Magic Golden Age Heroes

the artwork is in the vein of Milton Caniff who was doing the very famous, at the time, Terry and the Pirates comic strip.

A lot of spectre types. The magicians are not too appealing I must admit. They have too much of the 'do anything anytime' thing you mentioned earlier. Wildfire is a much better character and has some interesting powers (Human Torch +, so to speak) but she'll catch her death of cold, poor thing. Not to mention a hail of bullets might be a problem!  Shame she was cast aside for the Legion version of Wildfire (a character who I absolutely loved back in the day before they started doing weird stuff with him to jazz him up). Let's have a look at Wildfire (the lady version)...



Rationale:

She's facing low powered villains (a human Frog?) and goons so doesn't need to be a super powerful character to bowl foes over. To an ordinary person (2 across the board) she'd have a vast array of near godlike powers but in the modern age characters would shrug off her flame attack as everyone has ramped up over the decades. With that in mind I aimed for 900HP and bolted on a couple of weaknesses (dousing in water, cold/freezing based attacks, not least because she's wandering around without hardly any clothes on).

Force Manipulation can make solid objects of flame including 'flame armour' for protection and even to boost strength. Possibly she might rate higher APs but given the environment she was active in I feel 8 is about right, possibly even a smidge too high (6 or 7 would cover what she does in the comics, perhaps). Ok, or discuss?

Had a re-read. Not sure she actually projects or creates fire, rather she seems to control existing fire. Is that right? If so would her powers be limited to however much existing flame is out there that she can gather, or could she amplify it somehow? I'm interested in the character and with a few tweaks she could form part of Prof Wyndes gallery of friends (and we'll need some foes at some point too).

You would have to read all the stories to know if she can create fire. I think she can project it but prefers not to. Only one time did she encase herself in flames that I saw. But she can take a small flame like from a lighter and make it as big as she wants. As she can make a fire shield, she is showed using it to melt the bullets before they can get to her so a force shield made out of flame, I would guess.

And I would up her strength, she is shown to go toe to toe with tough guys.

Also thought the Duke of Darkness and Mr. Justice might have potential. They seem to have a very exact set of powers and are not all powerful but Wildfire seems the best of the bunch as she is the most different.
Though Miss America seems a very high end character with possibilities.

Then we have Captain Triumph from Quality Comics. He was a long running character. I'm at work so I don't have any images to show. But he has the basic flight, invulnerability and strength that most powerful folks do. In his earlier stories, his ghostly powers also included invisibility and shapeshift into any human with their clothes or maybe it's not shapeshift but an illusion over his form? Guess it could be done either way. But those powers seem to have been dropped after a few stories.
Cap is twin brothers, one who was killed and the other can summon the ghost of his brother by rubbing the T-shaped birthmark on his wrist, and have him possess him to give them the powers of Captain Triumph. He can see and hear his dead brother's ghost. And the ghost, who is invisible and intangible, can go off on his own to investigate stuff. Insta change or some kind of duplication power I guess.

and for other magic heroes we have the gods themselves. such as Diana, Venus and Mercury who came down from Olympus to help out the Allies during the war. Some like Venus stuck around after the war.

Then there is Frankenstein's Monster that appeared in Prize Comics. Not sure if he would be considered magical or scientific in origin.

Okay Captain Triumph's origin and a bit of his power showing off

The most BLAH! looking costume in herodom!

Last off the top of my head is Aman, the Amazing-Man.
Amazing-Man (John Aman) is an American Comic Book Superhero whose adventures were published by Centaur Publications during the 1930s and 1940s. Bill Everett, creator of the Sub-Mariner, is credited with his creation. Amazing-Man first appeared in Amazing-Man Comics #5 (Sept. 1939).

John Aman was an orphan from the West, chosen for his 'superb physical condition' to be raised by monks in Tibet for the first 25 years of his life. Each member of 'The Council of Seven', as the monks were known, trained him to a superhuman degree of physical and mental ability, while also giving him the ability via a chemical solution to disappear into a cloud of green mist, earning him the secondary title of 'The Green Mist'. After completing his final tests, he is sent into the wide world to use his skills and abilities to do good. Opposing Aman, as he was often known, is his nemesis 'The Great Question', a disgruntled member of the Council of Seven.

And there you have a nice foe. He started out in regular clothes, then got a sidekick and a costume.

Let's see if I can find a good scan of both. Most of his adventures are on fiche which are hard to read.

Makes me chuckle. The obsession with secret identities for decades now in every superhero film the good guy can't wait to peel off his mask as Hollywood are paying people a lot of cash to star in films so the secret ID can go hang, essentially. No point paying someone $10 million to be in a film when they are covered up by a mask *sigh*.

Captain Triumph being unrecognisable from one panel to the next means either he has some power that makes people see differently or he casts a 'cloak of stupidity' about himself...

As for powers, flight, reasonable (3-4) str, has a sidekick (pet rules maybe) who is a ghost and Repulsion for bullets as opposed to being bulletproof etc. Strictly street level I would have thought in the 3-6 range as he's taking on the usual Ratzi saboteur types (2-3 at most). Possibly self link spirit travel and maybe one or two other bits

Actually there is a cover of Crack Comics with the two brothers at the top of the "V" and Captain Triumph at the bottom and the faces are each just a bit different. Not so different that you wouldn't think that maybe they are relatives but different enough.

He is strong enough to break through brick walls and rip the doors off of safes. In one frame, you see a woman shot him but it isn't with a gun but basically with a laser. I think that is the same page where he is hit with a heavy poker and laughs. He has been electrocuted and it has knocked him out but he got back up a few minutes later. I think he is actually early Superman level invulnerable.

Aman the Amazing Man

The Question, later called Que was his main foe and was in like 90% of all his adventures in one way or the other.

It's a bit inconsistent the Green Mist, some stories he actually seems to change into the Green Mist, which gets him out of places where he can't break out, and some places he seems to be hidden by it like it was Fog. But most of the stories have him actually change into the mist.