Like a lot of Americans in 1941, Jerry Carstairs is a frustrated young man who believes that more should be done about the rampant crime and Bund saboteurs running rampant in the United States. Jerry decides to take matters into his own hands by donning the costume of the Thunderer, a crimefighter who uses his hobby as a ham radio operator as his tool in fighting crime. Carstairs uses his knowledge of technology to amplify his voice by wearing a microphone and a tiny speaker around his neck to frighten the villains he encounters. However, the Thunderer has a short career with only having two adventures and a third exploit (this time as the Black Avenger) before slipping into obscurity.
Comments
The Thunderer boomed through two issues of Daring Mystery Comics with a third appearance in All Winners Comics as the Black Avenger.
Radio was a popular phenomenon at the time, and one of comics’ great inspirations and competitors. It was the coolest science in Golden Age comics after chemistry and aviation. Many heroes communicated through belt or hand radios like those worn by Batman and Robin (Dick Tracy’s wrist radio may have come later), but the Thunderer was one hero based wholly around radio. Perhaps it was too small and narrow a gimmick to succeed, but another radio hero, DC’s Air Wave, lasted through 78 issues of Detective Comics.
Like most of Timely’s second run heroes, the Thunderer has not appeared much since the 1940s. But Jerry Carstairs was one of a group of aging former heroes who met Captain America in a 1990s issue.
Click Image to Enlarge
