Tex Thompson

Tex Thompson
Tex Thomson (far left) debuts as Americommando in Action Comics #52.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Action Comics #1 (June 1938)
Created by	Ken Fitch Bernard Baily
In-story information
Alter ego	Harry "Tex" Thompson
Team affiliations	All-Star Squadron OSS Hero Hotline
Notable aliases	Mr. America, Americommando, Coordinator
Abilities	Well trained in espionage, fighting skills, sometimes used a whip and magic carpet.

Tex Thompson is a superhero owned by DC Comics who has used the costumed identities Mr. America and The Americommando. Created by Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily, his first appearance was in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), the same comic that introduced Superman.

Fictional character biography

Thomson is originally a blond-haired Texas boy who leaves a possible future as an oil baron to pursue a more adventurous lifestyle with his friend, Bob Daley. This changes in 1940 when the Nazis sink an American liner carrying food to Europe. Thomson is watching over this liner and is believed dead. The disaster inspires him to don a patriotic costume, dye his hair black, and wield a whip to fight for his country as Mr. America. He also had a magic carpet for some time, which doubled as a cape.^[1][2] His friend Bob Daley dons a homemade costume (similar to that of the original Red Tornado) and becomes his sidekick "Fatman." ^[3]

Americommando

Mr. America was a member of the All-Star Squadron, but his main contribution to the war effort came later; Thomson is asked by President Roosevelt himself to go battle the Nazis in Germany as The Americommando. Thomson does this by becoming "Hauptmann Riker" and infiltrating the Gestapo. His most frequent adversaries are Mister Ito (also known as The Little One), a German/Japanese diminutive assassin, and The Queen Bee. He works for the Americans for several years behind enemy lines.^[4]

His last appearance as The Americommando is in The Justice Society Returns: National Comics #1: Mr. Terrific encounters Thomson during the bombing of Dresden and the two work together to save innocent German lives. After Thomson reveals to Mr. Terrific that there are no munitions factories in Dresden for the Allies to bomb, Thomson enters a burning building to save a small girl. The building collapses around him and he is never seen again.

Hero Hotline

Once again Thomson managed to escape death; he later emerges to create the Hero Hotline organization. While leading this organization, Thomson goes by the name The Coordinator. He only appeared as a shadowy figure on a communication screen, so no one knew that it was Thomson until it was revealed by the writer of Hero Hotline, Bob Rozakis.^[5]

Other versions

• In Freedom Fighters #7 (March 1977), the villainous Silver Ghost poses as a fictional Americommando, leader of the Crusaders (a parody of Captain America and the Invaders). This version of the character was the inspiration for the Earth-8 version and the modern Freedom Fighters villain.
• In Lord Havok and the Extremists #1-6, the Earth-8 version of Americommando is leader of a group called the Meta-Militia, an analogue of the Avengers.
• In Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, a new Americommando appears as an agent of S.H.A.D.E. and its field leader. He kills his own speedster, Spin Doctor, for talking back to him.
• In Kingdom Come, an Americommando appears as a minor villain. After the destruction of Kansas, Americommando, along with Braintrust and the Minutemen, attempt to stop all immigration to the United States. He and his team are stopped by Superman and the Justice League.
• In Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #1, a new Mr. America — Trey Thompson, an ex-FBI agent who took justice into his own hands — debuts in the first issue and dies in the same issue. It is implied by Dr. Mid-Nite that Trey was related to the original Mr. America, when Mid-Nite says that Mr. America's bloodline was gone. However, Trey's former FBI contact, Jeffrey Graves, is later seen donning Mr. America's mask after he is fired when his connection with Trey is discovered.^[6] He later joins the Justice Society, and remains an active member. He also uses a whip, which is later upgraded by Mister Terrific so that the tip explodes on impact.^[7]
• Tex Thompson played a central role in the Golden Age miniseries. In this story, he is a crime-fighter who disappeared from the American eye in 1942 to fight the Nazi threat from within. He kills the German superhero Parsifal and Adolf Hitler himself. He returns to America a hero and becomes a senator with presidential aspirations. He organizes a program to defend America from the Soviet menace with a new group of superheroes. He rallies The Atom, Robotman, and Daniel Dunbar to his cause. He uses a group of scientists to transform Dunbar into Dynaman, "a super-hero for the new age." The heroes of the story discover that Tex Thompson had actually been killed in the war; the man who returned was really the Ultra-Humanite. The Ultra-Humanite told Hitler that Thompson was a spy, so they killed Thompson and put Ultra's brain into his body. The experiment which creates Dynaman was in reality the Humanite putting Hitler's brain in Dunbar's body. Ultra-Humanite is stopped by Manhunter, who had witnessed the operation, but suffered from memory loss after hitting his head trying to escape.

References

1. ^ Unofficial Mister America Biography
2. ^ Action Comics #1-74
3. ^ The DC Comics Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2004. p. 205. ISBN 0-7566-0592-x. 
4. ^ Cosmic Teams: All-Stars
5. ^ It's BobRo, the Answer Man!
6. ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #1-4: 'The Next Age'
7. ^ Justice Society of America (Vol. 3) #34