Hourman takes a leave of absence from the Justice Society of America on Earth-2, which occurs on June 28, 1941, as shown in All-Star Squadron Annual #3. Although there is a reference to Uncle Sam visiting Hourman in the summer, he actually visits him on the morning of December 7, a date which is confirmed later in the same issue.// [All-Star Squadron #31-32]
  * December 7: The same vortex that transports Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to Earth-X also transports Midnight and Doll Man, who independently track Uncle Sam down to Rex Tyler's lab and decide to jump into the vortex when they see the others disappearing into it. The two also end up on Earth-X, only across the world in German-Occupied Paris, France. There, Midnight and Doll Man save the lives of two French Resistance fighters (a blonde named Simone and an unnamed male) and are soon introduced to the head of the local Resistance. They fight with the French Resistance for the next two months. [All-Star Squadron #32]
  * Hourman is found unconscious by the Japanese, who keep him a prisoner for the next two months, trying to discover the secret of his tremendous strength. [All-Star Squadron #35]
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 7-8: On Earth-2, Ensign Rod Reilly and Seaman Slugger Dunn of the U.S. Navy are caught in the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Both men are injured, while Rod falls into a coma and is later forced to retire as [[Firebrand (Earth-2|Firebrand]]. Rod's sister Danette Reilly, a geologist, meets the Shining Knight and is nearly killed when she is struck by a bolt of power from the evil wizard Wotan and knocked into a man-made volcano, which later causes her to develop flame-powers. ["The World on Fire," All-Star Squadron #1 (September, 1981)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 6-8: On Earth-2, when President Roosevelt asks his FBI liaison Plastic Man to contact the Justice Society of America, Plastic Man meets Hawkman at the JSA's meeting room, and they discover the JSA members have each been kidnapped by unknown super-villains. Plastic Man and Hawkman are attacked by King Bee and his lackeys, who disappear. Plastic Man meets Doctor Mid-Nite, the Atom, Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, and Robotman, and becomes a charter member of the All-Star Squadron, acting as its FBI liaison under President Roosevelt's direction. The All-Star Squadron then travel to San Francisco, California, swapping secret identities and origin stories along the way, and where they battle and defeat Per Degaton's invading army. Sandra Knight and her father Senator Henry Knight are in San Francisco on a fact-finding trip when the city is attacked by Per Degaton's forces. Phantom Lady meets the fledgling All-Star Squadron and becomes one of its charter members. //Note: After this story, Phantom Lady replaces her handheld blackout ray with a wrist-mounted ray, and her green domino mask with green-tinted goggles allowing her to see in black-light. More importantly, Phantom Lady figures out a way to somehow internalize the black-light and make herself invisible, indicating she may have a super-power that the black-light brings out. Plastic Man displays changes into several new shapes in this story. // ["The World on Fire," All-Star Squadron #1 (September, 1981); "The Tyrant Out of Time," All-Star Squadron #2 (October, 1981); "The Dooms of Dark December," All-Star Squadron #3 (November, 1981); "Day of the Dragon King," All-Star Squadron #4 (December, 1981)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 9: On Earth-2, Danette Reilly discovers that her brother Rod Reilly was the Firebrand when she reads a letter he'd left her. Donning his costume over a red swimming suit, Danette is shocked to discover that she has gained flame-powers. As </color>[[Firebrand (Danette Reilly)|Firebrand II]]<color /#ECECEC>, she joins the All-Star Squadron. ["Never Step on a Feathered Serpent," All-Star Squadron #5 (January, 1982)]</color>
  * Uncle Sam washes up on a beach in Hawaii days later and is found by U.S. soldiers who don't believe his story about preventing an invasion of Pearl Harbor, thinking him crazy. Uncle Sam is incarcerated in a padded cell by the military for the next two months, during which time he realizes that by stopping the attack on Pearl Harbor, America does not join in the war effort, allowing the Axis powers to invade even more of Europe and Asia. Uncle Sam spends much of his time attempting to create a vortex to return to Earth-2. [All-Star Squadron #32]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, after Darrel Dane (Doll Man) has been missing for a few days, Martha Roberts uses Darrel's shrinking formula on herself against her father Dr. Roberts' wishes and becomes **Doll Girl,** fighting crime in Doll Man's place. //Note: Martha is active as Doll Girl for the next two months, but retires as Doll Girl when Doll Man returns from Earth-X.// ["[[https://5earths.info/earth-2/allstarsquadron-tp1942-01/|All-Star Squadron: Times Past, 1942: Gender Gasp]]"]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 22: On Earth-2, Plastic Man disguises himself as President Roosevelt after learning that an assassin is trying to kill the real president, and survives the explosion of a lifelike robot resembling British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Plastic Man is reunited with the other members of the All-Star Squadron, and they are all present for the meeting between the real Roosevelt and Churchill. ["Carnage for Christmas," All-Star Squadron #7 (March, 1982)]</color>
  * December 31-January 1, 1942: After his fiancee Joan Rogers' father is attacked by Nazi spies at a New Year's Eve party, Rod Reilly becomes the Firebrand and retrieves plans for a perfected gun sight stolen from an inventor. //Note: This story proves that the Firebrand of Earth-X is not the same man as the Firebrand of Earth-2, who was too injured at this time to fight crime.// [The Firebrand, Police Comics #9 (May, 1942)]

==== 1942 ====

=== January, 1942 ===

  * Polish nobleman Baron Povalsky becomes **[[the Marksman]]**. [Smash Comics #33]
  * The Clock switches to a domino mask from the full-face cloak he wore previously. [Crack Comics #23]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, the **Red Bee** has his last solo case. [The Red Bee, Hit Comics #24 (October, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>December 9: On Earth-2, Rod Reilly discovers that his sister Danette Reilly has become the new Firebrand when she visits him in a military hospital in San Francisco, where he and other injured Pearl Harbor soldiers have been taken. Learning of her growing hatred for the Japanese after the December 7th attack, Rod tells her that a Japanese-American soldier saved his life. ["One Day, During the War," All-Star Squadron #13 (September, 1982)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>January 2: On Earth-2, Roy Lincoln and his fiancée Jean Adams witness Major Linwood of the U.S. Army shot down on the street. After Roy fights off the attackers, Linwood gives the Navy man a message for President Roosevelt, who is on board the //USS Tuscaloosa//. Roy takes the Navy plane meant for Linwood, and Jean joins him. Once they're three hours out over the Atlantic, their plane is shot down by a German U-boat, and Roy waits until Jean passes out to change into his Human Bomb costume and eject from the plane. Taken prisoner on the U-boat, the Human Bomb effects an escape and takes over the ship, warning the //Tuscaloosa// about their location so the U.S. Navy can take over. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #8 (March, 1942)]</color>

=== February, 1942 ===

  * After being released from U.S. military custody, Uncle Sam returns to Everytown where he is reunited with his nephew, Buddy Smith. After Buddy is framed for murder, Uncle Sam discovers the true killer to be gang lord "Jook" Jagger, who used a gang of kids to kill his enemy, Mike Ratzoff. Uncle Sam proves Buddy innocent and captures Jagger, then in juvenile court a few days later, Uncle Sam asks for custody of the four remaining kids in the gang, after their leader Spike is killed. [Uncle Sam, National Comics #22 (April, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>February 1: On Earth-2, the Spider battles a Japanese spymaster known as the </color>[[Yellow Scorpion]],<color /#ECECEC> who leads a group of Japanese saboteurs, but escapes. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #23 (May, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>January 30-February 2: On Earth-2, a scientist gang leader called Hairy Arms attempts to take over New York City with an army of robots on behalf of the Japanese. Plastic Man discovers Hairy Arms' headquarters under a cemetery, and Police Officer Plotz captures Hairy Arms himself, who is disguised as a middle-aged woman. Becoming Eel O'Brian, Plastic Man gathers a group of patriotic crooks to finish off the robots, freeing New York City. ["Satan's Son Sells Out to the Japs," Police Comics #9 (May, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Phantom Lady and Black Condor team up against a crooked politician. ["[[https://5earths.info/earth-2/bravebold-e2-pl-bc-tp1942/|The Brave and the Bold: Phantom Lady and Black Condor: Times Past, 1942: Lethal Legislation]]"]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>February 10-11: On Earth-2, while visiting an aircraft plant in Los Angeles, Phantom Lady and the All-Star Squadron battle Fury and Northwind, and the Mist and Vulcan from the future. Together they battle the Ultra-Humanite and his agents, and Phantom Lady and the others are placed into Limbo by the Brain Wave of the future. Later, after the Ultra-Humanite's plot is stopped, they are brought back from Limbo. ["The Infinity Syndrome," All-Star Squadron #25 (September, 1983); "Talons Across Time," All-Star Squadron #26 (October, 1983); "The Ultra War," All-Star Squadron Annual #2 (1983)]</color>
  * February 17: In New Orleans during Mardi Gras, Wildfire fights a killer called the Frog, who wears a frog-like green costume and uses water gimmicks. The Frog manages to murder five victims before Wildfire finally captures him and unmasks him as Froggy Miller, a former soldier in the U.S. Army who resembled a frog and was booted out of the army for cowardice and thievery, but swore to get revenge on his fellow soldiers. [Wildfire, Smash Comics #32 (March, 1942)]
  * February 22: Uncle Sam has another vision of an attack on U.S. soil, this time on the coast of California. He now finally succeeds in creating a vortex that transports him back to Earth-2. Unbeknownst to him, one of his preliminary attempts allows Baron Blitzkrieg to transport himself from Earth-2 to the Berlin, Germany, of Earth-X. [All-Star Squadron #32, 35]
  * February 22: Baron Blitzkrieg of Earth-2, displaying his powers and loyalty to the Adolf Hitler of Earth-X, is hailed a hero by the Nazis. Hearing of masked men fighting for the French Resistance in Paris, he travels there. Midnight and Doll Man, having learned of a planned Japanese attack on the U.S. set to take place the next day, battle German soldiers, resulting in Doll Man being injured. As Baron Blitzkrieg confronts Midnight on the edge of a rooftop, the latter spots the tell-tale signs of Uncle Sam's vortex just below him and leaps into it with Doll Man in his hand, followed by a few Nazi soldiers. They all ended up in Earth-2's New York City. Back on Earth-X, Baron Blitzkrieg mentally commands his aide Zwerg on Earth-2 to authorize an outbreak of Axis sabotage on the American East Coast in order to keep most All-Star Squadron members too busy to interfere with the invasion on either Earth's California. [All-Star Squadron #32, 35]
  * <color /#ECECEC>February 22: On Earth-2, Plastic Man, the Jester, Phantom Lady, the Human Bomb, the Red Bee, Manhunter, the Black Condor, and the Ray are among the attendees of the first meeting of the full roster of the All-Star Squadron. Uncle Sam, finally able to return to Earth-2 from Earth-X, addresses the team and pleads for their help to return to prevent the invasion of the U.S. mainland. [All-Star Squadron #31]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>February 23: On Earth-2, Midnight and Doll Man arrive at All-Star Squadron Headquarters for the same reason as Uncle Sam, to warn of an attack on Santa Barbara, California, an attack that will occur on both Earth-X and Earth-2. The All-Star Squadron splits into two teams, one to fight off the invasion on Earth-2, and the other to fight it on Earth-X. [All-Star Squadron #32]</color>
  * February 23: Using the power of the Spectre, Uncle Sam leads an All-Star Squadron task force (Doll Man, Black Condor, Phantom Lady, the Human Bomb, the Ray, and the Red Bee) back to Earth-X. Arriving at Goleta, just outside Santa Barbara, California, as the Japanese invasion begins, the team assists in the defense of California. Meanwhile, the Spectre, forbidden to enter Earth-X, inadvertently causes the two parallel universes to enter the same vibrational plane and struggles to keep them from destroying each other. On Earth-X, attacking a Japanese Destroyer, the team finds Baron Blitzkrieg, who has Hourman chained to the front of a cannon, having discovered the Japanese had him. The team battles Baron Blitzkrieg, who singlehandedly defeats and captures them. All except the Red Bee, thought dead in the battle, awaken in the ruins of a fortress on the Channel Islands off the California coast, where Baron Blitzkrieg has brought them to die while the Japanese shell the coastline. The Red Bee, having survived and swam all the way there, attacks Baron Blitzkrieg, acting as a diversion just long enough for Hourman to regain his powers and break loose, but not before Baron Blitzkrieg breaks **the Red Bee's** back, killing him. Hourman and Uncle Sam battle Baron Blitzkrieg, who manages to create a vortex himself to escape with three Nazi lackeys back to Earth-2. The Spectre, communicating with the team, says that to maintain the cosmic balance three heroes must remain on Earth-X to compensate for the three Earth-X Nazis. Uncle Sam, the Black Condor, and the Ray remain on Earth-X as **the Freedom Fighters**. //Note: By this time, the Red Bee has begun carrying a swarm of bees with him, not just his trained bee Michael.// [All-Star Squadron #32-35]
  * <color /#ECECEC>February 24-25: On Earth-2, after the All-Star Squadron discovers that Adolf Hitler has a so-called super-Nazi (Captain Marvel) under his control, who aids the Luftwaffe in a raid on Britain, Plastic Man (under direct orders from J. Edgar Hoover) accompanies them to their meeting with President Roosevelt. The All-Star Squadron members travel to Britain where they witness Superman battling Captain Marvel in the skies over London. The All-Star Squadron battles Captain Marvel, who tries to lure them into Nazi-conquered territory, thus placing them under the spell of the Spear of Destiny. After Captain Marvel Junior and Mary Marvel of Earth-S explain the circumstances that led them to Earth-2, a group of non-magical All-Stars (Plastic Man, Batman, Hawkman, and the Flash) travel to Berlin via Plastic Man in the shape of a dirigible. There, in Hitler's Reichschancellery, they are quickly confronted by Captain Marvel and Adolf Hitler himself. Gootsden uses his spatial-displacement ray to split Captain Marvel Junior and Mary Marvel from Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield. Hitler uses Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior, and Mary Marvel to deliver a huge bomb toward England. The All-Stars there battle the Marvel Family and save Parliament from being blown up. Meanwhile, the All-Stars in Germany escape from Germany via Plastic Man dirigible but are shot down in the English Channel, then almost captured by the Germans, until the All-Stars in England and the Marvel Family (now freed, once their alter egos are out from under the Spear of Destiny's influence) rescue them. When all six Earth-S natives speak the magic words Shazam and Captain Marvel, they are instantly transported back to Earth-S. ["Thunder Over London," All-Star Squadron #36 (August, 1984); "Lightning in Berlin," All-Star Squadron #37 (September, 1984)]</color>

