This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the independent comic book character the Black Coat, a masked hero in 1770s New York City.
This hero’s stories begin in March 1775, just a month before the Battles of Concord & Lexington will kick off America’s Revolutionary War. He has subsequent adventures set during the war itself.
The Black Coat is really Nathaniel Finch, brilliant young scientist and friend of Ben Franklin himself. Our costumed hero runs his own covert network of rebels called the Knights of Liberty, men and women who risk everything to fight against tyranny. His coal-black horse Phobos stands ever-ready as well.
Part Zorro, part Dr. Syn the Scarecrow and part Shadow, the Black Coat uses his sword, pistols and steampunk (well, actually sailpunk) inventions to preserve the emerging United States of America. His right-hand lady Ursula Morgan runs the covert outfit’s day to day operations, with the Black Coat going into action against Great Britain, Tory Loyalists and assorted products of Britain’s weird science & occult arts.
THE BLACK COAT Vol 1 #1 (2006)
Title: A Call to Arms, Part One
Villains: General Savidge, the Butcher and the League
Synopsis: This tale gets off to an interesting start as the Black Coat and some of his Knights of Liberty pilot his submersible proto-submarine the Scylla in their raid of a secret British ship trying to assassinate Ben Franklin under the guise of a pirate attack.
NOTE: It’s a nod to the real-life affair of the VERY primitive submarine the Turtle from the Revolutionary War. Except the Black Coat’s sub succeeds in its mission.
The saved Franklin visits with our hero in his civilian Nathaniel Finch identity at the New York Sentinel, Finch’s patriot newspaper. Rumors of war breaking out at any moment are everywhere. British General Savidge has secretly allied himself with shadowy conspirators called the League – an evil version of the Founding Fathers’ Masonic Lodges. Continue reading
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