Obscurity Scale

Here is what we are looking for, as far as the type of qualifiable characters that we are concerned in featuring every month. Each entry on the scale is illustrated by an example. Use these examples as a guideline.

0 - Never Published Characters – These are characters who were designed for publication during the Golden Age, but never made it to the presses. Examples of characters like this are Jack Kirby's Stuntboy and Stuntwoman and his Nightfighter character of the 1950s.

1 - Cover Appearance Only - These heroes and heroines appeared on the cover of certain comics, but never appeared in the comics themselves and were often never named. These characters were seen in Liberty Comics 10, 12, 14, as well as Rolly Polly Comics 10 and other covers like Double and Double-Up Comics. These are the rarest of all published characters.

2 - Ad and Text Page Characters - Some heroes appeared only in advertisements or the text pages of comics, but not in actual stories. Examples of characters like this are Volto from Mars, a hero from an ad featured in the Better/Standard line of comics or Timely's ad and text character, the Secret Stamp. Harvey had a text page hero in the Red Blaze. Fiction House had a one-page/panel ad for the Red Falcon, but he was never heard from again. These are the second-rarest characters.

3 - Characters Who Appear in Other Characters Stories – An Example of characters like this would be: Kid Tyrant who appears in a Chameleon story. In a Superman story you get Magic Totem Supergirl, a precursor by a full year of the "real" Supergirl. There are many examples of these types of characters. Green Arrow had two lady companions, Queen Arrow and Miss Arrowette. In Detective 255 Batman met the "Batmen of All Nations," who later formed the Club of Heroes. While Green Arrow encountered the "Green Arrows of the World" in World's Finest. These are the third-rarest characters.

4 - One Shot Wonders - These heroes had only one appearance in their own stories. There are about 70 or 80 such characters.

5 - Minor or Obscure Characters - Are ones who had more than one story, but otherwise had short runs. Examples are: the Ghost in Silver Streak Comics. The Spider Queen in two issues of Fox's Eagle Comics. There are about 200 characters of this type.

6 - Second Banana Characters - Examples of this type are the stalwart backups, such as the Blue Tracer in Quality’s Military Comics, G2 from National Comics, also from Quality, and the Vision from Timely. These heroes and heroines are not quite in the running for second-tier characters.

7 - The "B" Characters - These are the characters who had their own title but were never successful. Some examples are: the Green Lama, the Atoman, and Golden Lad from Spark Publications. US Jones and V-Man from Fox were two patriotic heroes who lasted only two issues of their own title.

8 - The Second Tier Characters - These are recognizably successful ones, including Hawkman, Green Lantern, the Flash, all from DC. Examples from Timely would be the Destroyer and the Angel. These are characters who, although not as successful as the Big Guns, were nevertheless as enduring and noteworthy as the stars. Listings 6, 7 and 8 comprise the majority of characters.

9 - The "Big Guns" - These are the most easily recognized characters: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Human Torch, Captain America, Captain Marvel, etc. They number only a few dozen characters.