GHOST OF FLANDERS: FORGOTTEN SUPERHERO

How ya diddly-doin’? Okay, not THAT Flanders, but Flanders as in a World War One reference. This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at a forgotten character from Quality Comics.

GHOST OF FLANDERS

Secret Identity: Rip Graves

First Appearance: Hit Comics #18 (December 1941)

Origin: I doubt that even the original writers could reconcile all the contradictory elements of this hero’s origin story while they were writing it! Okay, it’s nowhere near as ridiculous as Quality’s origin tale for Black Condor but nothing ever could be.

Here goes. Readers are told that Rip Graves was 15 years old in 1918 but lied about his age to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War One. He was mistakenly believed to be killed in the Second Battle of the Marne, which is roughly 200 miles away from Flanders in Belgium.

In reality the young man was in a Prisoner of War camp until being released after the war ended on November 11th, 1918. 

By the time that Graves – who has been doing God knows what for 14 years – shows up back in America in 1932, Arlington Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has been freshly dedicated.

Never mind that the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” concept applies to all slain service personnel whose remains were lost or could not be recognized, Rip Graves was convinced that HE was the Unknown Soldier in question.

Yes, the weird Rip Graves believes he has some kind of proprietary claim on the tomb. He even says “So I’m the Unknown Solder.” What he’s basing that on is beyond me, but even more idiotically he further reflects “Well, rather than destroy what this memorial stands for I’ll remain officially dead.”

You can’t count all the ways that that thinking is wrong but set that aside for now. In late 1941 Rip wants to combat Nazi spies in the U.S. and returns to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Somehow, he surreptitiously digs his way into the tomb, discards the actual unknown, unnamed corpse inside and sets up a superhero headquarters for himself.   

Graves adopts the nom de guerre Ghost of Flanders even though he was killed at the Marne. He patterns his costume after World War One uniforms and helmets and wields a sword-length bayonet of the kind used in the 1914-1918 conflict. A mask completes his ensemble.

Powers: Readers are shown that the work of single-handedly excavating his lair under the Tomb has given the Ghost greater than human muscles. He is also skilled at unarmed combat and uses his bayonet to deadly advantage in battle. Ghost of Flanders wears body armor on his torso. 

The entire setup begs a lot of questions but for now let’s look at the 8 stories that starred the misnamed Ghost of Flanders.

HIT COMICS #18 (Dec 1941)

Title: Ghost of Flanders

Villains: Nazi spies and saboteurs

Synopsis: Like a lot of Golden Age comic books, this one skips from our hero’s origin to an undetermined amount of time later in their career. Ghost of Flanders is well known to Nazi spies and saboteurs operating in the U.S. and is known to use red poppies (as in Flanders) as his calling cards.

One night our star finds a Nazi propaganda cell in Washington D.C. and defeats the four or five men there. He also forces their leader to eat some of the propaganda leaflets his team printed up.

Learning that other spies from this cell are planning to rob plans from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Ghost of Flanders heads there. In keeping with his brand, our hero flies there in his World War One style biplane. 

He captures one of the spies but the other flies off with the stolen plans. The Ghost takes to the air again and shoots down the spy, who dies in a fiery crash.

HIT COMICS #19 (Jan 1942)

Title: The Theft of the Scouting Plane

Villains: Hans Sheink and his Nazi spy ring

Synopsis: Hans Sheink and his men hijack an experimental fighter plane and a day or so later abduct an engineer who has designed a new gun sight. Ghost of Flanders deduces where the spies are hidden in the Dakotas and flies there in his biplane.   

Naturally, he frees the engineer, kills and/or captures the Nazis and recovers the stolen plane from the abandoned mine where the villains hid it.

HIT COMICS #20 (Feb 1942)

Title: Mission for the F.B.I.

Villains: Haggenschmidt and other Nazis

Synopsis: This story opens with the head of the F.B.I. addressing the Ghost of Flanders in his office. Apparently, our hero has some kind of official sanction now, so we can retcon that to mean he must have had covert government cooperation all along. 

“Weever” the F.B.I. director assigns Ghost of Flanders to deliver Top Secret plans and lure out Nazi spies who have been picking off couriers and stealing their sensitive documents. Our star succeeds, of course, making sure the plans get through, rescuing an F.B.I. agent named Devlin and corraling another ring of spies.

A nice change of pace comes in via Haggenschmidt, a hulking German operative whose strength matches the Ghost’s, giving him his toughest challenge yet.

HIT COMICS #21 (Mar 1942)

Title: From Beneath the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Villains: Axel Kopf and his fellow Nazis

Synopsis: Readers meet Axel Kopf, the most successful German spy operating in the U.S. He and his men have never failed to secure their objectives, but this time they’re up against the Ghost of Flanders.

Axel and his men raid the Defense Research Center to steal newly invented chemicals that America will use for food concentrate to make soldiers’ rations last longer. Ghost of Flanders attacks Axel and his ring, stops them from turning the chemicals over to a Nazi sub via a seaplane and captures all the spies.

NOTE: For a nice bit of trivia, our hero sings the 1940 song I Am an American to himself.

HIT COMICS #22 (Jun 1942)

Title: Death at 10,000 Feet

Villains: Von Kimmel and his men

Synopsis: After faking us out by dwelling on the menace faced by our troops in the Pacific Theater, the story presents another clash with Nazi spies instead of Imperial Japanese agents. Ghost of Flanders takes on Von Kimmel and his men who ultimately knock him out of their plane at 10,000 feet.

Our hero manages to survive and puts the kibosh on yet another Axis spy ring in the U.S.

HIT COMICS #23 (Aug 1942)

Title: Against the Enemies of Democracy

Villains: Toko, Hiro and Grotz

Synopsis: Ghost of Flanders arrives in California via his World War One biplane. He is trying to track down a combined Japanese/ German spy ring. 

Our star succeeds, of course, and defeats Japanese spies Toko and Hiro plus their hulking Nazi henchman Grotz. Their plan to facilitate a Japanese sneak attack like the one on Pearl Harbor is thwarted.   

HIT COMICS #24 (Oct 1942)

Title: From Beneath the Crosses in Flanders

Villains: German and Japanese spies

Synopsis: Ghost of Flanders battles Axis spies using farmland near the East Coast as part of their plans. They grow enormous mushrooms (?) that conceal their own planes from aerial observation.

The spies intend to covertly poison the water supply for many regions of the U.S. Ghost of Flanders fights them on the ground and in the air via his biplane, ultimately killing all of them and destroying their giant mushrooms. 

HIT COMICS #25 (Dec 1942)

Title: Young Bill Jones

Villains: Hans Schmutz and a draft dodging network

Synopsis: We get a rambling and unfocused tale in this final Ghost of Flanders story. American Bill Jones dodges the draft by fleeing south of the border.

Our hero pursues Nazi agent Hans Schmutz into that same fictional country via his biplane. A network for phony documents to help Americans dodge the draft proves useful for Schmutz, who frames Bill Jones for murder.

Ghost of Flanders defeats the bad guys and convinces Bill Jones to come back to America with him and accept the fact that he’s been drafted. Bill does and goes on to win the Medal of Honor. 

*** And so ended the saga of this oddball superhero who never once even pretended to be the ghost of a World War One soldier, making his name and entire Flanders schtick pointless.