Fox Universe

The Black Lion (Jan 1941)

First Appearance - Wonderworld Comics 21, January 1941

Alter Ego - George Davis

Group Affiliation - Mystery Men of America (second grouping 1942 - 1946), Special enhanced unit active during the Korean War, nicknamed The Steel Helmets.

ORIGINS

George Davis was the younger son of a wealthy New Hampshire family, and although his elder brother Jon inherited the bulk of their parents estate, he was still well off enough to live a life of travel, adventure and thrill seeking. After college, George gained quite a reputation as a big game hunter, while still in his early twenties.

In 1928, he returned home to help his brother out, after Jon's wife died in childbirth, giving birth to their son, Larry. A few years later a "worthless" African mine belonging to the family finally paid out and a huge diamond was discovered. At the time George was settling into the family's long island estate but returned home when Jon called excitedly about the diamond's arrival.

George travelled up to the ancestrial home and met with his brother to view the diamond. However, Jon was called away to take a phone call in his study - while George sat playing with his infant nephew a shot rang out, and he ran to investigate, leaving the maid to look after the young child.

What George found changed his life - his brother lay dying and a man was jumping out of the window, with the purloined diamond. Choosing to attend to Jon, the younger Davis brother didn't give chase and the villain was never identified, let alone caught.

Mourning, and with a building sense of rage against the injustices of the world and criminals in general, George settled down to raise his nephew, eventually moving to an estate on Long Island in the early 1930's.

While there he obsessed on the subject of criminal psychology, and vented his anger by occasional safari's in Africa and elsewhere. As Larry grew up, George took him with and taught him how to shoot and camp in the wild. Both George and his nephew came to admire the noble lions of the veldt.

In late 1940 Larry celebrated his 12th birthday and his uncle shared a plan that he had been musing on since the advent of science heroes almost two years earlier. For the first time, he old the boy the true circumstances of Jon's death and his plan to fight crime as a costumed science hero using the alias of The Black Lion. Larry persuaded George to let him be Black Lion's sidekick, the Cub.

A few days later, after the New Year, George read a report that a criminal called The Blitz had kidnapped a high ranking naval officer, Admiral King. George and Larry dressed in their matching outfits and offered their services to the FBI. As the agent in charge had a good opinion of science heroes, having worked with The Flame on a previous case, they were given information which allowed them to track The Blitz and successfully rescue the Admiral.

While the end of the case indicated that The Blitz was killed when his car went off a cliff, the eye patched fiend survived and thus began a long emnity between the villain and the two heroes. 

Operating between their family estates in New Hampshire and Long Island, and with reputations established and growing, The Black Lion and Cub took on cases up and down the New England seaboard, many of which involved The Blitz.

Their first encounter with other science heroes occured in the spring of 1941, when both heroes were possessed by spirit beings from the Realm Beyond (known since 1939 as "The Fourth Dimension"). The Syndicate of the Weird subdued George and Larry, but Yarko the Great opted to mystically remove all memory of this traumatic time.

All through 1941, The Black Lion and Cub fought the good fight, and occasionally met other heroes, mostly in times of crisis when New York City came under frequent attack.