=== March, 1942 ===

  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Senator Henry Knight is shot in the shoulder by a German gunman while making a speech in the Senate. Phantom Lady captures the would-be assassin and convinces him to sign a confession exposing a plan enacted with Japanese saboteurs to destroy a steel mill. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #9 (May, 1942)]</color>
  * March 3-5: While covering a battle in the air between American and Japanese planes, Happy Terrill's own plane is shot down, and he and his pilot are taken prisoner by the Japanese. As the Ray, he smashes an enemy squadron, and Japanese Army Headquarters in Tokyo orders that the Ray must be destroyed. Happy is taken to a concentration camp on a small island, and that night he smashes a fleet of torpedo boats as the Ray, who then visits Tokyo and taunts the army officials as he learns that their main fleet is hiding in Saki Bay. In reprisal the Japanese promise to execute 100 American prisoners at dawn. The next morning, Happy is among the prisoners taken to the firing squad, but he stops the bullets as the Ray, then hitches a ride with a U.S. plane after Bud signals him with his ring as it passes overhead. Using the Ray's information, a squadron of American planes bombs the Japanese fleet in Saki Bay, including three battleships, while the Ray protects the bombers from anti-aircraft fire. On their way back to the base, the squadron stops to pick up the prisoners at the concentration camp, including Happy himself. [The Ray, Smash Comics #33 (May, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>March 6: On Earth-2, Sandra Knight (Phantom Lady) and Jonathan Law (Tarantula) go on a double-date with Rex Tyler (Hourman) and Danette Reilly (Firebrand), to a costume ball with Sandra as Firebrand, Jonathan as Hourman, Rex as Tarantula, and Danette as Phantom Lady. The four mystery-men battle German agents called Night and Fog (Nacht and Nebel), who try to blackmail Danette's father, industrialist "Emerald" Ed Reilly in his office, who effectively collaborated with the Nazis before Pearl Harbor out of his Irish hatred for the English. The All-Stars walk in just as the Nazi super-agents have thrown Ed Reilly out the window, and although Firebrand stops his fall, he dies of his injuries after making her promise to make up for what he's done. Hourman is forced to take a Miraclo pill to save Phantom Lady's life when she's thrown out the window as well. ["Night and Fog," All-Star Squadron #44 (April, 1985)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>March 11-13: On Earth-2, after Doc Wackey's atom reviser device (which can transmute matter from one substance into another) is stolen by Nazi agents led by Von Kamp, Midnight stops the Nazi invasion of Iceland with the help of Gabby and Doc. Dr. Mortimer Wackey is honored by President Roosevelt in Washington, D.C. //Note: The date is surmised by the shape of the quarter moon in the comic with the phases of the moon in the month of March, 1942, the earliest after Pearl Harbor this story can take place. Midnight's vacuum-gun is being repaired, indicating that it was damaged while he was on Earth-X.// ["War Over Iceland," Smash Comics #32 (March, 1942)]</color>
  * March 15-16: Black Condor saves the life of a former fifth columnist named Jed Hawks, who warns him about a joint German-Japanese attack on the Panama Canal on March 15th, which is today. While Hawks steals a bomber to go to Panama and the Black Condor flies there himself, a two German aircraft carriers sneak into American waters in the Caribbean Sea and release several bombers that strike the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, Japanese submarines wait for the signal to attack from the Pacific. The Black Condor takes over a German bomber and bombs one of the aircraft carriers, but he is shot down by the Germans. Hawks saves the Black Condor's life in his stolen plane, and then sacrifices his life by dive-bombing the plane and destroying the second aircraft carrier. The Black Condor forces the remaining German planes to attack the waiting Japanese submarines, who are forced to retreat, before surrendering at Randolph Field. //Note: The December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor is also mentioned by Black Condor, who can only have remembered that infamous date from Earth-2, as that attack was prevented on Earth-X by the original Freedom Fighters.// [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #23 (May, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>March 27: On Earth-2, Midnight, Doc Wackey, and Gabby discover a lost tribe of Africans led by the white Jungle Queen while on vacation in the Florida Everglades, learning they are the descendants of a shipload of would-be slaves who were freed by the first mate (Jungle Queen's great-great-grandfather), who detested slavery and whose family protected the Africans from civilization for over a century. After Midnight demonstrates that slavery was abolished long ago and that African-Americans are integrated into American society, the Jungle Queen returns to her tribe to share the good news. //Note: This takes place during a Joe Louis boxing fight, the earliest of which must be his March 27th bout with Abe Simon, which took place after Louis joined the U.S. Army.// [Midnight, Smash Comics #33 (May, 1942)]</color>
  * <color /#ECECEC>March 31: On Earth-2, the Spider has his final encounter with the Yellow Scorpion, who escapes after attempting to destroy a U.S. battleship docked in the harbor. The Spider is shot by U.S. Navy men while diverting two torpedoes strapped to a boat, and recuperates under the care of Doc Horton. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #24 (July, 1942)]</color>

=== April, 1942 ===

  * <color /#ECECEC>April 1: On Earth-2, Harbinger arrives from Earth-1 in the year 1985 in order to recruit Firebrand II (Danette Reilly). Rod Reilly, the retired original Firebrand watches his sister go. ["Crisis Point," All-Star Squadron #50 (October, 1985)]</color>
  * April 1: Due to the havoc-wreaking passage of Harbinger, who brings bits of the Crisis era with her, Uncle Sam believes the barrier between the worlds might close permanently. He and Black Condor and the Ray recruit several mystery-men from Earth-2 to fight the Axis on Earth-X, including the Blackhawks, the Spider, Manhunter and his dog Thor, the Human Bomb, Midnight, the Jester, and Doll Man. Their last recruits are Plastic Man and Phantom Lady, and Rod Reilly (Firebrand) watches them as they leave. //Note: At some indeterminate time later, the Earth-2 Rod Reilly (Firebrand) travels to Earth-X, the Jester and the Spider both return to Earth-2, and the Blackhawks find their Earth-X counterparts and bring them together to form their own team of Blackhawks before returning to Earth-2. It is possible that a few others allied with members of the Freedom Fighters also later travel from Earth-2 to Earth-X. It is never explained how so many individuals from Earth-2 can travel to Earth-X without upsetting the cosmic balance. An untold story may explain who returns to Earth-2 and who decides to remain on Earth-X permanently.// ["Crisis Point," All-Star Squadron #50 (October, 1985)]
  * Tom Hallaway (the Spider), discovering that the Crow of Earth-X was never captured like his Earth-2 counterpart, uses his knowledge of the Earth-2 Crow to capture and kill the Earth-X Crow, then takes over his criminal operations while posing as the Crow. //Note: This is speculation based on the fact that the Spider establishes a criminal empire in a relatively short span of time.//
  * Plastic Man rejoins the police department in Mammoth City, working under Captain Murphy.
  * **[[Unknown|The Unknown]]** has first public case. [National Comics #23]
  * Adventures on the U.S.S. Pawnee Destroyer 171 begin. [National Comics #23]
  * Ensign [[Jack Smith]] begins fighting the Japanese in the Pacific using his electric battery-operated one-man submarine, the //Swordfish//. [Hit Comics #22]
  * April 30: Feeling helpless from all the headlines about murder and sabotage, wealthy sportswoman Dianne Grayton decides to do something about it after being egged on by a wealthy friend, Bob Ableson. That evening two saboteurs destroy a train, and while fleeing their car runs out of gas. Reaching the Grayton estate, they force Dianne's father at gunpoint to give them gasoline, so Dianne dons a green rubber witch's mask, a dark green robe and pointed hat, takes a few the gardener's spiders, and hides in the trunk of the car before the crooks drive back to their hideout. As the gang reports to their boss, Jake Lardo, they are spooked when several black widow spiders begin crawling over them, and fall into the disguised Dianne's trap. Leaving the gang to be found by the police, she leaves behind a note identifying her as the fearsome **[[Spider Widow]]**. [The Spider Widow, Feature Comics #57 (June, 1942)]

