Golden Age Idol--Who Is...The Avenger?!?!

Before the Wasp came up with the name...before Steed and Peel were elegantly smashing crime...there was:

Who...?

It's 1955, and a dashing army officer and his wife are shanghaied in Germany!

Well, it turns out that the colonel's brother is an important scientist...

But it seems that that Roger is not one of those nerdy Big Bang Theory-type scientists...

Nope, Roger Wright is one of those two-fisted scientists of action!!

Stand by for a clever bit of cross-marketing here:

See, Dick Ayers, who co-created and drew The Avenger, also co-created the western Ghost Rider for Magazine Enterprises. And, they were selling these masks via in-house ads for a buck each!! See, marketing wasn't invented by Don Draper in the 60s!!

Anyhoo, Roger and his secretary (!) make up a costume...

And so is born...

Pretty damned pumped-up for a scientist...Plus, apparently in the 1950s, scientists had secret underground tunnels connecting to subterranean complexes...

And what is all the fuss about? The commies want the new plane he's invented!!

See, it has two propellers...that means it's better, right? And an atomic motor!!

Well, given the lack of Starjets at the local airport, apparently the plane was even more than fifty years ahead of its time...

But, it's a quick way to get to Russia:

And time to smash a bunch of Russkies!

When he confronts the Russian general responsible for kidnapping his brother:

D'oh!!

Well, time for the political lecture!

So is born...THE AVENGER!!

He likes to smash commies.

...and more commies...

...and by the way: he beats up communists!!

Sometimes, he rides giant tortoises away from islands that are being blown up by atom bombs...

Yup...he is:

The Avenger only lasted 4 issues, and Ayers only drew the first issue. Along with the failure of the 1950s commie-fighting Captain America, I guess that the Cold War didn't create a new vast market for heroes fighting the Red Menace.

But don't worry...the Silver Age was only a year away...

From The Avenger #1 (1955)