The American Crusader: Defender of Democracy

[lordultimus]

When a recent request for more golden age characters came, I immediately thought of this guy, who's actually appeared in various comics in the modern age, including a webcomic called Heroes Inc. and even had a bit of a shout-out by Grant Morrison in Multiversity. I'm not sure why this character always stuck with me. Maybe it's because I like the name, maybe I find his costume simple but memorable, maybe it's because I like the idea of a patriotic hero with Superman level powers. Or maybe it's because his origin really, really should have just killed him.

But don't take my word for it. Take a look at his origin yourself.

Warning for female abuse.



From Thrilling Comics #19, copyright August 1941, now in public domain. Creators unknown, but possibly Kin Platt and Ned Pines, who are credited as artist and editor of this issue respectively.

Comments

[skjam]

Why is my boss not woke? It's driving me to a single tear!

[cygnia]

"that small speck around Uranus"

*giggles like a ten year old*

[lyricalswagger]

It's never just you, I had the same thought!

[agharta75]

That trapped-in-an-atomic-reactor origin always works.

[tcampbell1000]

Man, even by Golden Age standards, that art is... something.

[trooper924]

The book The League of Regrettable Superheroes said that given better circumstances, some of the superheroes it spotlighted could've been bigger successes.

I feel like this applies to the Crusader. You got a pretty solid superhero setup here. The Crusader himself is an obvious Superman knockoff, but that is a very distinctive and memorable costume design. I'd say it's conceivable that he might've been a bigger deal had he been published by DC or Marvel's predecessors.

[lamashtar]

The costume isn't what stays with me. If the origin weren't so old, I'd think this was a parody. The professor is deliberately given a ridiculous personality. His reasoning for doing things seems...tenuous. And he's somewhat casual about murdering the bosses behind the gang. Frankly, he seems more like a typical supervillain type, who just happened to focus on fighting crime first. It'd be interesting to see him again, with that in mind. Public domain, eh? Someone bring him back!

[alicemacher]

"And he's somewhat casual about murdering the bosses behind the gang."

It's interesting how quickly he goes from "Mercy--I shouldn't have done that! I lost my temper" after (justifiably) punching out the mugger to, as you say, casually blowing up the conspirators.

Also--psst, astronomy professor: It's "planetesimal," not "planetissimal."

[trooper924]

This is the Golden Age when reason and logic are scarce and where superheroes showed absolutely no restraint when dealing with criminals.

And the Crusader has been brought back a few times. There's the Heroes Inc. webcomic mentioned above, but Alan Moore also used in his Tom Strong comics where he lived on a duplicate Earth called Terra Obscura with other public domain heroes.

[lamashtar]

Looks like his personality has been given an angsty lift.. http://www.heroes-inc.net/?p=29

[dustbunny105]

I like to think Miss Peters sheds a single tear every time Professor Masters leaves the room.

This is delightful, thanks for sharing :D Did the Crusader have more adventures?

[lordultimus]

Yep. He had a fair amount of stories in Thrilling Comics, mostly fighting against Axis spies. I may post more someday.

[dragontail]

I really liked all of this, but I've a particular soft spot for a flying character following a homing pigeon to find the bad guys. Take that, phone-tracers and hackers! In my day, we did it with good old fashioned birds and flying men!

[bizarrohulk]

in fairness, a lot of superhero origins should have been fatal, or at least debilitating. Being exposed to massive amounts of radiation or doused in a cocktail of unknown chemicals is rather more likely to result in you acquiring an aggressive form of cancer than superpowers.

[lordultimus]

Yeah, that's fair. I think the reason it sticks out to me here is because not only is an atom smasher at some random college, but apparently anyone can just wander into one while everyone's working on it.

I mean, at least the Hulk was created thanks to espionage.

[bradygirl_12]

I happen to like the art, or maybe it's just the vivid colors. :)

Wow, so the gentle prof is really quite the casual killer! That mug he knocks off the building presumably went splat, and he kills all the conspirators.

I do like him buying his costume piece-by-piece. :)

[angelophile]

How great is the composition of these pages? It's so easy to read.

[lizard_of_aus]

"Stop! You can't do that! It's impossible!"

Yes, how dare you perform an incredible inhuman feat! Why, I oughta run you in for breaking the laws of physics!