Today's custom action figure offerings are the American Eagle and his kid side-kick, the Eaglet. I'm taking this opportunity to shift from my patriotic hero theme to the lame side-kick genre that was so prevalent during the Golden Age. Anyway, the American Eagle was published by Better/Standard/Nedor and appeared in about 34 stories in Exciting Comics, Fighting Yank and America's Best Comics. In his secret identity he was a scientist named Tom Standish who, along with his young pal Bud Pierce, was exposed to a mysterious "black ray," which endowed them both with the flying and fighting abilities of America's national symbol - the American Eagle. I have a few of the stories and in most they seem to get knocked on the head and rendered unconscious, but bounce back and go smashing through doors and roofs and such. In one story some big bad guy is strangling American Eagle, who flies up into the air with baddy hanging on, then finally knocking him off - presumably to his death. Superheroes could actually kill people during the war because they were the "enemy" and that's what you did. After the war the heroes got kinder and gentler. Anyway, I rather liked the characters, but always found the name "Eaglet" to be a little lame. Was it the lamest - why heck no, as you'll see as we move along. As for the figures, I made the American Eagle from a Toy Biz Daredevil figure repainted and Eaglet was created from a Mattel Secret Wars Spider-Man figure with a Toy Biz Robin head.
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