=== May, 1942 ===

  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Rick Raleigh, Jr., son of Richard Raleigh (the Red Bee) and Valerie Ransome, is born. Although he never knew his father, he grew up under his father's shadow and eventually grew embittered against other mystery-men who overshadowed the Red Bee.</color>  ["[[https://5earths.info/earth-2/worldsfinest-e2-tp1959-01/|World's Finest: Superman and Batman: Times Past, 1959: 'Tis the Season for Death]]"]
  * King Killer, enemy of Uncle Sam, aligns himself with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. [Uncle Sam Quarterly #3]
  * Uncle Sam meets and teams up with John Bull, the Spirit of Great Britain. [Uncle Sam Quarterly #3]
  * Hack O'Hara battles recurring foe the [[Butcher]] for the first time. [Crack Comics #24]
  * The Black Condor uncovers a hidden underground arms plant in a mine in the Rocky Mountains set up by fifth columnists to supply the German Army if the U.S. is ever invaded, then evacuates the mine before it explodes, destroying the plant and all the armaments. //Note: J. Edgar Hoover appears in this story under the pseudonym of "J. Emery Glover."// ["The Secret of the Hills," Crack Comics #24 (July, 1942)]
  * When their ship the //U.S.S. Russell// docks at Cairo, Egypt, Rod Reilly and Slugger Dunn uncover a plot by Nazi agents to sabotage the ship. Rod becomes the Firebrand and captures the spy gang with the help of Rod's fiancee, Joan Rogers, a Red Cross volunteer nurse. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #10 (July, 1942)]
  * April 29-May 1: Roy Lincoln is summoned by J.C. Hanley, a Department of Commerce official, to travel with him to Argentina to ensure a new boxite deposit discovered in the mountains is used to make aluminum for the Allies, and not for the Axis. But upon reaching the property, the plane is shot down, and Hanley is killed by German soldiers there. Roy becomes the Human Bomb and soon learn that the owner has been killed by the Nazis, and his daughter is kept a prisoner. The Human Bomb defeats their leader, and the Nazis retreat into the boxite mine to escape through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain. The Human Bomb pursues the Nazis into the mine and captures them for the Argentinean army, then discovers that the boxite is being passed through a tube to a fake British ship in the harbor, and alerts the local police. //Note: Roy Lincoln's fiancée is once more named Jean Caldwell as of this story, rather than Jean Adams, indicating that he is now back on Earth-X.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #9 (May, 1942); The Human Bomb, Police Comics #10 (July, 1942)]
  * May 1-2: Midnight battles Prof Porgy, a mad scientist and former partner of the now-reformed Doc Wackey. But Prof chemically causes Wackey to temporarily become a criminal once more, and the two go off to invent a rocket ship over the next several weeks in order to travel to the planet of gold. [Midnight, Smash Comics #35 (September, 1942)]
  * May 15: After a con artist named [[Oscar Oople]] steals $6-million in jewels in order to marry a large red-haired woman named Petunia, the Jester takes him to jail. [The Jester, Smash Comics #34 (July, 1942)]
  * May 29: The Spider Widow encounters smuggler Madam Largossi and two Japanese spies, Tohoto and Huti, arranging for their capture by the Coast Guard. [The Spider Widow, Feature Comics #58 (July, 1942)]
  * May 30: Plastic Man chases after a gang of professional saboteurs working for the Germans and led by Cyclop after they steal the nation's most powerful weapon, which they plan to use to destroy the Panama Canal. Boarding the //Lucy Mae//, bound for Panama, Plastic Man with the help of Western Union man Omar McGootch captures the gang, only to learn that Captain Herrman and the ship's crew are also part of the German sabotage plot. Cyclop and his gang escape the ship and use the stolen weapon to vaporize it, but Plastic Man and Omar manage to swim ashore, where they capture the gang and retrieve the weapon. [Plastic Man, Police Comics #10 (July, 1942)]

=== June, 1942 ===

  * May 30-June 1: While on assignment in Istanbul, Happy Terrill is sent to Occupied Hungary with Bud and three other reporters using faked passports in order to investigate the shocking murder of Nazi officials there. There the Ray saves members of the Hungarian underground who are responsible for the murders. Happy reveals the location of the underground to the Gestapo in order to gain their trust and lead them into a trap, allowing him to kill them in a brush fire after he sets fire to crops meant to supply the Germans on the Russian front. Happy and Bud escape Hungary and return to Istanbul before they can be captured. [The Ray, Smash Comics #34 (July, 1942)]

=== July, 1942 ===

  * **Ned Brant's** last story. [Crack Comics #25]
  * One rainy night, Phantom Lady helps capture a group of Nazi saboteurs in Washington, D.C., after Sandra Knight and Don Borden find the corpse of a federal investigator. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #11 (September, 1942)]
  * The Firebrand saves Senator Barrow from the White Gardenias (a white supremacist organization similar to the Ku Klux Klan) and exposes Senator Beep as a member of that group. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #11 (September, 1942)]
  * After his editor orders him to return home to New York City, Happy Terrill and Bud charter a plane but are surprised when it instead flies them to Russia. After they are shot down by the Russians, they learn they were kidnapped by Mongols. Bud is taken to Moscow and put under the care of Ileana Kamova. Traveling to a location on a map found on the dead pilot's body, the Ray reaches the Himalayas where he meets the Khan, descendant of Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, who has both great strength and occult power enabling both he and his men to be unaffected by flames. Overpowering the Ray, the Khan traps him in darkness so the Ray will not interfere as the Khan leads his troops to invade Russia and thus open up a second front. The Ray manages to escape when a beam of light reaches his prison, and he flies to Moscow to find it burning while the Mongols attack. The Ray and the Khan battle atop St. Basil's Cathedral, and the Ray manages to overcome the Khan, who falls to his death, causing his followers to lose their resistance to flames and likewise perish. After, Happy retrieves Bud, and they return to New York City as planned. //Note: This story establishes that the German victory over Russia in June, 1941, is not an absolute one, since the Russians have retaken Moscow by this time and are still battling the Germans.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #35 (September, 1942)]
  * The Human Bomb battles a scientist-musician named Hoiman Schtrugmeyer, who uses the notes of a flute to cause buildings to crumble. After being briefly trapped in a cellar coated with rubber cement, which his power has no effect on, the Human Bomb escapes only to learn that Schtrugmeyer is not an Axis agent as he suspects but merely wanted to test out his sound weapon on Washington, D.C, before traveling to Japan to destroy it with music. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #11 (September, 1942)]
  * July 6: Doc Wackey and Prof Porgy complete their rocket ship and take off for the planet of gold in outer space, and the two scientists and Prof's hired men sleep through the voyage. But when the rocket lands, it turns out that it simply circled the Earth, then landed in the desert, where Midnight followed them through Doc's wrist radio. [Midnight, Smash Comics #35 (September, 1942)]
  * July 27: When a group of Axis spies from Germany, Italy, and Japan lure the Spider Widow (Dianne Grayton) into a trap, kidnapping her to bring her back to Berlin by U-boat, a private investigator named Tony Grey dons the winged and masked purple and green costume of **[[Raven (Tony Grey)|The Raven]]** and rescues her. After letting the U.S. Navy capture the U-boat and the spies within, the Spider Widow and the Raven each unmask, and she kisses him, but neither can recognize the other while in the dark. From this point on, the Raven always acts as the Spider Widow's backup, even when she never asks for it. //Note: The Raven is eventually revealed to be Tony Grey in the Spider Widow story in Feature Comics #67, which hints that his occupation is that of private eye, though this is never confirmed. Given his name, his resemblance, and his choice of costumed identity, it is possible that Tony Grey is a relative of Richard Grey, Jr., alias the Black Condor.// [The Spider Widow and the Raven, Feature Comics #60 (September, 1942)]
  * July 27: The Black Condor tracks down Jaspar Crow in North Dakota (who escapes) and battles a Nazi agent named Elsa Papendorf. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #25 (September, 1942)]
  * July 27-28: Tad Wilkins, paralyzed and in a wheelchair but with the still-living brain of 17th century scientist Dr. Cyrus Smythe, reinvents a serum allowing himself to grow into the size of a giant and back at will after relocating to Wilkins' home in America. As a giant he is confronted by Plastic Man, then given a place in Si Ray's gang, whom Plastic Man spies on as criminal Eel O'Brian. Using Wilkins' old-fashioned tastes against him, Plastic Man battles the giant, killing him by choking off his air supply from within. Wilkins' body is buried after it resumes normal size, though Smythe's brain continues to live until he can rise to plague mankind again in the future. [Plastic Man, Police Comics #11 (September, 1942)]

=== August, 1942 ===

  * **Douglas Strange** and **Rodney Strange**, the Strange twins, have their last case together. [Hit Comics #24]
  * **Ensign Jack Smith's** last adventure in the //Swordfish//. [Hit Comics #24]
  * After Sandra Knight and her father Senator Henry Knight visit U.S. Army testing grounds to find new army tanks in poor shape, Sandra goes undercover by getting a job in the factory as a riveter, where she makes a friend named Maisie. Phantom Lady quickly discovers saboteurs at work damaging one tank with acid, sledgehammers, and wrenches as it is built in the factory. A few days later, the same saboteur gang commandeers a tank during the test, while Phantom Lady drives the faulty one, and thanks to her action, the good tank passes the test instead of all the tanks being dismissed because of the faulty one. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #12 (October, 1942)]
  * Roy Lincoln (the Human Bomb) discovers a Nazi spy ring using musical notes played on a regular radio music show, and the U.S. Navy is able to crack the code and bomb a German ship heading for an American oil tanker along the Atlantic coast. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #12 (October, 1942)]
  * Francisco Rivera, a South American dictator, flees to the Moon in a rocket ship when his dictatorship is about to be overthrown. The paranoid Rivera sabotages his men's space suits, causing them to die upon reaching the Moon, which he proclaims as his new domain. As he slowly dies of starvation and then oxygen deprivation, Rivera writes down his account in a book that will be found by the First Lunar Expedition of 1952, led by the Spirit. //Note: It is possible that the rocket ship used by Rivera was stolen and was the same one invented by Doc Wackey and Prof Porgy in Smash Comics #35, a month earlier.// [The Outer Space Spirit]
  * While traveling by train through the Appalachian mountains, Dianne Grayton and Tony Grey's train is derailed by Nazi agents who kidnap Dianne and all the important government officials from the train. As the Raven, Tony follows the truck with the prisoners to a ranch hideout in the woods, where he spots a Nazi assaulting Dianne and fights him, giving Dianne a chance to slip into her Spider Widow disguise. Together the two escape on horseback through the woods and summon the U.S. Army out on maneuvers to follow them back to the hideout, where the army captures the spies and frees the prisoners. [The Spider Widow and the Raven, Feature Comics #61 (October, 1942)]
  * <color /#FFFF00>A large Nazi expeditionary force invades the United States, but just as it seemed certain to defeat the U.S. military in battle, it turns back into the sea and returns to Europe.</color> //Note: This invasion, never pictured but only mentioned, is most certainly the basis for an untold Freedom Fighters story.// ["The Death of Midnight," Smash Comics #36 (October, 1942)]
  * When the Jester encounters a gang of criminals shrunken to the size of small dolls, he tracks down the criminal scientist known as the Professor, who uses a formula to briefly shrink the Jester himself. After using the formula on the Professor, the Jester uses the antidote on himself and the whole gang before the police arrive to arrest them. //Note: The shrinking formula is eerily similar to the one invented by Darrel Dane, the Doll Man.// [The Jester, Smash Comics #36 (October, 1942)]
  * July 27-August 3: Midnight dies in battle with a criminal named Cyclops Ceylon, and the world mourns one of its greatest crime-fighters. Given the opportunity to pass into Heaven, Midnight instead decides to go to Hell in order to pick a fight with the [[Devil (Earth-X)|Devil]], where he learns that the Devil's wife and boss is a female named [[Satan (Earth-X)|Satan]]. Midnight is captured and tortured in Hell over one week. Then Midnight leads a rebellion of American lost souls and successfully prevent the imminent Nazi invasion of the United States by forcing the Devil to order the Nazis to call it off. Just as Midnight is summoned back to Heaven, where he is told that he was taken ahead of schedule, an unnamed professor who struck a deal with Doc Wackey (a life for a life) begins an arcane ritual that brings Midnight back to life after a week of being dead. Midnight is told he was only unconscious and dreaming over that week. ["The Death of Midnight," Smash Comics #36 (October, 1942)]

