Social justice, beautiful art and the goofiest origin ever

It can only be the Black Condor.

Mr. Condor goes to Washington

As mentioned before, the Black Condor was a beautifully drawn, wonderfully off-beat Golden Age character from the aptly named Quality Comics (Plastic Man, Blackhawk and many others).

Shortly after the character's unspeakably bizarre origin, he found himself taking the place of a recently deceased U.S. senator. As a result, the Black Condor was more likely to take on corrupt politicians and greedy industrialists than to battle super villains.

If Frank Capra had made comics, it might have looked something like this:

What's wrong with comics -- The Black Condor

The original Black Condor was a unique combination of gorgeous art, unspeakably goofy comic book physics, and Capraesque political fantasy. Created by Will Eisner and Lou Fine for Quality in 1940, he was a wonderfully representative product of his times.

Now he has been retconned into something tired and boring and utterly pointless. I am so tired of seeing Golden Age characters being dredged up so that fan boys will be able to congratulate themselves on catching an obscure reference. Why can't we just let these characters rest in peace?

(just to be clear, it's OK to have a revisionist take on a Golden Age hero if you have something interesting to say. Check out Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100 to see this approach done right)