Criminals found Captain Flag a difficult man to intimidate.
For example, in Blue Ribbon 21 (Feb. 1942), Captain Flag’s archenemy the Black Hand is apparently drowned in an underwater battle with the flag-caped crusader.
But in Blue Ribbon 22 (March 1942), the Black Hand is saved by a passing yacht, and repays that kindness by strangling the yacht’s captain to death.
“Or perhaps you’d prefer me to shoot off your arms and legs — then feed you to the fishes,” the Hand says.
Coolly, Captain Flag dives into the sea and breaks his chains on a jagged rock, coming up on the other side of the boat.
“ ‘You’re going to hang, Black Hand,’ Flag informs him. “Since you wanted to live as a pirate, you shall die as one.’” comics historian Ron Goulart recalled in The MLJ Companion. “Sure enough, in the last frame we see the Hand, purple robe and all, dangling from a yardarm.
“What adventures await Captain Flag now?’ asks a caption. ‘None’ is the correct answer, since this turned out to be the last issue of Blue Ribbon.”
Flag would resurface for a couple of panels in 1966 as a member of the Ultra-Men, alongside the Web and the Fox. And “Black Hand,” being a richly villainous name, was reused for one of Green Lantern’s archenemies.
“Consistent with the times, one of (the superhero genre’s) most popular subsets consisted of superheroes wearing costumes based on the American flag,” observed comics historian Don Markstein. “MLJ Comics was the first to introduce such a character — The Shield, in fact, appeared about two years before Pearl Harbor. But few comics publishers of the time were content with just one. By the time America entered the war, MLJ was also publishing the adventures of Captain Flag.”
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan, wow! So, the inference is that Captain Flag ‘himself’ dispensed justice to the dastardly villainous Black Hand. That harkens back to the ‘pulp justice’ of characters like The Shadow and The Avenger more than superheroes per se (with the exception perhaps of the Golden Age Spectre). But no one can argue that Blackie didn’t deserve what he got, especially after the brutal murder of the very man who’d saved his life.
I didn’t know Captain Flag in his GA incarnation as he wasn’t among the pantheon of early superheroes that my Mom (did) expose me to from the days of her comic book reading youth.
I Do remember his very brief appearance with the Ultra-Men you mentioned. I was more interested in the Web than he though.
Re: Black Hand - Coincidentally around the same time that he debuted as a Green Lantern foe I was just then learning about La Cosa Nostra - The Mafia - The Black Hand (what can I tell you, I was a voracious reader) so I became excited about the possibility of seeing Hal take on the Mob. Un uh, no go. Nothing happened in that regard. Probably company policy and probably a healthy one. In fact the closest we ever got to seeing Anything like that was when Hal and the GL Corp went up against Earth human gangster chieftain Al Magone and his alien minions. I have more to say about him and that story in an upcoming post.
While The Shield ‘Was’ the first star-spangled superhero, he certainly wasn’t the most popular. That position obviously goes to Steve Roger as Captain America. Also, that original Shield wasn’t my personal favorite. I much prefer the Simon and Kirby version, Lancelot Strong.
From my very first look at him I became obsessed with the character. His costume, his power set, everything about him worked for me, big time. I was sad that his run was so limited but another delightful flag draped crime fighter was waiting in the wings for my discovery.
He too sprung from the stellar creativity of Joe and Jack. He was none other than Fighting American and yes, I’ll be talking about him too in a post to come.