VIRUS VIGILANTE (14)
By:
December 23, 2020
One in a series of posts about the Antiviral Alliance, a now-forgotten squad of comic-book vigilantes who during the years leading up to (and through) WWII worked tirelessly to prevent another Spanish Flu-like pandemic. Fun fact: The original intercompany crossover, this “event” would inspire National Comics and All-American Publications to form the Justice Society of America in 1940–1941.
When Tom Woods lost his brother to gangsters’ guns, he swore revenge. He developed a mask that featured a microphone for amplifying his voice, a hearing-amplifier, and photoelectric lenses that gave him X-ray vision. Woods’s mask was second only to Sandman’s in its effectiveness in preventing the spread of airborne viruses. And his hero name — Micro-Face — is one of the best of all time! (It’s a reference to the mask’s microphone, though who could be expected to understand that?) Micro-Face joined the group in ’43, after the US entered WWII. The team was already in decline, by then, and Micro-Face would become its last leader.
Publisher: Hillman
First appearance: Clue Comics #1 (January 1943).
Tip o’ the mask to Jess Nevins.
INTRODUCING… THE ANTIVIRAL ALLIANCE. PRE-COMICS: THE MOON MAN (1933). ORIGINAL TRIO (joined forces in 1939): THE CLOCK | SANDMAN | FANTOM OF THE FAIR. AND THEN THERE WERE SEVEN (joined 1940): THE SHADOW | LADY LUCK | THE LAUGHING MASK | KINKS MASON. SECOND-WAVE SIX (joined 1941): BLAZING SKULL | THE CHALLENGER | THE THUNDERER | DOCTOR NEMESIS | HUMAN BOMB | THE VIGILANTE. LATE TO THE PARTY (joined post-1941): MICRO-FACE | THE DESERT EAGLE.
SIMILAR HILOBROW SERIES: MEET THE L.I.S. | 4CP FRIDAY — themed comic-book detail galleries | CHESS MATCH — a gallery | COMICALLY VINTAGE | DC — THE NEW 52 | FILE X — a gallery | KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM — 25 writers on 25 Jack Kirby panels | SECRET PANEL —Silver Age comics’ double entendres | SKRULLICISM