Forgotten Heroes: Fiery Mask

After letting this blog languish for a while, I was inspired by Carrion Crowe's Forgotten Hero challenge to return to the world of golden age superheroes.

At his suggestion, I created a figure for the Fiery Mask from the Timely/Marvel stable of heroes.  First appearing in January of 1940 (Daring Mystery Comics #1), the Fiery Mask was a superhero with flame powers who fought a variety of weird villains (zombies, demons) before fading into obscurity.

The character was revived in J. Michael Straczynski's Watchman-esque 2008 miniseries The Twelve. The Fiery Mask, along with eleven other Timely heroes were brought into the modern era thanks to Nazi science. As the 40s heroes struggle to fit into the present, one of them harbors a secret that turns murderous. Definitely worth reading.

In the Heroclix line, a few of Marvel's golden age characters have been produced - mostly those associated with Captain America and the Invaders, but no Fiery Mask. Like many golden age heroes, there were various inconsistencies of costuming - red mask, yellow mask, sleeves, no sleeves, gun, mace. I decided to go with the depiction from the Twelve - it's a bit pulpier and the gun is irrelevant with fire powers. Starting with a Superman variation figure, I added putty for the riding pants and grabbed a mace from a fantasy weapons sprue.

Not a bad addition to the collection. Before moving onto G ("om-mani-padme-hum" is a clue), I'm throwing out a bonus figure from the Twelve in a couple of days.