Once upon a time, a superhero could get their powers from a miracle drug, and nobody would bat an eye. Things may have changed, but The Hour-Man keep on tickin’. Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Adventure Comics #48 awaits!

ADVENTURE COMICS #48

Writer: Ken Fitch
Penciler: Bernard Baily
Inker: Bernard Baily
Letterer: Bernard Baily
Editor: Vin Sullivan
Publisher: Detective Comics, Inc. (DC Comics)
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $50,000.00
Release Date: February 2, 1940

Previously in Adventure Comics: Only the second comic title published by the swirling, nebulous mass of companies that would eventually become DC Comics, Adventure Comics started its run in 1935 as New Comics. By the time this issue hit the stands, the book was already the home of future JSAer The Sandman, as well as lesser known features like Barry O’Neil, Socko Strong, and The Diddle Family.

No, I didn’t make those up.

But with such an eclectic lineup, it’s easy to see why another masked superhero seemed like a good idea.

Though this is the first appearance of The Hour-Man, as the early issues spelled it, there’s no origin story presented here. Instead, we find chemist Rex Tyler already in business, with his Miraclo compound already formulated, his costume designed, and a post office box for people to write in with requests for help. One such letter comes from a Mrs. Kenton, whose unemployed husband has fallen in with gang types who want him to help them rob a rich woman of her pearls at a masquerade ball.
Hourman’s warning fails to scare Bob Kenton straight, which makes it necessary for Rex to pop a Miraclo and take matters into his own hands. With enhanced vision, he sees the thieves have already struck, so the Man of the Hour chases their getaway car… on foot! Unfortunately, the police also catch sight of the fleeing criminals and pursue them, leading to a really unexpected collision.
Artist Bernard Baily isn’t one of the huge names of the Golden Age, but his creation of The Hour-Man is the second founding JSA member that he created in the spring of 1940, as The Spectre debuted only a month earlier in the pages of More Fun Comics. The sequence of Rex getting hit by the police car is almost hilarious (though the “BOP!” sound effect does make me giggle), but Baily makes it a heroic moment, even within the confines of Golden Age sensibilities. As he arrives at the criminals’ hideout, Hourman realizes that only 20 minutes of his hour of power remain, forcing him to shift into the metaphorical high gear.
People still talk about the time Superman dangled a man off the roof to get a confession, but nobody remembers this story, where Rex Tyler convinced a man to stop running with criminal schmucks by dropping him in his last moments of Miraclo-powered superhumanity.

That’s hardcore.
The most shocking part about this issue for me is the fact that this first appearance actually shows the daredevil Hour-Man persona to be a side-effect of the MIraclo, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-style, setting up the eventual drug addiction plotlines that have come to dominate every modern Hourman story. The rest of Adventure Comics #48 is quite forgettable, even the Sandman chapter, but Hourman’s debut doesn’t feel like the artifact of 1940 that it is, setting up one of DC’s Golden Age stalwarts (and possessor of the best costume in the JSA until Al Pratt gets his cape) in style and earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. Most importantly, Hourman means that there are only three more heroes to debut before readers would get to see the first super-team unite to punch out… whatever it was they were mad at in All-Star Comics #3. Maybe The Bowery Boys?

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