SUPER BABY

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutate (World War II era)

Occupation: Infant, super hero

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Lolly, his father

Enemies: The Axis Powers (including Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Pootzi Schnook), Boss Grumble, the Horrible Horror, Goatie McGurk, Musclebound Marmaduke, the Ten Tomboys, the Wild Man of Bronxeo

Known Relatives: unidentified father, unidentified mother

Aliases: "The Prince of Wails," Super-Baby, "World's Strongest Baby"

Base of Operations: New York City, New York, USA

First Appearance: Comedy Comics I#13 (January, 1943)

Powers/Abilities: Super Baby has superhuman strength, demonstrating he can lift a 1,000 lbs. barbell easily with only one hand. He has the ability to fly and in one instance carried a full-size prop plane over his head while flying. His intelligence and vocabulary are much higher than that of a normal infant his own age and he plays a pretty mean hand of poker. His costume includes a pair of safety pins in his diaper; these pins occasionally come in handy during his adventures, such as providing the means to cut through a net.

Height: 2'5" (by approximation)
Weight: 25 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red

History: (Comedy Comics I#13/2) - One day while his mother was at a 7-day mah-jong tournament, a baby was being cared for by his father, a scientist who had developed a vita-ray machine for the war effort. The scientist left his baby alone for a few moments and the baby crawled up to the vita-ray machine. The vita-ray machine exploded, bathing the infant in energies which granted him superhuman powers as well as a full vocabulary of speech. The baby was surprised to discover he could speak but hid his new abilities from his father.

That evening, two members of the Ten Tomboys gang broke into the scientist's house to steal the vita-ray machine. Seeing it had been destroyed, the duo decided to kidnap the baby. They brought the baby to their hideout, a bowling alley, and prepared a ransom letter for $50,000 to the scientist father. However, the father was happy to learn his son was kidnapped because it meant he could enjoy peace and quiet around his home.

The Ten Tomboys were shocked to discover what a handful the infant was as he quickly ate up their food and won thousands of dollars from them in poker. When they tried to get their money back, the baby punched them. Eager to get rid of the baby, they asked the scientist for only $1,000 but he still had no interest in paying them. After a few more fights with the baby, they pleaded with the father to take his son back for nothing but the scientist didn't want him home until his wife got back. The Ten Tomboys finally phoned the police for help; the entire gang were arrested and the baby returned to his father.

(Comedy Comics #14/7) - Frustrated by the diet of baby food his father kept giving him, Super Baby snuck out of his crib to snatch a salami sandwich which had been left upon a girder in a building which was under construction. While eating the sandwich, Super Baby encountered two robbers who were running from the police. Super Baby easily beat up the two men then used the building supplies to imprison them with a handmade jail. Super Baby flew home for another disappointing dinner of baby food from his father.

(Krazy Komics I#7/7) - Super Baby accompanied his father to a carnival. While his father tried his luck at the games, Super Baby put on his costume and went exploring. Super Baby picked a fight with with fair's geek act, the "Wild Man of Bronxeo." Seeing that the Wild Man could eat meat during wartime rationing, Super Baby jealously attacked the Wild Man and stole a chicken leg from him. Super Baby escaped retribution from a carnival worker by hiding in the pouch of a kangaroo. When the carnival worker came by, Super Baby emerged from the pouch and struck him, then returned to his hiding place. The worker hit the kangaroo, which upset the animal, who boxed the worker into a stupor. Seeing a prizefight challenge against the boxer the Horrible Horror was going on, Super Baby entered the competition and easily knocked out the Horrible Horror, claiming the $500 prize money (which he intended to use to pay off his father's debts and buy war bonds). The Horrible Horror's manager tried to fight Super Baby for the money but Super Baby easily threw him and his aides into a carousel, then returned to his father.

(Krazy Komics I#8/7) - Super Baby's father wanted to have a photograph taken of his son and brought him to a photography studio. However, the photographer was a foreign agent who wanted to kidnap the baby so that he could take photos of him at an airfield so that no one would suspect he was taking spy photos. Super Baby saw through the plot and after his father was knocked out, Super Baby donned his cape and mask and fought the photographer. He then let the photographer think he was beaten and let himself be brought to the airport then resumed fighting the photographer. The photographer got into an airplane to attack Super Baby but Super Baby smashed the plane and took the photographer prisoner.

