Twice-Told-Tales: Submersible Subversives & Taxiing Thunderbolts

While Aquaman's friends the Water Sprites of Earth-One and Johnny Thunder's pals the Thunderbolts of Earth-Two were generally benevolent, at times they had a mischievous... almost menacing... nature to them. Just was the case when a small faction of Sprites are driven by greed and the Bolts are driven... as golden age Uber drivers???

The evil Water Sprites led by Quirk seek to conquer not only their civilization's undersea city but also the surface world. Employing a weapon which removes Quisp and his allies of their powers, while the fearsome foursome ingest a growth formula increasing both their size and powers. To oppose this rebellion, Quisp enlists the aid of his allies Aquaman and Aqualad against their returning foe Quirk.

The good Thunderbolts are prompted by lead Thunderbolt Oswald's master Johnny Thunder into becoming fare-free transportation surface, eliminating the need of cab drivers in his community. As this task was to much for even Thunderbolt himself to accomplish, he recuited his son Shocko, who then recruited his mom and Oswald's wife Mildred, followed by a legion of Thunderbolts.

Aquaman and Aqualad were able to secure Quirk's weapon, reversing its charge on Quisp which revived their ally's powers. Using the special seaweed growth serum on themselves, the Dynamic Duo of the Seven Seas were able to defeat Quirk and his three cronies, restoring the benevolent Water Sprites to their homeland once more.

Johnny Thunder quickly discovered the folly of enlisting the aid of Thunderbolt Oswald and his kin into such as massive project, as this both led to irritation from the cab drivers as to their loss of business, as well as the literal minded Thunderbolts messing things up in their delivery of their "fares". Cancelling their golden age "Uber" assignment, the Thunderbolts returned to their home dimension once more.

While this particular "Twice-Told-Tale" is not exactly identical, as each tale has different motivations and actions, both subvert the Water Sprite and Thunderbolt civilizations, which impose their will upon mankind who oppose them. While Quirk (and his fellow Sprites like Quirk and Quink), as well as the other Thunderbolts (such as Mazda, Ampere and ReVolting) were side-characters only appearing a handful of times... the main trio of Thunderbolts had far more menacing Earth-One counterparts. 

Unlike their Earth-Two do Abengazar, Ghast and Rath who on at least four occasions opposed the Justice League of America. On one occasion, Oswald and his fellow Thunderbolts aided the Justice Society of America and their League allies within the Thunderbolt Dimension against the evil Johnny Thunder of Earth-One.

Diametrically Different Dimensions: Aqua & Tbolt

Amidst the myriad of dimensional planes attached to the various universes throughout the DC Multiverse, those associated with Earths One and Two have a pair that are distinct from one another. While the 4th dimension (Bgztl and Duomal respectively), the 5th dimension (each with its own planet Zrfff) and the 7th dimension worlds of each universe are remarkably similar, those of the two elemental dimensions are diametrically different. These realities known as Dimension Aqua and Thunderbolt Dimension have unique natures apart from each other, tied directly into how fundamental forces work differently in each.

Dimension Aqua was first encountered when Queen Mera of it predominant world fled that dimensional plane for that of Earth-One, when her throne was usurped. Encountering Aquaman and his sidekick Aqualad, the trio battled the evil Leron and his force seeking to recapture her and obtain the science behind the dimensional warp which led Mera to Earth. To combat Leron and his henchmen's mastery over hydrokinesis, Aquaman recruited the water-sprite named Quisp, who attempted to gather his fellow sprites to help Mera liberate her realm. Although Quisp and his fellow sprites were unsuccessful, Mera and the boys were able to thwart Leron.

Thunderbolt Dimension was first entered by humans arriving from Earth-Two shortly after the Justice Society along with Earth-One's Justice League battled the alien antagonist known as Aquarius. As she just lost her husband Larry Lance in death during the battle, Black Canary herself was also succumbing to radiation poisoning from the battle. Superman brought her to this dimension to see her daughter Dinah, who had been sleeping in suspended animation for decades following her traumatic metahuman mutation as a baby, Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt transferred the memories of mother in to daughter, with the young Dinah now gaining her mother's maturity allowing her to master her sonic screams that plagued her as a child. Years later, she along with Starman would return to the Thunderbolt Dimension, when Johnny's Earth-One counterpart temporarily took control over the Thunderbolt.

