Original Character Concepts: Golden Age Heroes

[The following are some ideas I've had for original 1940s superheroes. At least for now I don't have a project to go with them, though maybe someday they'll wind up in Hideouts & Hoodlums.]

Supplejack, Clarence Kerr, is a 30-year old Australian immigrant to the U.S., having arrived in 1941. He left his native country, as he acquired his powers by eating the berries from a magic supplejack tree venerated by aborigines who are still looking to punish him. Naturalization delays kept him from being able to enroll in the war for his adopted country until late 1942. His white jacket is embroidered with a leafy, berried vine motif, the supplejack plant and match his white gloves. He is buff and strong, able to lift/press 800 lbs., but can also stretch his body to three times its normal length or width. His pliable body is bullet-resistant. He married last year.

The Baton, Bryan Weaver, is a 34-year old Sgt. Major in the Marine Corps. He was a track star in college when he met Fletch. The two of them bemoaned the state of the world and decided to train themselves until they could do something about it, but inspired by swashbuckler movies, they would do it with archaic weapons instead of guns. In Bryan’s case, he hated guns because his father had committed suicide with a gun after the Great Stock Market Crash. That was 1935. Bryan chose to become a weapon master with the quarterstaff or, more specifically for him, an aluminum baton. The team of Fletch and Baton began battling crime in 1939. In 1942, Bryan reluctantly learned to fire a gun when he joined the Marines. He is engaged to be married.

Roc, Dixie Green, is a 26-year old woman who can transform into a condor with a 24-ft. wingspan. She was a schoolteacher with a romantic love for Arabian myths who was given a book by a mysterious stranger. When she reads it, she falls asleep and wakens as Roc. During the war, she gave up teaching to work in a factory and fell in love with the plant owner. But then she fell in love with Hawthorn too. She left the plant owner (after their engagement) to marry Hawthorn 3 years ago. Now she is pregnant.

Fletch, Roland Quigly, 34, was into archery in college before he and his best friend Bryan even made their pact. Like Bryan, Roland hated guns, but Roland hated guns because his father had, during high school, threatened Roland with a gun if Roland did not bring up his grades. It was Roland who suggested costumed identities for their vigilantism, as he did not want his father to know he was doing good things with his life. That changed when Roland openly joined the Marines and was reconciled with his proud father. While Bryan quickly gravitated to becoming an officer, Roland became an M.P. Roland has a serious girlfriend.

Hawthorn, Carl Hambledon, 35, was a bookish clerk with no future and a love for Nathaniel Hawthorn’s writing when he fell asleep for 3 days under an enchanted tree and woke with the ability to cause brambles to spring up around him.