| Character Name: | The Brain | ||||||
| Publisher: | Bell Features | ||||||
| Debut: | Active Comics #1 | ||||||
| Creators: | Leo Bachle | ||||||
| Alter Ego: | Gordon Bell | ||||||
| Powers: | clairvoyance Superhuman strength | ||||||
| Module: |
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The Brain is a fictional character created by Leo Bachle for Bell Features, a Canadian comic company in the 1940s, and first appeared in Active Comics #1.
The muscular and often bare-chested Brain's secret identity was dashing, Toronto penthouse-dwelling Gordon Bell who, like the Wizard before him, had a moustache, superhuman strength and the clairvoyant ability to "visualize faraway happenings", the latter powers in his case gained due to a dying wish his father had made to a friendly spirit on a distant French battlefield during World War I.[1]
While he first donned cape, tights and signature black skullcap-mask to battle Nazi agents, his adventures soon took on a more supernatural element, with him battling such inhuman adversaries as the sinister Dr. Coffin's ghoulish creation the Scarlet Zombie[2] and the sadistic skull-faced and bandage-wrapped Mummy Man who possessed psychic powers that were more than a match for his own.[3]
Friend and fellow artist Ross Saakel did a pint-sized parody of Bachle's character for Active Comics called The Noodle, a similarly caped and cowled two-fisted infant superhero complete with diapers and pacifier.[4]