Heroes’ I Can Write About Are Phenomena.” — H.P

— He r o e s — He r o e s “Only the cosmic framework itself—or such individuals as symbolise principles (or defiances of principles) of the cosmic framework—can gain a deep grip on my imagination and set it to work creating. In other words, the only ‘heroes’ I can write about are phenomena.” — H.P. Lovecraft, letter to E. Hoffman Price, Aug. 15, 1934 (Se l e ct e d Le tt e r s V, p. 19) or each hero, the first paragraph gives a quick summary of their origin and pow- Fers, and briefly discusses their mainstream Nedor Comics career. The second paragraph focuses on their appearance in the Lovecraft lines: Dream Master and Adventures Into Darkness. (For the Dream Master and Nodens, two heroes essentially restricted to the Lovecraft lines, the first paragraph simply discusses their powers and origins.) It covers some of their particularly popular or iconic adventures, nemeses, etc. in those books, but is obviously far from complete. Th e Am e r ic a n Ea g l e A strange “black light ray” struck government scientist Tom Standish and his youthful assistantSample Bud file Pierce, granting them both the ability to fly and fight like true American eagles. As the American Eagle and Eaglet, they battled the Axis, starting in Exciting Comics #22 (October 1942). The American Eagle Th e Am e r ic a n Ea g l e PL 8 debuted alone the month before, in America’s Best Abilities: STR: 26/13 (+8/+1) DEX: 22 (+6) CON: 15 (+2) INT: Comics #2. The American Eagle’s flight can easily keep 15 (+2) WIS: 19 (+4) CHA: 12 (+1) pace with a car, and he is strong enough to lift and Skills: Acrobatics 2 (+8), Craft (electrical) 3 (+5), Disable Device throw a heavy construction crane. 1 (+3), Intimidate 4 (+6), Knowledge (physical science) 7 (+9), Knowledge (technology) 7 (+9), Medicine 2 (+6), Notice 5 (+9), Lovecraft borrowed the American Eagle for a guest Profession (scientist) 4 (+8), Sense Motive 5 (+9), Survival 4 (+8) appearance in Adventures Into Darkness #35, in which Feats: Benefit (security clearance), Evasion, Fast Overrun, he fought “shantak-birds” summoned by Lucifuge. Favored Environment (air), Move-by Action, Sidekick 5 In a longer story (issues #40-44) the American Eagle (Eaglet), Stunning Attack, Teamwork explored “the Sargasso of the Skies,” battling not just Powers: Enhanced Strength 13, Flight 4 (100 MPH), Super- shantak-birds but giant vampiric moths, the fungoid Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 3.45 tons) Outer Ones, rogue night-gaunts, and all manner of Combat: Attack +7, Damage +8 (unarmed), Defense +7, other winged monstrosities. At the climax, the Eagle Initiative +6 discovered his old nemesis the Little Führer at the Saving Throws: Toughness +2, Fortitude +7, Reflex +9, Will +7 center of the phenomenon. This villain, originally Drawbacks: Vulnerable (blow to the head; common, moderate) -3 from America’s Best Comics #12 (January 1945), was The Math: Abilities 36 + Skills 11 (44 ranks) + Feats 12 + a midget super-genius who controlled a super-strong Powers 27 + Combat 28 + Saves 9 - Drawbacks 3 = 120 - 8 - — He r o e s —

Ac e Bu c k l e y PL 9 Ca pt a i n Fu t u r e PL 14 Abilities: STR: 14 (+2) DEX: 16 (+3) CON: 18 (+4) INT: 18 (+4) Abilities: STR: 33/13 (+11/+1) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 14 (+2) INT: WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 14 (+2) 28 (+9) WIS: 18 (+4) CHA: 16 (+3) Skills: Acrobatics 4 (+7), Bluff 6 (+8), Diplomacy 8 (+10), Skills: Concentration 4 (+8), Craft (electrical) 12 (+21), Craft Disable Device 4 (+8), Disguise 2 (+4), Escape Artist 2 (+5), (mechanical) 9 (+18), Diplomacy 5 (+8), Disable Device Gather Information 4 (+6), Handle Animal 2 (+4), Investigate 7 (+16), Drive 3 (+5), Investigate 5 (+14), Knowledge 4 (+8), Knowledge (history) 4 (+8), Knowledge (physical (earth sciences) 4 (+13), Knowledge (life sciences) 6 (+15), sciences) 10 (+14), Knowledge (technology) 2 (+6), Medicine Knowledge (physical sciences) 10 (+19), Knowledge 12 4 (+7), Notice 8 (+11), Ride 2 (+5), Search 2 (+5), Sense (technology) (+21), Languages 3 (French, German, Russian), Motive 