Wednesday, August 17, 2016

In Which We See a Public School Teacher Who Actually ISN'T Paid Enough


Okay, we're a little out of order here.  Sorry about that.  Let's go back an issue to Master Comics #7!


You may have noticed that "Bulletman, Hero of Nickel Comics," is suddenly the star.  And by suddenly, I mean that the title character Master Man has gone from cover boy for the previous 6 issues to MIA.  Why?  Because DC/National was going after every Supermanesque character out there and Fawcett didn't want to be on the losing end of things like Fox Comics was with their version of Wonder Man (who I'm sure we'll be seeing here sooner or later).  
Bulletman's gear will change a bit before too long.  This was his original look, with the short sleeves, the riding trousers, and the "sometimes I wear it and sometimes I don't" scarf:



He probably isn't waiting around because he's concerned your version of "thank you" involves more than just saying "thank you"... which you could have easily done rather than complaining about him not sticking around.

Anyhoo....


Revenge! (tm!)


Again... we're not sure your version of "talking" means ... eh, you get the idea.

On to one of the oddest series ever:


Mark Swift... not to be confused with Tom Swift.  Although if some fans of Tom Swift happened to support the series because of their positive associations of the Swift surname, I'm sure Fawcett would have been okay with that.  And speaking of names, while the nature of the time machine meant the "Time Retarder" was an appropriate name of sorts, it still makes me cringe.

Anyway, Tom Mark Swift didn't really do anything.  It was Rodney Kent who did all the heavy lifting:



It should be noted that Tom Mark Swift traveled to our past, not other dimensions.  So the rhinolizard was totally a thing.  We learned something today!


In fairness, I don't think Tom Mark Swift was packing heat.  Still, it was Rodney Kent who would get physical:


Prehistoric men spoke English.  Who knew?  This series is a wealth of little-known scientific facts!

Anyway, Tom Mark Swift's primary job seems to be getting captured or otherwise needing protection:


"Mr. Kent will make you pay for this.... because I'M sure not going to do anything about it!"


Again... they speak really good English considering public education hadn't been invented yet.



Note that the cavemen choose to follow Rodney Kent.  Rodney Kent may not have his name in the series title, but even the cavemen know who is really calling the shots around here.

And then this happened:




Normally, I would wonder why anyone would want to spend a minute longer with their history teacher than they had to, but I never had Chuck Norris as a history teacher like Tom Mark Swift apparently had.

See you tomorrow!

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