Micro-Face

Micro Face appeared for nine issues in CLUE COMICS. CLUE COMICS by Hillman is a better than average series based on the few that I own. Maybe, not quite as good as National, but easily as good as the golden-age Timely stuff I’ve read and better than the majority of the Better Publications I’ve come across. Other heroes co-starring in the comic: Boy King with a giant robotic (?) statue often went up against the evil nazi Crane; Nightmare and Sleepy, the Sandman and Sandy of the book; Zippo, the super-speedster of the strip although he got his speed by running around with a motorized metal wheel attached to each foot; and Twilight, a hero dressed from head to foot in a brown costume that had cat-like ears and a long flowing mane. The Micro Face stories tended to be the best drawn in the comic by an artist mimicking Will Eisner’s style making the stories seem as surreal as their hero.

Now, I only have a few issues of Micro Face’s adventures, but not the one containing his origin so the best I can do is refer to the one given in Jeff Rovin’s ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPERHEROES. Basically, engineer Tom Woods’ brother is killed by gangsters and he adapts the guise of Micro Face to hunt them down. I guessed he liked it enough to continue doing it. The hood gave him various abilities such super-ventriloquism, voice mimicry, and x-ray vision. Eventually, the hood seemed to have no special abilities. Unlike the other heroes of CLUE COMICS, Micro Face is not well thought of by the police.

The costume is a strange sight. Green tights, purple trunks, and bright red/orange boots and gloves. The latter were of the triangular form fitting type but the point extended almost up to the elbow. The hood was a light purple (possibly meant to be gray) but with the eye and mouthpieces was visibly similar to the sandmen of the first Star Wars movie. And, although he had complete head movement it rested on his shoulders much like the old-style diving helmets, only the shoulder harness was rectangular instead of circular. He cut a very bizarre figure.