Quality 1941 Week--Crack Comics #14 (Part 2)!!

Woo ha, we're back, and it's time for the back half of Crack Comics #14 here at Fawcett 1941 Week. But, can you bear the terror that is:

Ah, the Spider. Yet another bowman. Seriously, there were what, 137 of those in the Golden Age?

Tom Hallaway was just a guy who decided to fight crime, and decided to use arrows to do it. Seriously, that's his entire origin.

So why did he call himself the Spider? Good question, that nobody seems to have an answer for.

I should note that I'm really keen on Paul Gustavson's layouts, particularly on this page, where Spider punches a bad go so hard that it overflows into 6 other panels:

And in closeup:

Spider was also one of the first comic archers to use trick arrows and gimmicked arrowheads:

Spider made a few token appearances in Roy Thomas' WWII books. Post-Crisis, James Robinson and Geoff Johns turned him into a traitorous, murderous bad guy--he was only pretending to be a hero to eliminate the competition. Good on you, guys. His son now carries on the villainous tradition.

Next, we have another set of newspaper strip reprints, namely Ned Bryant:

Then we have the not-too-well-dressed Red Torpedo:

Jim Lockhart invented a ship that could travel in and under the water, as well as fly:

He survived to modern day, and was used as a supporting character in the Aquaman: Sword Of Atlantis series. Geoff Johns hasn't slaughtered him or turned him into a villain yet...

Next:

Despite the word "Legion" in the name, this was essentially another Flash Gordon series, with one brave Legionnaire (Rock Braddon) teaming up with Professor Wadsworth and his hot daughter after several other anonymous Legionnaires die from the monster of the month. This month:

Of course, it's an alien plot:

And there's a regular Rube Goldberg feature--seriously!! From Rube himself!! Click below to embiggen and see the best way to break in a new pair of shoes:

Finally, we have a pretty neat bit of history buried way in the back:

The Clock was the first--the very first--original costumed crime fighter to appear in a comic book, back in 1936!! He's a bit closer to pulps in style and tone, closer at times to the Shadow than Batman...but everyone who put on a mask or costume and went out to beat up crooks followed in this guy's footsteps. To bad he's been largely forgotten today.

They never dwelled much on his private life, grudging acknowledging on occasion that he had a secret identity as Brian O'Brien, rich dude and former district attorney. He was a master of disguise, he had lots of cool gadgets, and he was a right bastard who showed no mercy to crooks.

This issue, he has a particular target:

A cop-killer, and he's out on bail??? No wonder Clock is peeved.

Anyway, The Clock has the best mask EVER:

As I said, he doesn't believe in coddling criminals:

And when photographers try to get a photo of him, well, he doesn't care all that much for the press, either:

Still, for some reason, the press loves him, though:

And when a gang boss tries to stop his reign of terror by kidnapping innocent civilians, The Clock is interested in only one thing:

And slap Scrag (and his thugs) he does. For someone without superpowers, he sure punches hard:

The Clock was mentioned in a couple of Starman stories. In 1992, Malibu lunched The Protectors, using many public domain characters from Centaur Comics (which is where The Clock debuted before Quality absorbed their line). In the Malibu universe, he was described as the very first costumed hero, but he joined the Army, went into politics...and became President Of The USA!!!

And that's Crack Comics #14. As you've no doubt noticed, it's a little more hodgepodgy than some of the other Quality mags, with some "old school" traits of reprinting newspaper comic strips, Rube Goldberg stuff, and keeping some older concepts like The Clock running.

Tune in tomorrow, when we conclude our trip to 1941 (I hope!)