Biochemist Rex Tyler was a real Clark Kent — that is to say, he
was a timid, nervous fellow, literally afraid of the dark. But the Miraclo drug
he discovered not only gave him superhuman strength, speed, stamina and senses,
it altered his personality, making him bold and aggressive for an hour at a
time.
Imagine the dramatic possibilities
inherent in such a mind-alerting super-drug, in a cowardly hero. Unfortunately,
in the simplistic storytelling of the day, they were never developed.
Like Bulldog Drummond in the 1920s
and the Equalizer in the 1980s, Tyler advertised for people to help in the
newspaper, offering his services free to the oppressed.
Like other early superhero
features, this one played fast and loose with the secret identity concept. The
hero gave himself the long-winded title of Tick-Tock Tyler the Hour-Man.
Encountering Rex Tyler at a crime
scene in Adventure Comics 49, a
police detective asks, “Tyler? I say, you don’t happen to be Tick-Tock Tyler,
the Hour-Man?” “Me?” stammers Tyler.
People who intend to keep their
identities secret might be well-advised not to tell everybody their actual last
name.
A founding member of the Justice
Society of America, Hourman was pushed aside early on in favor of Starman. He
inspired two namesakes, his own son Rick and an android from the 853rd
century.
He has the dubious distinction of
having appeared on TV’s Robot Chicken in
2007, voiced by actor Seth Green. Promoting an erectile dysfunction pill
guaranteed to “make you an hour-man, just like me,” Tyler warned “If you become
four-hourman, see a doctor.”
As the Bible says,
how are the mighty fallen.
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