So let's leap right in with one of the most fascinating guys you've never heard of--The Marksman!!
I know, I know, I can hear you out there going, "Not another damn archer!!" And you're right--but the bowman business is the least important part of the Marksman's story. Take his origin:
That's right...we not only have a secret identity, we have TWO secret identities!! Polish patriot Baron Povalsky has taken on the role of Nazi Major Hurtz (major hurtz...huh huh, huh uh...), infiltrating the leadership of the German occupation of Poland. Simultaneously, he strikes terror into the Axis forces as the dreaded Marksman!!Now, you have to acknowledge, that's a pretty cool premise. Granted, being as this was the Golden Age, they weren't too hung up on actual details: how did Povalsky infiltrate German ranks? Was Major Hurtz a real person whose identity he assumed, or a complete fabrication that somehow was accepted? How did Povalsky become such a proficient archer? Given that as the Marksman he doesn't disguise his appearance at all, and as Major Hurtz his entire disguise is a mustache and a Nazi uniform, how does Povalsky get away with the double charade? Did Povalsky have a first name?
But still, it's an idea with tons of potential--posing as the enemy, getting information from the inside, and then acting on it as the (not particularly costumed) hero. So we got a lot of fun stuff like Polvasky's "disguise"...
...his frequent assignments to hunt down...himself...
...and the doubtlessly pleasurable moments of abusing lower-ranked Nazis:
Of course, the era being what is was, Hurtz was never ordered to do anything terribly evil, so we can't be sure how he would have dealt with that kind of dilemma...As the Marksman, his look changed a couple of times over his two year run. He started out in this getup:
Changed to a basically ridiculous super-hero look:
And then settled into his "classic" jodhpurs, white T-Shirt and red cape look.He didn't really go in much for trick arrows--plain ones were good enough for killing Nazis--but he wasn't above a flaming arrow or tying some dynamite onto his shafts. He was so good with this, he could derail trains...
and take down airplanes!
Povalsky/Hurtz/Marksman was also one damned cold son of a bitch:
Killing a man just to leave a message in his back? Damn...In the story I referenced yesterday, he actually went directly against effeminate Hitler!!
And just when you thought they were going to pull a Tarantino...
"Oops"? "Oops"?!?!?!? You're about to kill Hitler, you let him slip away, and all you've got is "Oops"??
Damn those convenient autogyros!!About halfway through the series, the creators either got bored with Nazis, or, like many other war-time series as the outcome in Europe seemed more and more inevitable, shifted the series' focus:
Yup, after a little field trip to Mexico, they took the Marksman away from his mission of liberating Poland, AND abandoned the key concept of his infiltrating the Nazis as a high-ranking officer!It obviously wasn't quite the same series after that. But they sure found a way to keep things lively--by going freaking nuts. They replaced Povalsky's elderly Polish aide Vorka with a hot blond girlfriend, Ann; they shifted from Nazis as the main villains to the Japanese; and set the series entirely in exotic Central and South America!!
How exotic? How about--and I'm not making this up--a bunch of Nazis posing as Mayan priests, trying to resurrect human sacrifice to appeal to the "dim brains" of the Mayans' descendants, in order to make them obedient servants of the Germans:
Or how about--and I am not making this up--the Japanese launching a stealth blimp from the Machu Piccu in order to bomb the Panama Canal (fortunately, the Marksman was able to shoot it down...apparently, the Japanese hadn't learned about the dangers of hydrogen from the Hindenburg...):
Or how about--and I am not making this up--the Japanese discovering the lost valley of dinosaurs, and using the "taboo" spot to set up a camp to manufacture poison gas (yes, the marksman kills a dinosaur with an arrow):
Or how about the Japanese forcing Amazonian tribes to mass produce curare so they can coat their bullets with it, and...well, you get the idea. Craziness, Latin American style!After Smash Comics #58, though, the Marksman was never heard from again. And even though DC owns the Quality heroes, there's been no post WWII appearance of the noble Baron Povalsky, the Polish aristocrat with two secret identities who fought the Axis (and dinosaurs!!) on 3 continents while posing as a Nazi major. He swung from war stories to insanity, from deep-behind-enemy-lines espionage type stuff to exotic superheroics.
Hey, DC, if you can give even Magog his own book, where's the love for this guy?? At least a guest shot in the new Freedom Fighters ongoing?!?!
The Marksman at least did warrant a reference in the JSA Returns event that launched the current JSA series. He's referred to as one of three costumed adventurers undercover behind the German lines. (The others being the Sniper and Mr. America.)
ReplyDeleteThanks, anon, I had missed that.
ReplyDeleteThe Marksman indeed sounds like a cool concept for a golden age character, thanks for telling us about him!
ReplyDeleteRe. the stealth blimp plot: The dangers of hydrogen in a combat context had actually been well-known at least since World War 1, during which quite a lot of airships and observation balloons had been shot down with comparative ease. But towards the end of World War 2 the Japanese in fact did use balloons to drop bombs on the US (taking advantage of the high-altitude "jet stream") using a simple clockwork time-release, which sounds a lot like something a golden age comics writer would come up with...
Which makes me wonder - are there any documented cases of golden age creators running afoul of the war-time censors for using something in their story that was too close for comfort in resemblance to actual secret weapons and plans for military operations?
ReplyDeleteActually, there ARE a few. I can't remember the exact details off-hand, but they are mentioned in CBR's Comic Urban Legends Revealed series, and in the book that the series author wrote on the subject. (I want to say it was a Superman story specifically, and it may have been post-war, though.)
ReplyDeleteThere were three instances where the govt stepped in (all detailed in the Was Superman A Spy book, but not on the website...). Two were during the war, one was post-war. All involved atom bombs or atomic energy...
ReplyDelete