BLACKOUT: HOLYOKE SUPERHERO

Balladeer’s Blog continues to feed the beast that IS our superhero-obsessed world with a look at another forgotten Holyoke Superhero.

BLACKOUT

Secret Identity: Jack Wayne, Berlin Correspondent for the New York Globe.

Origin: When America entered World War 2 on the Allied side Jack Wayne and his editor “Pop” Simms were seized by the Gestapo. Since Jack had been a Flying Ace for the Americans during World War One the Gestapo assumed he and Pop were spies and tortured them for information.

Pop was killed by the torture and Jack, though blinded by his interrogator’s whip, managed to escape. He was rescued by the Underground Society, a secret resistance group led by Dr Dismal who – despite his name – was not a supervillain. Dr Dismal ran his resistance group from a secret base far beneath Gestapo Headquarters and, noting that Jack Wayne’s optic nerves were not entirely dead, devised special glasses and a visor he could wear that allowed him to see in daylight OR at night.

Jack donned a costume and under the nom de guerre Blackout joined Dr Dismal’s band of rebels, terrorizing the Nazis by night.  

First Appearance: Cat-Man Comics #10 (May 1942). His final Golden Age appearance came in 1944.

Powers:

Blackout was in peak physical condition and had greater agility than an Olympic gymnast. He was also an expert at unarmed combat and was a skilled marksman with his sidearm by day or night. Blackout’s ability to see in complete darkness gave him an incalculable edge in his missions to thwart the Nazis and in outright combat with superior numbers of opponents. 

Comment: Blackout’s romantic partner was Helga Muller, whom he rescued from his Gestapo torturer Schwabach in his origin story. A female German fighter-pilot called the Valkyrie was part of his Rogue’s Gallery of villains. Another of his foes was Baroness Brunhilde, a villainess who had an entire half of her face discolored and disfigured in monstrous fashion.

In a much later adventure Blackout went up against the Red Baron’s son, the latest Baron Von Richthofen and claimed to flown against his father in World War One. He chided the new Baron for not being as honorable an adversary as his father was. 

FOR THE REST OF THE HOLYOKE SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE   

FOR MY ARTICLE ON THE MEMBERS OF INFINITE HORIZON CLICK HERE

FOR THE AUSTRALIAN SUPERHERO PANTHEON CLICK  HERE

FOR MORE SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE:  Superheroes

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