Hercules, Modern Champion of Justice
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Blue Ribbon Comics
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The series is a pleasant experiment. The tales are colorful, although not brilliant, and make pleasant reading. It is unfortunate that the series did not last longer.
The series is not to be confused with the somewhat longer running series of Hercules super-hero tales that appeared in Hit Comics, debuting in July 1940, one month after Hercules, Modern Champion of Justice tales. The two series have nothing to do with one another. Also, during 1939-1940, Agatha Christie published a series of 12 prose mystery short stories in a British magazine, in which her famed sleuth Hercule Poirot solved cases based on the Labors of Hercules. They were later collected in book form as The Labors of Hercules. So there was much contemporary interest in modern versions of Hercules and his Labors during this period.
Hercules Slays the Lion of Nemea (#4, June 1940). Writer: Joe Blair. Art: Ed Wexler. Hercules battles gangster Leo Nymia. The origin of Hercules. This origin tale is the weakest of the whole series. It simply sends Hercules to Earth, where he is a naive baffled person who eventually fights gangsters. It does create the basic idea of the series.
It establishes Hercules' costume: white trunks, wide red belt, shiny black boots, bare chest, a costume that represents both Hercules' traditional Greek garb, and his super-hero costume. While such tall black boots were unknown in Ancient Greece, they are de rigueur for comic book super-heroes. Their heaviness and size makes an odd, conspicuous contrast with Hercules' bare chest.
TAKING THE CLOTHES. The tale has an interesting last panel. Hercules takes and wears the clothes of defeated gangster Leo Nymia, just as Hercules in Greek mythology took and wore the pelt of the Nemean Lion. These clothes will play a role in the second, and much better story.
However, the good suit we see Hercules wear in the second story, looks both different and much better than the actual suit he takes from Leo Nymia at the end of the first story. One suspects that the artist and writer simply wanted to get their hero Hercules in better clothes!
Throughout the series, Hercules will alternate between good suits, and his super-hero costume.
Hercules Slaying the Hydra of Lerna (1940). Writer: Joe Blair. Art: Ed Wexler. Hercules battles the corrupt racketeers known as the Nameless Nine, who run the state of Missiansas and its capitol Midwest City. This story looks at civic corruption, a perennial concern of both 1930's mystery pulp magazines and early comic books. The Nameless Nine are the faceless men who run the government political machine behind the scenes. Hercules has to identify them, and destroy their power. This is the modern day equivalent of his cutting off the nine heads of the Hydra, one of the ancient 12 Labors of Hercules.
Please see my lists of Civic Corruption and Police Corruption in Mystery Fiction.
This story shows Hercules summoned to visit Zeus, king of the Greek gods in Greek mythology, at his home on Mount Olympus. Such visits would also be a regular part of the life of Captain Marvel.
This story introduces Henry Doyle, the honest candidate for the state's governor, and his daughter Betty. Betty will return in the next tale, "Hercules Cleans the Stables of King Augeias".
Throughout the tale, Hercules is basically selling himself and his ideas to different groups of men. The scene where he sells himself to a room full of uniformed cops is especially interesting. Hercules turns into someone they really respect (page 7).
COSTUMES. Hercules looks great in his double-breasted business suit throughout. It's a power look. (He only wear his strongman outfit on the splash.)
The shot of him unconscious being pulled up to Olympus, is vivid (page 1). It has erotic overtones. It shows his shiny black leather business shoes, also part of his power look.
A criminal looks good in one of those big-collared coats of the era (top of page 5).
The police are in spiffy uniforms (pages 7, 8). The uniforms are constructed on a traditional, exceptionably good plan: four precisely placed patch pockets, badge, high-peaked caps with visors, black leather Sam Browne belts. This is the classic look for dressy officers.
What wee see of the guards' uniforms suggests similar approaches (page 6).
The cops and guards we see are massively well-built. They echo Hercules' great build. The relationship that develops between Hercules and the police (pages 7, 8) perhaps has gay dimensions.