While Dimension Aqua had Atlantean-like humans as its residents, the Water Sprites were native to Earth-One. The Thunderbolt Dimension had the Sprites' counterparts the Thunderbolts as residents, while the Aqua-humans' doppelgängers (such as Mera's counterpart Eeras) were native to Earth-Two. As with the intrinsic nature of Hard Water and Lightning Bolts differing in each universe, So too the physics of these parallel Dimensions mirror this. Hard water grants superhuman speed on Earth-Two which lightning grants on Earth-One. Conversely, lightning creates solidified constructs on Earth-Two and hard water does the same on Earth-One.

Fiancées - Friends - Fiends of Strange Superhumans

Industrialists Simon Stagg and Herman Darling were about as amoral as one could get, which led to their continual conflict with superheroes in their lives. Simon founded Stagg Enterprises researching various cutting edge technologies, while Darling had other affluent business interests. While Stagg kept on the legal side, his business practices indicated underlying sinister motivations. Darling was more an overall grump and curmudgeon, especially around his daughter's dimwitted boyfriend. Stagg used the glowing Orb of Ra to eliminate his daughter Sapphire's boyfriend and his mercenary employee Rex Mason,  with the unexpected resulted being Mason's transformation into Metamorpho the Element Man of Earth-One. Darling soon discovered that Daisy's boyfriend Johnny Thunder of Earth-Two possessed an all-powerful living Thunderbolt who fulfilled his literal wishes.

Scientist Bruce Gordon found solace in the support system of his fiancée Mona Bennett and her father Professor Bennett, just as senator Thomas Wright found comfort in the extended family of his fiancée Wendy Foster and her father Doctor Foster. While Professor Bennet assisted Gordon in discovering the secrets of the shadow-casting black diamond which transformed Bruce into the evil Eclipso, Doctor Foster perhaps aided Thomas as Black Condor into refining his black light gun. Both sets of father-daughters aided the ladies' lads in their various adventures throughout the years, although Gordon's criminal career of alter ego and Wright's caped crusade as Black Condor meant that they never ended up settling down with their one-time true loves. 

Simon’s daughter Sapphire eventually got her wedding with Rex when her father finally gave them their blessing after years of enmity between the two men. This took place shortly after Rex joined Batman's Outsiders team and gained increased notoriety for himself. Herman's daughter Daisy eventually grew tired of Johnny antics and misadventures with his Thunderbolt servant, and eventually grew apart from him when Thunder adopted young Peachy Pet. Although Daisy attempted to become a surrogate older sister and prospective future mother-in-law for the girl, she soon made the decision to end her relationship with Johnny.

Eclipso's Earth-Two counterpart Doctor Charles "Doctor Midnight" McNider had as his romantic interest his nurse and personal assistant Myra Mason, with Myra's Earth-One counterpart as the personal assistant of Rick "Space Ranger" Starr in the future. The Earth-One Johnny Thunder never had time to have a romantic relationship, as he concentrated his time and energies into his criminal career leading his Lawless League gang (and twice usurping the control of the Thunderbolt from his doppelgänger). Black Condor's Earth-One counterpart Black Rock and Rex Mason's Earth-Two counterpart Joe Morgan were likewise preoccupied by their professional careers to find time for personal relationships with the opposite sex.

The most famous father-daughter duo on each Earth were undoubtedly Gotham City's Police Commissioners and their superheroine offspring. On Earth-One, this was James Gordon and his daughter Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon... and on Earth-Two, this was Bruce "Batman" Wayne and his daughter Helena "Huntress" Wayne. Unlike the aforementioned "damsels in distress" above, these two young women could easily take care of themselves and protect their cities from various threats.

Fearsome Facial Folicle Foes of Supermen

The Marauder and the Shaman were not as well known as other adversaries of the Supermen, and yet they had the potential to be the most deadly. But who were they, during their evil endeavors?

