MR "E"

Real Name: Victor Jay

Identity/Class: Normal human, conventional weapons user (World War II era)

Occupation: Sportsman

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Betty Snead, JP Snead

Enemies: Vampire

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: New York City, NY; 1940s

First Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics#2/6 (February, 1940)

Powers/Abilities: Mr "E" possesses no superhuman powers, though he is athletic and in good shape. He is reasonably clever and resourceful, and at least a decent hand-to-hand combatant. He carries a handgun.

History: (Daring Mystery Comics#2/6) - In 1940, Mr "E" investigated the seemingly unrelated deaths of four of the country's captains of industry over several weeks. He discovered that all four had been silent partners in the Snead Oil Company. He went to question JP Snead, the owner. When he arrived, Snead was throwing a note (about which he seemed quite upset) into his fireplace. Mr "E" quickly burst in and grabbed the note out of the fire. Though the message was partially destroyed, it was clearly a demand for a million dollars. As Mr "E" drove back to his home, he was run off the road by another car, and narrowly escaped from his own as it plunged over the cliff into a mudhole. The other driver was his old enemy the Vampire.
   Mr "E" returned home, and, on the night prescribed by the note, headed for Snead's estate. There he stowed away on Snead's car as the oil tycoon headed for his rendevous with the Vampire. When he tried to sneak inside, however, the Vampire got the drop on him, taking him to his lair beneath an abandoned house. There, Mr "E" was tied to a chair, where the Vampire told him that he had killed the oil company partners even though they had met his demands, and that he would do the same to Snead himself. The Vampire then set a device that would detonate dynamite concealed in the house in one hour, burying Mr "E" under tons of rubble, and went to his meeting with Snead.
   Mr "E" was able to move himself and his chair to a nearby stairwell, falling down the stairs and breaking the chair to pieces. Free, he quickly rushed to the meeting room, where the Vampire was about to kill both Snead and his daughter Betty. Mr E drew his gun on the Vampire, but it was knocked out of his hand when the extortionist hurled a rock. The two began fighting, and the Sneads were able to escape, but the imminent arrival of the police, alerted by neighbors, led the two masked men to break off their struggle and retreat to their respective homes. The next day, Snead and his daughter told their friend Victor Jay about the way in which Mr "E" had saved their lives.





Comments: Created by Joe Cal Cagno and Al Carreno.

Mr "E" is given no origin, but he is an established crimefighter by the time of this story, as the Vampire is his "old arch-enemy". There's also nothing especially interesting about him. He's not even a very good mystery man, since he gets run off the road, ambushed, captured, and fought to a draw -- all by one single villain working without accomplices. Despite the promise of the last panel that Mr "E" and the Vampire would meet in another thrilling adventure next issue, neither was ever seen again.

The city in the story is never explicitly named, but the abandoned house is in the "West Forties".

Unfortunately, my copies of the DMC stories are black-and-white photocopies from the commercially-available microfiche. If anyone has the ability to replace the images in this profile with better, color images, please contact us.

Profile by LV!

Clarifications: Mr "E" has no known connection to

  • Mister E - extradimensional shadow-creature and enemy of Captain Universe @ Marvel Spotlight II#9
  • Anyone else with the prefix "Mister" or with a single-letter name

Images:
 Full shot - Daring Mystery Comics#2/6, p47, panel 3
Head shot (unmasked) - Daring Mystery Comics#2/6, p56, panel 3
Head shot - Daring Mystery Comics#2/6, p48, panel 4

Daring Mystery Comics#2/6 (February 1940) - Joe Cal Cagno (script), Al Carreno (pencils and inks)

Last updated: 06/24/06

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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