Dan the Dyna-Mite
Dan the Dyna-Mite is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Pre-Crisis
Dan Dunbar was a red haired male human who was born in the modern age. At his high school, he came to find a mentor in his teacher Tom N. Thomas who was a physical trainer and taught chemistry. Dunbar came to be the star pupil at the school where he excelled both on the physical tracks and in the laboratory. Dan often spent many hours after school working with Thomas as they conducted chemistry experiments as they looked to see the release of energy from radioactive salt as a means of generating power. Their work led to their bodies absorbing atomic energy with them only discovering this after they accidentally touch. The pair decided to be superheroes and fight crime with them hiding their true identities behind masks. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #8)
The pair late moved to stop the criminal operation of the Dwarf where the superhero team were briefly captured but managed to escape. They later confronted the criminal mastermind and brought him into custody. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #7) Afterwards, the pair faced a new criminal mastermind by the name of the Parrot whose goons killed Mrs. Van Torney to steal her jewels. TNT and Dyna-Mite then confronted the gang but were rendered unconscious by sleeping gas. The criminals went on the Parrot's boat headquarters where they dumped TNT into the water to drown him and intended to ransom Dan but he jumped overboard as well. He managed to find TNT and their contact energised their powers thus freeing them where they succeeded in apprehending the criminals. They came to uncover the Parrot who was revealed to be 'Handsome Harry Hicks' who was a singer that had taken a life of crime after he learnt he was dying. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #8) The next crime wave they responded to was from the Mother Goose Mob who managed to escape the two heroes by starting a fire at one of their crime scenes thus forcing the masked duo to put it out and letting the criminals escape. They later tracked Mother Goose to the Ritz where they were ambushed and captured though the two managed to escape. During a confrontation with Mother Goose, they apprehended the criminal and came to learnt that 'she' was actually ex-millionaire George E. Ready who after losing his fortune went to a life of crime to recoup his lost fortune. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #9)
Afterwards, Dunbar's school became the site of an athletic competition where the winner would be given a trophy by noted millionaire and miser Ebenezer Oglum. Dan came to win the competition and later his mentor Thomas learnt that the trophies were actually cast from gold. They later found Oglum sneaking into the school to steal back the trophies when he was ambushed by a gang of criminals. Transforming, TNT and Dyna-Mite worked together to fight off the crooks before investigating Oglum's decrepit mansion. The two were then caught by the gang who were revealed to had caught Oglum as well and learnt the true nature of Ebenezer's fortune. Oglum had bought he mansion after the previous owner had died and found a large cache of gold coins with ownership of them being illegal. Thus, he had hid the fortune and used it in secret when the criminal gang learnt of this and intended to claim it for themselves. TNT and Dyna-Mite managed to free themselves where he apprehended the criminals whereupon they were sent to jail whilst the gold coins were confiscated by the U.S. government. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #10)
Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
In April 1942, TNT and Dyna-Mite battled Nazi saboteurs who were attempting to blow up a dam in Colorado. When the saboteurs fled in a car, the pair gave chase in their own auto. One of the bullets hits the tire of the heroes' car where it crashed and burst into flames. The young hero Iron Munro pulled TNT and Dyna-Mite from the wreckage. TNT was already dead, and his spirit was carried off by the Valkyrie Gudra. Munro took Dyna-Mite to a hospital, where he soon recovered from his injuries. (Young All-Stars v1 #1) Dan was grief-stricken but pulled himself together when President Roosevelt requested that he and other young members of the All-Star Squadron took a cross-country tour to encourage the buying of War Bonds. (Young All-Stars v1 #3) His depression soon worsened by the assumption that without TNT, he could no longer use his own super-powers. Soon, Danny learnt he could activate his abilities by wearing both dyna-rings and pressing them together. (Young All-Stars v1 #6)
