Number 1914: The one man army

Looking through my files to find something that would represent the American patriotic holiday, Independence Day, we are celebrating today, I hit on Minute Man. Now, Minute Man, who is a WWII superhero, is not one of the “minutemen,” who were part of a militia, “ready at a minute’s notice,” formed during the American Revolutionary War. This Minute Man was a U.S. Army private named Jack Weston, who was not unlike Steve Rogers, another private who was Captain America. It’s obvious to me that stories such as these were written by people who had no concept of what being a private in basic training is like. In other words, Jack (and Steve) would have been too busy to be changing into costume and out fighting evil, foreign and domestic. Luckily the general was in-the-know about Jack’s sub rosa activities, and apparently covered for his absences.

Minute Man (sometimes spelled Minute-Man) was created by Charles Sultan, who has an American success story of his own. No credits are given by the Grand Comics Database for Minute Man #2 (1941), where this story appeared.

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