Marauder was an alien adversary of Earth-One's Superman, a member of his foes in the Superman Revengence Squad, who decided to manipulate the godfather of his adversary when he was an infant. When that didn't lead to success, he allied himself with Lex Luthor, Brainiac and Grax using images that Marauder's helmet created. This too backfired, and the alien quit while ahead.

Shaman was the ruler of the country of Badhnesia who tried to obtain power through an infant named Johnny Thunder, who was to inherit the powerful Thunderbolt. Decades later, Shaman finally found a way to mentally control Johnny and his Thunderbolt, although Earth-Two's Superman and his wife Lois outsmarted him and freed the Thunders.

Crime Champions Create Criminal Chaos Cunningly

The Crime Champions were the first of its kind, two separate supervillain teams that merged into one combined group, with three members in each unit plundering their own worlds while spending their ill-gotten loot on a parallel planet. Although they caused the Justice League and Justice Society considerable grief on both worlds, they were eventually defeated.

The members would disperse, with the Earth-One Felix Faust and Doctor Alchemy hatching separate schemes before both seemingly repenting of their criminal lives, and their ally Chronos joining the Injustice Gang, while the Earth-Two Wizard, Icicle and Fiddler would each join later incarnations of the Injustice Society.

Then years later, the Johnny Thunder of Earth-Two requested that his Thunderbolt take him to meet his criminal counterpart on Earth-One, however as with their first encounter (which both forgot due to the T-Bolt) the crook waylaid his innocent natured twin and commandeered his powers. Orchestrating a scheme whereby the Thunderbolt cause all Leaguers to be rendered unconscious while the reconstituted Crime Champions each take over portions of Earth-One, the Society intervened yet nearly all perished until the Leaguers were revived and aided their dopplegangers. This due to the clever actions of the heroic Johnny versus his villainous twin, and at the end of the tale there would no longer be a Crime Champions evermore! 

Between these two occasions, the Wizard and his five criminal compatriots had attempted to stage a coup on Earth-Two after their initial defeats in an attempt to avoid capture. The Justice League and Justice Society employed the teamwork necessary to capture their amoral adversaries. This would be repeated years later on Earth-One during a similar plan by these costumed crooks.

One of the Crime Champions, Felix Faust, encountered his counterpart Kent Nelson in battle during this initial team up of the twin Justice teams. Nelson as Doctor Fate defeated Faust, which would later motivate Felix into adopting the costumed identity of his world's Doctor Fate that battled Superman and Green Lanterm of Earth-One. This same enmity between these two was replicated with their recurring foes, which they encountered on at least two occasions. These adversaries were Phantom Strange and Lando the Unknown, men of mystery and means.

Phantom Stranger and Faust first fought when Stranger was made an honorary member of the Justice League during a case. Later, the two opposing forces came to blows when the Stranger was allied with various unaffiliated heroes like himself. Both times, the Stranger gained the upper hand on Earth-One's faux Fate, Felix.

The once "heroic" Lando the Unknown adopted the alter ego of Krishna Das, pretending to predict the future for his own greedy goals. Doctor Fate had initially been bested by this turbaned tyrant, but turned the table on his foe in March of 1943. 

However, Das escaped using his abilities, and in May of 1943 adopted another alias...as Mister Fortune! Lando's true allegiance was finally revealed as a Nazi collaborator seeking to undermine trust in democracy and influence Americans into placing their trust in a German empire. In this role, Lando once more ran afoul of Doctor Fate during a case involving the Justice Society.

The connection between the Earth-One Johnny Thunder and his Crime Champion ally Felix Faust would be similar to that between the Johnny of Earth-Two and his Justice Society ally Doctor Fate... as both worked together only on the opposite side of the law from their doppelgängers. However, Faust would eventually turn to the side of good after extensive therapy, something that Lando no doubt would have benefited from following his fall from grace.

