Inductee: Iron Man

Iron Man, from the front cover of Better Comics No. 2, April 1941. Copyright National Archives of Canada/Nelvana Ltd. (Michael Hirsh & Patrick Loubert).

Reason for Induction:
For being the first made-in-Canada superhero.

Citation:
By the 1940s the comic book was in the midst of its Golden Age. Prompted by the success of Superman in the June 1938 debut of Action Comics, a parade of costumed heroes soon followed, including the Batman, introduced in May 1939, and Captain Marvel, who pulled on his woollens in February 1940. But as popular as these new superheroes proved to be across North America, Canada didn't have a comic industry to call its own until the March 1941 debut of Better Comics.

As comic books go, Better doesn’t look like it could stand up to the likes of Batman or Wonder Woman. The cover of issue No. 2, for example, features simple black and white art and promised a sober — and very Canadian — mix of “FUN — EXCITEMENT — ADVENTURE — FACTS.” (You can almost imagine a middle-aged editor throwing that last one in to lower the expectations of over-eager young readers.)

Notable for being created by a stable of homegrown artists/writers, Better Comics also holds the distinction of introducing the first Canadian-made superhero, an undersea-dwelling hero named Iron Man. Not to be confused with the better-known (and quite frankly, more successful) Marvel Comics superhero of the 1960s, our Iron Man lived in an underwater bubble city in the South Seas and appeared to actually be made out of iron (which raises all sorts of transportation and rust issues that we won’t explore here).

Created by Vernon Miller, a Vancouver native and former Disney animator, Iron Man was portrayed as the only survivor of a civilization that was destroyed in an earthquake. When he wasn't brooding in his submerged palace, the fearless (and ferrous) hero answered pleas from his young pals Jean and Ted to battle surface-world bad guys, which included such Golden Age standbys as pirates and Nazis.

Though he called the South Seas home, Iron Man's origins were distinctly Canadian: Better Comics owed its complete existence to an obscure cross-border trade law. Introduced in the winter of 1940, the War Exchange Conservation Act was designed to preserve the value of the Canadian dollar by restricting the importation of non-essential goods from the United States. All U.S. periodicals — including popular comic book titles like Action and Detective Comics — fell under the new legislation.

Within months several upstart Canadian companies lined up to take advantage of the lucrative vacuum in the comic market. Vancouver-based Maple Leaf Publishing put out Better Comics No. 1 around the same time as Robin Hood and Company No. 1 (by Toronto’s Anglo-American Publications), but Better was the first out of the gate with original characters. Over the duration of the Second World War, four Canadian companies published dozens of titles in a genre that became known as the “Canadian Whites” — after their primarily black and white interiors.

Despite low production values and at times crude art, the oddball adventures of the Polka-Dot Pirate, the Penguin and Nelvana of the Northern Lights were snapped up by Canada’s comic-addicted youngsters. After the war the U.S. comic ban was lifted and the Canadian Whites eventually faded into obscurity. Better Comics would publish some 60 issues and feature such bizarre, forgotten heroes as Bill Speed, Stuffy Bugs and Senorita Marquita before ending its run in March 1946.

Of course, in the decades to follow Canada would make a more lasting impression on the four-colour world of comics with the likes of Captain Canuck, Quebec’s heroine Fleur de Lys and the proudly Canadian X-Man Wolverine. But, whether they know it or not, they all owe a small debt of gratitude to Better Comics and Canada’s own indomitable Iron Man — and that’s a fact.

Brad Mackay is a Toronto-based writer. He is currently collaborating on a book with Guelph-based cartoonist Seth about the history of Canadian cartooning.