Real Name: Rex Lane

Identity/Class: Human (Post World War II Era)

Occupation: Private Eye, Newspaper Columnist for the Daily Globe

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Madame Caremen, Wilma Higgins, Mr. Krone, Mabel Osgood, Oscar Osgood

Enemies: Generally all of his clients

Known Relatives: Belle Lee (probable wife) (see comments)

Aliases: "Rexy" (as called by Belle)

Base of Operations: An office in an unidentified city (likely New York)

First Appearance: Young Men#21/2 (June 1953)

Powers/Abilities: Rex Lane was a smart young man, though he was apparently too light to get onto the police force (though he looked healthy).

History: (Young Men#21/2) - Rex was depressed that he failed his police exams again -- though he knew all the answers, he didn't pass the physical requirements. His girlfriend Belle suggested that he try getting a Private Eye license, which he passed with ease. Setting up an office for himself and creating a sign that declared "We Specialize In The Unusual And Hard To Handle" he began his first day of work. Near the end of that day, Rex was starting to lose hope until Oscar Osgood entered, asking him if he handled cases about ghosts. Osgood explained that his uncle Henry died and he had recieved his fortune, but now his cousins wanted to prove the will had been faked and Osgood said he believed the apparition he had been seeing was their attempt to scare him into confessing. Upon investigating, Rex and Oscar discovered that cousin Mabel was indeed trying to scare Oscar, but when the real ghost of Uncle Henry arrived, Oscar finally admitted that he had indeed forged the will. Oscar wound up in prison, leaving Rex unpaid for his first case.

(Young Men#22/2) - On a drive outside the city, Rex and Belle were lost when they noticed a man running to the police station. Deciding to stop in to see what was wrong, they learned the man was Mr. Krone, a caretaker, and the bodies of three criminals who had been electrocuted the previous night had gone missing. When the bodies showed up as zombies and attacked the D.A. who had sentenced them, Rex noticed Krone grinning and realized he was in control of the corpses. Rex made the caretaker think he was armed and threatened to shoot unless he stopped the attack, which caused the corpses to crumble. Krone realized that he had learned how to animate dead bodies with electricity and one of the criminals had been his brother. Rex was upset that he'd solved the mystery, but would have preferred a paying case.

(Young Men#23/3) - Madame Carmen came to Rex's office and told him about the Widow Wiggins who lost her husband in a car accident and wanted a seance to tell her where her husband had hid their money. Saying she felt uneasy, Carmen requested that Rex be present for the seance that night. Madame Carmen showed Rex and Belle how she staged the seances with Carleton, her partner who did voice impersonations. Mrs. Higgins arrived and they faked the arrival of Mr. Higgins and had him tell his wife that he had lost the money, but then the "ghost" (impersonated by Carleton) screamed and another image of Higgins appeared -- this was the true ghost of Robert Wiggins, who had scared Carleton to death then confessed that he and Carmen were having an affair, the money was in her house and Madame Carmen had caused the accident that killed Higgins. The terrified Carmen confessed and gave Mrs. Higgins the money. Rex realized he had been invited simply to witness that the ghost told Mrs. Higgins the money was lost for Carmen's deniability and was unhappy that once again his client was a criminal and he got no money.

(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - By August 1963 (and possibly earlier), Rex was writing "Lane Into Twilight", a column in the Daily Globe where he discussed odd and supernatural occurances. In his August and September columns that year, he discussed records of strange things in the Old West and lamented the foolish explanations some people clung to in order to deny supernatural truths.

Comments: Created by George Tuska (writer uncredited)

Rex said he knew all the answers to his police exam, but couldn't pass the physical portion. In action, however, he comes off as a bit slow on the uptake, but he's physically capable. No offence though, Rex -- I can totally relate.

In his original stories, Rex was always a skeptic, but by 1964 he definitely believed. That's what a decade of investigating this stuff in the Marvel Universe will do to you.

Rex and Belle were really very clear that they intended to marry when they could afford it, so I figure by the time he was writing for the Globe, they probably tied the knot. But then there's always the possibility that they either seperated or, heaven forbid, something could have happened to Belle.

In Venom#-1, the Flashback story has Daily Globe editor Barney Bushkin tell Eddie Brock that he can't publish a story about a giant alien attack because, even though it was true, the advertisers would not want to pay to be in a paper with such a seemingly crazy story. Could Bushkin have been remembering the response to Lane's column?

In Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files, in his "Lane Into Twilight" column, Rex Lane specifically mentioned: The Giant Monster of Midnight Valley", "The Monster of Hidden Valley", Dragoom, Haag, Klagg, the Midnight Monster and Titano.
--Ron Fredericks

Rex's thought balloon and wink suggest that he is directly addressing the reader, so maybe he possessed the uncanny ability to see past the "fourth wall".
--Ron Fredericks

by Patrick D Ryall

CLARIFICATIONS:
Rex Lane has no known connections to:

• Anyone named Rex or with the last name Lane