Number 2320: Sub-Zero, the frigid hero, and Freezum, his sidekickum

Sub-Zero, whose original name was Sub-Zero Man, was created by Larry Antonette for Novelty Press's Blue Bolt comics, and was one of those super heroes who could use ice as a super power. Think Iceman of the X-Men, which is the character I think of...created by Jack Kirby twenty years after Sub-Zero.

Sub-Zero was an alien sent to Earth. He went through a comet which froze him and his crew, and crash landed at the Salt Flats in Utah. In comic books the more unlikely an origin story the more likely it is that someone will use it.

Sub-Zero took up with a little Eskimo friend called Freezum, who is not as racist in his depiction as, say, Chop-Chop or Ebony, but is still racially insensitive. Freezum is embarrassing in this modern era. I show 'em as I find 'em, folks, but I am apologizing ahead of time in case someone finds the character, and his annoying way of speaking with "um" on the end of most words, too much to take. Since any idea in comic books, good or bad, is likely to be re-used at some point, I remember that Green Lantern had a pal, an Eskimo named Pieface, from the Silver Age revival of Green Lantern. I remember not liking that character in those days, but then I am not fond of most sidekicks, anyway.

Grand Comics Database says that artist John Daly did the penciling and inking on this story from Blue Bolt Volume 3 Number 3 (whole number 27), 1942.

Posted in: Pappy Comics