Saturday, June 11, 2011

Golden Age Heroes - Red Torpedo


OK, back to the Golden Age today. The Red Torpedo was a character from the Quality Comics stable of heroes. Originally a naval officer named Jim Lockhart, he was frustrated when he tried to get the navy interested in plans he had for an advanced submarine craft. He resigned and built it himself with the help of his girl friend Peg (apparently she didn't help enough because she disappears after the first issue). He named it the Torpedo and called himself Red Torpedo as he became the protector of the seas. Appearing in about 20 issues of Crack Comics (1941-42), Red Torpedo was one of the ubiquitous "back story" heroes, never even being featured on the covers, although he does show up in a box to the left at least once. Red Torpedo battled Nazis and Japs but his main villain was Black Shark. He was briefly revived by DC for their Freedom Fighters stories along with a number of other former Quality properties, but he was killed off in the first issue so it wasn't much of a career revival for the poor guy. The action figure shows Red Torpedo in his normal fighting togs - the red shorts and mask. He was known to wear a red upper garment but this was apparently used to hold his breathing tanks and helmet in place. The action figure was made from a Toy Biz Savage Land Angel (with wings removed) and the head from a Hasbro Transforming Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer version of Batman).

No comments:

Post a Comment