| Air Rover | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Johnny Hopper |
|
First Appearance |
Golden Lad #1 (July 1945) |
|
Original Publisher |
Spark Publications |
|
Created by |
Walker Gardner and James Dell |
Origin[]
After the war, Johnny Hopper grew restless and decided to modify his plane with a one man sub attached and sought out adventure as the Air Rover. However when his plane ran out of gas, he landed on the island of the Sword Women, who were an Amazonian-like tribe who dealt in an undersea cavern.
When they took Hopper out of the submarine, the Sword Women thought he was sickly looking and brought him to a doctor. Once the doctor gave Johnny a clean bill of health, the women brought him to the kitchen to do some dishes, what they called light male work. The Sword Women then competed for who could have Johnny's hand in marriage, but he refused and challenged the winner to a duel for his own hand. The woman was appalled by his unmanly behavior and decided to give him fuel so he could leave and not spread his silly notions to the other men.
In his next adventure, the Air Rover met Komar, a wise Indian man who had a map to a lost valley which was home to a fabled treasure. However, the man who he believed was Komar was really a murder who and taken the wise man's place and tricked Johnny into flying to the Lost Valley. He then threatened Air Rover at gun point to keep flying to their destination.
Once in the Lost Valley, Air Rover and "Komar" encounter the last survivor of the race who used to live in the Lost Valley. The survivor took them to the treasure which was not gold as most expected but wisdom left by the people of the Lost Valley to beware of only caring for ones selfish interests as it only leads to destruction. Infuriated by the lack of literal treasure, the murder attempted to shoot the survivor, but Air Rover knocked him out. In order to get the crook to want to leave the valley, Johnny took him through the fog, which made the murder hallucinate thousands of devils, which scared him into turning himself in for Komar's murder so he could leave the valley immediately.
Public Domain Appearances[]
- Golden Lad #1-2