| Jaspar Crow | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Jaspar Crow |
|
First Appearance |
Crack Comics #11 (1941) |
|
Original Publisher |
Quality |
|
Created by |
Lou Fine |
Origin[]
Jaspar Crow was a United States Senator and a wealthy industrialist whose holdings included factories, mines and shipping lines. He was a corrupt, ruthless man who pushed his agenda through the Senate through bribery and intimidation. He also had extensive connections in American criminal underworld. Accustomed to getting his way, he was unpleasantly surprised when Senator Thomas Wright decided to take a stand and vote against his pork-ridden dam funding bill. He decided to make an example out of the young senator and arranged to have him murdered. But Jaspar didn't count on Black Condor coming across Wright as he was dying and taking his place to cast the vote against the bill. Soon, Black Condor decided to masquerade as Wright full-time. In this guise, the flying hero rallied other senators against Jaspar and his cronies. Desperate to hang on to power, Jaspar sent goons to kill his long-time opponent, Senator Gibbs. His goons were stopped by Black Condor, but before they could implicate him, Jaspar fled the country, presumably resigning from Senate to avoid expulsion.
He returned to United States in the next issue. Though he was no longer a senator, he had his industrial assets to fall back on. Black Condor kept an eye on him, exposing his corrupt practices and forcing him to make concessions to his workers.
With every defeat, Jaspar Crow became more and more desperate and megalomaniac, and he grew increasingly obsessed with gaining power by any means necessary. In Crack Comics #22, he went so far as to make a deal with Hitler.
In Crack Comics #26, Jaspar Crow somehow uncovered Black Condor's origin (without uncovering the fact that he masqueraded as Thomas Wright). He kidnapped Wendy Foster and took her to Mongolia, to the spot where Black Condor's real parents were murdered, in hopes that Black Condor would track him down. He managed to tie Black Condor up and left him to die. Black Condor would have been doomed if it weren't for the flock of condors he grew up with, who flew to protect him and helped him get free. The hero managed to rescue Wendy, but Jaspar got away. However, Black Condor chose to let him to get away. As he explained to the bewildered Wendy, Jaspar went into the "Forbidden Plateau" - a harsh, unforgivably dry patch of desert from which no one had ever returned. The last panels showed Jaspar wandering through the plateau as he completely lost his grip on sanity, hallucinating about the power he once had even as he walked to his doom.
Public Domain Appearances[]
- Crack Comics #11-12, 14-18, 20-22, 25-26
Notes[]
- Most online sources list his name as "Jasper Crow," but this is an error - the comic itself clearly spells it "Jaspar."