| Unofficial Secret Origins Vol. 2 Index |
SECRET ORIGINS VOL. 2 #5
Cover Date: August 1986
Cover Price: $0.75
| < PREV | NEXT > |
Cover Credits:
Art: Gene Colan (signed)
|
|
Credits:
| Plot | Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas |
| Story | Roy Thomas |
| Art | Gene Colan |
| Inks | Mike Gustovich |
| Lettering | David Cody Weiss |
| Colors | Carl Gafford |
Feature Character(s):
- Crimson Avenger (Lee Walter Travis, last in flashback in Golden Age Secret Files #1; next in Detective Comics #20/2)
Supporting Character(s):
- Wing How (first chronological appearance, Mr. Travis' chauffeur, next in Detective Comics #20/2)
Villain(s):
- A group of criminal disguised as Martians (first appearance of all; one dies)
- Winston W. Smythe (first appearance; Travis' grandfather and head of the Dark Cross organization; fakes his own death and leaves his newspaper, the New York Globe-Leader to Lee Travis; appears under another unrevealed identity; next in Crimson Avenger #4)
Other Character(s):
- Claudia Barker (first appearance; a reporter from the Downtowner Magazine and former freedom fighter; dies)
- Amos P. Vangilder (first appearance; a wealthy socialite; dies)
- Mrs. Vangilder (first appearance)
- Bill Dock (first appearance; a farmer)
- Orson Welles (first post-Crisis DC Comics appearance of the famous director/actor; see Comment)
Comment(s):
- This story takes place October 30, 1938. Wing begins work for Lee Travis only two weeks before this story. Lee Travis is (physically) 25 years old in 1938, but his birthdate is around 1902.
- This story is taken from Lee Travis' wire recorded journal.
- The story is dedicated with respect to the memory of Orson Welles, who passed away about the time when Gene Colan had finished the artwork for this story. Orson Welles first pre-Crisis DC Comics appearance was in Superman Vol. 1 #62 (1949).
- This issue also contains a pin-up page of the cover of Detective Comics #22.
Synopsis: - On Sunday, October 30, 1938, newspaper publisher Lee Travis, who inherited the New York Globe-Leader from his late godfather Winston Smythe not to many months ago, dons crimson mask and cloak to attend a party given by the Vangilders for the cause of Chinese War Relief. He's driven there by his new chauffeur, Wing; and there he encounters another guest named Claudia Baker, who's interviewed him with considerably sarcasm that very day for a magazine. But October 30 turns out to be the same day that a young genius named Orson Welles broadcasts a radio "Invasion from Mars" which panics a goodly portion of a tense nation... and some pre-warned criminals use this as an excuse to rob the Vangilders' party, disguised as gun-wielding "Martians". In an ensuing scuffle, Claudia Barker is shot; she dies in Lee Travis' arms, gasping a Latin phrase: Qui vindicet ibit (the avenger will come). Travis, still in his costume, gives chase and, aided by Wing and a New Jersey farmer with a shotgun, brings down the murderers. On a whim, Travis elects not to stick around till the police arrive, but to let them think a "Crimson Avenger" has done their work for them.