Most Requested Figures: DC’s Crimson Avenger

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Before we dive into 2010’s Requests, we wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who voted in our 2009 Poll. The response was so enormous that we wanted to do things right this year and streamline the process. The truth is we didn’t conceive the year-end poll when we started. Had we known, we’d have made some different choices. For the 2010 Most Requested Figure we’re going to continue with the weekly nominations and have three runoffs (in April, August, and early December) to nominate five choices from each three-four month period. Towards the end of December, we’ll start the semi-final rounds and then crown our 2010 winner on January 3rd, 2011. We hope to have all of you along with us the whole way and encourage you to submit your ideas for Most Requested Figure to us via e-mail. We may not be able to get to all submissions, but each one will get due consideration from the IAT staff. Now, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at our first request of 2010…

This character was bumped from last year. We wanted to get to him, but, as sometimes happens, current events can change our plans. But it’s appropriate that he’s our first request of the year because he was also DC Comics first masked superhero, the Crimson Avenger.



I was first exposed to the Crimson Avenger in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #11. It’s part of a stack of comics I had as a kid that I don’t know where they came from. It was published around the time I was born, and didn’t make its way into my hands until I was four or five years old. I still have that little bundle of digests and the impact they have on my comic book choices is still in play today. In those comics, I learned about Zatanna, Firestorm, Dr. Fate, Superman Red & Blue, the Justice League, and the Justice Society. Those last two teams met in issue #11 of the digest. It was a reprint title (I wish those still worked in our economy) and this particular issue reprinted Justice League of America #100-102 where the JLA/JSA teamed up to rescue the Seven Soldiers of Victory, a team that included the Crimson Avenger. He was lost in time with no memory of his real life and when Dr. Fate, Elongated Man, and the Atom found him, he’d become an Aztec King. It wouldn’t be until I was older that I learned the rest of the Crimson Avenger’s history.

Crimson Avenger, usually just referred to as Crimson in his initial appearances, was the standard golden age mystery man. He was rich, he published a newspaper, and at night, he felt compelled to put on a red cape and mask to fight crime with a young male sidekick, Wing. He first appeared in Detective Comics #20 and was among the characters featured in that book for about six years until issue #89. His original superhero look varied throughout the first couple years, though a modern take on that look has solidified into the upper right image above. In his third year, after superheroes had taken over comics, Crimson and Wing were given traditional red/yellow spandex costumes with a sun logo and a headfin. They would join the Seven Soldiers (though Wing technically made eight members) in Leading Comics and then after a brief run there, they would fade into obscurity for nearly thirty years until the Justice League and Justice Society found him stranded in an Aztec Empire in 1972. He was returned safely to the present and the enemy that had scattered them through time was defeated, but only through the sacrifice of Wing.

The Crimson Avenger appeared off and on throughout the 70s and 80s. He was finally given his first origin in 1986 which had his mysteryman debut set during the Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds. As Lee Travis, he set out to save a woman he’d fallen for from a band of thieves trying to exploit the alien panic. He succeeded in stopping the thieves, but not before the woman was fatally shot. From that night forward, Lee fought crime to avenge her death.

In 2001, a second origin was created that had him traveling to Nanda Parbat where he had a vision of Superman “dying” at the hands of Doomsday. This gave his life purpose as he vowed to avenge Superman’s future death and possibly prevent it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ostrander’s work. I had a chance to attend a writing discussion with him once and I will always regret missing it, but that story is awful and I like to pretend I didn’t read it. The same is true with the notion that the sun symbol is in fact a bullet hole symbol.

During the late eighties, he continued to sporadically appear in All-Star Squadron and Young All-Stars, both set in the Golden Age. The story of his final adventure was published back in 1981 and it showed his death, which so far, has been permanent for thirty years (not even a Blackest Night resurrection). Since then, he’s been relegated to “flashback” appearances in the aforementioned All-Star comics, a short mini-series, and a couple appearances in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Unlike many DC characters, the Crimson Avenger has had a complete story from his origin to his death. His importance to the DCU was maintained by Grant Morrison in the JLA & Aztek books where part of the JLA induction ritual includes the Avenger’s costume.

All told, the Crimson Avenger has over a hundred appearances in the comics and was featured a handful of times on JLU. And his importance as the first masked character from the DC stable shouldn’t be overlooked. He’s a classic DC character that has never been made as a toy in any form and, frankly, it’s well past time for one. But that brings us to the poll for this request. Which look do you want? Would you prefer him in his original golden age look or his later and more prolific superhero costume? If you’d like a DC Classics version. Mattel can easily replicate either with the spandex buck or the suit buck. DC Direct would likely sculpt either from the ground up. Then there’s the matter of his JLU appearances. He’s another hero from the short list of characters that appeared in the show, but has not made it to the toy line. If he did, what version would you want? We’ve included the various costumes in our poll below. You can choose all five six (due to some fan feedback we’re adding a First Appearance version to our poll) or you can just choose a favorite. Personally, I’d like to see him in JLU though I don’t collect the line anymore. I have no preference for which version as long as JLU fans can get one. For DC Classics, I request both. He’s ideal for a costume variant. A superhero version is a new head on a spandex buck. The original version is a new head and cape on the suit buck. Quite simply, the Crimson Avenger is ideal for DC Classics. Especially this year, when Mattel is celebrating DC’s 75th Anniversary on the packaging. Why not showcase one of the few characters that’s been around for 72 years of it?




