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Black Terror

New Black Terror

Real Name
Bob Benton
First Appearance
Exciting Comics #9 (Jan. 1941)
Creators
Richard E. Hughes, Don Gabrielson
Team Affiliation
SMASH
Aliases
The Terror, The Terrorist
Base of Operations
*Information Needed
Powers
Super Strength, Limited Invulnerability
Skills and Abilities
Chemistry
Paraphernalia
None

The Black Terror (Bob Benton) is a public domain superhero originally published by Exciting Comics. He is currently part of the Project Superpowers series. Due to the fact that the character is public domain, the character's story is often rewritten with each company that publishes his stories. Later, The Black Terror returned in a series from AC Comics, though it is largely unclear how much of the original stories were considered to be in the same continuity as the original. This version is also named Mark Benton rather than Bob.

Origin[]

After inhaling formic ethers, pharmacist Bob Benton discovered he has superpowers, which he used to fight crime as The Black Terror.

Biography[]

Exciting Comics[]

Black Terror

The Terror Twins

The youth and early years of Bob Benton were basically unexplored. Bob Benton started his career as a mild-mannered pharmacist but also intended to invent a tonic that could help people who were feeling "run down". However, Bob's business was threatened when some criminals threatened him and his pharmacy for protection money. When his young assistant Tim accidentally added the formic acid of red ants into the tonic, Bob was angry at first, but soon inhaled the Formic Ethers, which gave him super strength and endurance. Bob soon decided to use his newfound powers to fight crime and help people.

Deciding that Bob needed an ally on his war, Tim took the Formic Ethers himself to gain powers and joined him. Tim got the pair some outfits from a costume shop and together they became the Terror Twins, with Bob as the Black Terror, starting their superhero careers by defeating the villains who first threatened their alter egos. The Terror Twins would go on to fight criminals, spies and fifth columnists in America and later fight enemies overseas during World War II.

AC Comics[]

In the AC Comics continuity, Mark Benton (his named changed for unknown reasons) was the Black Terror, now aged and having retired years before. After Mark's wife is murdered by criminals in the protection racket, he returns to fight crime, now simply known as the Terror. Later, he ends up becoming a criminal enforcer, changing his name to the Terrorist.

First Comics[]

An alternate version of the character made an appearance as the Holy Terror in the comic book mini-series Alter Ego.

Eclipse Comics[]

A character unrelated to the previous incarnations outside of the name and a similar costume appeared in a comic book series released by Eclipse Comics. This version of the character has no powers and instead combats crime with his twin pistols. He is also an FBI agent who was also undercover as a member of the organized crime family.

America's Best Comics[]

In the ABC (America's Best Comics) Universe, there is a planet nearly identical to Earth called Terra Obscura that the Black Terror (as well as many other public domain superheroes) call home. The Black Terror was one of the heroes that was kidnapped by an alien menace when they invaded his homeworld until they were rescued by the heroes Tom Strong and Tom Strange. The Black Terror and other heroes do battle with the aliens and while the heroes of Terra Obscura win, the Black Terror dies in combat.

However, while his body died, the Black Terror was able to transfer his mind into a computer program called Terror 2000. Terror 2000 goes on to continue his fight against crime by mass producing artificially created "Black Terror" robots to defend the world on his behalf. It eventually downloaded it's consciousness into the corpse of his former sidekick Tim and attempted to hijack the spaceship of the adventurer Captain Future, only to find himself defeated by a young Black Terror, who had traveled from the past to defeat him.

TLW Comics[]

In a series by TLW Comics, the Black Terror is given an incarnation similar to his initial appearance, as well as a new sidekick, Terror Girl.

Image Comics[]

The Black Terror made an appearance alongside various other Golden Age heroes in the comic book special Next Issue Project #1, as well as a small cameo in Savage Dragon #141.

Wild Cat Books[]

Legends of the Golden Age was a prose anthology featuring public domain superheroes, including a tale of the Black Terror.

Dynamite Entertainment[]

The character of the Black Terror was revived in the comic book series Project Superpowers. Along with many other heroes of his era, he was trapped in a magical urn for decades before the heroes were released into the modern world. The continuity is implied to be identical to his original counterpart with the knowledge that he was a Penn State University graduate who became a superhero during World War II. He was also the lead in a self-titled mini-series in 2019, though it seems unrelated to the Project Superpowers series.

Metahuman Press[]

The character appears in a manner very similar to his Golden Age self in the serialized story Out for Vengeance from 2009.

Kid Eastwood[]

The Black Terror was featured as a minor character in the independent comic Kid Eastwood where he trained his grandson Surge who had developed superpowers as a result of Benton’s continued chemical experiments on himself from the 1940’s onwards after superheroes were banned by the United Nations, a year after the end of world war 2 in the pursuit of developing more superhuman abilities. Surge became Benton’s successor going by “the Young Terror” donning a costume near identical to that of his grandfather to fight crime, before eventually making a turn to the side of evil and killing him for his perceived role in the creation of the villain Surge would become.

Heroes Inc.[]

In the webcomic Heroes Inc., The Black Terror, implied to have the same or similar past to the Golden Age version, is now on death row for murder under the name Duncan Boone.

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