History
In 1938, Philip Reinhart was already a successful businessman before he turned 20, so he kept looking for greater challenges. That same year, Brian O'Brien began crime fighting as the non-powered vigilante The Clock. Inspired by this, Reinhart became a non-powered masked crimefighter as well, calling himself Night Mask and enlisting the aid of three associates, giving them the codenames ZR, ZY, and ZL.[4][1] In 1939, more heroes made their debut, this time with superpowers. These superpowered heroes were dubbed "supranormals".[4]
After Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, Reinhart and Brian O'Brien made the decision to cease their vigilantism, and joined the army, figuring that the supranormals were more effective than they were.[4][5]
After World War II ended, Philip Reinhart continued on his business endeavors, and had a brief marriage to Erika Blaine. That union produced their son, Richard. A bitter custody battle between Philip and Erika ended with Erika getting full custody of Richard.
In 1988, Brian O'Brien became President of the United States, and recruited Philip Reinhart to work on Project: Golden Age, in case there was a need for the supranormal heroes again. Reinhart was assigned to lead and guide the The Protectors behind-the-scenes, with only a few people, including Brian O'Brien, knowing that fact.[1]Notes
- Night Mask is based on Centaur Publications' Masked Marvel, who first appeared in Keen Detective Funnies vol 2 #7[6] and had fallen into the public domain by the time Protectors was conceived.[7][8] In the original Centaur Comics, Masked Marvel was never given a real name, and Philip Reinhart was a name created for the version published by Malibu Comics.
- In early promotional art shown in Malibu Sun #16, Richard Reinhart was shown with the name Masked Marvel. But once the comics was published, Masked Marvel was renamed to Night Mask to avoid conflict with Marvel Comics.[9] Marvel had previously published a Nightmask of their own (in 1986-1987),[10] but since Malibu believed the Nightmask name wasn't being actively used by Marvel (whereas "Masked Marvel" was being used as a nickname for Speedball, who was being actively used in New Warriors at the time), they just went ahead with using the Night Mask name.[11] At the time, Marvel's Nightmask last appeared in The War #4 in early 1990, two years before the launch of Protectors. Marvel's Nightmask would later appear in Quasar #55 in 1993, more than a year after Protectors launched.
See Also
- 23 appearance(s) of Philip Reinhart (Earth-1136)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Philip Reinhart (Earth-1136)
- 3 mention(s) of Philip Reinhart (Earth-1136)
- 2 image(s) of Philip Reinhart (Earth-1136)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Protectors #1
- ↑ with a double L in Phillip; only appearance in Gravestone #1; probably a typo by letterer Tim Eldred
- ↑ Gravestone #1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Protectors Handbook
- ↑ Protectors #16
- ↑ https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=25137
- ↑ https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Masked_Marvel_(Centaur)
- ↑ http://flashbackuniverse.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-steel-ring-rise-of-centaur-universe.html
- ↑ letters page of Protectors #4
- ↑ https://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1018?articleID=226975
- ↑ letters page of Protectors #4