I realized that I had access to all of RED RAVEN's Golden, Silver and Bronze Age appearances, few as they are and thought I would focus on this anomaly of Timely Comics. I will be going in publishing order because that's easier and will hightlight certain problems.
The obvious place to start is his debut in Red Raven Comics #1 (Au'40). His book was edited by Joe Simon and his one and only story was drawn by Jack Kirby who did the cover as well. Apparently the book was already cancelled when it came out as there are no "next issue" blurbs, only ads for other Timely books.
Not having to do Red Raven Comics freed Simon & Kirby to work on Captain America Comics, out a mere seven months later!
The other features included the HUMAN TOP who would next appear in Tough Kid Squad #1 (1942) and MERCURY in the 20th CENTURY which would be revised as THE HURRICANE aka "The Son of Thor" in Captain America Comics #1 (Ma'41).
Another character, THE ETERNAL BRAIN would be revived in Marvel: The Lost Generation (2000-2001).
I don't believe that Red Raven was inspired by HAWKMAN who only debuted eight months prior in Flash Comics #1 (Ja'40). More likely both were influenced by Alex Raymond's FLASH GORDON newspaper strip, specifically Prince Vultan and his Hawk-People. Indeed, Red Raven looks like if Flash Gordon WAS a Hawk-Person. And there's the Floating City similarity!
Another possible inspiration was none other than...BATMAN! Red Raven clearly had bat wings, not bird wings. His silhouette greatly resembled that of the Caped Crusader! Was that a possible reason for his abrupt cancellation?
Next: The Beginning Or ....And the End?
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Around seventeen years in the past (1923), a clipper plane crashes into a "floating island in the clouds" over the Pacific Ocean, killing everyone on board except for a toddler, crying for his mother! He is brought before "the kindly king of the BIRD-MEN" who thoughtfully explains that his people evolved from birds, not apes! (Does that mean they lay eggs? Why do they have hair? And opposable thumbs, etc.?) Also their island is gravity-free! Yet they's not drifting away!
The king spares the child, as killing him was definitely an option, and raises him as his son! In 1940 (and three panels), the boy is now twenty years old and has grown to love peace and has a superior brain and body, thanks to "the rapid stride of evolution", whatever that is! The king dubs him RED RAVEN after their bravest bird (so what did the king call him before? And could he have been the Orange Eagle?) Given artificial wings, Red Raven is tasked to return to his people and "devote his life to eradicating the elements that make for unhappiness in their world!"
So he couldn't fly around like everyone else before this? He must have been miserable!
Also given a suit, he tries to get a job, gets into a brawl and is arrested after getting teargassed! At the same time, 'the demon" ZEELMO in his subterraean castle observes all this with his 'gazegrapho machine" and decides that Red Raven will make an excellant henchman so he orders his men to free him with explosive missles! He explains to RR that he wants all the gold in the world so that humanity will be his slaves!
RR rejects all this and gets dumped into a hidden pit! Zeelmo also drops in a young woman who "disobeyed" him into the pit as well. He intends to use an "aging gas" on them but RR is suddenly in his costume and wings and despite growing older, breaks him and the girl out of the pit, beats everyone up for a bit, sets the gas on fire and blows everyone to kingdom come!
The girl introduces herself as ANDREVA and she definitely wants to be his "Lois Lane"! She even tells reporters all about him, though we never see him tell her anything about his past!
Deciding to hunt down Zeelmo's followers and track down their gold, he returns to the floating island where he is given "the element detector" which can locate and attract, well, just gold here! He publicizes the device and is later attacked by the thugs of RATOGA, the successor of Zeelmo. Turning into RR, he quickly defeats them and gets one to squeal! But when he tracks down their hideout, he is immediately is caught by a net and trapped in "the vibrato-machine", actually a giant centrifuge. But RR flies in the middle of it and escapes!
He uses the element detector to drown his enemies in gold (?) and summons the police! The news report exclaims that RR has saved the economy, and prevented the world from being forced into slavery and bondage! Andreva listens and gushes!
This story is seventeen pages long and was obviously meant to be two stories in two issues.
We're not quite sure what Red Raven's actual powers are beyond his flying. Is he super-strong? How many more devices does he have?
We would never know until...1968!
Next: Where Angels Fear To Tread! Or You'll Thank Me For This Later!
According to GCD, Timely’s Red Raven #1 went on sale on May 29, 1940 and that Joe Simon did the writing and layouts for Kirby and the inking of his pencils. This Bob Kane sketch was his original proposal for Batman. Before Detective #27, Bill Finger convinced Kane to go with the costume we saw in that debut issue. I wonder if Joe Simon had a look at this original Batman sketch before producing Red Raven #1?