Star Spangled Comics #7

History

By early 1942, DC (then National Allied) had lured Joe Simon and Jack Kirby away from Timely Comics, and the pair spent their first weeks at the company devising new characters before being told to simply create what they wanted. With Star Spangled Comics underperforming under its existing creative lineup, DC handed Simon and Kirby the cover spot and lead story starting with issue #7, displacing the Jerry Siegel–written Star-Spangled Kid feature to the back of the book. As a compensatory measure — and because Siegel had been pitching a science-fiction concept about a human brain transplanted into a robot body — DC simultaneously green-lit Siegel's Robotman strip for the same issue, with the first story drawn in apparent haste by Leo Nowak and Paul Cassidy working in tandem. The TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite strip, written by Mort Weisinger, also debuted here; because a second TNT story appeared in World's Finest Comics #5 just two days later by copyright date, the two books were essentially simultaneous launches for those characters.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of the Guardian (Jim Harper), a shield-wielding beat cop who moonlights as a costumed vigilante in Suicide Slum — created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
• First team appearance of the Newsboy Legion (Tommy Tompkins, Big Words, Gabby, and Scrapper), four street-orphan newsboys who become Jim Harper's legal wards — also created by Simon and Kirby.
• First appearance of Robotman (Robert Crane / Paul Dennis), a scientist whose brain is transplanted into a robot body after he is fatally shot; created by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Leo Nowak and Paul Cassidy.
• First appearance of TNT (Tex N. Thomas) and Dan the Dyna-Mite (Danny Dunbar), a chemistry-teacher-and-student duo who gain explosive energy powers from radioactive salts — created by Mort Weisinger; their origin is not revealed until issue #8.
• Issue published on February 1, 1942 (cover date April 1942); the companion TNT appearance in World's Finest Comics #5 was registered just two days later, making the two essentially simultaneous debuts.
• Starting with this issue, Simon and Kirby's Newsboy Legion/Guardian feature took over the cover and lead story, relegating the Star-Spangled Kid (Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman) to the back of the book — a position the Kid occupied for the remainder of the anthology run.
• TNT and Dyna-Mite were later retroactively established as founding members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, replacing Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy in that team's wartime continuity.
• The Simon and Kirby Newsboy Legion and Guardian stories from this issue through #32 were collected in The Newsboy Legion by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Vol. 1 (DC Comics, 2010), which included a foreword by co-creator Joe Simon.

Cast · 25 characters

Full credits

Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers