Comic Book Review: Amazing Man Vol. 1 by Bill Everett and various creators.
John Aman (probably not his birth name) was an American orphan taken in by The Council of Seven, a mysterious group of wise men headquartered in Tibet. After twenty-five years of intense training, John passed a series of physical and mental tests to show that he was ready to leave the monastery and rejoin the outside world. One of the Seven, the scientist Nika, provided John with a serum that would turn him invisible, leaving only a faint green mist as a sign. Naturally, he extracted a promise that John would only use his powers for good and justice.
However, another of the Seven, the Great Question, had other plans. The Great Question had a grudge against humanity, and sought to dominate John’s mind to be his agent of evil against the world.
John, the Amazing Man, decided to first visit his ancestral homeland. In America, he was told of a series of trainwrecks. His curiosity aroused, the young man investigates and uses his amazing abilities to uncover that the president of the railroad targeted is an imposter who’s been sabotaging his own line for the insurance money. Rather than explain why, or how long he’d been an imposter, the man commits suicide. (The loose plot thread is never followed up on.)
Amazing Man was conceived of in 1939 as a competitor for the hot new comic book superhero Superman. Artist/writer Bill Everett created him with assistance from his wife Grace and (probably) Centaur Comics art director Lloyd Jacquet. He was deemed a strong enough character concept to anchor a self-titled series, starting with Amazing-Man #5 (There were no issues #1-4; it’s not clear if the series took over another magazine’s numbering, or if it just started at #5 to avoid postal regulations.)
In addition to Bill Everett (better known now for his Namor the Sub-Mariner work), artists who worked on the series included Sam Glanzman (Charlton’s Hercules series) and his brother Louis Glanzman (illustrator for the Pippi Longstocking books.)
John Aman’s powers included enough strength to bring an elephant to a standstill, the ability to speak all languages of civilized and uncivilized nations, inhuman pain resistance (though he could still be knocked out by blows to the head) and nebulous psychic abilities which were usually forgotten. He was a skilled pilot, usually flying an advanced airplane provided by the Seven, and a superior hand to hand combatant. Originally his invisibility power (which got him the additional hero name of The Green Mist) was due to a special serum that he had to take regular doses of, but this later became an intrinsic power aided by his costume. The stories go back and forth on whether he’s intangible when invisible, and sometimes the mist is also usable for various effects.
The present volume collects the Amazing Man stories from #5-18, skipping over backup features like Minimidget and the Iron Skull.
#6 has Amazing Man investigating a gang of kidnappers when The Great Question manages to take over his mind. Now twisted to evil, John takes over the gang for a short period. He’s shocked out of the control by seeing a woman about to die. After this, the Great Question is never again able to directly control John, even when in direct contact with him.
#7 has a dam being sabotaged, then #8 starts a plotline where Amazing Man decides to take a hand in the European war which would become World War Two. He fights on behalf of the French, gets captured by the Nazis, escapes barely, and then must hurry back to Tibet to face judgement by the Seven. (Seems they don’t think he should interfere in politics or war.)
#11 finally has Amazing Man wear a costume (previously he’d fought in various civilian clothing) given him by the Seven. It’s supposedly indestructible and acts as a shield. The chest emblem doubles as a container for small items he might need. John heads back to America, and specifically Louisiana, where pirates are holding a young woman captive.
This woman turns out to be Zona Henderson, an intrepid reporter, who becomes John’s sidekick. She (despite one panel of Amazing Man telling her the latest case is “too dangerous for a woman!”) assists him in several instances of criminals who are being masterminded by the Great Question. #18 has them facing an unrelated gang of owlhoots who are trying to steal the map to a lost mine.
On the good side, the stories have a lot of energy, and it’s clear that Amazing Man is a competitor for Superman, not a cut-and-paste copy. Some of the art is very nice, though the early Golden Age crudeness is often seen. There’s a lot of potential here.
There’s no secret identity nonsense. John Aman, aka Amazing Man, aka the Green Mist, may walk around in civilian clothing most of the time, but he’s just Amazing Man in a suit and tie.
On the other hand, Amazing Man doesn’t have much of a personality. He’s primarily motivated by “oh, something has happened, I should look into that.” And he’s shockingly well-adjusted to American society for someone who’s been locked up in a monastery for the last twenty-five years, including his entire childhood. It’s easy to see why Namor, with his “fish out of water” cultural issues and irascibility, is much better remembered.
And the supporting cast is sparse. Nika shows up once after the first chapter to give John his new costume, and that’s it. Five of the Seven are basically blank slates. Zona is okay, but is mostly there to be captured or imperiled so that Amazing Man has someone to rescue. While she’s clearly inspired by Lois Lane, she has none of that woman’s bite.
And then there’s the Great Question. There’s a lot to unpack here, if the story was interested in doing so. He’s openly evil, and his plans for John Aman are spoken right out loud. But he’s also an equal in the Council of Seven, who never act against him, and one of John’s mentors. I can only guess that the Seven believe that “evil” is a natural part of the world, and thus relevant to their philosophy and John’s training.
We never get background on who the Great Question is (though he is apparently a Tibetan by nationality) or what his grudge against humanity is. He prefers to work through proxies, initially planning to use John for this purpose. When John becomes entirely immune to the Great Question’s mental control, that worthy decides that destroying him is the better option.
In addition to mind control over global distances (to the point where he can just kill one of his weaker-willed minions with a thought), the Great Question can also either teleport or project an illusion of himself over those same distances. Usually, he communicates with his minions with a two-way color television apparatus. Amazing Man seems to really enjoy smashing up these TVs.
Sadly, despite his potential, the Great Question’s actual schemes are very much standard evil mastermind stuff that lack flair.
Content note: Superhero type violence, sometimes fatal. Suicide. Amazing Man kills some animals in combat. Outdated ethnic stereotypes. A couple of skimpy outfits on women.
The Amazing-Man comics are in the public domain, so you can probably find readable copies on the internet. But the PS Artbook reprints are on nice paper if you’re a collector. Recommended to fans of early Golden Age superheroes and those interested in the work of the artists mentioned.