30 thoughts on “Most Requested Figures: DC’s Crimson Avenger”

  1. Finally! It was like November you promised us this! 😉

    I prefer DCUC only, but I haven’t voted because I’m not sure which of his two primary cotumes I like better.

  2. No first appearance in your poll? I’ve never been to keen on the revisioning of his golden age costume. He was a highway robber with a very specific cloak, not a cape. The black was also a better foil than the red.

    1. At first, I didn’t want to because that look has become so minor in his history, but after some well reasoned feedback from JK it’s been added back in. If you’d like your vote adjusted to include a vote for it, let me know.

  5. My choice for a figure would be his First Appearance look. Sadly not on the poll:
    http://dccomicsartists.com/goldage/CrimsonAvenger-Detective020-45.jpg
    All black Suit, hat and mask, with only the cape/cloak in stunning red, and it’s a very specific style of cape/cloak too. – http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/featured/featured_248566_qUoSOqtxp20uzlYFZJGEUCq4f.gif
    Honestly I think it’s his best look and don’t know why DC ever abandoned it.

    1. If you haven’t seen the JLU episode “Patriot Act” which features v2, you should! It’s a good episode even if you don’t like the costume.

      I read your posts here and I’m pretty sure you’re ‘jadedknyte’at the DCMB too. Your feedback has caused me to revise the poll. It seems that the JLU version was indeed black and that’s been corrected. I also added a FA option to the poll. I’d originally deemed it not really an issue since that costume was largely forgotten in the sea of his costume changes in those first two years, but I’ve added it back in because a few of you have asked for it.

      If you need your vote adjusted, please let me know.

  7. Looking back at the poll options now and the photo I posted above the poll seems a bit misleading.

    You have:
    Animated v1: Blue Suit, Red Cape, Red Mask (JLU)
    Animated v2: Red Trenchcoat, Red Mask (JLU)

    Animated v1 clearly has a BLACK suit and hat which would really be the most accurate.
    Not sure why you listed it as blue? – http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/jlu/bios/crimsonavenger/01.jpg

    And Golden Age Appearances should really be listed as Black suit with high collared cape. – http://dccomicsartists.com/goldage/CrimsonAvenger-Detective020-45.jpg
    Again not blue.
    The blue suit wasn’t as far as I know used until the retelling of his origin in the 80s and is more of the modern look you describe.
    That should really be it’s own category.

    You are pigeon holing both the Golden Age and the v1 Animated suits into having blue suits which neither of them had. This isn’t a question of highlights, the suits were black, and the Animated v1 an obvious homage to his golden age appearance reflected that.

    I only point this out because being the most accurate, they are the ones I would vote for, and this poll almost guarantees that they can not be voted for, or that they end up blue which they were not.

  8. I actually prefer the no cape look for JLU but with the Gentlemen Ghost cape/collar and the Question jacket, they could easily give us both looks!

    1. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to go with an all-in option. He’s fairly easy to do in multiple versions. Hopefully, JLU will get to him this year and DCUC can take a hard look at him for 2011.

  9. Here’s a couple of more scans of his Animated look – http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3679/crimsonavengeranimated.jpg

    Clearly the suit is all black right down to the gloves, even the highlights are shown as gray not blue, again indicating black..
    This and the more high collared full cape/cloak style were obvious nods to his first appearance look. -http://dccomicsartists.com/goldage/CrimsonAvenger-Detective020-45.jpg

    And even though his appearance was brief, I imagine he would still include his duel pistols as in this awesome sketch . – http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/featured/featured_248566_qUoSOqtxp20uzlYFZJGEUCq4f.gif

  10. I like the mysteryman look for DCUC, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t get both.

    Also, he better come with a couple of guns.

  12. That Superman origin is indeed an awful story. I wouldn’t blame anyone for being uninterested in Crimson after that. The entire universe need not revolve around Superman.

    1. It was just unnecessary, like you said the universe doesn’t have to revolve around one person. His classic origin was sufficient and I’ve always been a little annoyed that they dragged him out for a story that really just pays homage to Superman.

      It’s similar to how much crap the Legion is put through to maintain the Superboy origins. It’s not essential to Legion mythos, it just makes fans “feel good”. I prefer good story instead. This origin wasn’t to do anything for CA’s character, is was to reanonit Superman.

  13. Ya know……I was just browsing your site for this yesterday (after remembering you mentioned he’d have something coming)

    I can’t day I’ve read much with the original, and don’t care at all for his replacement. But all of his looks were kinda ugly. I’d take the fin version but ultimately loved the JLU interpetation (red trench and white scarf) the most. Guess it’d be odd to pray fro a DCD version of that one….

    1. Thanks for stopping by.

      I’m kinda partial to that second JLU version myself, and I kinda prefer some trenchcoat version, but at the same time – I really like the fin version to go with a hopefully complete Seven Soldiers display.

  14. I would like one, but i believe that it should be the DCAU version, simply because we dont need another version of The Question looking more like The Spirit. I like the nose-covering mask and the ascot, it makes him stand out a bit. And they could re-use Adam Strange’s pistol as his gas gun, that’d be great

  15. i say the aztec look, just cuz few other people are encouraging it, and at least in that look, i’d think twice before passing on him… what is this guy, the question’s be-faced brother billy? did the spirit get a clone?

    1. Technically, the Spirit is a few years younger and the Question is a lot younger. 🙂

      I can see that he’s a bit plain, but you gotta start somewhere.

  17. I think it would be great if they did all versions… in one wave…. okay stop laughing now!
    And Wing!

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