LEGENDARY HEROES #37

THE AVENGER

In the late 1930s Street & Smith publishers were experiencing a downturn in readership and had to cancel a bunch of their pulp magazine titles.  These titles simply didn't capture the loyalty among readers that their two most popular creations enjoyed, The Shadow and Doc Savage.  So the publishers set out to create a new hero that would combine elements of their two bestselling pulps.  They sought the advice of Lester Dent, who wrote the Doc Savage stories under the name Kenneth Robeson, and Walter B. Gibson, who wrote The Shadow under the name Maxwell Grant.  Paul Ernst was hired to write The Avenger, the new hero, and he met with Dent and Gibson who gave him their advice, with Dent concentrating on character development and Gibson on story plotting.  Paul Ernst would write The Avenger stories under the house pseudonym of Kenneth Robeson, hoping to give the impression that the successful author of Doc Savage was also writing this new title.  In 1939 fans of Doc Savage read an announcement in their pulp magazines that The Avenger would soon be coming to their local newsstand.  The Avenger #1 was issued in September 1939 with a striking cover by H. W. Scott and interior art by Paul Orban, who also provided art for The Shadow and Doc Savage.  The introductory story was titled "Justice Inc."

The Avenger's real name was Richard Henry Benson, a globe-trotting adventurer who made his millions through his exploits.  He discovered rubber in South America, led native armies in Java, made aerial maps in the Congo, mined amethysts in Australia, emeralds in Brazil, gold in Alaska, and diamonds in the Transvaal.  Benson's wealth would fund his later crime fighting ventures as The Avenger.  In the debut story of "Justice Inc." Benson decides to settle down and raise a family, but his plans for a peaceful life are shattered when his wife Alicia and young daughter Alice are killed by criminals during an airplane ride from Buffalo to Canada.  The shock of this incident has a bizarre effect upon Benson - his face becomes paralyzed while his skin and hair turn white.  His facial flesh becomes malleable like modeling clay while the facial muscles are immobile, never to form an expression.  And in the dead flesh of his face are his eyes, so light-gray that they appear to be colorless.  Benson assembles a small group of assistants who, like him, have been irreparably damaged by crime but who have very specialized skills.  Together they form Justice Inc. and vow to avenge all those who have suffered at the hands of criminals.  The Avenger employs gas bombs, miniature 2-way radios, and drives a car that reaches speeds of 130 mph (something unheard of at the time).  The Avenger carries two weapons that are strapped to his calves - a streamlined and silenced .22 and a needle-pointed throwing knife.

Street & Smith published 24 issues of "The Avenger" from September 1939 until September 1942.  Five additional stories were published in Clues Detective magazine from 1942-1943, and a sixth novelette appeared in a 1944 issue of The Shadow.  Street & Smith, in an attempt to compete with comic books while promoting their pulps, had launched The Shadow comic book in 1940.  This was a successful venture with each issue containing a Shadow story illustrated in comic format and taken directly from the pulps, with additional content based on other of their pulp publications.  The Avenger appeared as a backup story in Shadow Comics #2 in February 1940 and would make seven more appearances through 1944.  In 1975 DC comics would publish Justice Inc. featuring The Avenger with cover art by Joe Kubert (they were also publishing The Shadow comic books) but The Avenger title only lasted for 4 issues.  DC tried a reboot in 1989 with a two-issue miniseries drawn by Kyle Baker. 

The Avenger was heard on radio with a series that originated from station WHN in Long Island, New York that was broadcast for 62 weeks and syndicated to other radio stations across the country.  The radio drama aired from July 18, 1941 to November 3, 1942.  Despite the fact that the show was recorded for distribution to other radio stations, there are no known recordings of this show in existence.  All that survives after 80 years are seven scripts, the stories of which were all based upon pulp publications.  The introduction of the show was organ music that would segue to the voice-over narration of Richard Benson saying, "Enemies of justice...This is The Avenger!  You who operate beyond the law...you who seek to wreck the peace of America...Beware!  I shall crush your power, destroy the vultures who prey upon the innocent and the unsuspecting.  I...AM...THE...AVENGER!"  Following the success that Bantam paperbacks had in republishing the Doc Savage stories in the 1960s & 1970s, Warner Paperback Library reprinted the original 24 Avenger pulp novels from 1972-1975.  Warner hired Ron Goulart to write 12 more Avenger stories making up 36 paperbacks produced with cover art by Peter Caras and George Gross.  Interestingly, actor Steve Holland who portrayed Flash Gordon on TV in the 1950s was the model for The Avenger paperbacks as well as the Doc Savage books.

Some pulp historians have considered The Avenger as the last great pulp hero, as the popularity of pulp magazines were declining in favor of comic books, a hybrid of pulp magazines and newspaper comic strips.  The creation of The Avenger was viewed by some as "an unnecessary commodity", citing that "the world did not require another good ten cent hero".  But comic books were selling for ten cents, and the fictional heroes that they were producing would soon surpass anything that the pulps had ever imagined.