Phantom Stranger would assist the Justice League in several adventures following his initial clash with Felix Faust. These included the League’s battles with:

• Versus the Key
• Versus the Shadow Thief and his allies Minister Blizzard, Captain Cold and the Icicle of Earth-Two
• Versus Count Crystal (while Crystal’s counterpart Frederic Vast faced the Justice Society alone)
• Versus The Red Tornado Construct entity
• Versus the Key once more, along with Star Tsar and the Privateer
• Versus the “Fiend with Five Faces”
• Versus the alien War-Kohns
• Versus the Appellaxians

Lando eventually returned when he and Ian Karkull traveled from the past to recruit Vandal Savage, who was fleeing the combined might of the Justice Society following their invasion of Savage’s artificial world Colu-Two. What became of Lando/Krishna Das/Mister Fortune following this final appearance was his transformation into a shadow being like Ian, who was eradicated from existence when Karkull’s plot to assassinate future presidents of the United States was thwarted by the Justice Society. Doctor Fate and his teammates ended up absorbing the abilities of Lando and Karkull.

Cookie-Cutter-Counterparts: Johnny Thunder

Although they look identical, even having the same first and last names, the two Johnny Thunders were anything but the same. On Earth-Two back in the 1940's, Johnny was the first recruit of the Justice Society of America, where he along with his Thunderbolt fought crime and even big time supervillains. Although he possessed tremendous power, his intellect was his chief liability. However, it was trumped by his drive to help his fellow man. Well, as long as he made a name for himself, at least. Then in the 1950's, Thunder retired to become the monarch of Badhnesia, the land he lived in as a little boy when their past leader kidnapped him.

In fact, the same thing occurred in the early years of Earth-One's Johnny Thunder, who grew up and followed an entirely different course life. Becoming a low-level criminal who led his own gang, when he first met his visiting and naïve counterpart, he saw the opportunity to steal his Thunderbolt and remake his native world as Earth-A with its Lawless League. However, before they could establish themselves as the conquerors of Earth-A, the Justice Society of America defeated both the League and its leader, who reset history so that these events never occurred.

Then, several years later it occurred that the good Johnny once more wanted to me his doppleganger, and traveled to Earth-One. Since neither Thunder remembered their last meeting, events unfolded as they had previously, only this time the evil Johnny recruited the Crime Champions to be his hired muscle rather than his own gang. However, his own carelessness led to his cosmic twin reversing all that Thunder had accomplished when he placed all of Earth-One's heroes into a coma and nearly vanquished the Society through his Champions. Left defeated once more, this time evil Johnny couldn't escape capture, and was left powerless, while good Johnny remained a member of the Society in good standing into his old age.

Robin's Radical Relationships: Boyhood Best Buddies

BFF's for the Boys Wonder. These two would qualify as the best friends of the Robins of parallel planets. Right from the start, when Robin and Kid Flash teamed up with their fellow Teen Titans to tackle the mind-controlled Justice League, this pair were fast friends. And just like them, the golden-age Robin had found fellowship with Johnny Thunder, who although a few eyes older than him was always young at heart. 

From their cases alongside one another on the All-Star Squadron to the time Robin gained membership into Johnny's Justice Society, these two spent time together as had the silver age Robin and Wally "Kid Flash" West, both as costumed crusaders and as casual civilians... be it on a road trip together or a nice at the theatre. 

And whereas Robin and Kid-Flash could commisserate about how to step out of their mentor's shadows and make names for themselves, and golden age Robin and Johnny Thunder could likewise commisserate on how to make their teammates take them seriously. Whereas on Earth-One, neither Titan would have felt to comfortable with that world's criminal Johnny Thunder, on Earth-Two the two Socialites would have felt fine with Wally's twin on their world, Johnny Quick.

Supermen Families: Offset Adventures

The Superman Family was prolific in having their tales chronicled, and not only alongside their most famous member. At least on Earth-One, as its members operated just as well individually as collectively like the Marvel Family.

In place of Lar Gand aka Mon-El who fought alongside Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century, there was Doctor Occult who had similar abilities fighting alongside Superman in the All-Star Squadron. Other legacy characters were Eltro Gand and Halk Kar who met his Superman on one adventure with Halk's tale paralleling Lar's first encounter with the Boy of Steel. While Halk eventually returned to native Thoron, Eltro would assume Lar's heroic career a thousand years in the future, and this would parallel Richard Occult's tales both in a similar costume to Gand's and in his famed trench coat which both wore.

