Into the maelstrom of crime and corruption that calls itself Civilization flies a powerful, mysterious champion known only as the Red Raven...He has dedicated his life and powers to the defense and preservation of decent society on Earth. This is his story...
On a stormy night, a clipper ship winging its way across the treacherous Pacific is suddenly thrown off its course. Gripped in an unusual pressure pocket, the craft loses control and is at the mercy of the raging storm. Sensing the plight of the ill-fated ship, a mother offers up a prayer for the safety of her baby boy. Suddenly the ship is catapulted fiercely onto a mysterious floating island in the clouds and crashes to its doom! A morbidly curious group of birdmen, inhabitants of the strange celestial island, gather about the wreckage in hushed curiosity. A heart-rending cry from the baby boy pierces the deathly silence. The weird birdmen take the lone survivor of the disaster to their king's castle...
Presenting the baby boy to the king, one of the birdmen speaks up:
"The gods spared only this waif!"
The
king speaks: "He beholds us curiously. His premature mind cannot fathom
the mysteries of evolution. He cannot construe that, as man came from
apes, we were evolved from birds in this gravity-free island. He shall
never grow up to destroy us! He must die!"
One of the king's men shouts out, "Stop! I shall
raise him to be the strongest and wisest human."
"There is need for such a man in this wicked world,"
says the king.
Guided wisely by the kindly king of the birdmen, the orphaned youth grows wiser and stronger with the passing years. The strange conditions that enabled the birds to outgrow the slow pace of usual evolution affects the king's human ward, for he has learned the secrets of the birds. On his twentieth birthday, the red-haired human is called before the king...
"We have grown to love you. You have learned
our secrets of happiness, peacefulness, and charity. The rapid stride
of evolution has given you a far superior brain and body..." the King
tells his beloved ward.
"You are as brave as our bravest bird, the raven.
I shall call you the Red Raven. With the aid of the wings we made
you, you shall go back to your people and devote your life to eradicating
the elements that make for unhappiness in their world. This is my wish!"
the king finishes.
"Your wish, oh regal father, is my command. I
shall go back to my people. Unhappy is my departure!" replies the Red
Raven.
So, with his membranous wings the Red Raven leaves the sky island and returns to the realm of men to do battle with the evils of society!
Comments
The Red Raven began at the top as the star of his own book. It was downhill from there. The book was cancelled after the first issue and he never appeared again until the 1960s. Goodman replaced Red Raven with Human Torch Comics with the numbering carrying over from the previous title. Goodman probably felt that the established hero would be a better investment. For this one story, Joe Simon scripted and Louis Cazenueve handled the art.
Red Raven was Timely’s resident winged hero, the answer to DC’s Hawkman and Quality’s Black Condor. The Timely and Quality heroes had similar names and origins, both flew with non-avian wings, and Quality was promoting the Black Condor to the lead in Crack Comics. But where the Black Condor had also been adopted by a race of condors, the Red Raven’s origin was even more fantastic-he was an orphan adopted by a race that had evolved from birds just as we had evolved from apes. Like so many lost races in the comics, the Bird People had achieved Utopia. Evil was almost unknown among them and they sent the Red Raven to “the maelstrom of crime and corruption that calls itself civilization” to save it.
In addition to his wings, the Raven was supposed to be stronger and wiser than other humans thanks to his life and training among the birdmen. Cazenueve depicts him as larger than other men. He also has access to the technology of the birdmen. Like Wonder Woman venturing forth from Paradise Island to right the wrongs of “man’s world,” the Red Raven left the birdman’s utopia and returned to a nation in the grips of the Depression. But fortunately for the Raven there was one man, Zeelmo, whose greed was responsible for the whole thing. Zeelmo and his underlings are worse than simple crooks or even shady businessmen; they’re almost allegorical figures of capitalism gone mad. And the Raven’s victory over them signals the restoration of peace and economic progress as the villains drown in their own gold.
The Red Raven returned as a homicidal maniac in the Silver Age in the pages of the X-Men # 44 and he was killed off in Sub-Mariner # 26, but reports of his death were highly exaggerated; more recently, he has appeared as the ruler of the Bird People. He also appeared as a member of the Liberty Legion.
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