In Action #40, a new heroic duo premiered, written by Jerry Siegel---the Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy. Unlike other duos of the forties, it was the kid who was the leader of the group. Like a reverse Captain America and Bucky, they fought saboteurs and Nazis and criminals, living incarnations of the American flag. One was Pat Dugan, a red-haired mechanic/chauffeur with a rough and ready manner. (There is some reason to believe he was the brother of the similarly red-haired and overmuscled Timothy Cadwaller Aloyius Dugan, also known as "Dum Dum" Dugan, a member of the Howling Commandoes and later deputy director of a secret intelligence group called SHIELD.)

The leader, though, was Sylvester John Pemberton Jr., son of Sylvester Pemberton Sr. and Gloria Pemberton. Pemberton Sr. was a banker, and the Pembertons were very wealthy. What prompted a young boy to become a living embodiment of the American flag? Supposedly he had fought against a pro-Nazi demonstration in a theatre....well, a lot of us are patriotic, but that doesn't make us as teenagers take on a lot of grown men and later dress up like the American flag. (At least Pat Dugan, in the same audience, was a grown man, and a very well-muscled and tough one.) This overreaction can be seen as something personal. What made this particular blueblood overreact so?

The answer can be seen four issues before, in Action #36.

In it, Lois and Clark, while working for the Planet (thus in the years where "Metropolis" was New York City---the same city the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy would work out of---and happening past 1938) they confronted Stuart Pemberton, leader of Volunteers for Peace, a pro-isolationist group. Yet Pemberton was more than an isolationist. He accused newspapers like the Planet that supported National rearnament as receiving secret pay-offs---which didn't sit well with Lois. She got up and called him a "deliberate liar!" and when he tried to have her forcibly ejected, Superman interfered.

As Superman later found out, Pemberton was the agent of a foreign government--presumably Nazi Germany---coordinating several acts of sabotage with a deliberate bombing of "Metropolis" by foreign bombers. (Actually, in that last, Superman stopped them before they got over the city, and no bombs actually fell. Siegel added that to increase the drama of the story, via artistic license.)

Pemberton took over a radio station, demanded that the city surrender, and took Lois hostage when Superman tried to interfere...which only delayed his capture by a minute or two.

One final bit of irony---in previous years, Superman had been a sincere isolationist, feeling that the horror of war was often perpetuated by munitions-makers, and not wanting to relive the horrors of World War I. Yet that was an opinion of his that was slowly changing, and had been since he discovered that Luthor had duped him in their first encounter, and that Hitler lied to Chamberlain. He was slowly turning more and more anti-Nazi and pro-interventionist, as was much of the country.

Now, of course, "Pemberton" is an alias, but it's rather odd that the same writer, Jerry Siegel, should use that same alias for two such-different characters, unless he was hinting at something. Perhaps in researching the story of Stuart Pemberton, he found out about the unusual double career of Sylvester Pemberton Jr.---and between the lines, we can understand better Sylvester's overreaction.

It's one thing to be patriotic...but when your own uncle (from Stuart's apparent age, he was most likely a younger brother of Sylvester Pemberton Sr.) was a deliberate traitor who planned the deaths of many and the overthrow of the government, one might feel that he has more to prove than others.

Again, remember, Superman behaved in a much more secretive way than most comic stories imply. When Sylvester heard from his uncle, just before his trial, that a costumed madman with incredible strength had stopped him, it might have influenced him to become a costumed adventurer in his own right. Certainly he made references to Superman as if he were a living person, even though at that point he had not met him in the flesh, as seen in the panel reproduced at the top of the panel.

Out of Stuart's treachery a great good came. The Star-Spangled Kid later permanently teamed up with Stripesy, and Pat Dugan, who designed the masterful Star-Rocket Racer, became the Pembertons' chauffeur.

If he really had his origin in the Fourth of July, as Roy Thomas said, it would have to be in 1940, not 1941, despite Roy Thomas' dating of same. There would not be enough time for the adventure to happen and for his first adventure to have been published in August 1941, since it takes about six months for a comic story to be published, and most comics by that time were dated a few months in the future, anyway. On the other hand, if it happened on some other patriotic holiday---say, George Washington's birthday, in February, 1941---there would have been barely enough time to get it put in, if it were rushed.

He later joined a team called the Seven Soldiers of Victory, and eventually even became a Justice Society member (sharing Ted Knight's star-powered technology) and the founder of a group of second-generation JSAers called Infinity Inc.

Sylvester had a younger brother, and when Sylvester disappeared on a mission with the Seven Stars of Victory, that younger brother inherited the fortune. That brother had a son, Arthur Pemberton, who became leader of the criminal Strike Force, financed by the Pemberton fortune. Arthur seems to have the amorality of his great-uncle, Stuart, and he was stopped by the Justice Society, according to Paul Levitz and Joe Staton---including the time-lost Star-Spangled Kid.

Later, according to Thomas, he changed his name to Skyman, and then was finally killed by criminals, after a long, valued career. Pat Dugan has remarried and his step-daughter has become a new Star-Spangled Kid. Yet that original career would have never started if Superman hadn't stopped Sylvester's uncle, Stuart Pemberton, and set off a series of events that had far more consequences than he first suspected.

It is fitting that Superman, the first of the super-heroes, directly or indirectly caused the creation of many of the others.

PARTIAL LIST OF SOURCES:

Of course, TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE by Philip Jose Farmer.

GLADIATOR, Philip Wylie.

Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at...
E-Mail:al.schroeder@nashville.com

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Speculations Copyright © Al Schroeder. Superman is owned by DC Comics, Warner Communications, and the Siegels. All other characters copyrighted by their respective owners.