And rather than the bizarre mis-adventures of "Superman's Pal", wherein Jimmy Olsen was transformed by all manner of strange occurrences including a female 5th dimensional imp while wearing his trademark green suits... there was the wacky tales of the Justice Society's mascot Johnny Thunder, who's every wish and whim was turned on its head by an imp from the Thunderbolt Dimension. Other tales with Superman assisting mirrored those of another redhaired reporter Tubby Watts and his pal Johnny Quick. And Jimmy's latter day tales, when he teamed up with the Golden Guardian and the Newsboy Legion on Earth-One would be mirrored by the original Earth-Two adventures of the first Guardian and the Legion's parents, themselves children at the time.

On Earth-Two, there wasn't a "Superman's Pal...Jimmy Olsen" or the "Daring New Adventures of Supergirl" and the like. Sure, they had their own red-haired cub reporter in Jimmy, their own Girl of Steel (Power Girl, whose only solo tales were in "Showcase" #97-99), and the Metropolis Marvel's one true love in Lois. Nevertheless, there were adventures on Kal-L's world that offset those on Kal-El's world, even if their participants weren't Halk Kar of Thoron, James Olsen of Metropolis, the Masked Wonder of Smallville or Kara Zor-L of Kandor.

The Adventures of Superboy were balanced out by those of Darrell Dane aka Doll Man. Darrell was a miniature version of Superman on Earth-Two as was Kal-El's cousin Don-El on Earth-One. While both Don-El as Captain of the Superman Emergency Squad and Kal-L the Masked Wonder only had a few adventures, Superboy and Doll Man each had hundreds of tales between them.

Then there was the Federal Man, aka Steve Carson. Steve like his counterpart Cory Renwald was a government agent. Both Cory and Clark had common step-parents with Jonathan and Martha Kent, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster being the creative "parents" of both Renward and Carson. On occasion, Steve even wore a spandex costume, thus at times mirroring on Earth-Two the later teen tales of the Superboy of Earth-One

Instead of the adventures of the younger adolescent Superboy in the 30th century, there were the tales Earth-Two's Wonder Woman had when travelling to the 30th century of her world. Earth-One Superman's alter ego Clark Kent was at times impersonated by the Kandorian leader of the Superman Lookalike Squad, Vol-Don. Vol-Don's Earth-Two counterpart Dave Clark aka Midnight had scores of tales mirroring thos of the "Private Life of (Earth-One's) Clark Kent".

Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl had mostly solo tales in Action Comics, then Adventure Comics, followed by her first self-titled series which led to her featured in Superman Family and concluding in a second eponymous book. Kara Zor-l aka Power Girl was featured alongside the Justice Society of America in stories chronicled in All-Star Comics followed by Adventure Comics and later Infinity Inc.

While Supergirl had a scant few adventures as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Power Girl had a scan few sole adventures apart from the teams for which she was a member. Supergirl's early tales, where she was pals for with Lena (Luthor) Thorul were offset by the solo adventures of Lena's cosmic twin Liberty Belle aka Libby Lawrence that proceeded Power Girl's first appearance.

Then there was that one true love, Lois Lane, who had golden age adventures in the backpages of Superman starting in issue #29 through #42, before graduating into a co-star in the Mr. and Mrs. Superman tales in a few issues of "Action Comics" and "Superman" before their continuing series featured in Superman Family #195-222.

Although not nearly the volume of cases that her Earth-One counterpart had in "Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane" #1-137, this would be compensated by the adventures of a contemporary of Earth-Two's Lois in Jane Arden, also a news reporter. She had scores of tales in Quality Comics. Jane Arden's Earth-One counterpart Meg Tempest was always a background character in Lois and her friends adventures.