=== September, 1942 ===

  * September 24: In her last known case, **Wildfire** (Carol Vance Martin) stops a criminal gang led by the Dean of Darkness after Carol and other air raid wardens are kidnapped for ransom during a test blackout. ["Dean of Darkness," Smash Comics #37 (November, 1942)]
  * **The Mouthpiece** has his last known case. [Police Comics #13]
  * **"Prop" Powers'** chronicled adventures end. [National Comics #26]
  * **Wonder Boy** disappears for the first time. [National Comics #26]
  * **Tor the Magic Master** has his last known case. [Crack Comics #26]
  * **Don Q** has last adventure and disappears. [Crack Comics #26]
  * **X of the Underground** has her last adventure and disappears. ["There Are More Ways Than One to Skin a Cat," Military Comics #13 (November, 1942)]
  * [[Yankee Guerilla]] makes a single appearance. [Crack Comics #26]
  * In his last public case as **the Firebrand**, Rod Reilly captures a gang of Nazi spies who seek to sell poisoned quinine to the U.S. government during a shortage. [The Firebrand, Police Comics #13 (November, 1942)]
  * Phantom Lady is framed for bombing a neutral foreign consul in Washington, D.C., and hunted by the law. While driving with her friend Maisie, Sandra Knight gives a ride to a woman wearing a Phantom Lady costume beneath her coat, and Phantom Lady discovers that she is an impostor working for Nazi agents. Phantom Lady stops their next plan, which is to bomb the White House. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #13 (November, 1942)]
  * Dianne Grayton (the Spider Widow) meets the Raven at a secret mountain rendezvous on the West Coast when they are attacked by Japanese spies, and Dianne is used to capture the Raven. Escaping from her trap, Dianne becomes the Spider Widow and frees the Raven. The two then capture the entire nest of spies. [The Spider Widow and the Raven, Feature Comics #62 (November, 1942)]
  * The Ray accompanies a British and American invasion of Occupied Norway, laying waste to the coastal defenses and opening up a new front in the war. //Note: Happy Terrill's newspaper is called the Metropolitan News in this story, though its true name is the Daily Globe, as firmly established in issue #39.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #37 (November, 1942)]
  * **Jaspar Crow** kidnaps Wendy Foster and brings her to Mongolia in order to lure the Black Condor into a trap there as part of his revenge on Senator Tom Wright. The Black Condor escapes thanks to the help of the kettle of vultures he was raised with and has his final confrontation with Crow, who enters the gates of the Forbidden Plateau, where he is overcome by madness and presumably dies in the wilderness. The Black Condor brings Wendy safely back to America. [The Black Condor, Crack Comics #26 (November, 1942)]
  * September 3: The professor who brought Midnight back from the dead arrives after one month to claim Doc Wackey, using him in a dangerous experiment that grants him super-speed and causes him to go crazy and commit a super-speed crime spree, until the effects wear off. ["Doc Wackey Goes Berserk," Smash Comics #37 (November, 1942)]
  * Midnight battles Zor the caveman, a supposed living Neanderthal discovered frozen in Siberia by naturalist Sir Squinchworth. But Zor becomes docile once he's eaten, indicating he was purposely starved by Squinchworth to make him appear vicious. Midnight brings him back to Doc Wackey's home to live for the next two months, where Doc civilizes Zor and teaches him to speak English. ["Cave-Man Menace," Smash Comics #38 (December, 1942)]
  * September 9-10: While out fishing, [[Woozy Winks]] saves Zambi the Soothsayer from drowning and in return is granted the protection of nature, keeping him from all harm. Flipping a coin, Woozy ends up using it for crime and comes to the attention of the law and Plastic Man after targeting sculptor Homer Twitchel. As Eel O'Brian, he meets Woozy and asks for a partnership with him, but is rejected since Woozy has never heard of him, but Woozy agrees to meet with him again in two weeks. Eel spends the next two weeks pulling off several high-profile crimes in order to get Woozy's attention. ["The Man Who Can't Be Harmed," Police Comics #13 (November, 1942)]
  * September 24: At their scheduled meeting after two weeks, Woozy Winks agrees to take on Eel O'Brian (Plastic Man) as his junior partner, and together they target sculptor Homer Twitchel's work. Plastic Man soon learns that Woozy is working for a wealthy collector who wants his own sculptures by Twitchel to rise in value due to their scarcity. Unable to capture him thanks to Woozy's protective spell, Plastic Man convinces Woozy to give up crime and turn himself in. Woozy then becomes Plastic Man's sidekick when Captain Murphy demands that Plastic Man capture Eel O'Brian. ["The Man Who Can't Be Harmed," Police Comics #13 (November, 1942)]
  * September 24: Roy Lincoln investigates strange reports of hauntings at Skull Valley out west, where workers for the Jameson Chemical Works are housed. As the Human Bomb, he soon discovers that a German actor named Franz Kurtman and his men are pretending to haunt the houses in order to make factory workers ineffective and thus harm the U.S. defense efforts, and he rallies the workers to stop the skull-masked Nazi agents from blowing up the plant. //Note: This is the last story that features Roy Lincoln as the head chemist of the U.S. Navy Laboratory; at some point after this story, Roy becomes a civilian once more and opens up a laboratory in his home.// ["The Living Dead of Skull Valley," Police Comics #13 (November, 1942)]
  * September 24-25: The Spider encounters Doctor Monk, a green-robed mad scientist with a formula that can alter a person's appearance, who is hired by John Clark to fake the death of his millionaire brother, Arthur C. Clark, in order to inherit his wealth. John Clark murders Doctor Monk and attempts to kill Clark's daughter, Pat Clark, before the Spider stops him, then uses an antidote to restore Clark's facial features to him. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #26 (November, 1942)]

=== October, 1942 ===

  * A boy known only as Kit and his grandfather are killed by Nazis, and in Eternity they find that he still has 75 years of life left to live. Kit does not, however, become Kid Eternity, though his Earth-S counterpart does. //Note: All of Kid Eternity's adventures in Hit Comics and the Kid Eternity series take place on Earth-S.// [Hit Comics #25]
  * **[[G-2 the Unknown]]** begins adventures. [National Comics #27]
  * **Samar's** last known adventure. [Feature Comics #63]
  * Happy Terrill (the Ray) begins dating fellow reporter Sue Saunders, after having met her Earth-2 double several months earlier. The Ray battles a murderer called [[Headman|the Headman]], descendant of Henry Gorgon, a royal executioner from 1776 to 1798, who is compelled to keep killing people by taking their heads. //Note: Sue Saunders of Earth-X is a brunette, not a redhead as the Earth-2 version is.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #38 (December, 1942)]
  * The Jester encounters Terwilliger J. Thump, a kleptomaniac who also happens to be the uncle of the police commissioner, and delivers him to Inspector Mulligan, who tries but fails to cure him. //Note: In the original story, Mulligan is mistakenly called McGinty, which is actually the name of his Earth-2 counterpart.// [The Jester, Smash Comics #38 (December, 1942)]
  * The Spider Widow and the Raven capture another group of Japanese spies in the Rocky Mountains. [The Spider Widow and the Raven, Feature Comics #63 (December, 1942)]
  * The Human Bomb encounters the Chameleon, a crook able to blend in with his surroundings and effectively become invisible. After some investigation he discovers the Chameleon is the elderly Prof. Thorndike, his old university chemistry teacher, who had been discharged from the university and stole a formula in order to sell it to an airline and get enough money to continue his experiments. But while the Human Bomb is wearing the invisible cloak, Thorndike blunders into his explosive hand and is killed instantly. //Note: This story establishes that Roy Lincoln went to Georgetown University, where he studied chemistry under Prof. Thorndike.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #14 (December, 1942)]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, in an untold story, the Earth-2 Blackhawks return to Earth-2 around this time.</color>
  * October 1: Woozy Winks is released into Plastic Man's custody in exchange for Plastic Man's promise to capture Eel O'Brian in a week. After Plastic Man stops a gang of saboteurs working for the Germans, Woozy captures the Eel and collects the reward money from the police, but the Eel escapes moments later. //Note: Takes place the week following the Plastic Man story in the last issue.// [Plastic Man, Police Comics #14 (December, 1942)]
  * October 24-25: While Sandra Knight and her spinster Aunt Priscilla are visiting the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Phantom Lady stops two criminals working for a German spy from drugging the soldiers' breakfast, and delivers them to the police. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #14 (December, 1942)]
  * October 24-25: Manhunter and Thor encounter a green-robed villain called the Cobra, who has murdered several men, and Manhunter is poisoned by a snake's venom, while Thor is shot. Manhunter proves that the Cobra is not the head of a secret society as the police suppose, but a reporter named Hal Kant, who killed the other men in order to gain a fortune they unknowingly smuggled out of Berlin for the late millionaire Otto Rohr. [Manhunter, Police Comics #14 (December, 1942)]

=== November, 1942 ===

  * Lance Gallant's brother Michael Gallant dies, and although Lance constantly has the feeling that he should've been a hero, he does not become Captain Triumph. However, his Earth-2 counterpart does. //Note: Captain Triumph's adventures in Hit Comics all take place on Earth-2.// [Crack Comics #27]
  * Hack O'Hara battles the Butcher again. [Crack Comics #27]
  * When a small, bald, timid, henpecked scientist named **[[Hustace Throckmorton|Hustace P. Throckmorton]]** is goaded into jumping off a roof to fly like the Black Condor by a gang of boys, he's taken to the emergency room at the hospital, where Roy Lincoln's fiancee Jean Adams is waiting to have a splinter removed from her nail. Thanks to Jean, Roy is forced to give Throckmorton a blood transfusion since he has the same blood type, and Throckmorton unknowingly receives the Human Bomb's blood, which is tainted with 27QRX explosive. After recuperating in the hospital for several days, Throckmorton discovers upon his release that he has gained the power to explode things with his feet. Roy is forced to confess to Throckmorton that his predicament is his fault, because he is the Human Bomb, and he provides him with socks made of the same material he uses as his gloves to prevent his every step causing a mini-explosion. Throckmorton eventually becomes the Human Bomb's sidekick. //Note: As indicated in Police Comics #24, Hustace Throckmorton is not actually married but appears to live in a common-law relationship with his girlfriend Honey-Bun, who is much taller and bigger than him, teaches guerrilla tactics for the U.S. Army, and comes from a wealthy family. Although Throckmorton is not originally introduced as a scientist, he later forms a business with Roy Lincoln in which they share a laboratory.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #15 (January, 1943)]
  * After his editor Steve Hine's daughter Carol is taken prisoner, Happy Terrill is fired after pursuing a story based on the theory that Oscar Slott of the Slott Bomber Company is really Nazi agent Otto Schlottbl who sabotaged his plant. Investigating, the Ray discovers that all of the bombers except one at the plant has been destroyed, and the one remaining could escape to German-controlled territory and thus smuggle out America's newest weapons and bomb sight. The Ray rescues both Carol Hine and Bud, then retrieves the bomber already in the air and returns as Happy Terrill to give Editor Hine credit for stopping the scheme. //Note: This story establishes that the name of Happy Terrill's newspaper on Earth-X is the Daily Globe, while his editor's last name is Hine.// [The Ray, Smash Comics #39 (January, 1942)]
  * The Jester encounters con artist Oscar Oople, who surrenders into his custody. [The Jester, Smash Comics #39 (January, 1942)]
  * November 22-23: Midnight discovers that Zor the caveman is actually a modern-day man who was disfigured and trained to be a Neanderthal by Sir Squinchworth and his wife Lady Squinchworth, who planned to sell him to a circus. Midnight is captured by the Squinchworths. To get his revenge, Sir Squinchworth has a hired thug impersonate Midnight and go on a crime spree, making Midnight an outlaw hunted by the police. Zor helps Midnight escape, and he captures the fake Midnight, while Gabby captures Sir Squinchworth. Midnight is then challenged to a fight to the death by a criminal called Two-Face. ["Cave-Man Menace," Smash Comics #38 (December, 1942)]
  * In an untold tale, Midnight battles a criminal called Two-Face.

