Crimson Avenger (Lee Travis)
Crimson Avenger | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | Detective Comics #20 (October 1938) |
Created by | Jim Chambers[1] |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Lee Walter Travis |
Team affiliations | Seven Soldiers of Victory All-Star Squadron Justice League |
Abilities | Olympic-level athlete Highly skilled hand to hand combatant Use of gas gun Master of martial arts and jujitsu Expert to Lock Picking Expert to firearms Brillant to Equestriatism |
Crimson Avenger (Lee Walter Travis) is a superhero published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Detective Comics #20 (October 1938).[2] He is the first superhero and costume hero published in Detective Comics. He preceded Batman, and appeared in the same year after Action Comics #1 debuted characters like Superman, which led to the Golden Age of Comic Books. He is sometimes depicted as one of the first masked heroes within the fictional DC Universe. He is also known as a founding member of DC's second depicted superhero team, Seven Soldiers of Victory. After his death, his legacy name lives on other characters.
Publication history
Crimson Avenger (along with his sidekick Wing) first appeared in the DC Comics anthology American comic book series Detective Comics in issue #20.[3][4] The Crimson Avenger had many similarities to
The character continued appearing in Detective Comics until issue #89 (July 1944).[8]
According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "most of his opponents are ordinary, but there is the Boss and his zombies, the occasional mad scientist, and some name villains like Echo, Methuselah, and the crime genius the Brain".[9]
In 1941, the Crimson Avenger joined the
Fictional character biography
Origin
Two separate accounts of the Crimson Avenger's origins have been printed which complement each other in some areas, but contradict in others. The first origin story appeared in
The second, extended origin appeared in Golden Age Secret Files & Origins #1 (2001). In this tale Lee Travis was a war-weary man of the world trying to forget the horrors of the Wars and seek some inner peace of mind. To this end he briefly settled in the mystical far-East city of Nanda Parbat. There, he was shown the future career of Superman by the goddess Rama Kushna. Superman's deeds and selflessness inspired Lee to rededicate his own talents, and Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday galvanized Lee to spend his life honoring Superman's memory, years before he was even born. When Lee returned to civilization, he found that nearly ten years had gone by for the rest of the world, at which point he took to the streets as the Crimson, and later the Crimson Avenger.[13]
Superman's appearance as the first costumed hero in Action Comics #1 is credited as the beginning of the Golden Age of Comics, but this was removed from continuity during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Crimson's second origin re-establishes Superman as the inspiration for all costumed crime-fighters.
1988 mini series
In 1988, the Crimson Avenger appeared in a 4-issue miniseries by Roy & Dann Thomas, Greg Brooks, and Mike Gustovich. Set shortly after the Crimson's debut in the latter days of 1938, the story revolves around the growing global hostilities, as Japan advances through China, Germany moves into eastern Europe, and the soon-to-be-Allies hesitation to act. The Crimson finds himself in the middle of a plot he doesn't quite grasp, with enigmatic foreign women, strange objects, and shadowy conspirators weaving around him.
This series was a 50th anniversary celebration of the character's debut and of all mystery-men in general.
Final days
In a one shot story named "Whatever Happened to the Crimson Avenger?" featured in
Legacy
The legend of the Crimson Avenger does not die, however, due to an early good deed that night. On his way to the tanker, he saves a young boy who has fallen out of an apartment window and returns the child to his mother. The woman promises to tell her son of the man who saved him once he is old enough to remember.
Grant Morrison has established that in various Justice League stories, the original mask, hat and cloak of the Crimson Avenger are used in a special ritual whenever a new member joins the JLA, in honor of him being, in the Martian Manhunter's words, "the first of our kind".
Infinite Frontier
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The New Golden Age
In the pages of "The New Golden Age", Crimson Avenger's sacrifice remains intact. Clock King used Per Degaton's time machine to bring the ship that Crimson Avenger was on to the present. Before Stargirl destroyed the time machine to send the ship back to its own time, Crimson Avenger told Stargirl to find Wing. Once the ship was back in its own time, Crimson Avenger's body was found and there was a memorial held by the Justice League and the Justice Society of America.[16]
Powers and abilities
Though possessing no super-powers, the Crimson Avenger was an Olympic-level athlete and highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant able to hold his own against almost any foe. In the early days of his career, the Avenger used a gas gun of his own design, capable of rendering his opponents unconscious. The Crimson Avenger's calling card was a cloud of crimson smoke through which he made a most dramatic entrance.
Other versions
Elseworlds
In Michael Uslan's
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
In
Fishnet Femmes Fatales
The Crimson Avenger makes an appearance in the
Earth 2
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Lee Travis is now a female African American reporter, borrowing features from the original Crimson Avenger's successor, Jill Carlyle. She first appears in Earth 2 #5, but is not named until two issues later.[17]
In other media
- The Crimson Avenger makes cameo appearances in Justice League Unlimited as a member of the Justice League.
- The Crimson Avenger appears in issue #33 of the tie-in comic book Justice League Adventures, in which he is revealed to be among the oldest members of the Justice League who began fighting crime sometime after the 1930s.
- The Crimson Avenger appears in issue #33 of the tie-in comic book
- The Crimson Avenger appears in a photograph depicted in the Stargirl episode "Brainwave" as a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
Further reading
- "The Crimson Avenger: DC Comics' First Masked Hero" by Ian Millsted, Back Issue (vol. 3) #106 (August 2018), pg 56-59
References
- ISBN 9781465496089. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
- ISBN 9780313397516.
- ISBN 9781440861246.
- ISBN 9780785355908. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
- ^ Detective Comics #44 (October 1940). DC Comics.
- ^ JSA #53 (December 2003). DC Comics.
- ISBN 0-87833-808-X. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-61318-023-5.
- ISBN 0-87833-808-X. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ OCLC 213309017
- ISBN 9781605490045. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
- ^ Secret Files & Origins #1. DC Comics.
- ^ Wells, John (May 2013). "Flashback: Whatever Happened to...?". Back Issue! (#64). TwoMorrows Publishing: 51–61.
- ^ DC Comics Presents #38. DC Comics.
- ^ Stargirl Spring Break Special #1. DC Comics.
- ^ Earth 2 #7 (December 2012)
External links
- Beek's Books Crimson Avenger mini-series review