Character Profile: Doc Stalwart

 

Back Issue Archive

Overviews of the 250 issues of Mighty Doc Stalwart are linked below:

Issue 137: An Arrow In the Dark (October, 1974)

From the Database: Issue 137

The Mighty Doc Stalwart Issue 137 (October, 1974)

An Arrow In The Dark

Summary: Doc Stalwart is summoned to help with a medical emergency. The sister of an Olympic athlete is dying - and the cause is unknown. When Doc realizes that she is being pulled into a shadow dimension (called ‘a world of shadow’ here), Doc sets off to free her. Arik dons a costume, becoming the Twilight Archer. They free her ‘spirit form’ from shadow creatures that are trapping her and return safely.

First Appearances: Twilight Archer; Vesper (as ‘Arik’s sister’); the Shadow Lands (as ‘a world of shadow’)

Historical Note: The character of Vesper would not appear as such until the backup story in issue 144, when she is called the Twilight Archer’s ‘kid sister’, but exhibits powers for the first time, helping him to foil a bank robbery. 

Vesper and Retro Vibes

As I was working on this drawing of Vesper, I was thinking about her origins, and the origins of Twilight Archer, her brother. And I was thinking about Kirby Krackle... and my own variation on it for her darkness control powers. I like this image. But I also made myself smile thinking about the first appearance of Twilight Archer... here's the first stab at it.

Doc Stalwart Issue 137: An Arrow in the Dark

When a middle school girl comes down with a mysterious, and dimension-shifting, illness, Doc Stalwart tries to help. When he discovers that the girl is being pulled into the shadow realm, he sets out to travel into that realm to free her in this one. He is accompanied by her brother, an Olympic athlete who takes on the title of Twilight Archer.

I can even picture the first appearance panel in my head. There's a reveal as Doc looks up (he's shadowed in the foreground) to see a full panel of Twilight Archer in costume... and the dialogue goes, "You don't need Arik for this mission - you need the TWILIGHT ARCHER." I love the idea of creating these random panels supposedly from comics published forty years ago. I think I"m going to go do that right now :)