4 (+7), Stealth 4 (+7), Survival 4 (+7). Medicine 2 (+6), Notice 4 (+8), Pilot 4 (+6), Profession (scientist) 10 (+14) Feats: Attack Specialization (.45 automatic), Defensive Roll 2, Dodge Focus 3, Equipment 3, Improved Initiative, Inventor, Feats: Attack Specialization 2 (energy bolts), Attractive, Jack-of-All-Trades, Luck 2, Master Plan, Precise Shot, Sidekick Eidetic Memory, Inspire, Interpose, Inventor, Leadership, 5 (Toni), Well-Informed Seize Initiative, Sidekick 4 (Grace Adams), Stunning Attack, Equipment: Colt 1911A1 .45 caliber automatic pistol (+4), brass Ultimate Skill 2 (Craft [both]) knuckles (+1), binoculars, leather jacket (+1 Toughness) Powers: Blast 12, Enhanced Strength 20, Flight 9 (5,000 MPH/ Powers: Device 4 (time machine; can be taken away easily) Mach 6.5), Force Field 10, Super-Strength 10 (Heavy Load: Time Machine: Comprehend 2 (languages; Extra: Affects Others; 1,200 tons) Flaw: Limited to local historical languages), Super-Movement Combat: Attack +6 (+10 with Blast), Damage +11 (unarmed) +12 (temporal movement to any point in the past; Power Feat: 2 (energy bolts), Defense +6, Initiative +2 Progression 3 [1,000 lb.]; Extra: Area [inside time machine]; Flaws: Action [one minute], Fades [machine must recharge]), Saving Throws: Toughness +12/+2, Fortitude +9, Reflex +6, Will +8 Teleport 9 (Power Feat: Progression 3 [1,000 lb.]; Extra: Accurate, Drawbacks: Power Loss (all, must recharge powers) -1, Area [inside time machine], Linked to temporal movement; Flaws: Vulnerable (blow to the head; common, moderate) -3, Weak Action [one minute], Long-Range) Point (head blows only) -1 Combat: Attack +8 (+10 with .45 automatic), Damage +2 The Math: Abilities 43 + Skills 25 (100 ranks) + Feats 16 + (unarmed) +3 (brass knuckles) +4 (.45 automatic), Defense +6 Powers 92 + Combat 24 + Saves 15 - Drawbacks 5 = 210 (+6 dodge), Initiative +7 Saving Throws: Toughness +4 (+5 with leather jacket, +7 with the 1690s, Ace crossed paths with Edmund Carter, the jacket and defensive roll), Fortitude +7, Reflex +6, Will +6 sorcerous ancestor of both Randolph Carter and the Drawbacks: Vulnerable (temporal attacks; minor, uncommon) -1 Fighting Yank. Ace Buckley also helped the magician- The Math: Abilities 44 + Skills 20 (80 ranks) + Feats 22 + scientist Roger Bacon defeat Professor Fenton in a Powers 12 + Combat 28 + Saves 10 - Drawbacks 1Sample = 135 memorable file tale in Adventures Into Darkness #61 that some fans believe was actually scripted by Alfred Bester. minion named Hans. Most fans recall this story not for the writing, but for artist Sheldon Moldoff’s rendering of the Little Führer’s zeppelin headquarters. Ca pt a i n Fu t u r e Mild-mannered scientist Dr. Andrew Bryant discovered Ac e Bu c k l e y a unique interference pattern created by “gamma and infrared waves” that enabled him to “throw off Ace Buckley invented a time machine in October of his normal meekness.” Like later heroes exposed to 1940 (debuting in Startling Comics #3), and with his gamma radiation, Bryant gained immense strength, lovely assistant Toni got into the usual scrapes. Among in his case accompanied by flight, and the ability his historical adventures are the Battle of Marathon, to shoot “energy bolts” from his hands. The gamma the Crusades, the Spanish Armada, the Jamestown radiation suffusing his skin projects a micro-thin colony, the Revolutionary War, and the struggles of force field that resembles invulnerability. He must Simon Bolivar. He has only the powers of a standard occasionally recharge his powers with his machine. pulp adventurer, and his trusty gun. Like many Nedor heroes, Captain Future is not totally Beginning in Adventures Into Darkness #24 (November invulnerable—a blow to the head can still render him 1943), Lovecraft used Ace to set up various adventures unconscious, perhaps because coshes move slowly in archaic settings, especially Atlantis (where he met enough that they don’t trigger the field. As Captain Haldor, a Conan ripoff from Thrilling Comics #26) and Future, Bryant fights the Axis menace and all other colonial-era America. In a number of stories set in threats to the world. His girlfriend Grace Adams, who - 9 - — He r o e s —