Hercules Cleans the Stables of King Augeias (1940). Writer: Joe Blair. Art: Ed Wexler. Hercules goes after gangsters who fix horse races. This is the weakest and most conventional of the later Hercules stories, although it has some charm. It shows some cleverness in its parallels between the ancient and modern labors of Hercules.
There are some good portraits of Hercules. He is a refined hero in his suit, looking like the Arrow Collar Man. Throughout the series, there are suggestions that Hercules fits into roles exemplifying conventional male attractiveness. Here, he looks picture perfect in a suit. His hair is also perfectly groomed. He embodies the images of masculine attractiveness represented by male images in advertising, such as the Arrow Collar Man. Similarly, when he is dressed in his super-hero costume, his bare chest and white trunks are those of a traditional circus strongman, another idealized image of conventional male appeal. Much is made here of Hercules finding his suit too constraining, thus causing him to shed it in favor of his trunks for his big fight with the crooks.
Hercules Captures the Boar of Erymanthus (1940). Writer: Joe Blair. Art: Ed Wexler. Hercules battles spies from the country of Bundania, who plan to form a fifth column within the United States. Bundania is a thinly disguised version of Nazi Germany - the Bundanians talk with German accents, and give each other the Nazi salute. The name is a reference to the Nazi Bunds, pro-Nazi organizations that Hitler founded in the United States that American Nazi sympathizers could join. These Bunds were deeply hated by many comic book creators of the era, and with good reason - they were horrendous pro-Nazi organizations in the United States. Comic book heroes Red, White and Blue fought such Bunds in "The Terrapin" (All-American Comics #8, November 1939).
In the previous issue of Blue Ribbon Comics, Joe Blair's Rang-A-Tang had fought similar Nazi-like villains called Bundonians, in "Richy, the Amazing Boy" (Blue Ribbon Comics #6, September 1940). This story also refers to them as Bundsters. For some reason, the Rang-A-Tang tale spells this as Bundonians, with an "o", while the Hercules story has Bundanians, with an "a".
Hercules Routs the Fierce Unconquered Amazons (1941). Writer: Joe Blair. Art: Mort Meskin. Hercules fights a woman who heads a gang of jewel thieves. The tough woman leads an all-male gang of jewel thieves, and is tougher than any of them. Later that year, Frank Woodruff's film Lady Scarface (1941) would depict a similar female gang leader, played by Dame Judith Anderson.
SERIES CHARACTERS. There are signs here that Blair is trying to introduce some continuing characters into the series:
SURREALISM. The tale has surreal elements. There is much talk today about the "male gaze" in film criticism: this is men looking at women as sex objects, and the structuring of films around such male looks. This story does the reverse: it has the female gang leader here looking at Hercules as a sex object. This scene, and what flows from it, seems distinctly strange and surreal. The scene is full of odd touches, which in turn get odder and odder as the story progresses. Eventually, the story erupts in full blown surrealism. Blair and Meskin show real originality with these passages.
The rubber beach toy carried by Hercules here is an especially strange touch (pages 5-7). It conveys a perverse sense of infantile behavior, further underscoring Hercules' position as an object of desire. Its story developments are also perverse. It also serves as a phallic symbol, emphasizing Hercules' sexual appeal. Both the perverse aspects of the rubber toy, and its phallic design, create a strong erotic dimension to the rubber toy.
The story doesn't explain where Hercules got the rubber beach toy. SPOILERS. The rubber toy turns out to be unexpectedly complex. One could guess that Hercules is so powerful, that he can arrange to have such things made. This too increases the sense of perverseness in the tale. It suggests Hercules has power.
Later, Superman will have the similar ability to produce very odd objects. This too is perverse. See such Jimmy Olsen tales with Superman's objects:
Ultimately, I think the perverse elements in these Hercules and Superman tales is a Good Thing. They express impulses that have positive value, however odd. They have erotic undertones.
The rubber beach toy involves relationships between men. This gives it a gay side. The Superman tales with odd objects also likely have a gay dimension.