Description: Buzz was an amateur ham radio enthusiast whose father was murdered by gangsters. Later, he installs a "super-electron tube" in his radio as a power booster,but it accidentally turns his radio invisible. He converts this invisibility technology into a belt that could turn him invisible. Assisted by his friend, Will Lawrence, Buzz sets out to fight crime and uphold justice using his amazing new technology.
Description: Don-Vin a.k.a. Hyper the Phenomenal was a young scientist under the employ of the United States government. He was allied with the Winifred, codenamed Agent 2Y, who served as an undercover operative of the U.S. Secret Service. His chest was protected by a plastron comprised of bulletproof fabric. Hyper's helmet had a built-in radio and, although heavy, somehow enabled him artificial flight.
Description: Yarko the Great was a talented stage magician but, secretly, also a real mage. Using his vast magical abilities, he battled criminals and supernatural forces. Yarko possessed force field projection, duplication, shape-shifting, invisibility, intangibility, exorcism, telekinesis, levitation, and whatever else the plot required.
Description: Robert Morgan was the American student of an ancient Egyptian mystic called The Old Man of the Pyramids. He schooled Morgan in "all the ancient and modern sciences" and gave him the "Amulet of Annihilation, the weapon of the forces of right" which he tied around his right arm. The Amulet grants him powers including super-strength, super-speed, flight, the ability to generate electricity and radiate “lightning heat,” and a measure of invulnerability. His powers can be recharged by electricity.
Description: Tony Trent, a newscaster for the radio station WBSC, witnesses a murder committed by gangsters disguised as cops. Consequently he decides to fight crime. Having no innate superpowers, he instead uses a mask to scare criminals. Trent would use his position to learn of crimes and catch those behind them as The Face!
Description: Samson is a direct descendant of the biblical Samson. Like his ancestor, Samson has immense strength and endurance but loses his powers if his hair is cut. However, the fact that his hair grew back much faster than normal made up for that weakness. Samson did not manifest that ability until he reached college age. That's when his mother revealed his ancestry.
Description: Patty O'Day was one of the first (of many) female civilian types of heroes to debut in the late '30s/early '40s. In some stories she was a reporter, in others, a news photographer. She had an assistant/sidekick, Ham. Either with him at her side or out on her own, whether reporting or photographing, she would solve crimes and mysteries.
Description: Stardust the Super Wizard lived on a "private star" far out in space. He patrolled the cosmos fighting criminals, racketeers, and spies. Stardust faced numerous aliens and criminal masterminds including ones such as the Super Fiend who set fire to the planet Mars. He has a vast knowledge of interplanetary science and devotes his abilities to crime-busting. In practical terms, this gives him unlimited, virtually omnipotent powers. He can fly through space using his tubular spatial accelerated super-solar light waves.
Description: Originally known as Flick Falcon, Flip Falcon was an American scientist and adventurer who invented Fourth Dimension Machine, a computer-esque device that allowed him to travel to any point in space-time (the 4th Dimension), so long as he pre-programmed the coordinates. He used this device to explore the space-time continuum, and fight whatever historic, futuristic and alien enemies he happened to come across.
Description: When Gary was a baby, his father, Charteris Preston, worked as a missionary in China. The elder Preston was washed away in a flood but managed to save baby Gary by placing him in a basket. The basket was washed downstream to Tibet, where Gary was rescued by a group of lamas. They raised Gary, and trained him in their mystical ways. Gary obtained the ability to control fire and heat. He can raise his own body temperature to the point where he can burst into flames or melt bullets. He can control and direct any flame in his presence. He can also teleport from place to place by appearing inside of any fire source, no matter how small.
Description: Nagana, Queen of Evil, is a three thousand year old sorceress who tricks mortals by making false promises of immortality, but is truly sucking their lives away. However, her nemesis Kalkor, high priest of Isis, tries to stop her. He later banished her using the curse of Isis. Nagana's power included conjuring flames and summoning her minion, Hassan. However, even though she possesses vast magical powers, the Queen of Evil is not above using a gun.
Description: Wishing to put their considerable skills to good use, the Brandon triplets - Richard, Barton, and Bruce - decided to don costumes and fight evil around the world as Chemix, Lectra, and Menta, the Triple Terror. In early adventures, they usually fought to prevent dangerous new technologies from falling into enemy hands, sometimes at the request of the US Government. In later adventures, they joined the Army and fought in both the European and Pacific Theaters of World War II.
Description: Space pilot Vince Darrow overhears another pilot mention the Asteroid Witch, whom he described as the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Deciding he needed to find her for himself, Vince goes to the rocketport and steals a space liner. The Interplanetary Patrol goes after him. Vince comes to his senses and plans to turn himself in. The villainess Asteroid Witch shows up, and bewitches him to continue on to meet her. Vince crashes into an asteroid. He gets out of the wreckage and continues his search. He is entirely enthralled and about to kiss her when the voice of Kit-E, a Martian maiden stops him. Kit-E has her "atom-blast pistol" trained on the witch. She sends the Asteroid Witch to another dimension.