=== December, 1942 ===

  * Sandra Knight visits the home of Baron Thorpe, who runs an informal school instructing gullible women on how to be a spy. One young woman named Melinda uses her knowledge to plant a clock containing a dictagraph within it, then delivers it to Baron Thorpe, not realizing he is a real Nazi spy and has helped him learn when the U.S. Navy ship the //S.S. Ambria// is sailing the next day. Phantom Lady, suspecting Thorpe, rescues Melinda from from her imprisonment in Thorpe's home and, with Don Borden's help, warns the Coast Guard that a U-boat is on its way to the ship, then they capture Baron Thorpe and his gang. //Note: A calendar places this story in December. Phantom Lady begins wearing a yellow full-face mask in this story, but only wears it for this case and the next.// ["The School for Spies," Police Comics #15 (January, 1943)]
  * **711** (Dan Dyce) is gunned down by a racketeer named Oscar Jones. [Police Comics #15]
  * A psychic tells an ordinary man on the street whose name remains unknown that he has the occult power to foresee death, trouble, and disaster. As **[[Destiny (Earth-X)|Destiny]]** the man can transport himself to an unknown destination full of danger whenever he blanks his mind. Destiny tries to bring to justice 711's killer, Oscar Jones, who instead escapes. As he watches the ghost of 711 soar into the sky for his final reward, Destiny vows to carry on where 711 left off. //Note: The unnamed man known as Destiny is not, as some think, Dan Dyce's ghost, but another individual altogether. He may or may not be Jake Horn, the man whose place Dan Dyce took in prison and who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 1939 but whose body went missing at the morgue shortly after.// [Police Comics #16; "The Marksman: Unusual Suspects"]
  * In the Ray's last published solo case, Happy Terrill and Bud are among those in a crowd who witness the sinking of the //U.S.S. Foster// at its launching ceremony. Realizing that the ship's hull was weakened by powerful acid from the champagne bottle broken upon it at the ceremony, the Ray stops the same thing from happening at the second launch of a destroyer two hours later. [The Ray, Smash Comics #40 (February, 1943)]
  * December 22: While in pursuit of a crook called Bullets Balow, Midnight discovers a fantasy land in the clouds called the Land of Flight, where Balow arrived sometime earlier (and where time acts differently) and married the ugly Queen of Flight. After Midnight captures Balow, a beautiful woman named Velvet provides Midnight with a rocket ship, and he uses it to return to the real world before it disappears. [Midnight, Smash Comics #40 (February, 1943)]

==== 1943 ====

=== January, 1943 ===

  * Destiny arrests Oscar Jones, who killed 711. [Police Comics #17]
  * The Spider Widow and the Raven battle the Spider Man, a small Nazi saboteur wearing nothing but a spider mask and shorts, and riding a giant, lifelike mechanical spider who kills and terrorizes workers at a factory being used in the defense effort. [The Spider Widow and the Raven, Feature Comics #66 (March, 1943)]
  * The Jester encounters Lady Satan, who tries to trick Inspector Mulligan into marrying an older accomplice in a scheme to gain insurance money upon his death. Despite her obvious guilt, Lady Satan sweet-talks her way out of jail. [The Jester, Smash Comics #41 (March, 1943)]
  * January 21: Plastic Man is drafted into the armed forces, but President Roosevelt himself personally asks Plastic Man to join the FBI instead. Plastic Man and Woozy Winks begin working under the direction of Chief Branner. //Note: According to All-Star Squadron #1, Plastic Man was already an FBI agent before Pearl Harbor, but that was only when he was on Earth-2.// [Plastic Man, Police Comics #18 (April, 1943)]
  * January 21-22: The Black Condor battles the [[Black Dragon Society (Earth-X)|Black Dragon Society]] led by Draku, who kidnaps Wendy Foster in an attempt to gain Dr. Foster's formula for neutralizing the effects of poison gas. After the Black Condor saves both Wendy and Dr. Foster, Draku is crushed to death by a fallen stone idol, and Dr. Foster presents his formula to the Army Medical Society. ["Black Dragon," Crack Comics #28 (March, 1943)]

=== February, 1943 ===

  * Brenda Banks has first public case as **[[Lady Luck]]**. [Smash Comics #42 (April, 1943)]
  * After months of trying to figure out who he is, Dianne Grayton (the Spider Widow) learns that the Raven is really private detective Tony Grey when he reveals his identity to her and her uncle, attorney John B. Keller, after the Spider Widow and the Raven capture a murderer. [The Spider Widow, Feature Comics #67 (April, 1943)]
  * February 20: The Jester's secret identity of rookie cop Chuck Lane is discovered by Lady Satan, who tries to blackmail him into working with her gang until the Jester outwits her and makes her think he wanted her to think he was Chuck Lane. [The Jester, Smash Comics #42 (April, 1943)]
  * February 20: The Human Bomb encounters three midgets calling themselves Hirohito, Mussolini, and Hitler, respectively, with a passing resemblance to all three, when they pursue Roy Lincoln's fiancee, Jean Caldwell, in an effort to stop her from completing an invention of hers she claims will solve all gasoline and rubber shortages. The Human Bomb soon discovers that Jean's invention is a rocket car powered by 200 sticks of dynamite built for her by a professor who has no faith in the invention, and quickly removes the dynamite, then teaches her a lesson by using his own explosive power to give her a ride in the rocket car. When the three midgets steal the rocket car, the Human Bomb gets rid of them by using his explosive power to send them off to a great distance. //Note: The rocket car is shown to have landed on the Moon, but this is meant to be comical and shouldn't be taken literally.// ["The Three Mosquitoes," Police Comics #18 (April, 1943)]
  * February 20: Plastic Man goes on his first assignment for the FBI, battling a scientist who has discovered a way to imbue plants with animal characteristics and vice versa. Plastic Man battles Hugo, a monster who is half-man, half-tree. ["The Forest of Fear," Police Comics #19 (May, 1943)]
  * February 20: Midnight meets a private detective called [[Sniffer Snoop]], who has a pygmy-sized polar bear named [[Hotfoot]] as a sidekick and competes with Midnight for the title of greatest detective of all time before settling in as another of Midnight's assistants. ["The World's Greatest Detective," Smash Comics #42 (April, 1943)]

=== March, 1943 ===

  * While protecting the secret of camouflage invisibility, Plastic Man is kidnapped by a Japanese spy named Amisaki Komiwabi and brought to Tokyo, Japan, where he is tortured with the hopes of making him an Axis agent. Plastic Man escapes custody, steals back the plans, and flies back to the U.S. with the help of an American pilot who crash-landed. [2nd story, Plastic Man #1 (Summer, 1943)]
  * Roy Lincoln (the Human Bomb) is forced to accompany his fiancee Jean Caldwell and her wealthy Aunt Sofie when Sofie buys the Mallow House, a house that has been abandoned for 20 years and which Sofie thinks is haunted. Instead, the so-called ghost is really Sofie's husband, Jean's Uncle Henry, who has played ghost before to chase Sofie out of the other eight dilapidated houses she's bought in the past. //Note: Sometime after this story, Roy Lincoln and Jean Caldwell call off their engagement and break up, since Jean is never seen in any subsequent stories, and Roy is later depicted as a single man.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #19 (May, 1943)]
  * March 22: The Spider encounters the Fly, a killer in a purple fly costume, after he murders wealthy theater-owner Ted Tembroke. The Spider soon learns that he is really John Duke, Tembroke's partner who adopts the role of the Fly in order to frame another man, Deddo the Human Fly, who was crippled while performing his act under contract at the opening of the Tembroke Building in 1933. The Spider stops the Fly from killing Tembroke's daughter, Doris Tembroke, and knocks him off the roof to fall to his death. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #29 (May, 1943)]

=== April, 1943 ===

  * The Marksman attempts to kill Adolf Hitler, but Hitler escapes death once more. [Smash Comics #43]
  * The radio station that Dave Clark (Midnight) works for is now called Station XABC as of this story. ["The Murder Mask," Smash Comics #43 (June, 1943)]
  * Rookie patrolman Chuck Lane meets con artist Oscar Oople once more, this time armed with truth pills, one of which he uses on Chuck, who confesses that he is the Jester, even showing his costume beneath his uniform to Inspector Hustace Mulligan. But Mulligan doubts the Jester's true identity so much that he convinces Oscar Oople that he can't be Chuck Lane. [The Jester, Smash Comics #43 (June, 1943)]
  * Phantom Lady (Sandra Knight) saves her father Senator Henry Knight from being killed by a time-bomb set beneath his house by criminals. //Note: This is the first of three murder attempts on Senator Knight or his daughter over two months.// ["Mystery of the Black Cat," Police Comics #19 (May, 1943)]
  * In a tunnel, the Spider Widow encounters a strange man with a lion-like head called the Tiglon Man, along with several escaped lunatics in possession of old Indian relics. She barely escapes with her life, leaving the Tiglon Man and the lunatics to die. ["The Spider Widow Meets the Tiglon Man," Feature Comics #68 (June, 1943)]
  * April 25: During an Easter egg hunt at the Knight estate, Sandra Knight and Don Borden uncover a plot by a man dressed as the Easter Bunny to kill Senator Henry Knight with explosives in the shape of golden eggs. Phantom Lady unmasks the Easter Bunny as Killer Dan, a criminal whom Knight sentenced to prison ten years ago when he was a judge. //Note: Phantom Lady wears a black domino mask in this story. This is the second of three murder attempts on Senator Knight or his daughter over two months.// ["Golden Egg," Police Comics #18 (April, 1943)]

=== May, 1943 ===

  * The Marksman begins a series of cases outside of Europe, mostly fighting the Japanese, until 1945. [Smash Comics #44]
  * Con artist Oscar Oople and kleptomaniac Terwilliger J. Thump meet and, realizing they have a common enemy in Police Inspector Hustace Mulligan, trick Mulligan into taking sleeping pills. After he falls asleep they wheel Mulligan into an old maids' home, where he is smothered with attention. The Jester tries to turn the tables on Oople and Thump, but they escape along with Mulligan, leaving the Jester behind. [The Jester, Smash Comics #44 (July, 1943)]
  * Sandra Knight (Phantom Lady) is nearly murdered by two assassins working for a gang boss who wants to get even with her father Senator Henry Knight for his racket-busting. //Note: This is the third of three murder attempts on Senator Knight or his daughter over two months.// [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #19 (May, 1943)]

