characters from 1930s pulp fiction. His name comes from Aarn Munro, the hero of John W. Campbell's 1934 science fiction novel The Mightiest Machine and some subsequent works. Campbell's character had incredible strength and agility from growing up on a high-gravity planet, the same explanation for Superman's powers in early stories. Notably, this is an inversion of Edgar Rice Burroughs' earlier character John Carter, an earthling whose strength increased on the smaller planet of Mars. Aarn Munro appeared in Shadow Comics as "Iron Munro" in the 1940s. Additionally, Iron Munro is based on Hugo Danner, the protagonist of Philip Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator. Often viewed as a precursor to and possible inspiration for Superman, Hugo Danner likewise had otherworldly strength, speed, and impervious skin. In a nod to Superman's debt to Gladiator, Thomas made Iron Munro the son of Hugo Danner. Publication history Loosely following Philip Wylie's novel Gladiator, the comics establish that in 1894, scientist Abednego Danner injected his pregnant wife with an experimental serum. Their son Hugo was born with super-human strength, speed, and nigh-invulnerability. Hugo's powers led him through a number of adventures, but set him apart from mortal humans, bringing him grief. Eventually, Hugo staged his own death in the Yucatán Peninsula and went into hiding. He briefly returned to Colorado and had a one-night stand with his high school sweetheart, Anna Blake, who became pregnant. When Hugo disappeared for good, Blake married a young businessman named John Munro, who never realized the child she bore was not his own. Their son, Arnold, began exhibiting superhuman powers of strength and invulnerability at age ten. Remembering Hugo's troubles, Anna made her son promise to keep his abilities a secret until he turned eighteen. As a baseball player at his high school in Indian Creek, Colorado, Munro earned the nickname "Iron". He was a senior there when, in April 1942, he saved the superheroes TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite from a burning car crash. TNT died but he managed to bring Dyna-Mite to a nearby hospital. Subsequently, Munro and other new "Young All-Stars" aided the All-Star Squadron in defeating Axis Amerika. President Roosevelt asked Munro and the others to join the Squadron, about which Munro was reluctant, but he accompanied them on a cross-country War Bond promotion. Soon thereafter, Arn received a mysterious diary written by Hugo Danner, his father. He learned about his father's troubled life as