Capeworld Comics

Rainbow

 

Also known as “No, not Rainbow Boy, the Rainbow.”

 

In 1936, Alf Landon defeated FDR in a landslide victory with the support of Gold Star, the superhuman enforcer of the NRA who turned against it after he was asked one-too-many times to lock up superhumans whose only crime was noncompliance with labor schedules. 

 

President Landon enacted sweeping reforms that decriminalized the use of superpowers. Superhumans could decide for themselves how, when, and where to use their powers. They could even use their powers to protect others and arrest criminals. The Statesmen organization was founded to help superhumans negotiate with existing power structures in deciding what to do with their powers. Superhumans that wanted to apply their powers to industry were connected with non-powered trade unions and businessmen. The barrier for entry for superhumans was lowered across all professions.

 

And that included superheroics.

 

The Landon years brought a never-before-seen phenomena to the superhero community–the poseur, the wannabe, the fake superhero. Before the Landon years, superheroes had quite a few filters in place. For starters, it was illegal, and Gold Star (reluctantly) jailed any Masked Mystery Man that crossed his path. Then there was the matter of the supervillains of the time, the supergangsters. Ruthless and brutal, they were a far cry from the BOL of the late 1950’s, and they were numerous. But by 1936, a good chunk of the sick puppies were neutralized. Crime Kings 1-6 were dead and 7 was sweating in jail without his ruby ring, which became the power source of the Crime Buster legacy. The infamous bank robber, the Immortal, proved to not to live up to his name when dreaded vigilante The Trespasser left him pinned to the side of a movie theater. And the Sphinx, who telepathically maneuvered himself into politics atop a small mountain of assassinated victims, was unmasked, lobotomized, and arrested by Gold Star. The superhero community before the Statesmen was also very loose-knit. No one knew who was the Blue Beetle and who was a supergangster assassin claiming to be the Blue Beetle looking for a team-up. Superheroes worked in small, local associations like the Fishermen and Red Cardinals or in teams of one superhero and a group of supporting “agents” like the agents of the Masked Hero or Dr. Stone’s inner circle. The closest superheroes got to universal organization was the open secret that AEon buildings had secret saferooms for urban vigilantes containing food and medical equipment.

 

But after Landon, the superhero field was safer, relatively speaking.

 

It was easier to become a superhero, and several superhumans saw the barrier for entry lower and charged at the chance to be the next Blue Beetle.

 

Jim Travis was one such superhuman.

 

Jim was your bog-standard enhancile. He was a little faster and a little stronger than a human could ever hope to mechanically be, but he couldn’t do anything too out-of-the-ordinary like shoot lightning from his eyes or fire from his hands. After reading about the exploits of newly-legal superheroes in the recent Statesmen publication Meet the Unknown, Jim was inspired to try superheroics himself.

 

Meet the Unknown ran a disclaimer in every issue. “Hello reader! Dan Garrett here! If you want to be like me, Blue Beetle, think long and hard about it. Violence is not glamorous. Violence always has a cost. It was not violence that defeated the NRA and saved America, but non-violent civil disobedience. But if you want to be a superhero, don’t take the risks I did now that you don’t have to. The Statesmen can set you up right while maintaining your secret identity if you choose to have one. They can set you up with doctors to check your powers, senior superheroes to show you the ropes, and law enforcement to ensure everyone fights on the right side. Call the number below to get in touch with your local Statesmen center.”

 

Jim read it, and ignored it. He wasn’t going to be some propped-up sidekick or tag-along. He was going to do things the old-fashioned way. He wasn’t going to be part of the show, he was going to be the show. He was going to put on a costume and hit the streets.

 

And his costume would be bright and colorful.

 

Rainbow, amusingly enough, wasn’t a rainbow. His costume had red, blue, yellow, and green. That meant he was four-sevenths of Roy G. Biv. Is part of a rainbow a rainbow? No, but apparently it is a Rainbow.