=== June, 1943 ===

  * When Roy Lincoln (the Human Bomb), **[[Curley McGurk|Montague T. "Curley" McGurk]]**, and **[[Swordo the Sword Swallower]]** are rejected from active service at the draft board respectively for being too valuable to risk in active service, for having too great a criminal record, and for being too physically unfit, a woman named **[[Red Rogers]]** kidnaps them with the assistance of her servant James, then flies them toward Japan. After Red explains she wants to rescue her brother Tommy Rogers, who is a prisoner of war in Tokyo, Roy provides Coily, Swordo, and Red with capsules of the same 27QRX explosive he swallowed to gain his explosive super-powers, granting them the same powers, which manifest in different ways (Curley causes a delayed-reaction explosion, while Swordo creates a weaker explosion). Together as **[[Bombardiers|the Bombardiers]]**, the four fly to a POW camp outside Tokyo and fight their way inside to free Tommy, only to bury him when he expires shortly after being freed from a torture device. The Bombardiers begin a series of raids on the Japanese army. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #21 (August, 1943)]
  * Receiving a note from the Raven that Senator Henry Knight is being held prisoner, Phantom Lady rushes to the docks, where she fights a gang and frees both the Raven (who was captured shortly before) and Senator Knight. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #20 (July, 1943)]
  * Red McGraw has his last case as **the Dragon**. [Doll Man #6]
  * Tony Grey (the Raven) introduces Sandra Knight (Phantom Lady) to Dianne Grayton (the Spider Widow), in order to capture the gang responsible for the assassination attempts on Sandra and her father, Senator Henry Knight. But after the Spider Widow and Phantom Lady track down the gang leader and fight the gang with the Raven's help, the two mystery-women's jealous bickering enables the leader to escape. //Note: By this time both the Spider Widow and the Raven know each other's identities, as well as that of Phantom Lady.// [The Spider Widow, Feature Comics #69 (July, 1943)]
  * The gang responsible for trying to assassinate Senator Henry Knight lures Phantom Lady, the Spider Widow, and the Raven into a trap by sending a note to Phantom Lady purportedly from the Spider Widow challenging her to a duel, while the Spider Widow receives a similar note. Spying on the two as they duel, the gangsters recognize them without their masks before they start shooting at them, striking the Raven with a bullet in the back. Phantom Lady and the Spider Widow capture the killers and hand them over to the police, while the Raven is hospitalized for a few weeks. ["Phantom Lady Versus the Spider Widow," Police Comics #21 (August, 1943)]
  * June 18: In Tom Hallaway's last solo case as **the Spider**, he captures Rocks Dolson and his gang. [Alias the Spider, Crack Comics #30 (August, 1943)]

=== July, 1943 ===

  * In his last case on Earth-X, the Jester investigates the murder of mystery writer Mischa Macbeth, author of the "Detective Dan" stories, discovering the murderer to be rival writer Horatio Hubdub, who came up with a perfect locked room method of murder. //Note: Shortly after this story, the Jester and the Spider are moved over to Earth-2, where they remain permanently.// [The Jester, Smash Comics #46 (September, 1943)]
  * While talking on the phone with Sandra Knight (Phantom Lady), Dianne Grayton (the Spider Widow) is kidnapped by a gang and taken to the remote Lookout Hotel. There Dianne finds that the Raven has supposedly joined the gang responsible for assassination attempts on Sandra and her father, Senator Henry Knight. The big boss, Larkins, arrives soon after disguised as Senator Knight, since he intends to replace him for a few days in the U.S. Senate. Phantom Lady arrives to rescue the Spider Widow but ends up needing a rescue by the Raven. On the run from the gang, the trio manage to capture Larkins, but he is accidentally shot by his own gang when they fire on the getaway car. ["The Spider Widow with the Raven and Phantom Lady," Feature Comics #70 (August, 1943)]
  * The Raven attempts to end the feud between the Spider Widow and Phantom Lady by forcing them to work together, only to put all their lives in danger when gangsters try to kill them. Working together, they defeat the gang, and the two heroines become friends at last. ["Peace... It's Wonderful, "Feature Comics #71 (August, 1943)]
  * Saying goodbye to the Spider Widow and the Raven, Phantom Lady learns that her father Senator Henry Knight is involved in tests of a super-submarine, and upon arriving at the launch she is invited to participate. While on board the submarine, Phantom Lady stops a saboteur from destroying it. //Note: The Raven makes no further published appearances after this story.// [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #22 (August, 1943)]
  * The members of **the Kid Patrol** retire, possibly to join the military. [National Comics #35]
  * July 9-10: Allied forces invade Sicily and Italy. //Note: In the timeline of Earth-X, this is the only front the Allied forces are able to make in Western Europe, since the D-Day invasion of Normandy is a disaster. The Allies have some success and eventually occupy Italy and strike through the Balkans. The fighting continues in Eastern Europe for some years until the end of the war in Europe.//
  * July 17: In their last published case together, **the Bombardiers** rescue an escaped American POW from Japanese soldiers. //Note: After this story, the Human Bomb returns to crime-fighting with Hustace Throckmorton as his sidekick in Washington, D.C.// [The Human Bomb and the Bombardiers, Police Comics #22 (September, 1943)]

=== August, 1943 ===

  * In his last solo case, **the Black Condor** fights disguised Nazi spies led by Washington correspondent Joe Logan, who try to quash an appropriation bill for new transport planes, and he is assisted by a newly elected, idealistic young senator from the Corn Belt named Elmer Briggs, who keeps the bill alive by filibustering until the Black Condor exposes the spies. ["Elmer Briggs, United States Senator," Crack Comics #31 (October, 1943)]
  * In her last solo case, **Phantom Lady** (Sandra Knight) fights a group of lunatics who have escaped from the asylum and taken over her home after tying up the servants. [Phantom Lady, Police Comics #23 (October, 1943)]
  * August 15: In her last solo case, **the Spider Widow** saves a friend named Alice from being killed by her husband Emory, who was bewitched by headhunters during a trip to South America into having an uncontrollable desire to collect human heads during each full moon. [The Spider Widow, Feature Comics #72 (October, 1943)]

=== September, 1943 ===

  * Uncle Sam and Buddy travel to Occupied Europe to assist their friend the Vagabond, a wandering guerilla leader in the Resistance whose real name is unknown. [National Comics #37]
  * Plastic Man is framed when Dr. Phineas T. Gleason, working for gangster Pinky Flowers, creates a robotic Plastic Man out of reconstituted rubber tires to commit robberies. Woozy Winks, seeking to prove Plastic Man's innocence, is captured and sent through the Plastic Man-making machine, which doesn't kill him (due to nature protecting him) but instead makes him look like an overweight version of Plastic Man and temporarily gives him super-bouncing powers. ["Find the Real Plastic Man," Police Comics #24 (November, 1943)]
  * Hustace Throckmorton's girlfriend Honey-Bun, who has recently inherited a fortune and disapproves of his being sidekick to the Human Bomb, leaves him for a heavyweight boxer named Poison Purdy. The Human Bomb brings Throckmorton and Honey-Bun back together through a scheme involving a prize fight with Purdy. //Note: Hustace Throckmorton and Honey-Bun don't remain together for too much longer after this story, since Throckmorton is single once more as of Police Comics #29, though Honey-Bun does reappear in Police Comics #36.// ["Hearts and Sluggers," Police Comics #24 (November, 1943)]
  * September 14: Midnight battles supposed invaders from Mars, who are really crooks working for Prof. Drizzpan and equipped with his inventions, who steal blueprints of inventions for the lazy scientist. ["Midnight Meets the Menace from Mars," Smash Comics #48 (November, 1943)]

=== October, 1943 ===

  * [[Beezy Bumbles]] begins adventures. [Crack Comics #32]
  * October 12-14: After Manhunter captures his gang, Rocks Hannigan organizes a national underworld convention in Beach City in order to lure Manhunter there to kill him. Instead, Manhunter and his dog Thor end up capturing about 50 gangsters from all over the country. [Manhunter, Police Comics #25 (December, 1943)]

=== November, 1943 ===

  * **Wonder Boy**'s adventures continue as he reappears. [Bomber Comics #1]
  * The Blackhawks meet Wang the Tiger, a Chinese freedom fighter against the Japanese Army whose secret identity is Mandarin Wang, a collaborator with the Japanese. //Note: This story concept is later reused as the 1964 origin story of Chop-Chop in Blackhawk #203, which portrays Liu Huang (Chop-Chop), a Japanese collaborator who is the spoiled son of a Chinese ruler, but who is secretly the freedom fighter called the White Dragon.// [Military Comics #25]
  * The Human Bomb and Hustace Throckmorton encounters a mad scientist called Patch-Eye, who is a genius in robotics and managed to create a robot named Symphrosiba, who perfectly mimics a beautiful woman until Throckmorton accidentally destroys it, sending Patch-Eye into despair. //Note: As of this story, Hustace Throckmorton has joined Roy Lincoln at his laboratory, which becomes known as the Lincoln-Throckmorton Laboratory, so named in Police Comics #29.// ["Patch-Eye the Perilous," Police Comics #26 (January, 1944)]
  * November 12-13: After Chief Branner discovers that Plastic Man is really the wanted criminal Eel O'Brian, he gives Plastic Man three of the toughest tasks to complete within a week in order to keep his job. Plastic Man brings in Slugger Crott and keeps him from committing suicide before capture, discovers the identity of an unknown gang leader and brings him in, and solves a series of mysterious murders in the deep south district of Bayou County. While in Bayou County, Plastic Man battles a werewolf named Pike Ronan, who is killed with a silver dagger by his girlfriend, Vida. With the three jobs completed, Chief Branner absolves Plastic Man of his criminal past and welcomes him back into the FBI. ["Plastic Man Battles Body, Mind and Soul," Police Comics #26 (January, 1944)]

==== 1944 ====

=== January, 1944 ===

  * U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has a fatal heart attack, causing the governmental balance of power to go the wrong way when Vice President Henry Wallace succeeds him as president. President Wallace pushes for an Allied invasion of Normandy for June even though intelligence reports that the German defenses are much too strong for such an invasion.
  * After Manhunter and Thor capture wanted criminal Red Tolan, a judge places Tolan's kid brother Tommy Tolan in the custody of Patrolman Dan Richards, after Red pleads with him not to send Tommy to reform school. Tommy runs away on the first night to his brother's gang, now led by a crook called Hard Guy, who sends him back to Dan to spy on him and learn about Manhunter, his friend. As Tommy spies on Dan, he catches him changing into his Manhunter costume, learning his secret identity. After Hard Guy captures Manhunter, Tommy learns that the gang leader ratted on his brother Red to the police in order to take over the gang. Tommy tries to free Manhunter but is shot in the back. Manhunter breaks free in a rage and fights the gang, but is almost overcome when Tommy forces them all to drop their guns with a gun of his own, which later turns out to be a lifelike water-gun. Later, Tommy tells the police commissioner that he's ready to go to reform school after all, but the commissioner rewards the boy by sending him to a private school instead. Tommy remains friends with Dan and vows inwardly never to reveal the secret that he is Manhunter. ["Blue Coats Don't Turn Back Bullets," Police Comics #28 (March, 1944)]

=== February, 1944 ===

  * Midnight and his assistants (Doc Wackey, Gabby, Sniffer Snoop, and Hotfoot) use Doc's time pills (which enable both time travel and local language translation) to travel back in time from 1944 to ancient Rome in 64 A.D. during the reign of Nero. There they are captured and brought to Nero himself. Thanks to his knowledge of ancient history, Midnight is honored as a prophet by Nero. But when Midnight saves his friends from being killed in the Circus Maximus, they inadvertently cause the Great Fire of Rome before returning to their own time. [Midnight, Smash Comics #52 (April, 1944)]
  * Roy Lincoln and Hustace Throckmorton have opened up the Lincoln-Throckmorton Laboratory by this time under the business name of Lincoln-Throckmorton Laboratories, Inc. As the Human Bomb, Roy has learned how to make giant leaps by using his explosive touch to propel himself into the air. //Note: As seen in Police Comics #32, Hustace Throckmorton can also make huge leaps by propelling himself with blasts from his explosive feet.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #29 (April, 1944)]
  * After Dr. Arthur Sims invents a serum allowing a brain to remain alive after the body's death, two bodyguards drag gangster Tony Conroy into his laboratory to save his life, but leave him there after Sims confirms he's dead. Manhunter and Thor track down and capture the bodyguards for the police, but can't find Conroy. Dr. Sims decides to remove Conroy's brain, placing it in his artificial circulator, and uses his serum on it, restoring the brain to life with the ability to transmit thought waves. But Conroy's restored brain is now powerful and willful enough to force Sims to do his bidding, and the brain forces Sims to murder the two bodyguards who deserted Conroy's body. When Conroy's brain forces Sims to try to murder the policemen who fatally shot him, Manhunter stops him, but Sims is able to flee with extra strength of Conroy's brain energy. Sims is then ordered to kill the dog Thor, but Thor knocks over the circulator, killing Conroy's brain as well as Sims, since he is controlled by the brain at the time. ["Hand-in-Hand with Death," Police Comics #29 (April, 1944)]