Superman Family: Superman's Pal - Jimmy Olsen

Many adored the Supermen, and a few were close friends. However, his closest pal throughout the cosmos was Jimmy Olsen. The Jimmy of Earth-Two started out as a cub reporter/photographer of the Daily Star while still in his early teens, and orphan. On Earth-One, Jimmy was a little older when he joined the Daily Planet staff.

And on the silver age world, Jimmy had a fairly impressive career, and not simply in journalism. His propensity for getting into difficult situations was resolved thanks to his special signal watch, which could summon Superman in a pinch. However, there were times when he transformed into a giant Turtle Boy, Wolf-Man, Speed Demon, a human porcupine and his most famous alter ego... Elasti-Lad. It was in this alias that he was recruited into the Legion of Super-Heroes as an honorary member, at one point his female teammates attempted to elicit strong feelings in Olsen's on-again off-again girlfriend Lucy Lane, to no avail. At least he had his Jimmy Olsen fan club to fall back on for moral support, and the Newsboy Legion of Project Cadmus.

On Earth-Two, he had no ginko juice to drink, and thus never became Elasti-Lad. Nor any of the other more comical identities of his young counterpart. Nevertheless, he was heroic particularly when he twice took down the deadly Avenging Archer, initially during his first big break into the newspaper industry. Alas Lucy's twin Lucille was already married, and his potential fan club was more enamored in his world's premier team and became the Junior Justice Society. And it would be Johnny Thunder of that Society who would have similar zany adventures to Earth-One Jimmy, while the Johnny of that Jimmy's world had a mostly non-descript life like Earth-Two' s Jimmy. Later in life, when the older Olsen had an incurable disease, it was a cloned organ of his doppleganger that saved his life (and perhaps bestowed him with some of the latent abilities picked up from young Jimmy's various adventures).

Wonderful Warriors of the Wild West

Both Earths One and Two had generations of heroic individuals prior to the advent of superheroes. Among these were several similar cosmic twins with remarkable parallels.

Jonah Hex and Jeff Graham were two confederate soldiers during the Civil War who moved west when their side of the conflict lost. Finding a measure of redemption in this new frontier, each man found different paths to heroism. In Jeff's case, as the Roving Ranger, he had been sent by Major Hawks to enforce law in the territory of Texas. Therein, Graham gained widespread acclaim and fame as well as a fine reputation.

For Jonah, after his face was scarred by vengeful native Americans for a crime he didn't commit, he then sought refuge in the life of a bounty hunter while saving innocents in the process... though he remained friendless. Sure, he would have affiliations with some other crime fighters of the day, and even found a wife which came with a brief period of happiness before he lost it all and returned to his old life. Hex and Graham eventually found themselves in future eras, both encountering superheroes of the 20th century. Jonah ended up in the 21st century version of Earth-One's Seattle, Washington... brought them by a criminal seeking a historic gunshooter. As was his tendency, Hex caused more trouble than his kidnapper had intended, and eventually he returned to his native 1875. Graham was brought to the 1980's thanks to a Crisis on Infinite Earths wave to fight Native Americans at Earth-Two's Cape Canaveral, then returned to 1875 where he... unlike his counterpart... retired to a peaceful life.

Meanwhile, one of Jonah Hex's oldest and most dogged adversaries was the criminal gang leader known as El Papagayo, the infamous Parrot of Earth-One's old west. The man who would become the Don Cabellero of Earth-Two was just as daring, hiding his true history and secret motivations, while still providing a dashing legend for all the countryside to be enamored over. Each loved their flamboyantly colored costumes and gals that clamored for their attention, although one was good and the other evil.

Next was John Tane, a Mesa City shopkeeper who obeyed his mother's dying wish not to pursue a career like his father in law enforcement, much to his dad's contempt. In his disguise as Johnny Thunder, he was the man his dad had envisioned... as protector of their community. He first battled then allied and finally married his nemesis Madame .44 aka photographer Jeannine Walker, who sought to avenge her father. Tane mirrored another disguided do-gooder in El Castigo of Earth-Two at the same time.

