April and May 1940
Civilian ID: Dennis Burton
No Known extra abilities.
Comments
Masks were cool in the Golden Age. Fox had the Green Mask, Holyoke had the Grey Mask, Better had the Red Mask, Harvey had the White Mask, Timely itself had the Fiery Mask Daring Mystery Comics, and both Better and Holyoke had characters simply called the Mask. In addition, there were the Masked Pilot, Archer, Angel and Marvel. But Dennis Burton had two mask identities, the Laughing Mask and the Purple Mask. Unlike so many other heroes, the Purple Mask used a cowl mask of the kind popularized by Batman, rather than the domino mask used by the Lone Ranger.
The “mask” heroes of Daring Mystery Comics have a strange life, and reflect the magazine’s chaotic contents. The Fiery Mask appeared as the cover feature in the first issue, then dropped out of the comic for issues 2-4. These were the issues in which the Laughing Mask and the Purple Mask made their appearances. By Issue 5, they were gone, and the Fiery Mask stepped in again for another two appearances. Were all three characters related in some way (this would be difficult to assume from the stories, in which the Fiery Mask had a very distinct origin, secret identity, and set of powers)? Did the editors feel that the early issues needed some kind of hero with “mask” in his name?
According to Jess Nevins, the Purple Mask’s origins and MO were standard pulp/early comics fare. He was Dennis Burton, a dedicated young DA (just like Mr. Scarlet, the Black Spider, and the Mouthpiece) and the latest in a line of lawmen (just like the Vigilante), who fought criminals outside the law, when he couldn’t catch them within it. He was a great fighter and used two .45 pistols (just like the Shadow) as well as having a special crime lab. He was also not tied down by legal red tape and would occasionally kill his enemies, once threatening a criminal with a swim in an acid bath unless he talked. His two adventures brought him up against crooks Whalen and Renard and their gangs.
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