Wow Comics #6
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWow Comics #6 (cover-dated July 1942, on sale April 17, 1942) is one of the most densely packed single issues in Fawcett's Golden Age output, simultaneously debuting three distinct characters who would run in the title for years: the costumed war hero Commando Yank, the teen aviator Phantom Eagle, and the supernatural crime-fighter Spooks. The issue also marks a clear editorial pivot point for the anthology — previous strips like Atom Blake and The Hunchback were retired after issue #5, replaced by two explicitly World War II–driven features that reoriented the book toward the wartime concerns gripping its readership. Both Phantom Eagle and Commando Yank proved durable enough to appear in every subsequent issue of Wow Comics through its later numbering, making this the single issue that defined the series' wartime identity and supplied two of its four core features for the remainder of its superhero run.
This anthology issue features multiple stories centered on wartime military action. "Commando Yank and Phantom Eagle" depicts American troops battling Japanese parachutists and facing a mysterious skeleton plane that attacks from the sky, with the soldiers eventually boarding beetle boats to cross submarine-infested waters. Another story involves a murder mystery where District Attorney Butler investigates the death of Thomas Mandel, uncovering clues that lead to the discovery of the killer's identity. The issue also stars Mr. Scarlet and Pinky, whose adventures are prominently featured on the cover.
When a mysterious phantom criminal known as The Voice orchestrates a daring subway robbery, Mr. Scarlet and Pinky launch an investigation that uncovers a sinister plot reaching into the highest levels of the transit company. As The Voice threatens anyone who gets too close to the truth, our crimson-clad hero must navigate treacherous tunnels and deadly deceptions to expose the faceless fiend before time runs out.
Commando Yank infiltrates Nazi-occupied Norway on a dangerous raid, posing as a humble fisherman before revealing his true identity to strike at enemy positions. Leading a band of commandos across the Channel under heavy fire, he and his men must fight their way through a fortified town to destroy a Nazi radio station and supply dump while the stakes mount with each passing moment. It's a thrilling test of courage and tactical cunning as Yank and his fellow soldiers face overwhelming odds in service of the Allied cause.
When a mysterious killer phones Special Prosecutor Brian Butler to taunt him about a murder—a crime so perfectly executed that it leaves no physical evidence—the case falls to Mr. Scarlet and his young aide Pinky to unravel. A body, a phantom murderer with no clues, and suspects with suspicious motives converge in this tense hunt through the night as the red-robed vigilante races to piece together the impossible crime before the killer strikes again.
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The issue was produced in April 1942, less than five months after Pearl Harbor, and reflects Fawcett's rapid editorial response to the war: two of the three debut features are explicitly anti-Axis adventure strips designed for a nation newly at war. Contributing artists and writers on the issue included Otto Binder (scripter), Phil Bard (pencils/inks on the Commando Yank story), Clem Weisbecker, and a young Dave Berg — who would become famous decades later as Mad Magazine's 'Lighter Side' cartoonist. The debut creators of both Phantom Eagle and Commando Yank remain disputed or unverified in the historical record; Commando Yank's creation is attributed by Cosmic Teams to Charles Sultan working through the Harry 'A' Chesler studio, while Phantom Eagle's original creators are listed as uncredited across all major reference sources. Marc Swayze later became the character's primary writer-artist and shaped Phantom Eagle through much of its long run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of the Phantom Eagle (Mickey Malone), a teenage pilot too young to enlist who secretly builds his own plane from spare parts and becomes a masked air ace fighting Axis forces — he would appear in every subsequent issue of Wow Comics through the title's final issue, #69 (August 1948).
- First appearance of Commando Yank (Chase Yale), a masked, non-powered patriotic hero and war correspondent embedded with British commandos fighting Nazis; his secret identity was not revealed to readers until Wow Comics #13.
- First appearance of Spooks, a short-lived supernatural strip (running through issue #9) in which murdered Professor Oscar Willard is allowed by Heaven to return to Earth as a ghost inhabiting his own preserved skeleton in order to fight crime.
- The issue has a cover date of July 1942 but was published on-sale April 17, 1942, per the DC Database and League of Comic Geeks.
- Contributing talent confirmed across multiple sources includes writer Otto Binder, artist Phil Bard (Commando Yank story), artist Clem Weisbecker, and Dave Berg (early career story and art); the cover artist remains unidentified.
- The Phantom Eagle's debut story, 'The Phantom Eagle's First Flight,' features the figure of Fate as a splash-page narrator — an unusual storytelling device for a purely action strip — and Mickey's plane closely resembles the Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter introduced in 1941.
- The issue also contains a Mr. Scarlet story in which the villain is The Voice, a Shadow-inspired antagonist who returns again in issue #9, plus a second Scarlet story titled 'Murder Without Clues.'
- Commando Yank also appeared in America's Greatest Comics #4–7, and later crossed over with Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics #33 — their only direct on-panel meeting despite sharing the book for years; reprints of the Golden Age Phantom Eagle strip appeared in AC Comics' Men of Mystery anthology series in the 2000s.
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Reprints
Reprinted in O Guri Comico #135 (1946), Official Golden-Age Hero & Heroine Directory #1 (1997), Gwandanaland Comics #1462 (2020)
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