The Death-Defying Thunderbolt!

Of course anyone who visits here knows of my abiding affection for the Charlton "Action Heroes" and among that august assembly was P.A.M.'s Thunderbolt. P.A.M. was Pete Morisi, an artist of no small talent and skill who kept his identity under wraps because he was a working policeman and they discouraged moonlighting. Well Morisi's Thunderbolt has proven to be pretty durable over the decades, beyond Morisi's passing. The character was at first transitioned to DC along with the other Action Heroes and he lived there for many years, even rating his own maxi-series for a time. But it turned out the rights to the character were different than the others and T-Bolt reverted to the heirs of Morisi. Since then he's been used a few times at Dynamite Comics. I have not followed those outings for the most part, so I cannot speak of their quality.  But I did notice one curiosity the other day, something which others might well have noticed long ago. I'm kinda' slow like that.

As is readily apparent, Morisi was inspired in the creation of Thunderbolt's costume by the visually evocative design of Lev Gleason's Daredevil.

Less obvious, save to those who actually know the characters is that the origin of Thunderbolt was largely inspired by Bill Everet's Amazing Man. That's a popular thing to do as Marvel did it with Iron Fist also. But it's the costume I speak of today.

It had not dawned on me that Thunderbolt is being published currently by Dynamite.

And so is his visual inspiration, now known as the Death-Defying Devil for obvious we'd-rather-not-incur-the-wrath-of-Marvel reasons. Will these two heroes meet for a battle of the uniforms, I doubt it, but it's a nifty mote of unimportant lore.

Rip Off