In his 'golden years', Dan joined his childhood friends Doiby Dickles, Merry Pemberton, Second Sweep and the Cyclone Kids to form Old Justice. They were all once sidekicks to older superheroes. They advocate abolishing teen super-teams and butted heads with Young Justice many times. Over the course of the Sins of Youth event, a rally in D.C. over this issue occurs. It is attacked and dozens of adult superheroes turn young and the Young Justice members turn adult. Old Justice, unaffected, find themselves having to supervise the chaotic crowd of younger heroes, with the aid of the now adult Young Justice. Temporarily working out the JLA HQ in Happy Harbor, everyone must deal with Klarion the Witch Boy, other younger supervillains and dozens of magically created monsters. It comes down to every available hand in a vicious battle in the snowfields outside an Alaskan scientific complex. At the end of the adventure, once Klarion is blackmailed into restoring the altered heroes, Old Justice realizes Young Justice really are worthy heroes. (Young Justice v1 #16)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Dan was the first sidekick to lose his mentor when TNT was killed in action. He had a short stint with the Young All-Stars as a solo hero and then retired. He was briefly a member of Old Justice decades later, and then once again returned to obscurity. As the decades went on, most of the original generation of sidekicks disappeared and were forgotten. In the present day, the now elderly Dan tracked his missing contemporaries to an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean and sailed out to find them. His ship sank and he washed up on shore, his youth mysteriously restored. He was captured by the Childminder's egg drones and taken to her castle. (Stargirl: The Lost Children v1 #1) Red Arrow and Stargirl discovered Dan's notes and followed him to Orphan Island. (Stargirl: The Lost Children v1 #2) Red Arrow and Judy Garrick broke Dyna-Mite and the other imprisoned sidekicks out of their cells. Dan was overwhelmed that Red Arrow knew who he was. They attempted to fight their way out while Stargirl, Corky Baxter and a band of sidekicks who had escaped the Childminder broke into the Fortress to free them. The two sides joined up and squared off against the Childminder and her employer Hourman, but Hourman was able to put all the lost children, including Dan, into temporal stasis. (Stargirl: The Lost Children v1 #5)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Dan was a young male with notable red hair. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #10) He was sometimes called the 'concussion kid' as he used his fists to knock out criminals. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #7) Alongside his mentor, Dan and his partner were regarded as the eighth wonder of the world. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #8)
Powers and abilities
Dan was noted to had gone through extensive training and was highly skilled in athletics. He had trained harder than anyone at his skill leading to him often winning in most sports competitions. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #10)
Dunbar and his mentor Thomas both gained their powers from experiments involving radioactive salt. This resulted in radioactive vibrations passing into their bodies with him and Thomas having the positive and negative components. It was only through physical contact did these generate power. According to their work, mixture of these components could lead to a world damaging catastrophe. However, if they made brief contact, they could supercharge their systems thus giving the pair superpowers. They were able to send atomic energy from their gloves into their target. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #8)
He used to wear a ring that contained an oppositely charged element that reacted with a similar ring worn by TNT. When the signal 'contact' was given, the pair would connect the rings where the positive and negative reactions combined to create a secret chemical reaction. A detonation then erupted where their outer clothing burst into flaming fragments as they emerged in their superhero costumes. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #7) The energy from the transformation could also set off volatile substances such as triggering explosives thus preventing him from turning into Dyna-Mite. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #9)
Their clothing was treated with a special solution and consisted initially of shock-proof asbestos suits. (Star-Spangled Comics v1 #8)
Notes
- Dan the Dyna-Mite was created by Paul Norris where he made his first appearance in Star-Spangled Comics v1 #7 (April, 1942).
Alternate Versions
- In Golden Age v1 #1 (1993), an alternate version of Dan the Dyna-Mite appeared in an alternate reality in the Multiverse. T.N.T. was killed in battle during that time, though, and Dyna-Mite had to continue on without him. After the war, Dunbar enrolled in Princeton University and found himself failing his courses for three semesters in a row, which eventually had him expelled. It was on the day that Dunbar got expelled that he was contacted by aspiring politician Tex Thompson for his campaign of promoting a better America, that he would be chosen for the experiment that would make him that nation's greatest superhero. Dunbar accepted the offer, though not realizing that it would cost him his life as his brain was removed from his body and replaced with Adolf Hitler's prior to the transformation that would turn him into Dynaman.
Appearances
- Star-Spangled Comics v1: (1942)
- All-Star Squadron v1:
- Stargirl: The Lost Children v1:
External Links
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