MYSTIC COMICS (1940): MARVEL/ TIMELY SERIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the 1940 issues of Mystic Comics from Marvel back when the company was known as Timely Comics.

MYSTIC COMICS Vol 1 #1 (Mar 1940)

A. The Origin of the Blue Blaze – In 1852, 20-something Spencer Keen is seemingly killed in a tragic accident caused by a Blue Energy experiment his father is conducting. He is buried, but in 1940 some grave robbers dig up his coffin and we see that he has really just been in suspended animation all this time. The fresh air revives him.

        Now endowed with Blue Energy powers that enhance his physical abilities, our hero adopts the costumed identity Blue Blaze and thwarts the grave robbers’ evil employer, Professor Drake Maluski. That villain has been experimenting on a ray that can turn dead bodies into a zombie army for world conquest. Blue Blaze isn’t having it.

B. Dynamic Man – Scientist Dr. Simon Goettler creates a super-powered android who can pass as human. (Timely Comics had created the original android called the Human Torch the previous year, too.) Gottlieb has a heart attack and dies after activating this Dynamic Man android but the incredibly intelligent creation uses its Superman-level strength and ability to shoot energy blasts from its hands to fight evildoers.

        Dynamic Man battles evil millionaire Daniel “King” Bascom and his army. Bascom has financed the invention of a machine which lets him weaponize storms in all kinds of ways. Dynamic Man defeats Bascom’s forces and turns him over to the authorities. 

C. The Blooded Ruby of Chung – This is the first appearance of Dakor the Magician, Timely’s forerunner of DC’s Dr. Fate and also the forerunner of Marvel’s own Dr. Strange. Dakor uses his incredible mystic powers for his clients, charging them $50,000. (Equal to $1,154,000.00 here in 2025.)

        Our Mercenary Master of the Mystic Arts is hired by tycoon George Hargate, who has Dakor defeat American criminals, Chinese cultists and Tuareg soldiers to obtain a cursed ruby looted from the hidden Tomb of Chung in China. Per his contract, Dakor beats all the bad guys and fulfills Hargate’s wish to return the gem to its proper place in the tomb.

D. Introducing Flexo the Rubber Man – Inventor brothers Joel and Josh Williams create a rubber robot which they can control remotely. They name it Flexo the Rubber Man and use it to fight crime and right wrongs.

        In this debut adventure, the Williams Brothers have Flexo foil the plans of Dr. Murdo, a madman who steals radium to make weapons to equip his army of conquest.

MYSTIC COMICS Vol 1 #2 (Apr 1940)

A. The Sabotage Ring – FBI Agent (and secret android) Curt Cowan must don his Dynamic Man costume during his latest investigation. Dr. Vee, the villain behind a sabotage ring targeting United States infrastructure, is using his new super-explosive and army of gangsters in a reign of terror.

        Dynamic Man overcomes all of Dr. Vee’s men and explosive weaponry to end the madman’s activities. Vee confesses everything after being captured by our hero.

B. The Stolen Weapon – Nazi spies steal the prototype and plans for the latest invention of the Williams Brothers – a torpedo repellant. The guys have their rubber robot Flexo recover the stolen goods and turn in the foreign spies. (Though America had not yet entered World War Two, plenty of comic books were already using Nazis as villains.) 

C. The Plot Against America – Earl Everett is secretly a mutant with telepathic and other abilities. As Excello the Mastermind he works to protect the U.S. In this adventure, he thwarts Nazi saboteurs who plan on derailing a loaded passenger train. 

D. Blue Blaze – Our hero faces Barko, a villain who has invented ice-guns which can encase anyone or anything in ice. He also runs a ring that plants bombs to cause cave-ins in mines, then extorts money from the mine owners. Blue Blaze overcomes the villain’s ice-guns and hired thugs to end his operations.     

E. Zara of the Jungle – First appearance of Timely’s jungle queen Zara, who was raised by her American father to be a woman warrior protecting the jungle, its beasts and its people. Wielding her fighting prowess and her bow and arrows, Zara defeats a white villain calling himself Bwana Gambo, who has been using deception to provoke African tribes into warring with each other. 

F. Dakor the Magician – This time around, the Hero for Hire’s client is the British Government. They hire Dakor to recover one of their crucial diplomats from the Mongolian bandits who are holding him prisoner.