El Castigo (aka Don Fernando Suarez) was the original Whip of the village known as Seguro. His legend would inspire a successor decades later in Rodney Elwood Gaynor, a wealthy businessman in the town of Seguro in southwest United States, adopting the alias of that legendary lawman, Gaynor as the Whip sought to bring social justice to the oppressed people there, aided by his girlfriend Marissa Dillon.

Back on Earth-One, El Diablo was spawned from Lazarus Lane, a bank teller once cowardly who in a moment of vindication was left in a coma only to revived as a masked marauder.

In the old west, one sheriff was necessary but two was usually what it took to enforce law. And so, the Trigger Twins of Wayne and Walt on Earth-Two and Pow-Wow Smith aka Ohiyesa from Earth-One protected their communities in matching attire with their twins. Yes, Pow-Wow's brother was Horse Hunter who remained with their native tribe. A latter Pow-Wow protected the modern day west, while Buck Marshall did likewise... both in the pages of the same comic.

Then there were two native American warriors who also gained fame for their acts of valor, although one was only an adopted Indian when in actuality he was a caucasian who's birth name was Brian Savage. Raised by the natives of the old west as Ke-Woh-No-Tah, his more fame identity was as Earth-One's Scalphunter. Earlier on Earth-Two, Strong Bow was an actual native who matched this legend with one of his own, protecting his land on the eve of white man's invasion of it. Both were stylish in their animal skin garb which they were clad in. Neither fit in to any one society.

There would be other heroes and heroines of the old west, including Earth-One's Bat-Lash who found a counterpart in the Johnny Lash aka the second Whip of Earth-Two. While Bartholomew Lash was known to frequent various gambling establishments that ended up getting him in trouble, his heart was always in the right place when innocents' lives were on the line. As for Johnny Lash, he was a prairie schooner along with his parent whom he saw murdered by bandits disguised as Native Americans. Seeking vengeance for them as an early age, this made Johnny more focused and noble than Bat Lash.

Another notable cowboy was Nighthawk of Earth-One. Originally, Hannibal Hawkes was a traveling repairman who donned the disguise of Nighthawk to battle threats to the various communities he visited. He eventually perished after he adventure during the Crisis on Infinite Earths when he met up with other old western heroes like Jonah Hex, Scalphunter, Bat Lash and Johnny Thunder. 

His counterpart on Earth-Two was a decades older man names Major Hawks. Hawks was the lead commander of the Texas Rangers, and on several occasions he sent the famed Roving Ranger, Jeff Graham, on cases throughout the Texas territory during his tenure.

Others who occupied the old west were Kate Manser aka Cinnamon and Katherine Kit Colby, vengeful women who sought to exercise justice as dully authorize officers of law after their sheriff fathers had both perished. 

Then there was Bill Polk the Wyoming Kid and Chuck Dawson a Wyoming rancher, each of whom had adventures as well in their neck of the woods. Both worlds likewise had more famous cowpokes who were legendary with brandishing their weapon of choice, both for good and for ill.

The aforementioned Jeanne Walker Tane aka Madame .44 had life that remarkably paralleled that of the 20th century heroine of Earth-Two known as Black Canary. Secretly florist Dinah Drake, she was groomed to be a policewoman, but was rejected from the police force which broke her father's heart. Seeking to strike out against injustice in some form, Dinah devised the criminal veneer of the masked Black Canary. 

In her first handful of capers, she like Jeanne encountered a Johnny Thunder, revealed her true good nature to him. When Dinah was just a girl, Jeanne would have been an elderly woman. Yet in a sense, both women operated as femme fatales and heroines during the same time period in the late 1880s.

In fact, decades after the original Black Canary first debuted and immeditely after she succumbed to radiation poisoning which killed her and her beloved husband Larry Lance, Dinah's daughter assumed both the mantle and the memories of her mother. As the second Black Canary, Dinah Laurel Lance accompanied Earth-Two's Johnny Thunder back to the same 19th century era during the case of the Iron Hand, sent there by the cosmic entity known as Aurakle. This Black Canary, through whose inherited memories of her mother the orignal Black Canary lived on, operated with a Johnny Thunder on Earth-Two at the same point in time as had Madame .44 and Johnny Thunder lived and operated in on Earth-One!