When
fan boys talk about great Silver Age comic book covers the one for
Batman No. 173 ( August 1965 ) somehow gets lost in the shuffle.
Illustrated by the tag - team of Carmine Infantino ( pencils ) and
Murphy Anderson ( inks ) it rocked my pre - Batmania world. The story ,
Secret Identities For Sale was a 13 pager written by John Broome and
ghosted for Bob Kane by Sheldon Moldoff ( pencils ) and Joe Giella (inks
). And featured a masked criminal mastermind known as Mr. Incognito.
Mr.
Incognito is a criminal mastermind along the lines of the Republic
movie serial villain the Crimson Ghost. He negotiates a deal with a
paparazzo named Elwood Pearson who has created an X - Ray camera that
snaps a photo that reveals who is behind the masks of the Dynamic Duo.
Mr. Incognito was obviously created as a one - shot character. One that
was never seen again in the Silver Age. But that cover image never left
me.
Years later a teammate from my high school
wrestling days embarked on a brief career as a pro wrestler. And he
asked me to create some promo material for him. And so was born Mr.
Incognito, the Man of Half A dozen Masks. Originally he was to be called
the Argonaut. But I remembered the name of that obscure Batman villain
from 1965. I thought it sounded perfect as the name for a masked
wrestler. And this character still exists as a comic book hero who turns
up every now and again in this blog.