(Krazy Komics I#9/7) - Super Baby held an exhibition for children with metal toys as the price of admission, using the toys as donated scrap metal and encouraging the children to buy war stamps and bonds. After the show, a little girl alerted Super Baby to how Boss Grumble was stealing metal toys to sell on the black market. Super Baby fought Grumble and broke up his racket.

(Krazy Komics I#10/4) - Super Baby and his father went on a ferry boat ride to see the Statue of Liberty only to discover the ferry boat had been commandeered by Nazi spies and converted into a suppy ship for their U-Boat. After the Nazis knocked his father unconscious, Super Baby donned his costume and fought the crew of Nazis. The nearby U-Boat fired a torpedo at Super Baby but he guided the torpedo back at the submarine, destroying it. The authorities were brought in to arrest the Nazi agents.

(Krazy Komics I#11/4) - Super Baby's father brought him to a department store to buy him a toy. While he was father was elsewhere, Super Baby overheard three Japanese spies who were scheming to steal toys and use them to trade with South Seas islanders in order to swindle them out of their islands (huh?) so the islands could be transformed into air bases. That evening, Super Baby snuck out of his house and flew to the toy store in time to catch the Japanese thieves. The trio threw a net over Super Baby and loaded him in their plane so they could dump him in the Pacific Ocean but Super Baby escaped his bonds en route by using his diaper pins to cut through the net. Exiting the plane, Super Baby emptied the vehicle's gas tank, forcing the Japanese to crash into the ocean. Super Baby forced the trio to float their plane back to shore then he airlifted them to the FBI to be arrested.

(Krazy Komics I#11/5) - One day as Super Baby was eating a ham in his "private, secret nursery," Goatie McGurk entered and informed the hero that his rival, Musclebound Marmaduke, wanted to challenge him to a contest to see which of them deserved the title of "World's Strongest Baby." On the day of the contest, Super Baby demonstrated his strength by throwing Lolly the elephant 1,000 feet into the air then caught him with one hand. Musclebound Marmaduke spun a horse over his head but Super Baby spun both the horse and its wagon at the same time. Next, Musclebound Marmaduke lifted a cannon but Super Baby tied the cannon into a knot. Musclebound Marmaduke decided their last match should be a task chosen by Super Baby which would require the use of both brains and brawn. Super Baby agreed and threw a nail into a fire then challenged Marmaduke to remove the nail from the fire. Marmaduke refused so Super Baby threw a bucket of water on the fire then retrieved the nail himself. Humiliated, Marmaduke lost the contest.

(Krazy Komics I#12/5) - When Adolf Hitler asked a fortune teller to identify the greatest enemy of the Nazis in the USA, the fortune teller conjured up an image of Super Baby in his crystal ball. Incensed, Hitler had the fortune teller cast a spell which compelled Super Baby to leave the USA and enter Nazi Germany. Upon his arrival, Super Baby saw three little boys from the Hitler Youth tying cans to a dog's tail. Super Baby helped the dog turn the tables on his tormentors then Super Baby went to explore "Nazi land." Flying to a traincar, Super Baby found Emperor Hirohito of Japan and Benito Mussolini of Italy playing cards; Super Baby asked to join the game and although the full-grown men were both cheating, Super Baby bested them and beat up both men, calling himself "a one baby blitz! A super blitz!!" Picking up both men, Super Baby flew through the air until he was above Adolf Hitler then dropped Mussolini and Hirohito on the fuhrer's head. Super Baby followed this up by flying up behind Hitler and stabbing him in the rear with a diaper pin.

(Krazy Komics I#13/6) - Still in Germany, Super Baby continued his reign of terror, breaking into a prison camp and liberating the people held there. Hitler recruited the miniscule Nazi officer Pootzi Schnook to deal with Super Baby. Schnook soon found Super Baby at an outdoor cafe, where he beat up two Nazis who had refused to give food to begging children. Schnook drew his gun on Super Baby but Super Baby plugged the gun with his finger; when Schnook fired his weapon, the gun exploded then Super Baby punched Schnook. Schnook summoned guards to attack Super Baby and the hero began to run away but when he realized he could handle the guards, Super Baby turned around and beat them up. Schnook returned to Hitler in disgrace and Super Baby promised he'd come after Hitler next.

