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The Avenger: The Man of Steel
 His name is Richard Henry Benson. An adventurer by trade, he has made his fortune by traveling the world. He had led native armies in Java, made aerial maps of the Congo, tapped rubber trees in South America, found gold in Alaska, diamonds in the Transvaal, amethysts in Australia and emeralds in Brazil. After many years of leading a successful solo life, Benson has found love with his wife Alicia and his young daughter Alice and has, at last, chosen to settle into the lifestyle of an industrial engineer. But his plans are suddenly and tragically disrupted when both Alicia and Alice disappear and are presumed killed during an airplane journey. His reaction to this tragedy is both emotional and physical: overcome by shock and grief, Benson's face becomes paralyzed and both his skin and his hair turn a stark and deathly white. His face becomes dead, like something dug out of a cemetery, the muscles paralyzed so that never, under any circumstances, can they express any emotion. His eyes turn a gray so faint as to seem completely colorless and the flesh of his face becomes malleable, like clay.
The death of Benson's family results in Benson's own emotional death. In his grief and despair, he vows to avenge his loss by taking on the villains of the world and fight for all those who have ever suffered at the hands of criminals.
In September of 1939, the publishing firm of Street and Smith announced that a new hero would be added to their line of popular "pulp" publications: The Avenger, a series of stories in much the same vein as their popular Doc Savage and Shadow series. Street and Smith had enjoyed great success with the adventures of these two crime-fighting superheroes since the early 1930s but, lately, their attempts to introduce other characters had failed. "The Skipper" and "Bill Barnes" had failed to attract significantly dedicated readers and been discontinued after short runs; "The Whisperer", introduced in 1937, was destined to enjoy only a scant two years of publication. Times were changing; the Great Depression, impetus of the initial success of these action-packed ten cent periodicals, was finally coming to an end and the massive growth of the "pulp" industry had created a glut of action/adventure characters on the nation's newsstands. The gradual reversal of the unemployment crisis had given people renewed hope for a brighter future, decreasing the need for the escapism provided by the high adventure these stories provided. However, recognizing that, even with a myriad of magazines to choose from, readers were still regularly purchasing both Doc Savage and The Shadow, Street and Smith decided to create an amalgamation of the two characters and come up a brand new hero who possessed elements of both.
The first step was to give The Avenger a link to these earlier successes, which was quickly accomplished by crediting author Kenneth Robeson, the familiar "creator" of Doc Savage, with the writing of the new series. (In actuality, "Kenneth Robeson" was a Street and Smith house pseudonym assigned to various writers. Lester Dent had actually written most of Doc's adventures and Paul Ernst, who divided his time between the "pulps" and the "slicks" like "The Saturday Evening Post", was assigned to "The Avenger" and paid a then-generous $750.00 per novel.) Interior illustrations - the black and white drawings that had long accented the stories contained in the magazines - were assigned to Paul Orban, well known for his similar work on Doc Savage and The Shadow, and the full-color cover paintings were created by experienced artist H. W. Scott. "The Avenger" was given a more contemporary script-based logo, which separated it from the somewhat dated logos of its predecessors and gave it a more up-to-date feel.
The first issue of "The Avenger" was released in September of 1939. In it, readers were given the origin of the new crime-fighter and also introduced to his small band of associates. Known as Justice Inc., the team was made up of people who had also been irreparably damaged by crime and who possessed uniquely specialized skills:
* Scotsman Fergus "Mac" MacMurdie, an innovative pharmacist and chemist. His family had been killed by racketeers, resulting in his dour and embittered demeanor, vengeful outlook, and indifference to life and death.
* Algernon Heathcote "Smitty" Smith, a gigantic man of incredible strength. His appearance is deceptive; he looks slow and stupid, but is a genius with electronics. After being framed for a crime he did not commit, he spent a year in jail and initially attacked Benson, believing that The Avenger was out to arrest him.
* A beautiful and delicate looking young woman named Nellie Gray. Like Smith, her appearance is deceiving; she is actually a martial arts expert whose archaeologist father was killed by criminals intent upon stealing the gold he discovered on an Aztec expedition.
* Josh and Rosabel Newton, an African-American couple whose employers were earlier killed by criminals. Both graduates of the Tuskegee Institute, the two often take advantage of the racial prejudices of the time to work undercover as domestic servants and uncover important details about the inner workings of the criminal element.
The adventures of The Avenger echoed other elements of his forebears as well: Doc Savage was "The Man of Bronze" while The Avenger was "The Man of Steel" and, like The Shadow, The Avenger preferred cornering criminals into situations where they would destroy themselves in traps of their own devising rather than being forced to kill them himself. Like Doc Savage, Benson relied on a variety of special gadgets - gas bombs, miniature two-way radios, transparent bulletproof garments - and he also carried a pair of simple but deadly weapons: a streamlined and silenced .22 revolver, known as "Mike", and a needle-pointed throwing knife he referred to as "Ike". His car, though appearing dull and nondescript, was actually bulletproofed, equipped with miniature torpedoes filled with knockout gas, and capable of speeds up to 130 MPH.
But The Avenger's personal traits weren't entirely based on those of his forebears. The personal losses that triggered Benson's transformation were among the strongest and most downbeat motivations ever assigned to a pulp hero, giving the stories a starker and most subdued atmosphere than others being published at the time. Benson's unique ability to re-sculpt his otherwise lifeless face into the likeness of practically anyone, coupled with a deft use of makeup, hair dye, and colored contact lenses, made him a master of disguise - literally a "Man of a Thousand Faces". And, as written, The Avenger was a not only the master of his own appearance, he was also adept at last-minute escapes, cool in a crisis, and intellectually advanced. Yet, despite his unusual skills and talents, he remained an average man who continued to grieve the extraordinary losses he had suffered.
The novels of The Avenger are extremely well written, filled with astute characterizations, complicated plots, and an impressive attention to detail that make them a pleasure to read today. Their tone is decidedly serious and often downbeat - not a surprise given the origins of this unusual group of crime fighters. It's also interesting to note that, in a time when Black Americans were often delegated to subservient employment, author Paul Ernst saw fit to make Josh and Rosabel Newton both intelligent and admirable characters who used widespread prejudice to the advantage of Justice Inc. - a small but significant innovation in the world of the "pulps".
For Street and Smith, the series was relatively successful; "The Avenger" magazine continued to be issued thru September of 1942 and the character continued to appear occasionally in "Clues Detective" and "The Shadow Magazine" until 1944. The Avenger was later revived for a newly written series of adventures published by the Warner Paperback Library in 1973 and 1974.
In many ways, The Avenger was the last hurrah for the pulp heroes of the 1930s. With World War II just around the corner and the real-life villainy of the Nazis and the Rising Sun surpassing anything that could have been conceived by the thieves, gangsters, and racketeers of the depression era, the adventures of the decade's pulp crime-fighters would soon come to an end. But while they lasted, Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Whisperer, The Avenger, and their fellow heroes brought action, suspense, thrills, adventure, and - most importantly - escapism into the lives of millions of Americans facing financial hardship, a grim daily existence, and an uncertain future.
It wasn't a bad deal for a dime.
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