The Avenger #1 - Justice, Inc. by Kenneth Robeson (Paul Ernst)

This first novel in the Avenger series tells the origin story of Richard Benson, a man who, prior to the events of this book, had earned his fortune by being a professional adventurer; i.e. discovering rubber in South America, leading native armies in Java, making aerial maps in the Congo, mining amethysts in Australia and emeralds in Brazil, etc.  But at the beginning of this novel, just when Benson is planning on settling down, his ideal life is brutally shaken when his wife and young daughter are killed, inexplicably disappearing from an airplane on which he himself is also a passenger.

The sheer shock and stress of that experience lands Benson in a hospital and changes him forever.  His face becomes paralyzed while both his skin and hair have turned white, his facial flesh becoming malleable, like clay.  His quest to chase down the crime ring behind his tragic loss forms the basis for this novel.  During the story he also recruits the first two members of what will become “Justice Inc.”: Fergus "Mac" MacMurdie and Algernon Heathcote "Smitty" Smith.  

While these books bear the author house name of “Kenneth Robeson”, this book along with most of the original Avenger stories was written by Paul Ernst.  It was originally published in the September 1939 edition of the pulp magazine “The Avenger”, published by Street & Smith.  Reportedly this series of pulp novels grew out of a wave of magazine cancellations in the late 1930s and recognition that a new hero was needed; a hero that combined the styles and features of previous best sellers Doc Savage and The Shadow.

For me, while I did enjoy the story, it felt a little disjointed.  I’ve read a lot of Doc Savage and did notice many similarities including Benson’s aversion to outright killing the bad guys.  It is also evident that he is building a team of aides and that he enjoys using gadgets in his work.  Of course Benson is a physical hero with incredible strength and intelligence.  The plastic, malleable state of his facial features is pretty bizarre, I must say.  It allows him to reshape his facial features into a likeness of any person, his features remaining in sculpted form "until they are carefully put back into place".  It’s a cool ability I suppose but weird.  Something I would expect in the comics from a bad guy but I suppose the pulps of this era weren’t much different.  I need to remember that those kinds of comics had just gotten started with Superman having just debuted in Action Comics #1, (cover-dated June 1938), so all those weird bad guy characters were still to come.

All in all, I’m glad I finally got around to this series and this character.  He’s been on my list a long time and I somehow managed to acquire the complete set of paperback books from Popular Library so I’ll be reading more.  Looking forward to seeing how he progresses and especially to meet the new members of his team as they are introduced.