TRULY GONE&FORGOTTEN : MISTER SCARLET AND PINKY

Mr.Scarlet and Pinky versus Nobody? That oughtta be a short fight.

It was about a year ago that I made mention of Nightmare and Sleepy, itinerant superheroes who populated the pages of Clue Comics and represented the polar opposite of superherodom’s traditional “bored millionaire playboy” archetype. Well, Nightmare and Sleepy are in pretty good company in the cape-and-cowl version of the line for unemployed benefits, because they’re joined by Fawcett’s crimson-clad Mister Scarlet and his boy sidekick Pinky!

Then-District Attorney Brian Butler becomes frustrated with the limitations of his office, and so dons alizarin longjohns and a yellow beach towel to become The Red-Robed Knight of Right, Mister Scarlet. Armed with a ray-gun, Mister Scarlet can also apparently fly for no real reason, except he usually doesn’t, preferring the swing everywhere instead. Maybe his power of flight was tied into something really embarrassing. Maybe he could only fly when he had a boner, I dunno. That’s as good an explanation as anyone else gave.

I think by "new equipment" he means "a belt."

Scarlet – aided by his kid sidekick Pinky, whose real name was Pinky, and while that’s a genuine fubar in the whole secret-identity department I feel it’s worth mentioning that “Pink” was an uncommon but not-unheard-of boys’ name back at the turn of the 20th century, in case you were already in mid-mock – turns out to be great at crimefighting. TOO great, as a matter of fact. Before long, Mister Scarlet has proven so effective at curtailing the crime rate that D.A. Brian Butler – caught  napping at his desk after a long night as Mr.Scarlet – is fired! Oooooh irony!

From that point on, Brian and newly-adopted Pink (he’d been orphaned by one of Scarlet’s colorful rogues gallery, Mister Hyde) hit the bricks, opening what’s essentially a detective agency with Pink and secretary Cherry Wade (You know what they say; when life gives you cherries, make Cherry Wade) and generally starving from episode to episode, scraping together occasional cash from odd jobs just to keep sandwiches on the table.

Scarlet and Pinky were effectively Fawcett’s answer to Batman and Robin, albeit on the other end of the socio-economic spectrum. One thing they did have in common, though, was an array of bizarre villains – a baker’s half-dozen of whom even formed a team dedicated to Mister Scarlet’s downfall! I suppose they could have just waited for malnutrition to take its toll.

"...in our Klan robes."

Generally overshadowed by the original Marvel Family, the anti-Axis intelligence hero Spy Smasher, and the dynamic Bulletman and Bulletgirl (not to mention Bulletdog), Mister Scarlet and Pinky still managed to squeeze themselves into Fawcett’s line-up in the pages of a multitude of anthology titles and publicity pieces. They were also sometimes overshadowed by Golden Arrow. Oh, and they never got their own title, like Ibis the Invincible had. So. Very overshadowed, I guess is what I’m saying here.

Still, the character’s proven memorable enough to warrant at least a half-dozen attempts to revive him in one format or another, from a good old-fashioned annual JLA/JSA crossover event to Power of Shazam, from Kingdom Come to Cry For Justice. Like Mister Scarlet himself, however – they infrequently get off the ground.