the two heroes teamed up to travel “by etheric translation” to the planet Yaddith, where they helped friendly and advanced aliens named the Yug-Soth battle giant worms. Captain Future was too powerful for the gen- eral run of villains and monsters in Adventures Into Darkness, and his appearances were concomitantly rare. His most notable guest role is his fight against Dagon in Adventures Into Darkness #48. (This Captain Future is not to be confused with the works pulp hero Captain Future, created by Edmond F. for her Hamilton, who starred in Nedor’s Captain Future Aunt Agatha’s pulp magazine serial.) detective agency, keeps him alerted to Th e Ca v a l i e r crimes and mysteries. “Strange but true—when the Duc de Chantrey’s Captain Future debuted portrait changes its expression to a grim frown, then gal- in Startling Comics #1 (June lant, two-fisted Rance Raleigh forsakes his workaday role 1940), and starred there for forty to become … the Cavalier!” So says the splash page from issues. Lovecraft sent the Dream Master Thrilling Comics #53 (April 1946), which goes on to into Captain Future’s dreams in Dream describe how the “curio shop owner” dresses up Master #25. This tale proved very popular, in costume and fights crime with a sword. though not popular enough to keep Dream The Cavalier only appeared two other Master a monthly in the face of wartime paper times in the straight Nedor lines, rationing. But Lovecraft did write a sequel in which and would probably have dropped into total obscurity if the combi- Th e Ca v a l i e r PL 9 nation of a Douglas Fairbanks-style swashbuckler and Abilities: STR: 13 (+1) DEX: 20 (+5) CON: 14 (+2) INT: 10 (+0) a magical ancestral portrait hadn’t caught Lovecraft’s WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 16 (+3) Samplefancy. file The Cavalier became a mainstay of Adventures Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+13), Bluff 7 (+10), Climb 8 (+9), Into Darkness, appearing in almost every issue from #45 Concentration 7 (+9), Escape Artist 5 (+10), Gather Information 5 (+5), Handle Animal 2 (+5), Language (French), Notice 3 on. Lovecraft repeatedly used the Duc de Chantrey’s (+5), Profession (antique store owner) 4 (+6), Ride 5 (+10), portrait for plot exposition, setting eight stories in Sense Motive 8 (+10), Stealth 5 (+10) de Chantrey’s historical 17th century, including one Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Assessment, Attack crossover each with Ace Buckley and Professor Fenton. Specialization 4 (sword), Critical Strike, Defensive Attack, The Duc de Chantrey was, of course, a magician, and Defensive Roll 5, Elusive Target, Improved Critical 3 (sword his sword (which the Cavalier had either inherited or 17-20), Improved Disarm 2, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Instant Up, Interpose, Power Attack, Quick Draw, discovered—continuity differed) proved to be capable Redirect, Taunt, Weapon Bind of killing ghosts in “The Terror of Azderac” (Adventures Powers: Device 3 (De Chantrey sword; can be disarmed), Super- Into Darkness #58). In later years, many of the Cavalier’s Movement 1 (swinging) adventures were thinly disguised rewrites of classic De Chantrey Sword: Strike 6 (Power Feats: Accurate, Affects ghost stories by William Hope Hodgson or M.R. James, Insubstantial, Dimensional (astral plane); Extra: Penetrating) probably “ghosted” by Willis Conover or other youthful Combat: Attack +2 (unarmed), +10 (sword), +12 (De Chantrey members of the Lovecraft correspondence circle. sword), Damage +1 (unarmed), +4 (sword), +10 (De Chantrey sword), Defense +10, Initiative +9 Saving Throws: Toughness +7 (+2 flat-footed), Fortitude +8, “Do c ” St r a n g e Reflex +10, Will +8 This is not Doctor Steven Strange, the Marvel Universe’s The Math: Abilities 27 + Skills 17 (68 ranks) + Feats 29 + master of magic. Nor is it Dr. Hugo Strange, the DC Powers 11 + Combat 24 + Saves 17 = 125 Batman villain. This Hugo Strange, who goes by the - 10 - — He r o e s —

