Carl Draper was a seemingly average student in Smallville High School when he fell in love with classmate Lana Lang. However, due to the presence of that town's protector Superboy coupled with Carl's own frumpish physique, he wasn't noticed. Even when he temporarily obtained superpowers as the android Kator-Two, the original having merged with the lad in an attempt to defeat the Boy of Steel, Lana still only had eyes only for Superboy
Pat Dugan was an inventor and chauffeur to the Pemberton family, as well as the best friend of the son Sylvester. Together, the lad and Pat became the costumed team known as Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, using their athletic aptitude to defeat their criminal opponents. Dugan developed various devices such as the flying Star-Rocket Racer car,used in crime fighting cases. The pair joined Law's Legionnaires, later known as the Seven Soldiers of Victory... and All-Star Squadron.
As an adult, Carl dove into his career path as a master architect and locksmith, designing the elaborate Mount Olympus prison facility housing Superman's greatest adversaries on Earth-One. However, when his caped rival made the prison a floating prison instead, Lang herself renamed it Superman's Island, and this set off Carl on yet another path... this one towards evil. As the Master Jailer, Draper through his genius replicated the powers of the Parasite, Atomic Skull and Metallo which he used against Superman. Leaving the now Man of Steel in a seemingly inescapable trap, Superman was nevertheless freed thanks to the assistance of Lana who rejected Carl's advances, leaving the fiend imprisoned himself.
After being lost in time for decades, when they returned the two parted ways, with Pat marrying and having a son. After his divorce, Dugan became a designer for a criminal syndicate when his original blueprints were stolen by the Kid's nephew for his Strikeforce Gang. Though embittered, Stripesy and the Kid reconciled and renewed their friendship after defeating the crooks whom Pat had been employed with previously.
Carl would escape and resumed his costumed career, facing Supergirl in a series of clashes before renewing his grudge against her cousin. At one point, Master Jailer actually used a device to cause Superman to forget his heroic alias, and adopt a more civilian identity... neither he nor Carl realizing that Draper's childhood schoolmate Clark Kent was his foe's alter ego. As a means of taunting the man whom he viewed as stealing his true love, Master Jailer wore Superman's costumed underneath his own in order to protect himself, at least until its rightful owner recovered his memory and once more caged his cagey adversary.
Interestingly, both Draper and Dugan sought to use their genius in gadgetry for lawful purposes, but consumed by jealousy turned to crime. Still, Stripesy was defined first and foremost as a superhero, while Master Jailer a flawed supervillain.
A third variation of the same man resided on Earth-S. Unlike Draper of Earth-One and Dugan of Earth-Two, this man... didn't display the inventive skills of the Master Jailer nor of Stripesy. However, like both of them, he was a fighter... in fact a former prize fighter... and like Pat Dugan he was a chaffeur for a masked man. Only not of Jack "Minute Man" Weston, the counterpart of Sylvester Pemberton on his world. Instead, Gleason was the assistant of news reporter Ken Wyman.. and of Wyman's alter ego... Devil's Dagger.
While Wyman, like his Earth-Two counterpart Lee "Crimson Avenger" Travis, was born into wealth... Wyman sought only justice. This he found both in publishing hardhitting newspaper articles exposing the criminals of his hometown Carterville as Wyman, and in capturing crooks in his alias of the Dagger. Both he and Pat persistently clashed with the crime lord of their city, Jeff Marlowe for a couple years. Once they captured him, both men retired from crime fighting and resumed their normal civilian lives fulltime. While Gleason never changed his costume nor wore a mask when playing sidekick, Gleason's identity remained secret!
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