Newspaper reporter Jeff Mace is frustrated by the sabouteurs and fifth columnists who threaten America. Feeling the need to do more, Jeff adopts the identity of the Patriot, defender of freedom and liberty! Possessing nothing more than his own natural attributes, the Patriot is nevertheless a potent foe to all evil perpetrators bent on the overthrow of the U.S.A.! Jeff's outfit as the Patriot goes through many changes and variations over his career, but eventually it winds up looking much like the one worn here. In the last two years of his adventures, Jeff’s sister Mary Mace, wearing one of Jeff's old costumes, becomes Miss Patriot (see individual entry) and joins her brother’s work. Together the patriotic siblings carry on the good fight for freedom and justice for all!
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The Patriot was a minor backup strip in Marvel Mystery Comics, lasting for some forty issues before closing, but usually as the shortest strip in the book. The early stories were by scripter Ray Gill and artist Art Gates. Later Al Fagaly worked on the strip. He appeared almost a month after Captain America. Goodman probably wanted another patriotic hero in his best-selling magazine.
Miss Patriot joined the strip in Marvel Mystery Comics # 50, just after Miss America became a regular feature. She had, at least for a while, enhanced vision and hearing. Fittingly, the Patriot spent much of his time fighting Nazi menaces. But he wasn’t alone at Marvel Mystery Comics where the Sub-Mariner and the Torch fought them regularly and even the outré Vision and the jungle-bound Ka-Zar were pressed into service. His adventures were almost bland by comparison, though he did fight a Japanese lizard-man and his band of Ape-Men. Late in his career, he had slightly more colorful enemies, the Cracksman and Dr. Hades.
The Patriot appeared as one of Rick Jones’ mental constructs in Avengers 97 and as the Liberty Legion’s resident patriotic hero. In a particularly convoluted retcon, he was one of the postwar substitutes for Captain America. In his latest appearance, he died of cancer in the present day.
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