The Masked Marvel

Real Name: Chet Fairchild

Identity/Class: Normal human

Occupation: Playboy

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Professor Helborn, Irene Helborn, Sheriff Peabody

Enemies: The Bloodsucker of Banta Gulch (Ha-Ni-Pa), Blackjack Grady, Dan Hopper, Lew Goudy, the Beast of Horror

Known Relatives: Colonel Carlton Fairchild (father), Vera Fairchild (sister)

Aliases: Slim Crane

Base of Operations: American West, c.1880s

First Appearance: Gunsmoke: Blazing Stories of the West#1 (Western Comics [an imprint of Youthful], April/May 1949)

Powers/Abilities: Skilled gunslinger and horse rider.

Height: Unrevealed 
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black

Summary: Though born into a life of privilege, the son of an oil millionaire, Chet Fairchild served a sense of justice, riding the range as the Masked Marvel, a skull-faced crimefighter.

History: (Gunsmoke#15) - Hearing of the Bloodsucker of Banta Gulch when he arrived in town, the Masked Marvel elected to covertly watch over the similarly visiting Professor Helborn as the scholar hunted the beast, and he intervened when the creature attacked Helborn, only to nearly die himself when it proved immune to regular bullets. The intervention of the Professor's daughter, Irene, armed with silver bullets, drove the creature off, but she exhausted her limited supply of the special ammunition. The Masked Marvel nevertheless pursued the Bloodsucker back to the cave which served as its daytime lair, and again confronted it, discovering it to be a vampiric Native American, turned almost zombie-like by centuries of being denied sustenance. The Marvel finally ended its threat by shooting a stalactite down from the cave roof to impale the creature through the heart.

Comments: Created by Graham Ingels.

   Masked Marvel took second billing in the comic Gunsmoke, after the gunslinger (masked in the first issue, unmasked thereafter) from whom the comic took its title.

   For a character with so short a run, he managed to be impersonated a surprising number of times - twice crooks decided to commit crimes while dressed as the Masked Marvel so the gunslinger would be blamed, and one tried the same trick of shifting the blame by impersonating Chet!

Appearance checklist (not including reprints): Gunsmoke: Blazing Stories of the West#1-

CLARIFICATIONS: Masked Marvel should not be confused with

First Posted: Circa 14/09/2004
Last updated: 26/05/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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