Mystery Men & Women:

The E's

Eagle: 1940, Science Comics #1 (Fox). Last appearance 1941.In issue 2 of Science Comics, he was Ted Powers, and he had developed a chemical that applied to some wings made them stronger than steel and lighter than air. During this phase, he was more of a Hawkman/Black Condor type hero. He would also be colored differently from issue to issue. Sometimes he was bare chested, another time in a red body-suit and another blue. He was Bill Powers in issue 3.

By issue #7, Captain Billy Powers is a scientist and gives himself the basic superpowers of flight, some limited super strength and invulnerability. He and kid sidekick Buddy (usually dressed in identical patriotic costume) fight the enemies of America. One of his more colorful foes was a google-eyed crook called the Beast. Bill Powers' girlfriend is Sally Caldwell. After he's called back up in the Army, somehow Buddy gets to accompany him. He gains an orderly in Lem Yokel who provides so-called comedy relief and extra difficulties in keeping their dual identities secret from him. In one story, he's consistently called "Grant Powers". In some stories, Buddy's costumed identity is referred to as Young Eagle.
  Eagle Scouts of Rosedale, U.S.A.: 1945, Eagle Comics #2 (Rural). Billy, Ernie, and Pee Wee are the scouts in question, with their own plane although paying for the upkeep is a bit of a stretch for them. It's kept in a makeshift hangar in Ernie's big back yard. Pee Wee is of course the chunky kid, but also the smart aleck one of the group. Their one adventure has them coming across Buffalo Bill Cody, Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, Ulysses S. Grant... or rather some harmless escapees from a lunatic asylum who think that, which earns the boys a nice reward.
  Earthquake: 1944, All Top Comics #nn (Fox). Johnny Earthquake and Rusty Ringle. A pair of detectives. Johnny is a two-fisted type who talks with a bit of an accent or un-educated plain talk ("yuh" for "you", dropping the "g" off of "...ing", etc). Rusty is slighter, seems a bit cleverer with a knack for disguises and has at the least a trick yo-yo. In issue 44 of Blue Beetle Comics, he is smitten with a female crook called Narda in league with No Face and his gang. She falls for Johnny as well and turns on the gang. He allows her to escape.
dr. doom
 The Echo: 1941, Yankee Comics #1 (Harry "A" Chesler). When he graduated from college, Jim Carson learns that his father, a surgeon, was killed by gangsters to prevent his identifying them. He also learns he has family, a sister Cora and an older brother called Doctor Doom living at Doom Hall. Good with his fists and an expert ventriloquist (he studied it in college), he is also given a belt that will make him invisible and a radioactive ring that allows him to shoot paralyzing rays from his eyes. In most of the stories, his powers beyond ventriloquism are not evident.
  Egan of the Homicide Squad: 1936, Detective Picture Stories #1 (Centaur). Detective Egan is called upon to solve a murder and theft at the zoo.
  Shark Egan: 1938, Popular Comics #29 (Dell). With a name like "Shark", he naturally has adventures in the South Seas. His buddy is the pilot Ace O'Doul.
  El Kuraan, the Desert Eagle: 1945, Red Circle Comics #3 (Rural Home). Oil is discovered in Arabia by the village of Santar. Keeping the money offered to lease the land for himself, the Pasha instead orders the tribe that lives there to move to the desert. The chief El Hassin El Kahn sends word to his son Jahn to find out the meaning. Jahn is a well known newspaper man in the capital as well as being americanized in dress and manner. So, he adopts native garb and masks himself as El Kuraan, the desert eagle, to lead the tribe against the Pasha, to force him to pay the people the money they are owed. Even though he is a bit americanized, El Kuraan should be noted as being a native Arabian hero, the star of his own strip.
electrick ray
 Electric Ray: 1942, Amazing Man Comics #26 (Centaur). Ray works in a plant making parts vital for the war effort. When he comes across a clue about some saboteurs, he is knocked through a skylight onto a dynamo. Instead of killing he, he becomes super-charged, his touch enough to electrocute a man. After he tracks down the saboteurs, he decides to start wearing rubber shoes in order to avoid accidentally killing innocent people.
Electro: 1946, Jo Jo Comics #2 (Fox): Electro is inventor Richard Darrow. In this appearance he is working in his lab on the disappearance of U.S. Treasury trucks filled with gold bullion that sends him into conflict with the Paper Man. His girlfriend is the dark-haired Ann. He is able to transform to Electro, costume and all by force of will. As Electro he has a wrist band that has a color television screen handy for remote viewing within a certain radius. He can fly by casting and riding a lightning bolt if he can find a conductive agent in the direction he wishes to go. He is also able to throw stunning lightning bolts. Electro wears no mask and Ann seems aware of his identity. He is not given an origin or source for his abilities.
  Rex Elliott: 1943, All New Comics #2 (Family/Harvey). Rex Elliott is an aviator hero operating out of a "secret Army Air Base near Australia" fighting the Japanese.
The Enchanted Dagger: 1941, Yankee Comics #1 (Harry "A" Chesler). Henry Chalmers once saved the chief of the African Mountain Men from a beast and is promised that when he returns, he shall receive the "enchanted dagger." Years pass, he dies and his son Roger Chalmers makes the trek back to the jungles. He finds the tribe as they are being attacked by the Longees tribe. He fights them off and is given the dagger which even creeps him out. On the dagger is inscribed: The true owner shall forever be immune to it's great powers. Turns out when thrown next to someone, they freeze and are compelled to answer questions truthfully.
  Ermine: 1940, Fantoman #2 (Centaur). In the early days of colonial America a woman's fiance is killed on the eve of their marriage by indians. Mad with grief, she flees the settlement and wanders for several days until she is lost in the woods. She settles in a cave and becomes adept at hunting, fishing and being self-sufficient. One day she spots an indian with a white baby and she kills him with an arrow to the back. The baby boy has a small ermine cap and she raises the boy as her own. He grows to adulthood Tarzan-like in this semi-uncivilized state: able to hunt and track with the best of them and a rapport with the animals, disappearing sometimes for days, spending time with them and learning from them. As he reaches adulthood, on one of his wanderings he spies a group of indians raiding a cabin and confused, he goes home and tells his "mother". She tells him the truth of her life and his upbringing. He asks then for a buckskin like outfit made of ermine skins, complete with ermine tails where fringes would be and an ermine skin hat with a white ermine head on the front instead of a coonskin hat ala Disney's Davy Crocket. He then wages a one-man war against the indians, leaving ermine tails as his signature, with the hope that as the legend of the Ermine grows, maybe his parents (if still alive) will make the connection to their lost baby boy in the ermine cap. So, he regularly returns home to have new tails added to his shirt. As an old woman, his "mother" looks like a robed witch in her cave home. A decidedly non-PC strip.
Rick Evans: 1944, All Good Comics #1 (Fox). Rick Evans and his friends Astra and Stringbean are teens who fly around in a spaceship and fight crime.
  Explorer Joe: 1951, Explorer Joe #1 (Ziff Davis). A heroic explorer of the wilds of Africa.
  The Eye: 1939, Keen Detective Funnies V2 N2/#16? (Centaur). The Eye is one of the odder characters from the time. A giant disembodied eye that shoots magical rays and hunts down criminals. At times, it operates as a being that helps people help themselves against the evil machinations of others ala DC's Phantom Stranger.