Blackout (Holyoke)

Golden Age Origin
Jack Wayne,fighter pilot, and Pop Simms are American correspondents in Germany when they are taken by the Gestapo for questioning. He is whipped,scarred, and blinded.Pop is killed,but Jack fights his way free and a kindly hunchback takes him to see Dr. Dismal and his secret laboratory underneath Gestapo headquarters. The doctor,despite his super-villain like name, notices that the reporter's optic nerves aren't totally dead and he creates special goggles that allow him to see by magnifying the light into his eyes. Afterword,He discovers that Dismal is the head of a German Underground,also called the Underground Society, a restiance movement against the Nazis by vitims and native Germans.Dr. Dismal must wear a metal skull cap as his skull was shattered and the hunchback's face is left with a perpetual tortured smile, both victims of the Gestapo's whips. Jack Wayne stays with them and adopts the costumed identity of Blackout, a crime fighter who ventured out in the night to make the criminals fear the darkness. He has no superpowers. Later, Blackout becomes one of the chiefs and top operatives of the society.

Golden Age Appearances

 * Cat-Man Comics #10-15, 20-24