 

Now Rainbow Boy, on the other hand, remembered to include all the colors. He wore a white shirt with a rainbow arch emblazoned on it as his logo. And just in case the theme wasn’t clear, he had a rainbow ornament on top of his head.

 

People say the popularity of a superhero all comes down to theming. And they probably have a point. If you’re going to be a rainbow, be a rainbow all the way.

 

Rainbow patrolled Mainline City, which was a hotbed of crime in the early thirties due to its gaeitie mines and robot factories attracting supergangsters looking for a piece of the action…but that was the early thirties. By the time Rainbow put on a costume, superheroes had Mainline under control. People weren’t afraid to walk the streets at night. Rainbow would go out looking for trouble…and not find any. He couldn’t even find a cat to save from a tree.

 

Despairing, but undimmed, Rainbow went to nearby Saltridge, a town where residents commonly took the bus to Mainline to work the mine and then the bus back. There he did find crime to fight–Black Rufus, a low-level supergangster who’s low standing allowed him to hide when the superhero axe came down on the higher-ups. Black Rufus came to Saltridge for the same reason Rainbow did–crime was crushed in Mainline.

 

Black Rufus was a one-man protection racket. He threatened to use his low-grade superstrength to wreck mom-and-pop stores unless they paid up. Gradually, he acquired flunkies that could shake down storefronts just on his reputation.

 

Rainbow loitered around businesses until Black Rufus and his crew showed up and then gave them the boot. As Black Rufus fled into the night vowing vengeance, Rainbow shouted that all evil men should fear him, for he shone like a rainbow in the dark!

 

Rainbow thought it was a great first outing. He showed up, stopped crime, and beat the badguys.

 

Except the store owners were now terrified. Black Rufus was a nuisance, but he was one that didn’t charge too terribly much to go away. Now because of some costumed fool he was going to be pissed.

 

It was a wakeup call when Rainbow got rained on by counter produce and deli meats.

 

He didn’t do a good job. He didn’t catch the badguys, they got away. And now innocent people were going to pay the consequences of his actions. He couldn’t shield them even if he wanted to. Who was Rainbow? Just a man in costume. There was no identity for Black Rufus to focus his vengeance on

 

Jim Travis felt the stirrings of something new in his heart–responsibility. He vowed he would protect the shop owners from Black Rufus, no matter the cost. 

 

Rainbow hung out around the shops, but all he accomplished was making sure Black Rufus’ men only attacked the shops that didn’t have a bright superhero outside. To better protect the shops, Jim did something he never thought he would do–he got rid of the costume.

 

Now as just Jim Travis in his everyday clothes, he beat back Black Rufus’ vengeance until Black Rufus’ gang had only himself. Driven into a corner, Black Rufus kidnapped the son and daughter of a shopkeeper and used them to call out Rainbow into a trap. Jim used the costume one more time–by putting it on a dummy that drew Black Rufus away from the kids long enough for Jim to tackle him.

 

After being captured, Black Rufus did the standard supervillain bit where he vowed undying enmity and vengeance.

 

But he never got out of prison. He had the bad luck of getting a cellmate with a bad temper and the power to liquify matter with a touch.

 

Jim retired from active superheroics and joined the Statesmen as superhero support. He worked to make sure nascent superheroes didn’t make the same mistakes he did and he found the work rewarding. If there was one thing he wanted new superheroes to learn, it was this–loud costumes and fanfare come from heroic action, they on their own are not heroic actions.

 

Rainbow recently came back into the light when his old costume, which he donated to a local theater group (rumor has it that it was once used as a costume for Ariel in a production of The Tempest), resurfaced within the superhero memorabilia network. It was purchased by the Turner Museum’s chief “picker” Button Bright. Jim verified that, as far as he could tell, the costume was indeed his. He attended the Turner Museum on the day his costume was added to the “wall of supercostumes” and remarked that even bad ideas can sometimes be worth remembering.