Description: U.S. Army Private Jack Weston wanted to do more to contribute to the war effort than just being stationed at Camp Blaine. He decided to put on a costume and fight as Minute-Man. He also became a member of the Crime Crusaders Club with Bulletman and Bulletgirl. He had no powers, but demonstrated tremendous strength, agility, courage and fighting prowess.
Description: Tom Higgins was a scientist who was working on a formula that would grant superpowers. However, he was killed during the Black Tom Explosion and was framed for said explosion. Tom manages to tell his son Joe about the unfinished formula called S.H.I.E.L.D., which stood for Sacrum, Heart, Innervation, Eyes, Lungs, and Derma. Joe then became a chemist and completed the formula in order to clear his father's good name. However before using the formula, his father's killer goes after Joe. After being badly beaten, Joe crawls back to his lab and uses the formula into his body. He sealed himself into a special white suit and was exposed to "flouroscopic rays" for 12 hours. Allowing him to become the crime fighter called The Shield.
Description: Roger's father Henry Chalmers once saved the chief of the African Mountain Men from a jungle beast. The chief was grateful and promised to give Chalmers the "enchanted dagger". However he ends up dying several years later, so his son Roger travels to the jungle and found the tribe. He was then given the dagger promised to his father so many years ago. Chalmers found the dagger eerie, but kept the blade which had the following inscribed on it: "The true owner shall forever be immune to it's great powers". He decides to become a crime fighter called Enchanted Dagger and fights criminals in Washington, DC once he returns to the States.
Description: The Cisco Kid was the “Robin Hood of the Old West,” taking on evil ranchers, mining companies, stagecoach robbers, and anyone else who threatened the settlers on the American frontier in the 19th century. With the aid of comedic sidekick Pancho and his intrepid horse Diablo, Cisco patrolled the plains and high desert in pulp magazines, paperbacks, TV and radio shows, and comic books during the 1940s and ’50s.
Description: Jim Carson was both a professional ventriloquist and an amateur detective. He fights crime by throwing his voice. His assistants included his sister, Cora, and his chemist, older brother, Dr. Doom. Besides his ventriloquism, Echo used an invisibility belt and a radioactive ring which allowed him to fire paralyzing beams from his eyes invented by his brother.
Description: The man who would become the Great Zarro was an aerialist for a travelling circus. One day he visited a gypsy who told him his future; she saw him doing great things, that he would have a great tragedy befall him, and that he would fight crime. While he was away, the circus owner encountered Racketeers who threatened the circus and the well being of everyone in it. They carried out their threats by burning the circus down to the ground. The aerialist returned to find the circus destroyed and everyone killed except for one survivor, a boy named Rags. That night they made a solemn vow to devote their lives to fighting crime. The aerialist took the Gypsy's herbs which endowed him with the power of flight and he became the Great Zarro.
Description: Joe Blair was a private detective. When a defense manufacturer hired him to investigate the inexplicable defections of his workers, he decided to use it as an opportunity to test his new invention and become a crime-fighter known as Zippo. Zippo was a moderately skilled detective. He has low-level super-speed thanks to his costume's wheeled feet. The wheels were powered by compressed air and controlled using his belt. With the wheels, Zippo could travel up to 65 mph.
Description: Zanzibar is a stage magician and philosopher, taught magic by Indian Fakirs and uses his powers to fight crime. His super powers include telekinesis, mentally-powered super strength, and hypnosis/mind-control. In his first appearance, he battled the villain known as the Top. He later met Zeus, Hercules, and Athena.
Description: Gary Kennedy and his brother were shot down by criminals. He vowed to return from the dead to avenge his brother's death - and he did, becoming a ghost with the ability to be super strong when solid and fly or possess people as a ghost. He used his new ghostly powers to fight crime.
Description: Richard Curtis Van Loan is a wealthy socialite who after serving in World War I becomes bored and craves the same level of "excitement" that he became used to in the trenches of the Great War. After being challenged to solve a crime that has baffled the police by his friend Frank Havens, publisher of the New York Clarion, Van Loan finds that he in fact has some ability as a detective. Solving mysteries provides Van Loan with the excitement he craves and so begins the career of the dilettante amateur sleuth, The Phantom Detective.
Description: A Venusian man who would become known as Sub-Zero was a part of an expedition that was launched to establish first contact with Earth. Before the spaceship could enter Earth's atmosphere, it passed through a comet. Everything inside was frozen. One crewman managed to survive, but the exposure turned him into a living ice man that froze everything he touched. He escaped the craft while covered in ice and then made his way to the nearest building. The building happened to be full of scientists experimenting with "gamma radiation." They used the gamma rays to return him to his original humanoid form, though his ability to freeze objects remained.
Description: During the Japanese siege of Manila, young Juan Manito is fleeing to the hills with his mother and sister when a Japanese plane strafes them, killing the mother and sister. He goes undercover with the Japanese, pretending to be a traitor, until he can direct the Japanese troops into an ambush and kill the pilot who killed his mother and sister. Manito then carries on the fight in guerrilla fashion.
