CORPORAL RYAN
Real Name: Ryan (first name unrevealed)
Identity/Class: Human (19th century era) (Canadian)
Occupation: Law enforcement officer
Group Membership: North-West Mounted Police (NWMP)
Affiliations: Clayson, Ole Olsen, Penny, Rolfe
Enemies: Joe Graves, Jack O'Brien
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Hutshiku Station, Yukon territory, Canada
First Appearance: Justice I#4 (August, 1948)
Powers/Abilities: Corporal Ryan was an excellent outdoorsman, tracker and criminal investigator. He carried a pistol.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6'1")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 190 lbs.)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
(Justice I#4/2) - On December 25, 1899, Corporal Ryan was stationed at
Hutshiku Station in the Yukon and had planned to share a modest
Christmas dinner with his friend Ole Olsen. Ryan had expected Olsen on
Christmas Eve and was surprised that, as the day went on, he still
hadn't arrived.
Corporal Ryan set out in search of Olsen and ventured out toward Fort Selkirk to ask his friend Pennycuick ("Penny") if he'd seen him. Penny confirmed that Olsen, along with Clayson and Rolfe, had passed by on their way to Hutshiku Station that morning." Penny" and Ryan searched along the trail and Ryan discovered shells from a Winchester rifle. Nearby, "Penny" discovered an abandoned stove, which he recalled two hunters named "Miller" and "Ross" had owned. Nearby, Ryan discovered an ice-hole that had been used as a makeshift grave. From the ice-hole, they pulled out the bodies of Olsen, Clayson, Rolfe and Joe Graves, the latter of whom "Penny" identified as the "Miller" he'd met. Ryan and "Penny" concluded the killer was the man known as "Ross."
Corporal Ryan sent out a wanted poster with a description of Ross based on "Penny"'s description. Soon, a hotel owner in Tagish (near the border of Alaska) recognized a new patron named "Jack Ross" as fitting the description and telegraphed Ryan to let him know. Ryan traveled immediately to Tagish and investigated Ross' hotel room, identifying Ole Olsen's binoculars among Ross' possessions. Ryan found "Ross" (actually named Jack O'Brien) in a bar, drunk and about to start a fight. Drawing a gun on him, Ryan informed him that he was bringing him in for the murders of four men. O'Brien raised his rifle on Ryan but Ryan shot the rifle from his hand then took him into custody.
In June, 1900, Jack O'Brien was tried in Vancouver, British Columbia. Corporal Ryan testified at the trial. O'Brien was found guilty and sentenced to death. At O'Brien's hanging, Ryan vowed that no man who killed a Mountie would escape justice.
Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Gene Colan.
The North-West Mounted Police are now known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Dynamic Comics #21 (July, 1947) from the publisher Superior featured an identical plot to this story with all the same character names - although that version ran 6 pages, whereas the Marvel version is 4 pages long (the deaths of Clayson, Olsen and Rolfe were depicted in much greater detail in the Superior version). It certainly seems that this was a true crime story that both publishers adapted but the plot beats in the Marvel version are so similar that I think someone at Marvel lifted the Superior version wholesale. The biggest change is that Pennycuik was a white NWMP officer in the Superior account. Also note that in the Marvel version, Tagish was misspelled "Tagush;" it was spelled correctly in the Superior version.
Based on the script, Ole Olsen was a NWMP officer (Ryan refers to the men killing "a" Canadian Mountie) but the colorist depicted Olsen and his two friends in NWMP colors.
Profile by Prime Eternal.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Corporal Ryan should not be confused with:
Joe Graves (alias "Miller") was Jack O'Brien's partner and went hunting for gold with him in the Yukon territory. When O'Brien became crazed and determined to commit murder for gold, Graves helped O'Brien ambush Ole Olsen, Clayson and Rolfe, shooting the three men down with their Winchester rifles. After stealing the dead men's possessions, Graves helped O'Brien throw the corpses into an ice-hole but once that was done, O'Brien turned on Graves, murdered him and threw his body into the ice-hole. His remains were found by Corporal Ryan and "Penny." "Penny" recognized him as "Miller" and concluded his partner was the killer.
--Justice I#4/2
Jack O'Brien (alias "Jack Ross") was a hunter who went to the Yukon territory in search of gold. He worked alongside Joe Graves. Jack became "snow crazy" after a five years in the wild and decided to murder men for their gold then flee across the border into Alaska. O'Brien and Graves ambushed Ole Olsen, Clayson and Rolfe as they were journeying to see Corporal Ryan on Christmas Day 1899. O'Brien looted the dead men's bodies and decided to dispose of their remains in an ice-hole, thinking no one would find the bodies until the spring. Once the bodies were in the ice-hole, O'Brien turned on Graves and shot him dead then threw his body in the ice-hole. O'Brien fled to Tagish near the Alaskan border and signed in at a hotel but by then, Corporal Ryan had already telegraphed a description of O'Brien and the hotel owner matched O'Brien to the description and notified Ryan. O'Brien got drunk in a bar at Tagish and started to threaten other men when Ryan entered the bar and said he was arresting him for murder. O'Brien tried to raise his rifle but Ryan shot it from his hand then arrested him. O'Brien was brought to Vancouver, British Columbia and in June 1900, he was put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to death. Corporal Ryan attended O'Brien's hanging.
--Justice I#4/2
Ole Olsen, Rolfe and Clayson were three North-West Mounted Police officers who were stationed at Fort Selkirk, Yukon territory. On Christmas Day 1899, the three men were headed to Hutshiku Station to spend Christmas with Corporal Ryan when they were ambushed by O'Brien and Graves, who shot all three men to death. O'Brien looted their remains then dumped their bodies inside an ice-hole and soon after added Joe Graves' body. Their bodies were found by Corporal Ryan and "Penny". Corporal Ryan later caught O'Brien when he found him in the possession of binoculars with Ole Olsen's initials burned into them.
--Justice I#4/2
Pennycuick (nicknamed "Pen" and "Penny") was an Inuit man who was friends with Corporal Ryan and lived in the Yukon territory. He encountered Joe Graves and Jack O'Brien (who gave the aliases "Miller" and "Ross") around November 1899 and noticed they had a camping stove. When Olsen, Clayson and Rolfe went missing, "Penny" helped Corporal Ryan search for them. "Penny" affirmed that he'd seen the three men heading to Hutshiku Station on Christmas morning. Along the trail, Corporal Ryan found shells from a Winchester rifle and nearby, "Penny" recognized the stove he'd seen "Miller" and "Ross" using before. They soon found the burial place of the four dead men and "Penny" identified Graves as the "Miller" he'd met. They realized the man who identified himself as "Ross" was the likely killer of the four men.
--Justice I#4/2
images: (without ads)
Justice I#4/2, page 3, panel 4 (Ryan, main)
Justice I#4/2, page 1, panel 3 (Ryan, face)
Justice I#4/2, page 2, panel 7 (Graves)
Justice I#4/2, page 4, panel 7 (O'Brien)
Justice I#4/2, page 2, panel 1 (Olsen/Clayson/Rolfe)
Justice I#4/2, page 3, panel 5 (Penny)
Appearances:
Justice I#4/2 (August, 1948) - unidentified writer, Gene Colan (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
First posted: 12/25/2025
Last updated:
12/25/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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