Friday, May 1, 2015

Golden Age Idol--Vapo-Man!!

Who' the next public domain Golden Age hero we should revive and make a mint on?

How about this guy:

Oh, I know, Bradford Cole doesn't look like much, But he has big dreams!

Ahh, but there's those darn Nazi saboteurs who ruin everything:

He survived, hmm? And then some:


No, they haven't been striving for ages to create "The Chemical Man."

No, they haven't. Stop trying to justify the wasting of your government grant money!

Brought to you by Vicks??


A vow is a vow, and Bradford uses his powers in interesting ways:



So wait, a gas has "disintegrating force"?

For his second appearance, Vapo-Man decided that he had been overdressed the first time out:

Oh, Vapo-Man, you never go full Namor!

And seriously, without a costume, no one will recognize you.

See?

Here's another interesting way that gas works: when Cole catches a fifth columnist sending a wireless message...




OK, that's not how any of that works.

Then again, maybe it explains why my Wi-Fi signal sucks...

Vapo-Man can also go a little bit Ms. Marvel:

And his advanced knowledge of fake chemistry comes in handy:



Oh, but he's not just a smoke screen...


YOW!!!!

Dude, they're not going to take you seriously until you get a real costume!

Never mind.

Vapo-Man also has no problem committing war crimes:


Dude! Uncool!

Actually, your job is 100% finished, Vapo-Man, as this was your last appearance EVER.

Still, it's a potentially interesting power set. Someone out there--stop "adapting" toys into comic books and revive this guy!!

All panels from Liberty Scout Comics #1-2 (1941) and Man Of War Comics #1-2 (1941-1942)

3 comments:

SallyP said...

But...he had evil eyebrows! I am stunned, I thought for sure he was going to be the "bad" guy.

Although some of his methods certainly seem to be a bit...on the extreme side, so I guess it all works anyway.

Anonymous said...

What is it with scientists giving the hero his powers and promptly dying? You'd think these guys would spread the word after that super-soldier incident. "Hey, you hear about Earl last week? He figured out how to turn a man to living crystal, and--yup, stone dead. Same as last time. Maybe we should switch to researching birds or something.

anthrax2525 said...

He sounds like a creation of the marketing department at Vicks.