Comments: Created by an unknown writer and artist. None of the Super Baby stories have identified creators but it does appear that the feature's artist changed between almost every story.

Super Baby also appears in art on the inside front covers of Comedy Comics I#14, Krazy Komics I#8 & 11.

In Comedy Comics I#13, the story is called "Super Baby" but he did not use that name nor wear his costume until Comedy Comics I#14.

The plot of the first Super Baby story is somewhat liberally lifted from O. Henry's famous short story "The Ransom of Red Chief."

In Super Baby's origin, the vita-ray machine his father built obviously brings to mind the vita-ray machine in Capain America's origin but that device wouldn't be created for more than 25 years in Captain America I#109! However, they did exist over at comics publisher Fox, whose 1940 hero Green Mask obtained his powers from a vita-ray machine and likewise in the origin of Standard's hero Mystico.

As is typical for wartime comic books, the Japanese characters depicted in Super Baby stories had bright yellow skin and grotesque facial features. Additionally (and bizarrely), the Japanese in Krazy Komics I#11 seemed to be depicted as humanoid dogs.

The story in Krazy Komics I#13 ends with Super Baby promising to come after Hitler next but it turned out to be the last Super Baby story. Being booted from Krazy Komics was a pretty raw deal; I hear after that, Super Baby hit the bottle big time.

Krazy Komics I#11/5 is a text story with three illustrations but none of the illustrations depict the story's antagonists. The character of Lolly the elephant appeared in an ongoing feature in Krazy Komics.

In Winter, 1944, the short-lived comic book publisher Baily Publishing Company released the first (and only) issue of Cisco Kid Comics, which includes a story starring Super Baby! The Super Baby in this story is visually identical to Marvel's Super Baby and his origin is only slightly different from the one in Comedy Comics I#13 (this Super Baby's absent-minded scientist father drops his experimental serum into the baby bottle). Again, no creator names are available but I have a hunch someone from the Marvel stories created the Baily Publishing story. You can see this version of Super Baby at Jess Nevins' site. The comic book itself is in the public domain and you can read it at The Digital Comic Museum.

In Krazy Komics I#7/7, Super Baby witnesses a young man named Zeke at the fair who fails to ring the bell in the "strong man" test. Zeke complains, "Now I guess Annabella will know I ain't Captain America!" This suggests Super Baby resides on Earth-616. I mean, if kangaroos on Earth-616 could speak English like the one in that story...

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Super Baby should not be confused with:

• The Baby Battalion, Japanese children trained as soldiers to fight the Young Allies @ Young Allies I#16
• or any of the other 100,000 'super' characters

Super Baby's father

Super Baby's unidentified father was a scientist who had been trying to develop a vita-ray machine which would strengthen US soldiers for World War II. After the machine exploded, he apparently never revisited the project. The father never became aware his son was the hero Super Baby; he was not only oblivious of his son's adventures but all too often pleased to have peace and quiet with his son out of the house.

Little is known about his wife, other than her love for playing mah jong.

--Comedy Comics I#13/2 (Comedy Comics I#14/7, Krazy Komics I#7/7, Krazy Komics I#8/7, 10/4, 11/4,

images: (without ads)
Krazy Komics I#10/4, p3, pan5 (Super Baby, main)
Krazy Komics I#10/4, p7, pan6 (Super Baby, unmasked)
Krazy Komics I#10/4, p2, pan2 (father)

Appearances:
Comedy Comics I#13/2 (January, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Stan Lee (editor)
Comedy Comics I#14/7 (March, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#7/7 (April, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#8/7 (June, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#9/7 (July, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#10/4 (August, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#11/4 (September, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#11/5 (September, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#12/5 (November, 1943) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)
Krazy Komics I#13/6 (January, 1944) - unknown writer, unknown artist, Vince Fago (editor)

First posted: 07/29/2020
Last updated: 08/03/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
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