The Muscle Family?!?

The most unheralded hero of the 1950s?

Mr. Muscles?

Who the what now?

OK, one more time...who?

Don't act like you've never heard of Mr. Muscles!

How strong is Mr. Muscles? Pretty damn strong, perhaps superhumanly strong:

Not only that...he can bust out of a tiger cage!

Yeah, it turns out that he was stuck in a death trap by a jealous zookeeper. Yes, that old cliche!

Uh-oh--origin time!!

And so...

Great!!

Man, 1950s doctors were the worst!!

Now, if this were Grant Morrison, he'd be Flex Mentallo or something. But nope, he just used hard work and iron will to make himself stronger than anyone on earth.

And how does he heal with the wicked wimpy zookeeper?

And after a full-page training montage...

Geez, thanks, Mr. Muscles.

In the only two issues of Mr. Muscles (#22 & #23--he took over Blue Beetle's old numbering!), he fought crooked wrestlers, mob protection rackets, crooked carnies...no super-villains, though.

So why should we care about Mr. Muscles? Two reasons.

First, he was created by, and all his stories written by, Jerry Siegel. So attention must be paid.

Secondly, just like Fawcett's Captain Marvel, Mr. Muscles had a whole "family" of spin-off characters!!

First:

Yup, Kid Muscles!!

Yeah, he's strong.

His name was Kip. and he often appeared in Mr. Muscles' stories. But he did have that one solo strip.

And then there was...

Miss Muscles!

This was her only appearance, and she never got a name or an origin--but she could kick the asses of jealous women!!

Woo hoo!!

And that was it--two issues in 1956, and Mr. Muscles, Kid Muscles and Miss Muscles were never seen again. [NOTE--Wikipedia would like you to believe that Mr. Muscles appeared in a Steve Ditko Creeper story--WRONG. That is a thug named Muscles McGook, and the villain of the piece refers to him as "Mr. Muscles McGook" at one point. Different name, different character. Case closed.)

I don't know if DC got his rights when they bought the Charlton stuff, but surely Mr. Muscles is public domain by now. Any publishers want to take a crack at the Muscles Family?!?