=== March, 1944 ===

  * The adventures of Carnie Callahan, nicknamed the [[Barker]] (a carnival barker) begin. [National Comics #42]
  * Sometime after this point, Officer Dan Richards (Manhunter) and his girlfriend Kit Kelly presumably break off their relationship, since she is never seen or mentioned ever again. ["Sounds in the Silent Night," Police Comics #29 (May, 1944)]
  * March 9-11: Dave Clark (Midnight) is framed for murder by a female gang-lord named Darla, who wants Clark to reveal Midnight's identity. Found guilty in record time, Clark is sentenced to death by electrocution. Doc Wackey, Sniffer Snoop, and Gabby each come up with the idea to become Midnight and find evidence to prove Clark's innocence. Midnight beats them to the punch by breaking out of jail and forcing Darla to confess her crime, allowing Dave Clark to go free. [Midnight, Smash Comics #53 (May, 1944)]

=== June, 1944 ===

  * Working from a plan by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gen. Deering places six men together as a Europe-focused paramilitary group called the [[Black Hawks]], inspired by the original Blackhawks, who have moved their operations to the Pacific Theater of War by this time. [[Bart Hawk]], an American Indian descended from Chief Black Hawk, becomes the field team leader, and other members include his friend [[Weng "Chopper" Chan]] of San Francisco, [[Donald Friedriksen]] of Denmark, [[Roger Duval]] of France, [[Franz Ritter]] of Germany, and [[Johnny Sirianni]] of Brooklyn. After months of training, on June 3, the Black Hawks are brought by submarine into Normandy, France, where they meet their contact in the French Resistance, Heracles. There, the Black Hawks investigate a secret underground factory built by the Germans to thwart an invasion, and they discover that the Nazis have several secret weapons, including an anti-gravity beam, a bladed wheel, and an electricity ray, which are combined into one giant robot with all these capabilities. The group attempts to stop or sabotage the weapon, but are unsuccessful, and they fail to send a message back to Allied Command to halt the planned invasion of Normandy before it's too late. //Note: The original version of this story is very similar, except it ends with the Blackhawks stopping the giant robot, and the D-Day invasion is successful. The adventures of this squadron is documented in various World War II Combat Diary stories in the Blackhawk series published by DC Comics in the 1960s, although the names are not the same, and some of the events are different.// [Blackhawk #198]
  * June 6: The Allies make an attempt to invade Normandy, but the D-Day invasion proves a disaster, since the German defenses are deemed too secure. Thousands of Allied soldiers die or are captured in the doomed invasion. The Allies give up on Normandy as an invasion spot and redouble their efforts fighting the Germans in Italy and the Balkans.

=== July, 1944 ===

  * After last case, Brian O'Brien retires as **the Clock**. [Crack Comics #35]
  * July 6: Manhunter's dog Thor is shot, while Manhunter's head is grazed by a bullet. ["Suicide Sanitarium," Police Comics #34 (September, 1944)]

=== August, 1944 ===

  * August 4: Manhunter's dog Thor is wounded by a bullet grazing his head. [Manhunter, Police Comics #35 (October, 1944)]

=== September, 1944 ===

  * Rusty Ryan and the Boyville Brigadiers, fighting in the Pacific, land on an island populated by dinosaurs. There, they kill a young Tyrannosaurus Rex and its adult mother. [Feature Comics #83]
  * Hustace Throckmorton, the Human Bomb's sidekick, begins dating Honey-Bun again. //Note: Throckmorton's relationship with Honey-Bun doesn't appear to be exclusive.// ["Beware the Human Bomb," Police Comics #36 (November, 1944)]

=== October, 1944 ===

  * **Merlin the Magician** disappears. [National Comics #45]
  * Stormy Foster retires as **the Great Defender**. [Hit Comics #34]
  * **Wonder Boy** disappears once again. [Bomber Comics #4]

=== November, 1944 ===

  * President Henry Wallace, very unpopular because of the D-Day disaster, barely wins the election against Thomas E. Dewey of the Republican Party.
  * November 29-December 1: Wily criminal lawyer Arno Roxx frames Manhunter for the murder of banker Larkin, and Manhunter subjects himself to being arrested, though he convinces the police not to unmask him until the next day. That night Manhunter escapes from jail and forces Roxx to confess to murdering Larkin himself while dressed up as Manhunter. [Manhunter, Police Comics #38 (January, 1945)]

=== December, 1944 ===

  * **G-2 the Unknown** retires. [National Comics #27]

==== 1945 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1945 ===

  * The Dragon (Red McGraw) is killed in battle while fighting the Japanese in Occupied China. He leaves behind a wife and son in the United States. ["The Marksman: Unusual Suspects"]
  * The White School on the multi-dimensional island of Tourmaline is attacked and bombed by a group of former students turned Nazi mystics from Earth-X, members of the Thule Society who seek to use the Clock Tower to conquer parallel universes and other dimensions. To defend itself, the island disappears into the mystical dimension of Darkworld, causing the Nazi mystics to drown in the ocean. Most of the instructors and students are saved, each returning to his or her world of origin and given partial amnesia about the island and the school. ["[[https://5earths.info/earth-s/bravebold-es-mm-ab1987/|The Brave and the Bold: Mary Marvel and Atom Blake: Magic and Demons and Ghouls, Oh My!]]"]

=== January, 1945 ===

  * Allied Forces continue to push through Italy and into the Balkans, the only war front left in Europe. The German Army is still divided, fighting the Allies in Italy and the Balkans in the west and the Russians in the east.
  * Elderly billionaire J. Pilbeam Highbinder visits the Lincoln-Throckmorton Laboratory seeking a cure for his poor health, but when crooks burst in and kidnap him, Highbinder accidentally ingests a small amount of the 27QRX super-explosive that gave Roy Lincoln (the Human Bomb) and Hustace Throckmorton their explosive powers. When the Human Bomb and Throckmorton rescue him, Highbinder helps them fight off the kidnappers with great strength and unbound energy, though he has no explosive powers. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #40 (March, 1945)]

=== February, 1945 ===

  * **The Marksman's** last known case in the Pacific. [Smash Comics #58]
  * **Chic Carter's** adventures end. [National Comics #47]

=== March, 1945 ===

  * March 28: While escorting a crook to his trial, Officer Dan Richards is one of the few survivors of the train derailment of the Lightning Express, and the only one to survive completely unscathed. Investigating as Manhunter, he discovers that United Central Railroad Lines manager Hobbs is responsible for the disaster, which he caused in order to cover up his theft of $500,000 from the railroad company by killing the crook he'd hired to do the job. [Manhunter, Police Comics #42 (May, 1945)]

=== April, 1945 ===

  * Mallory Drake becomes mystery-man **[[the Whistler]]** and begins adventures. [National Comics #48]

=== May, 1945 ===

  * May 8: After four years of battling the German Army, the Soviet Union unconditionally surrenders to Nazi Germany. Now that Germany has one less front to worry about, it concentrates its forces to fight the Allied armies in the Balkans.
  * May 27: The Human Bomb and Hustace Throckmorton investigate reports of a sea serpent in the coastal resort town of Bumboat Beach, only to discover that the sea serpent is an advanced robot remotely controlled by two crooked businessmen trying to take over the resort. The Human Bomb disables the controls for the robotic sea serpent and captures the crooks. [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #44 (July, 1945)]

=== July, 1945 ===

  * The Human Bomb and Hustace Throckmorton rescue Jim Gordon, a reformed thief recently released from prison, from crooks seeking to use his safe-cracking talents for their jobs, saving Gordon's girlfriend Lula as well. Throckmorton helps get Gordon a job at the Sunbright Dairy Farm. //Note: This Jim Gordon may be the Earth-X counterpart of James W. Gordon, police commissioner of Gotham City on Earth-1 and Earth-2, but much younger, with red hair, and having a very different history.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #46 (September, 1945)]

=== August, 1945 ===

  * August 23: Prof. Padsel, Doc Wackey's old school chum, invents a mind-tranference machine and uses it to switch bodies with Midnight in order to impress a young woman, Belinda Marsey. But after Belinda's suitor George is murdered, Midnight is suspected for the murder, until he proves that Belinda's father Colin Marsey is the murderer, then forces Padsel to switch bodies back again. [Midnight, Smash Comics #61 (October, 1945)]

=== October, 1945 ===

  * Midnight battles a sultry villainess called the Lorelei. ["Lured by the Lorelei," Smash Comics #62 (December, 1945)]

=== November, 1945 ===

  * During civic elections in Empire City (which may be New York City), Mayor Lowry campaigns as the man who crushed crime, backed by Big John Rafferty, who controls crime in the city and declares an armistice until after the elections. Suspecting something, Patrolman Dan Richards stages a fake crime and poses as a crook in order to learn the mayor's connection to Big John, who breaks his neck and dies while running from Manhunter's dog Thor. The Reform League party's candidate ousts Mayor Lowry from office. //Note: Mayor Lowry is succeeded by Mayor John Kyle, as seen in the Manhunter story in Police Comics #74.// ["Crime Declares an Armistice," Police Comics #51 (February, 1946)]

=== December, 1945 ===

  * Imperial Japan wins World War II in the Pacific with the United States' withdrawal from Hawaii and all of the Pacific west of Hawaii, although it takes about two months for the U.S. withdrawal to fully take effect. //Note: The war in the Pacific lasted until December, based on the fact that the Blackhawks fight their last battle with the Japanese in Modern Comics #46, which takes place then.//
  * The adventures of a beautiful and seductive dame named [[Torchy Todd]] begin. [Doll Man #8]
  * Hack O'Hara again battles the Butcher. [Crack Comics #41]
  * The radio station that Dave Clark (Midnight) works for is now called Station WXBZ as of this story. [Midnight, Smash Comics #63 (February, 1946)]

