Lightning is powered by — you can guess this from his name — electricity. He got his powers from ancient Egypt and has a sort of Shazam-like mentor in the Old Man of the Pyramids. The blurb in the splash panel explains Lightning. In this particularly hairy tale of a werewolf in the woods coming out to wreak revenge, Lightning battles a supernatural character. Wolf Krimetz hid in the woods after committing manslaughter, and twenty years later goes after some of his former fellow cadets at the military academy where he was bullied. See, kids? Don't bully anyone, because they could come back at you years later. It's been nearly fifty years for me, and I'm still figuring out how to get back at the bully who gave me trouble in school. Maybe I'll go to the old folks home where he now lives and steal his false teeth so he can't eat dinner. Revenge is sweet!
But there was something else about this story. It reminds me of a story by Sid Check I showed a couple of years ago, “The Werewolf's Victims” from an issue of Mystic, where, like this story, the werewolf put captives in a cave. The later story may or may not have been inspired by this. You can see it in Pappy's #945.
The Grand Comics Database credits Mark Schneider? (question mark means they're not sure) with the art. Jim Mooney is often associated with this character, but he usually signed his stories.
This is all shades of goofy, and I love it.
ReplyDeleteMixing up "were-wolf" and "wolf-man", they introduce a hot woman to be rescued, but in the end lightning is showing off his muscles to a bunch of oh-ing and ah-ing cops (Wertham was right*!) The downright silly lighting reverse wolfman -- of which he was only a wolfman because he seemed to want to be one (if only it was so easy.)
Maybe I'm too much of a stinking, dirty liberal, but really, "the might of right" when the army is being lead by two bullies who drove a fellow student crazy? Yeesh!
* side note, I'm about as pro-gay as it gets, so I don't want this to be taken as some kind of homophobic joke, it's just strange in a 40s comic.
Brian, you remember this past election cycle in America we had a candidate who, in the '60s with his buddies, held down a classmate at their prep school and cut his hair. I thought about that incident as I read this story.
ReplyDelete"If only it was so easy," you say, about wishing oneself a werewolf. I've thought, would I be a werewolf if I could? Hell, yeah! There are a whole lot of people I'd like to bite.
OMG Wearwoofs R so munch sceerier wen thay ware grass skirts yo BRRR! Probly sum Bigfoot sitings can B xplaned as just comon wearwoofs, if u think about it! Also, thank u 4 supporting our reprint comic OMG we luv u Pappy♥!
ReplyDeleteAlicia, love (er, I mean luv) your creative spelling, esp. "wearwoofs." I shall remember that.
ReplyDeleteEverybody check out the fun stuff from Those American Girls:
http://ow.ly/gis6O