Fictional Character Biography
In the 10-page story "First Assignment: Break the Spy Ring" in Fighting American #1 (May 1954), Nelson Flagg was the unathletic younger brother of star athlete and war hero Johnny Flagg, and served as the writer for popular TV news commentator Johnny at station USA. When outspoken anti-Communist Johnny is killed by one of the many enemies his commentary has earned him, Nelson makes a deathbed promise to hunt down his brother's murderers. Recruited for the U.S. military's "Project Fighting American", Nelson has his mind and life force transferred to Johnny's "revitalized and strengthened" corpse. Assuming Johnny's identity, he adopts the costumed alter ego Fighting American to battle Communist threats. In the premiere issue's second story, the six-page "Second Assignment: Track Down the Baby Buzz Bombs", an unnamed, blond-haired teenager working as a page at Flagg's network assists the hero and is rewarded with own costume and the name Speedboy.
The two went on to battle an array of mostly Communists grotesqueries with physical deformities and colorful names, such as the two-headed criminal Doubleheader, the redheaded battleaxe Rhode Island Red, the Russian dwarf Sawdoff, the super-smelly Super-Khakhalovitch, the bouncing bank robber Round Robin, and Invisible Irving, the Great Nothing.
Read more about this topic: Fighting American
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