The back story of The Mask is more interesting than the story itself.
“The Mask is a mutated version of a Better/Nedor hero who’d appeared in the company’s pulp magazines,” noted Roy Thomas. “In 1939, the costumed Black Bat debuted in Black Book Detective, with the power to see in the dark … When DC’s Batman appeared at roughly the same time, the two firms reportedly avoided a double lawsuit by parceling out rights so they wouldn’t step on each other’s capes — with the result that, in comics, the Black Bat was transformed into the Mask.”
The deal was that Batman would stay out of pulps if the Black Bat would stay out of comics.
“Like his pulp counterpart, Tony Colby was a former district attorney blinded by acid who kept the surgical restoration of his eyesight secret as a cover for his alter ego,” recalled Kurt F. Mitchell. “Instead of a bat costume, artist Raymond Thayer gave Colby a hood resembling a stylized owl’s head, later streamlined into a simple cowl.”
“A girl named Carol Smith, whose father was a victim of the acid-thrower’s boss, got Colby to a surgeon who restored his sight. Deciding to keep his recovery a secret, Colby donned a mask (‘The Mask is born’), and began his crusade against Snate, the gangster,” noted comics historian Lou Mougin.
Norman Daniels wrote essentially the same story as the first Black Bat pulp adventure in the July 1939 issue of Black Book Detective.
The blinded lawyer there was Tony Quinn, who wore a costume remarkably similar to Batman’s.
Although Batman could never branch out into pulp magazines, an MLJ Comics masked manhunter, the Black Hood, did. He even got his radio show.
Comics historian Jeff Rovin noted that the Mask is part of the “surprisingly popular” blinded professional school of superheroes which also includes the Black Bat, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Marvel’s Daredevil.
I guess that “justice is blind” puns just proved irresistible.
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