The Avenger by Dexter Wee (Mystery Sketch Fall 2025!)

The action-packed watercolors radiate with Dexter Wee's enthusiasm for pulp heroes. Thank you Dexter! My thanks also to Next Comic Art's Jiggy Aquino for giving him my request.

The Avenger was created in 1939 for Street & Smith by writer Paul Ernst, with help from Lester Dent and Walter Gibson, creators respectively of Doc Savage and the Shadow. The Avenger, real name Richard Henry Benson, combines elements from these two pulp heroes as well as past characters created by Ernest such as Doc Savage's vast knowledge, the Shadow's piercing eyes, and the wielding of both a gun and knife by Ernst's the Wraith. Stories were written under the Street & Smith pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

Benson is a wealthy global adventurer and engineer who declares war on crime after his wife and daughter disappear on his flight. The shock turns his hair white, makes his skin deathly pale, and paralyzes his face. The transformation gives him the ability to mold his face to impersonate anyone. Armed with a throwing dagger and .22 handgun, he gathers a group of associates to form Justice, Inc. to fight crime. The group was notable for its time for an African-American couple that uses people's stereotypical views to gather information as domestic workers.

Comics use the title Justice, Inc. for books resurrecting the character to avoid confusion and legal issues with Marvel's The Avengers comic. The Avenger has appeared in DC and Dynamite comics, albeit for short runs. His first DC appearance, Justice, Inc., lasted just four issues, appearing shortly before cancellation of The Shadow comic by Denny O'Neil and Michael Kaluta. Dynamite brought the pulp hero to its books in 2014 to join Doc Savage and the Shadow in the Justice, Inc. miniseries and alone in the subsequent Justice, Inc.: The Avenger.