Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Fox Feature Syndicate, victor fox, Walter Frehm
Green Mask #1 and the Plot to Start a War, at Auction
The Green Mask who debuted in Green Mask #1 (1940) was a complete reboot of the character whose previous existence had been a mystery.
Green Mask #1 gave Fox’s established hero from Mystery Men Comics a superpowered origin, an alter ego, and an enemy determined to bring America into war. Created by cartoonist Walter Frehm, the Green Mask was the cover feature of Mystery Men Comics #1 in 1939, debuting in that issue alongside the likes of Blue Beetle and Rex Dexter of Mars. The Green Mask was more of a mystery than any other feature in early Mystery Men Comics, as he is portrayed as a pulp-style adventurer with no special abilities beyond basic athleticism and fighting skill, and uses no special weaponry or gadgets beyond a normal handgun. Green Mask #1 reboots the character to a significant extent. With a Lou Fine cover and interior art tentatively attributed to Frehm, the new series debut also introduces Green Mask’s partnership with Domino the Miracle Boy.
Green Mask Faces a Plot to Start a War
The new origin in this issue begins with Michael Shelby gaining extraordinary strength and the ability to fly when Professor Lascomb’s vita-ray apparatus accidentally surges. Meanwhile, his father Senator Shelby has proposed a mandatory death penalty for members of criminal gangs, and he is murdered under orders from the Grim Circle. That organization’s purpose is made clear here. “The interests for whom we work want the United States to enter the war!” one member declares. Lascomb’s vita-rays also give the new series its second hero. When he uses the apparatus to save an injured homeless boy, the child receives powers like Shelby’s and becomes his ward and partner, Domino the Miracle Boy.
In another new adventure here, gang leaders from Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco and New York plan to sink the S.S. Britannica, which is carrying $50 million in gold from Liverpool to America. Another story here is from Mystery Men Comics #2, but with a few changes. In Green Mask#1, the byline has been changed from Frehm to the name Michael Barrett, retaining the San Sin extortion plot, the smuggling ship S.S. Canton, Coast Guard intervention, and the complete nine-page story. Most of the dialogue survives, but the new version includes minor changes to lettering and art.
Both Blue Beetle #1 and Green Mask #1 had added considerable backstories to those characters, but Fox took it much further in the case of the Green Mask. So much so that there appears to be some difference of opinion as to whether the character who debuted in Mystery Men Comics #1 is the same person as the character who debuts the next year in Green Mask #1, but I think they are best understood as having different and unrelated secret identities. This version of the character, which appears in Mystery Men Comics #13-31 and Green Mask #1-9, was effectively ended by Victor Fox’s 1942 bankruptcy of Fox Publications, Inc. When Fox emerged from bankruptcy in 1944 and started to put a comic book line back together, Green Mask returned in Green Mask #10 as a completely different character yet again.
The CGC census lists 45 Universal copies, including three at 6.5 and 11 higher. This is an underappreciated reboot in the history of the Fox line, bringing one of the publisher’s earliest standard bearers into the superhero fold. There’s a Green Mask #1 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1940) CGC FN+ 6.5 with cream to off-white pages up for auction at the November 5, 2026 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction VI #40378.
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