Golden Age Idol--The Dart!!

I know many of you have sensed something...lacking...in your super-hero comics lately. Something that you needed to see, but can't quite put your finger on.

Let me see if I can help...I'm betting that most of you have been wanting a flying, homicidal ancient Roman cop to wake up from hibernation and go on a killing/torture spree.

Well, you've come to the right place.

[Please forgive the graininess of the first few scans...it is a 73 year old comic, after all...]

We start in...

That "springs thru the air like a dart" is never properly explained in this origin story. Later stories indicate that the gods gave him this flying power because, well...gods, you know?

Anyhoo, Caius Martius meets his match when he tries to thwart a crime ring run by an evil wizard:

2200 years? That's...an oddly specific time limit on this spell...

The good guys arrive...but they was too late!!

Flash forward to 1940...

Then, we see why it's too damn bad that Caius Martius didn't wake up in Gotham City...

Well, in between panels, Caius Martius takes on the last name Wheeler, because someone named Caius Martius Wheeler isn't suspicious at all in 20th century America. He also adopts the boy, and...

Insert your Peter Graves "Airplane" jokes here.

And inevitably:

Ace takes the name of...Ace!! Sometimes known as Ace The Amazing Boy!!

So watch out, criminals--

A funny sword? What, does the sword amuse you? Is it a clown to you?

So, there's lots of "darting" (a.k.a flying)...

...and gratuitous destruction...

...and more flying...

And then the Dart just starts straight-up killing people!!

Uh...wow!!

And then, the torturing confessions out of crooks!

Good words, Caius Martius. But you know, you haven't threatened to kill anyone for a few panels:

That's more like it!!

This origin story was in Fox's Weird Comics #5 (1940), Dart and Ace appeared in every issue up until the final #20, and as near as I can tell, never appeared anywhere else again.

But you know, his ethos would see, to fit right in with the nu52. So go for it, DC--bring back Dart and Ace!!!