Flying Fox is cool

Thursday WHO’S WHO:  Flying FoxFlying Fox is a fantastic superhero. His powers are ill-defined, yes, but they’re ill-defined that way because, having read the series, I can explain what Roy Thomas was trying to do: create a golden-age equivalent of Batman for the All-Star Squadron. Young All-Stars existed in part because, after Crisis On Infinite Earths, the All-Star Squadron didn’t have access to Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman--hence, Flying Fox, “Iron” Munro and the golden age Fury all got pressed into service as replacements. And where Batman had a utility belt, Fox had “Indian magic,” but the concept remained the same--he was the “thinker” of the team.

And he worked. (Fury didn’t. “Iron” Munro kind of did, but not as well as was needed, unfortunately.) There are characters who just have it, the magical quality of cool. Flying Fox is cool, seriously cool. He has a good costume, a good but not overly strong power set, got a lot of good lines (not bad for a native son only recently introduced to the modern world, really), and most importantly hit that exact point on the Batman Scale in between “brilliant, monomaniacal asshole” and “clubby, chummy super-dork” where you get the perfect superteam “thinking badass.”Flying Fox's Gallery:  "All Images"

Comment:  For more on the subject, see Comic Book Featuring Indians.