MYSTIC COMICS Vol 1 #3 (Jun 1940)

A. Menace of the Star Gazer – Assorted crime lords want the superhero called Blue Blaze murdered to end his interference with their activities. They hire a mad scientist called the Star Gazer to whack him. That villain and his lackey use super-science to harness star energy and create a super-strong Star Monster. In the end, Blue Blaze manages to destroy the monster and his creators.

B. The Origin of Hercules – This is a different character from Marvel’s later use of the Greco-Roman figure Hercules. This man is Varen David, whose scientist father fled the violent world to live on a remote island in the Arctic. He subjected his son Varen to experiments that made him strong enough to lift 30 tons, made him over eleven feet tall and possessed of a genius intellect.

        After his father dies of a heart attack, Varen ventures into the world of 1940, where the media calls him Hercules. He uses his powers to fight evildoers and protect humanity, in this case saving a town from being flooded by a bursting dam.     

C. The Dreaded Hood – A costumed supervillain calling himself the Hood has been murdering the presidents of banks and having his gang rob those banks. Dynamic Man comes down hard on these activities, corrals all the armed robbers and exposes the Hood as a corrupt bank president who wanted to eliminate his competitors.

D. The Haunted Forest – Zara of the Jungle goes into action when an organization of Muslim slavers are rounding up natives to sell them on the international slave market. Zara goes medieval on their asses and also saves a man from a python during this adventure. 

E. The Pool of Nordu – British Lord Twisdon hires Dakor the Magician to recover his daughter Ann, who has been abducted by a villain named Balus and his men. During this case, Dakor gets thrown into the Pool of Nordu by Balus and his goons. Those waters temporarily rob magicians of their powers but Dakor foils his would-be killers until he is sufficiently dry to use magic again. He frees Ann and defeats Balus & company.

F. The Cold-Blooded Iron Duke – The Williams Brothers have Flexo stop a serial arsonist calling himself the Iron Duke. The man has been setting fires as part of his insurance fraud ring.

MYSTIC COMICS Vol 1 #4 (Aug 1940)

A. Earthquake – The superhero called Hercules (at left) clashes with a mad scientist named Lemo, who is using his high-tech vehicle which lets him burrow underground to cause earthquakes. The villain plans to use the device in conjunction with his secret army to take over the world. Hercules takes everything Lemo can throw at him and brings down the entire evil organization.

B. The Trustees of Hate – Blue Blaze travels to Europe to do battle with Dr. Vortex and his organization the Trustees of Hate. The villains have been trying to ignite a war between the two fictional neutral nations of Borsia and Gratzia. Our hero eventually learns that Dr. Vortex has invented a Hate Ray that is causing all the problems. Blue Blaze manages to kill Dr. Vortex and dismantle his organization before the war breaks out.   

C. Introducing the Black Widow – When con-woman and psychic Claire Voyant (yes, really) is murdered, Satan advises her that God has okayed him using her to prey on Earthly evildoers who are beyond salvation. She will now be called the Black Widow and will slay, then harvest the souls of her assigned victims.

        Satan also makes our anti-heroine bullet-proof and able to kill with a kiss or the touch of her hands. Fairly dark for a 1940s superheroine, especially her satisfaction at the torments unleashed on her victims in Hell. In her first adventure she kills her murderer and takes him to Hell. 

D. The Teutonian Agents – Flexo the Rubber Man is used by the Williams Brothers to recover scientific secrets stolen by agents for the dictator of the fictional country of Teutonia. As usual, the good guys win. 

E. Origin of the Thin Man – This was the only 1940s appearance of this superhero. Bruce Dickson was granted superpowers by the hidden Himalayan civilization of Kalahia. Those powers let him render his body flat and rubberoid. He can slide under doors or in between cracks plus stretch a bit like Plastic Man. Even in his thin state, this hero retained full bodily strength.

In this tale he shuts down gangsters who run a taxicab racket. During the 1970s Marvel retconned the Thin Man as a member of the Liberty Legion.

F. The Jewelry Store Robbers – Professor Monte and his army of minions use his gold-attracting device to steal just the gold parts of jeweled settings at a string of jewelry stores. Dynamic Man investigates and learns that those robberies were just tests for their real goal – robbing all the gold in Fort Knox. Our android hero takes them all on and thwarts their plans.   

*** The next issue of Mystic Comics would not come out until March 1941. In the near future I’ll examine the 1941 issues.