Detroit, the Motor City, largest metropolitan area of the American state of Michigan. Known for its automotive industry and its Motown music scene, it also became known as the hometown of its own brand of costumed crusaders. Some noble, some more infamous. Of those noble champions, there was the short lived Justice League reformed by Aquaman after the original was disbanded by him. That team has native Detroit residents among their membership, such as Vibe and Steel. Then there was the golden age hero known as Amazing Man, who joined the All-Star Squadron during World War II.
As for the more infamous “guardian” of this city, that was the Crusader of Earth-One along with his Powers Investigations Private Laboratories support staff.. Powers wore a garish garb with mask to conceal his secret identity. Seeking to rid Detroits of the criminal element, Powere utilized an orbiting satellite which unleashed harmful biological contaminants upon its city. And interestingly, this indirectly led to Aquaman’s affinity towards this landlocked metropolis on the Great Lakes, far away from his beloved oceans… where he would later for a time become its protector.
Don Powers was a former police scientist turned private investigator who built a renowned laboratory with state of the art equipment. With this, Don hoped to supplement his crimefighting career as the Crusader. Known for his brutal vigilante methods, his request to join the Justice League was rejected. And due to his failing eyesight during evening hours, Powers developed a satellite* with reflectors that kept the sun shining 24 hours a day for weeks. This enabled the Crusader to track down and capture various criminals infesting the city. Yet an adverse side effect to the added sunlight was massive amounts of algae growing in Lake Michigan. Learning is this threat to life, Aquaman tracked the source to Powers’ lab, destroying the satellite. Meanwhile, Don perished as the Crusader, falling from a rooftop… tripping on cables he couldn’t see.
As for the Earth-Two counterpart of the Crusader, this would’ve been the saboteur known as Blackout. Leading a gang seeking to extinguish major industries of America, this masked man followed the example of his fellow countryman, German spymaster Fritz Klaver. Just like Klaver’s Grey-Shirts who attacked Detroit until they were defeated by the Justice Society, Blackout followed suit under the cover of darkness. Despite his superior physical skill and various henchmen, Blackout met his match in the Society’s All-Star Squadron ally, Uncle Sam. Eventually, Sam was able to corner Blackout after a vigorous cross-country chase.
The Phantom Empire’s Emperor was the owner and operator of Smiley’s Cafe, while secretly leading this fanatical cult, with a perverse agenda of removing racial minorities from Detroit’s city borders. The Emperor employed a super strong agent named Real American, who was summarily beaten by Amazing Man and his Squadron allies. It was then revealed that Real American was an android, sent to Earth-Two from the Monitor’s satellite where he was built for the Emperor. When the Monitor severed his professional relationship with his client, the Emperor, the Phantom Empire was dissolved.
The counterpart to “Smiley” the Emperor was actually a small time criminal named Joe Parry who discovered the Panacomputer. This device was an alien device which granted its owner any wish they might have. Seeing the Justice League as a threat, he asked the Panacomputer to produce a composite foe which possessed the team’s various powers, which he’d use against them. This synthetic creature named Super-Duper possessed the tiara-clad head of Wonder Woman Batman’s athletic torso, the arms and hands of Green Lantern with his power ring, and the legs and feet with their superspeed of Flash. Despite the various abilities, the Justice League with new member Hawkman were able to defeat Super-Duper and capture their foe.
Just like Joe with his Panacomputer, Smiley with the Monitor’s alien…well… monitor produced an artificial adversary which the Justice Society vanquished. Parry would later return, not in Detroit but in New Jersey, when he briefly manipulated Ultraa... the alien hero formerly of Earth-Prime.
Ironically, just prior to the Squadron and Society members journeying to Detroit to face the Empire and it's cybernetic minion, a near identical cyborg declined joining them on this mission. Commander Steel decided to travel to Nazi occupied Europe, with the hope of freeing Captain Brad Farley, soldier and husband of Steel's ex-girlfriend Gloria, who was being held by German Forces.
While the Commander was making his trek across the ocean, his compatriots went in the opposite direction, arriving in Detroit where they encountered a muscular man clad in a similiar manner to Steel. However, as we've already discovered, this was actually a sentient superstrong robot, capable of projecting sound waves that sway his listeners to his will. Eventually, Robotman figures it out, and together with Amazing Man the pair overwhelm Real American, revealing his through nature as an inhuman.
Not long after, Commander Steel found Captain Bradley, freeing him from his Nazi captors. However, during his rescue mission, Steel was caught in the feedback of a special dimensional-powered device... also provided by the Monitor like Real American but to a different client... that sent him to Earth-One.
Decades later, now as wealthy industrialist Hank Heywood, the former Commander built his own company in Detroit and installed cybernetics in his grandson, the Steel who later joined the Justice League of Aquaman. At that time, Heywood was opposed notonly by the League but also his old allies on Earth-Two, the Justice Society, and their children of Infinity, Inc. Finally, grandson would fight his grandfather, no longer a noble man but an older cynical individual.
And so, Earth-Two gained Real American and Earth-One gained Commander Steel, two self-righteous robots who for a brief period challenged both Justice League and Justice Society in Detroit, where the Worlds' Greatest Heroes prevailed**.
* Don Powers' Investigations Private Laboratories seemingly exceeded their own reach in creating sophisticated satellite that could 1.) camouflage its presensce while orbiting Earth-One and 2.) have incredibly precise mirrors capable of refocusing sunlight upon Detroit continuously. This coupled with the aggressive nature of Powers' alter ego, the Crusader, leads to the conclusion that his technology may have been provided by 1.) Hank Heywood and/or 2.) the Monitor. While the latter seems more likely, given his penchance for traversing worlds and various times to supply items to the criminal and deviant elements of humanity, and would be approp for the Monitor to interfere with life in the Detroits of two Earths. As for Heywood, he would be a logical behind-the-scenes mentor to Powers, motivating him into his misgotten war on crime. And given the conflict between Don and his old pal Aquaman, which ultimately began a chain of events leading to the Crusaders' death, this would cause Heywood to be vengeful towards the King of the Seas. And would be motivation for the grudge that Commander Steel had towards his grandson's team, and their leader Aquaman, causing their later conflict.
** The tale of the Justice Society and All-Star Squadron battling Real American in Earth-Two's Detroit, and the tale of the Justice League and Justice Society (as well as Infinity, Inc.) battling Commander Steel in Earth-One's Detroit, could be called a "Twice-Told-Tale", with elements of Joe Parry's Panacomputer with Super-Duper and the Emperor and his Phantom Empire also mirroring one another.
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