==== 1946 ====

=== February, 1946 ===

  * Celebrating its victory in the Pacific, Imperial Japan lays down its arms in triumph. Nazi Germany takes this opportunity to turn on Imperial Japan, forcing the Japanese Empire to bend to the Third Reich's will and become its puppet government.
  * Meanwhile, the United States, having been defeated in the Pacific, is forced to withdraw from Hawaii and all territory west of Hawaii. After withdrawing all U.S. troops and most civilians, U.S. President Wallace leaves an atomic bomb in Pearl Harbor on Oahu, destroying the naval base there and crippling the Japanese Navy after it had begun to use it. Numerous uprisings against the Germans in occupied territory begin, since the Allies are convinced that the atomic bomb will now win the war in the eleventh hour.
  * Adolf Hitler, seeing the use of the atomic bomb as a threat to German supremacy, quickly makes further demands on Imperial Japan. When Japan refuses as expected, Germany drops two atomic bombs on Japan. One in Hiroshima and the other in Nagasaki. Japan surrenders days later, and the Third Reich places a puppet government in charge of the Empire of Japan.
  * The Third Reich's takeover of Imperial Japan proves to be a mistake, as it causes the loss of much occupied territory held until then by Imperial Japan and diverts Germany's attention there for years as it tries to regain the lost territory. Japan's occupied territories begin to rebel, allowing several Asian nations to successfully regain their freedom, including parts of China and much of Indo-China, as well as India. The United States gives aid to Korea, which is divided according to a peace treaty along the 38th parallel, creating South Korea (run by a Nazi- and Japan-backed government) and North Korea (run by a U.S.-backed government). The Nazis are only willing to sue for peace there until they gain control over the Asian mainland, which is in chaos with the collapse of Imperial Japan. The U.S. also gives support to Post-Occupation China, which eventually has a government that is a coalition of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Nationalist Party. //Note: Much of this is speculation based on the fact that a version of the Korean War occurred on Earth-X.// [Justice League of America #107-108]
  * The Blackhawks celebrate the weakening of both Imperial Japan and the Third Reich, which results in the dissolution of Japan's hold on much of Asia. It is a bittersweet victory, however, since most of Europe is still under Nazi domination. The team becomes world-traveling adventurers from this point on. //Note: In this story, the Blackhawks are shown celebrating peace in the Pacific over a defeated Japan in Modern Comics #48, the same issue in which the World War II-era military series are replaced by humor series. Although Japan is not defeated by the Allies on Earth-X, they celebrate it nonetheless, knowing Imperial Japan's collapse of control over the area allows for freedom in the formerly occupied nations and will also keep the Third Reich busy for many years to come, allowing the Allies to eventually invade Nazi-held Europe sometime in the future.// [Modern Comics #48]

=== March, 1946 ===

  * Realizing that World War II could only escalate and result in worldwide destruction for all, now that both the Axis and the Allies possess the atomic bomb, President Dewey negotiates an armistice between the Allies and Nazi Germany. Most of Europe remains within the empire of the Third Reich, while Italy, much of the Balkans, and half of the Mediterranean remain under Allied protection. A cold war between the Allies and the Axis sets in for more than a decade.
  * The Blackhawks meet [[Lady Fear]], lady adventuress in the Far East. [Modern Comics #49]
  * Hack O'Hara versus the Tigress (not any of the Earth-2 versions). [Crack Comics #42]
  * Manhunter's dog Thor is shot again, but he recovers. [Manhunter, Police Comics #54 (May, 1946)]

=== May, 1946 ===

  * May 16: After the Human Bomb helps the police smash a den of crime, a scrawny, bespectacled, bearded, and dark-haired criminal scientist named [[Yarboe]] gathers residue from an exploded brick and nearly duplicates the super-explosive 27QRX, which gave Roy Lincoln his Human Bomb powers. Yarboe takes over the gang he was part of and begins a daring series of bank robberies using his explosive. When the Human Bomb and Hustace Throckmorton stop Yarboe and his gang during their attempt to break into a bank's safe, Yarboe escapes, then captures the pursuing Throckmorton and attempts to remove one of his explosive feet in order to perfect his own explosive formula. But as the Human Bomb swoops in to rescue Throckmorton, he destroys Yarboe's laboratory, apparently also killing the criminal scientist. //Note: Yarboe survives the explosion and spends the next four decades in recovery, during which time he plans his revenge on the Human Bomb.// ["Fire in the Sky," Police Comics #56 (July, 1946)]

=== June, 1946 ===

  * **The Death Patrol** has its last adventure. [Modern Comics #52]

=== July, 1946 ===

  * In his last solo case as **the Human Bomb**, Roy Lincoln and Hustace Throckmorton protect Formez Grocery from crooks. //Note: Sometime after this story, the partnership of the Human Bomb and Throckmorton ends, and the Human Bomb begins working with the Freedom Fighters on a more regular basis.// [The Human Bomb, Police Comics #58 (September, 1946)]

=== December, 1946 ===

  * The radio station that Dave Clark (Midnight) works for is now called Station XYZ as of this story. ["Sinful Sir Nuts," Smash Comics #69 (February, 1947)]

==== 1947 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1947 ===

  * The Freedom Fighters are battling German soldiers in Europe when the criminal scientist Dr. Gwythyr Doome and his partners arrive from 1943 on Earth-2 in a time craft, then subdue and kidnap the heroes to use against the All-Star Squadron on Earth-2 in 1943. //Note: The Freedom Fighters presumably went on several missions in Europe and the Pacific as a strike force against the Axis, coordinating their efforts with the Allied command. They were probably parachuted in to their locations and flown out once again after their missions were done.// [DC Universe: The Time-Space Gambit, Book 1]

=== January, 1947 ===

  * Manhunter's dog Thor fights and kills a trained gorilla being used for murders based on the Edgar Allan Poe tale, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." [Manhunter, Police Comics #64 (March, 1947)]

=== May, 1947 ===

  * Manhunter's dog Thor is shot again. ["Manhunter's Mother Goose," Police Comics #68 (July, 1947)]

=== July, 1947 ===

  * **Eric Vale's** last adventure. [Crack Comics #50]

=== September, 1947 ===

  * Manhunter is shot in the shoulder. ["The Autographed Slug," Police Comics #72 (November, 1947)]

=== October, 1947 ===

  * October 29-30: Shortly before the civic elections, Empire City Mayor John Kyle is murdered, followed by District Attorney Al Baker and City Treasurer Smith, each one poisoned by a cyanide-filled doll sent by Boss Heeley. Manhunter saves Police Chief Ladd from being killed in the same way. Heeley and his henchman are killed when they get into a car accident on their way to deliver more dolls to civic leaders in order to clear the way for their own candidates. //Note: Empire City, not named as such since the earliest Manhunter stories, may simply be a nickname for New York City. The police chief is given the name of "Ladd" in the Manhunter story in Police Comics #85.// ["Doll Murders," Police Comics #74 (January, 1947)]

==== 1948 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1948 ===

  * The multi-dimensional island of Tourmaline emerges into the physical realm from the Darkworld, appearing as a seemingly new island in the South Pacific simultaneously on Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-S, Earth-X, and Earth-4. Gareth Gallowglass, a 12-year-old psychic prodigy from Earth-1, takes up residence on the island, now called Grim Island, after his fellow Sentinels of Magic of Earth-1 are killed protecting the five Earths from being invaded by Hell. ["[[https://5earths.com/earth-1/showcase-e1-sentinelsofmagic-tp1948/|Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made]]"]

=== February, 1948 ===

  * Doc Wackey, mistaken for King Ragoz, consort of Queen Menna of the matriarchal nation of Femalia, is kidnapped and brought to Femalia. Learning of the nation's location from an expert named Zogar, Midnight, Sniffer Snoop, Gabby, and Hotfoot rescue Doc and learn that Zogar is really King Ragoz. Queen Menna lets Midnight and his aides go free for returning her wayward husband to her. //Note: The citizens of the tropical nation of Femalia, though modern, appear to be descendants of the Amazons.// [Midnight, Smash Comics #76 (April, 1948)]
  * February 25: Manhunter is shot, the bullet grazing his head. [Manhunter, Police Comics #77 (April, 1948)]

=== May, 1948 ===

  * "Pen" Miller meets J. Edgar Hoover. [Crack Comics #55]

=== August, 1948 ===

  * When Prof. Hangnail invents a rocket ship to fly to Mars, Midnight's assistants Doc Wackey, Gabby, Sniffer Snoop, and Hotfoot become test subjects in the first experimental flight. Shortly after, Hangnail announces an imminent war with Mars, and during the ensuing panic, criminals dressed as pseudo-Martians loot Big City. Investigating, Midnight discovers that Hangnail (an alias for a criminal scientist) is behind it, and that his assistants are not in the rocket at all but kept prisoner under the observatory. ["Midnight Battles the Men from Mars," Smash Comics #79 (October, 1948)]

=== November, 1948 ===

  * November 15-17: Manhunter and Thor save the lives of Governor Woodley and a crowd of hundreds at a dog racing benefit, when a gang of thieves use a bomb as a distraction for a robbery. Manhunter apprehends the suspect, Lucky, after Thor identifies him. Governor Woodley later presents Thor with a special award for bravery. ["Death at the Dog Track," Police Comics #86 (January, 1949)]

==== 1949 ====

=== Unspecified month in 1949 ===

  * Richard Stanton (Madam Fatal) finally locates his daughter and heir to his fortune, kidnapped 18 years earlier as an infant by John Carver. Now fifty years old, Stanton retires from crime-fighting as Madam Fatal. ["The Marksman: Unusual Suspects"]

=== January, 1949 ===

  * Doc Wackey invents an invisibility serum that causes anyone who swallows it to become invisible for a few hours, though it doesn't affect their clothes, and it causes temporary forgetfulness. ["Sniffer Snoop's Fadeout," Smash Comics #81 (February, 1949)]

=== March, 1949 ===

  * **"Pen" Miller's** last case. [Crack Comics #60]
  * Doc Wackey invents an anti-gravity vibrator that cancels gravity, allowing one to float in the air, but Sniffer Snoop loses it in a river. ["What Goes Up," Smash Comics #82 (April, 1949)]

=== April, 1949 ===

  * **Rusty Ryan** has his last known adventure. [Feature Comics #135]

=== May, 1949 ===

  * **Batch Bachelor** begins adventures. [Crack Comics #61]

=== June, 1949 ===

  * **Quicksilver** disappears after his last case for several years when his full super-speed returns, causing him to accidentally travel through time to the 1830s where he is known as Windrunner, travels through time again to the 1890s where he is known as Whip Whirlwind, and then to the 1920s where he is known as Lightning, before he then finally reaches 1986, where he uses his old stage name, Max Mercury. [National Comics #73]
  * June 10: An old Vaudeville impersonator called Mimic the Great, now broke and unable to get a new job in show business, uses his skills in disguise to impersonate Manhunter, framing him for a robbery. Thanks to Thor recognizing the false Manhunter as a fake, the real Manhunter's name is cleared. ["Mimic the Great," Police Comics #93 (August, 1949)]

=== July, 1949 ===

  * **Molly the model's** last appearance. [Crack Comics #62]
  * **Batch Bachelor's** last appearance. [Crack Comics #62]
  * **Hack O'Hara's** last adventure. [Crack Comics #62]
  * **Beezy Bumble's** last adventure. [Crack Comics #62]

=== August, 1949 ===

  * During **Midnight's** last solo cases, Midnight stops a crooked talent agent from stealing a singer's money, then captures a crook named Red Ruggles. Meanwhile, Dave Clark helps open Station XYZ's new television station and stars in its first program, a sketch comedy show. ["Midnight Stymies a Singing Swindle," Smash Comics #85 (October, 1949); "Midnight's Merry Men," Smash Comics #85 (October, 1949)]
  * **Black X** retires. [Smash Comics #85]
  * <color /#ECECEC>On Earth-2, Chuck Lane retires as **the Jester** after his last regular case. [The Jester, Smash Comics #85 (October, 1949)]</color>

=== September, 1949 ===

  * [[Stuntman Stetson]] begins adventures. [Feature Comics #140]

=== October, 1949 ===

  * Policewoman **Sally O'Neil's** adventures end. [National Comics #75]
  * The adventures of **the Barker** end. [Barker #15]
  * A crook called Makeup impersonates and frames Manhunter for a bank robbery committed by his gang. Once again Thor clears Manhunter's name by proving which one is the fake. [Manhunter, Police Comics #97 (December, 1949)]

**Continue to [[Timeline of Earth-X (1950s to the future)]]**

**Timeline of Earth-X:** [[Timeline of Earth-X (prehistory to 1940s)|prehistory to 1940s]] | [[Timeline of Earth-X (1950s to the future)|1950s to the future]]