“Do c ” St r a n g e PL 13 Abilities: STR: 35 (+12) DEX: 24 (+7) CON: 35 (+12) INT: 24 (+7) WIS: 22 (+6) CHA: 18 (+4) Skills: Craft (chemical) 3 (+10), Diplomacy 9 (+13), Disable Device 7 (+14), Gather Information 17 (+21), Investigate 3 (+10), Knowledge (life sciences) 5 (+12), Knowledge (physical sciences) 3 (+10), Notice 5 (+11), Search 6 (+13), Sense Motive 6 (+12) Feats: Connected, Endurance 8, Inventor, Jack-of-All-Trades, Sidekick 5 (Mike Ellis), Stunning Attack, Throwing Mastery 4, Well-Informed Powers: Leaping 7 (x250 distance; half-mile standing long jump), Speed 6 (500 MPH), Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 6 tons), Swimming 6 (108 knots) Combat: Attack +9, Damage +12 (unarmed), Defense +9, Initiative +7 Thrilling Comics, the Saving Throws: Toughness +12, Fortitude +12, Reflex +7, Will +7 villainous mastermind Drawbacks: Power Loss (All, must inject Alosun) -1, Vulnerable Satani. However, in Adventures Into (blow to the head; common, moderate) -3 Darkness #63, Doc injects a variant of The Math: Abilities 98 + Skills 16 (64 ranks) + Feats 22 + Alosun “distilled from the demon star Powers 27 + Combat 36 + Saves 0 - Drawbacks 4 = 195 Algol” and turns into quite a dangerous familiar “Doc,” is a brilliant scientist and crime-fighter, villain himself. like his model, Doc Savage. And indeed, in his Thrilling Comics #1 (February 1940) debut, he had only human, Th e Dr e a m Ma s t e r albeit pulp-heroic, abilities. But in August 1940 The Dream Master was Lovecraft’s first superhero, (Thrilling Comics #7), he invented the serum Alosun, “a although he only began calling himself that in Dream secret distillate of liquid sun atoms,” which gives him Master Comics #4 (May 1940). For the first three super-strength (he can throw tractors at airplanes, or issues, he was plain Randolph Carter, although he is kick over trucks) and super-endurance. Since he rou- described as “a master dreamer” in issue #1 (February tinely jumps from the ground to airplanes travelingSample 1940). file Randolph Carter is an expert in all occult arts, hundreds of feet above him, he most likely has some but his greatest power comes when he enters the measure of super-speed (he can swim at 80 knots), Dreamlands. Here—although he can be menaced by super-aim, and concomitant agility. Doc has a girlfriend, such foes as gugs and galley slavers—he is recognized Virginia, but (again like Doc Savage) no secret iden- as a mighty king and scholar. In his first appearances, tity. His sidekick, the orphan Mike Ellis, showed up in closely adapted from Lovecraft’s novel The Dream-Quest January 1942 (Thrilling Comics #24). Mike was too young of Unknown Kadath, Carter had only the magic of the to take Alosun, but helped out with his fists. Continued Sign of Koth and his reputation to defend him. But exposure to Alosun increased Doc’s powers; by 1946 he soon he gained a nebulous “power within dreams” that could actually fly for short periods (or perhaps leap for allowed him to enter the dreams of others (sometimes very long ones) and was seemingly unconcerned about criminals, but usually dreams of madmen that threat- bullets or grenades, though still not truly invulnerable. ened to release one or another demon) and use magic Lovecraft tended to use Doc Strange as a source of sci- there. In the waking world, Carter tends to rely on his entific exposition, when he used him at all. Doc became knowledge of the occult, and on the ever-useful Sign by turns an expert geologist, physicist, archaeologist, of Koth. Both awake and dreaming, Carter can speak or astronomer depending on the needs of the plot, but with cats. Later, the Dream Master added the Voorish usually only took an active part in adventures when the Sign to his repertoire, but like the Sign of Koth its villain was exceptionally dangerous. He did fight the effects varied depending on the story requirements. “Killer Plants of the Mad Botanist” (an old American In Adventures Into Darkness #4 (February 1942), Crusader villain) in Adventures Into Darkness #52, and Lovecraft revealed that Randolph Carter was related to show up in #59 to help combat his own old foe from - 11 -