The History of Superheroes in America: 1933

So this is some back work related to my big fat project I am working on now. Enjoy.



The summer of 1933 was hot. Unbearably so. The burrough of Brooklyn was absolutely melting under the summer sun. Between the heat and the Depression, tempers were growing hot. Tensions were beginning to rise. Violence was becoming more common. Looting. Stabbing. Rape. Brooklyn was nearing it's breaking point.

In the middle of all of this madness was 29 year old Irish immigrant Edmund O'Hurley. O'Hurley moved his wife and son from Ireland in 1931. His father had been around during the potato famine, so when he felt the luck shifting in his homeland, he decided to move out of there before things got too bad. He figured that if there was anywhere that could be safe from this global depression, it would be America. The land of opportunity. The land that greeted you with lady liberty. The land where fighting for your rights and beliefs was part of the heritage.

But things hadn't gotten much better, as much as he hoped and prayed. America, for all its promise and reputation, was no better off than Ireland. He surveyed his neighborhood every day on his walk to work (he being among the lucky ones to still have a job). He had always been a whiz with his hands. There was very little he couldn't fix. Even when his jobs had gone from wagon wheels to car engines, he fixed them just the same. A man who could do so much with his hands was invaluable to those who still had things to fix. Those wishing to hold on to their lifestyle, even in the ruination of the Great Depression. He surveyed his neighborhood and watched as the repo men threw countless families out of their homes. Watched his neighbors turn into the legion of homeless. Watched his neighborhood turn to nothing but sorrow.

In the summer of 1933, people had had enough. And one of those people was Edmund O'Hurley. He'd had enough of the situation. Enough of the times. Enough of the repo men and the Depression and the sadness and fear that gripped America. He wanted to see the America that existed in his dreams. The liberty and freedom and hope that fell across his lips in his evening prayers. He was ready for change.

And change is what he did.

Working after hours in the shop, he began to construct, piece by piece, the engine for his new America. Turning scrap metal into hope. Bolts and rivets into justice and liberty. And on Sunday, August 6th, 1933, Edmund O'Hurley kissed his wife and son and became something far more than an ordinary man.

Edmund O'Hurley became America's first superhero.

People weren't sure what to make of this metal plated object that walked down the sidewalk at dusk. Many innocent people shied away, hiding in the shadows, fearing the worst. But O'Hurley expected this. These were people who were already afraid. So it would only make sense that they would continue being afraid, even when they were safe.

He recalled years later that the first "bad guy" he encountered was a pimp infamous for violence against women and children. "Everyone knew he beat up women" O'Hurley wrote in his memoir. "The damn spic had this pack of young girls, I mean real young. Still teenagers, they were. And you'd always see them with shiners from where he'd hit 'em. He was a mean bastard. And I knew he was the first guy I wanted to pick a fight with."

Armed with nothing but his metal outfit and his Irish temper, he tapped the pimp on the shoulder. The pimp turned and...well, Mr. O'Hurley says it all best.

"He turned, his eyes got as big as dinner plates. Didn't even know what he was looking at at first. But that changed real quick. 'Hey you!' I said. 'Get out of my neighborhood!' I had hoped I would say something better than that, but I really wasn't prepared too good. And you know, he laughed. I mean, I probably looked a damn fool out there in my metal suit. But he laughed just the same. And I socked him. Oh he wasn't laughin' then, I'll tell you. Socked him right in the jaw and down he went. Metal glove right in the kisser and don't you know he was sporting a couple of real shiners once he finally picked himself up. And you know, he packed up and got out of the neighborhood after that. By god, he did."

News spread fast in the neighborhood about the metal giant who fought for justice. Six days a week, Edmund O'Hurley worked as a mechanic. But on that seventh day, the nameless superhero roamed the streets. Fighting for good. For justice.

Fighting for America.