The Shield

Joe Higgins, the son of a slain government scientist, carried on his father's legacy by perfecting a chemical formula that, when bonded to his skin, granted him superhuman strength and invulnerability — making him America's first patriotic super-hero, debuting in 1940.

Few Golden Age heroes can claim a debut as significant as The Shield's — hitting newsstands in Pep Comics #1 in 1940, created by Jack Cole, this patriotic Archie Comics stalwart arrived before the superhero genre had even found its footing, making him one of the earliest flag-draped champions in comics history. Across an extraordinary 84-year publishing span — from the Golden Age through 2024 — The Shield has anchored titles like Pep Comics and Shield-Wizard Comics, racking up 110 catalog appearances and a remarkable 12 key issues that serious collectors keep a close eye on. Along the way, this hero has shared pages with a wonderfully eclectic crowd: gritty figures like The Hangman and Dusty alongside pop-culture royalty in Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones, a collision of worlds that makes Archie's golden-age output uniquely charming. If you're tracing the roots of the patriotic superhero archetype or simply hunting down some of comics' most historically rich back issues, The Shield is absolutely essential reading.