| The Green Mask | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Johnny Green |
|
First Appearance |
The Green Mask #10 (August 1944) |
|
Original Publisher |
Fox Features |
|
Created by |
E.C. Stoner |
Origin[]
The second Green Mask was Johnny Green, an American teenager. He was the son of Walter Green who, according to his back story, fought crime as the Green Mask until he joined the US Army. Unlike his heroic father, Johnny was meek, awkward, and generally dorky. Since Walter Green's secret identity became public at some point, Johnny got teased quite a lot, something which he tried his best to ignore. In his debut story, Johnny was referred to as "a motherless son." Ever since his father joined the army, he's been living on his own in a rented room above the exclusive Miramar Club, scraping by on his father's savings and the kindness of the club's owner, Punchy.
Johnny Green
On the day Johnny turned 15, Michael "Slug" O'Banion, a former Prohibition-era Chicago crime boss, decided to come out of retirement and move in on Johnny's neighborhood. When Slug's goons failed to intimidate Punchy into letting them use the Miramar Club for their criminal enterprises, they tried to shoot him. Luckily for him, Johhny was coming back from walking his dog, Curly. Curly attacked one of the goons, preventing him from making a killing shot. The enraged gangster turned his ire on Curly, seemingly killing him. This was when the enraged Johnny suddenly transformed into a super-powered, grown man calling himself "The Green Mask."
Using his new powers, Johnny brought Slug's gang to justice. With the mission completed, he sat down to rest and reverted back to his usual form. While he didn't remember anything he did as Green Mask, he was very relieved to discover that Curly was only wounded and that he would survive.
Since then, Johnny transformed into Green Mask whenever he was outraged by any sort of injustice and transformed back to Johnny Green once he became tired. In some stories, merely being outraged at injustice wasn't enough to transform Johnny into Green Mask - he had to be able to yell. If he was gagged or otherwise prevented from speaking, he remained in his civilian form.
Johnny Green had a girlfriend, Suzie, who was considerably braver and more outgoing. She remained unaware of her boyfriend's dual identity even after he transformed right in front of her, which suggests that the magic involved in the transformation kept any bystanders oblivious to the change.
At some point, his father returned from war and his mother returned from wherever she had been with "all's well ending well" for the Green family!
Powers and Abilities[]
The Green Mask had the powers of super-strength, flight, and limited invulnerability.
Public Domain Appearances[]
- All Good Comics
- The Green Mask
- vol. 1 #10-11
- vol. 2 #1-6
- All Great Comics
- Book of All-Comics
- Everybody's Comics
Notes[]
- Aside from the name and costume, this character was unrelated to Fox's first Green Mask.
- The stories were inconsistent about the relationship between The Green Mask and Johnny Green. In early stories, Johnny Green "blacks out" while he is Green Mask, not remembering what he did while in super-powered form. In some later stories, Johnny Green perceives his adventures as the Green Mask as dreams and thus remains oblivious to his dual nature. In others, he is aware of it and tries his best to facilitate the transformation when Green Mask is needed.
- True to his meek nature, he spent many early stories avoiding trouble at all costs, but his heroic alter-ego seemed to have been a positive influence on him. In later stories, Johnny tried to stop injustice from happening even while he was in his non-powered form. It didn't usually end well, but you have to commend the kid for trying.