SPY SMASHER (Alan Armstrong)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Alan Armstrong
Aliases: Crime Smasher
Occupation: Former adventurer; former sportsman; former private investigator
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Single through 1949
Known Relatives: Katarina Armstrong (daughter), unnamed wife
Base of Operation: mobile, later Fawcett City
Group Affiliation(s): None
Gender: Male
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 175 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
First Appearance: Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940) [Fawcett]
Creators: Bill Parker and C.C. Beck

OVERVIEW

A wartime hero of Fawcett City.

HISTORY

When and why Alan Armstrong donned a costume and began fighting crime as the Spy Smasher is not known. His first recorded adventure took place in the early part of 1940. When Navy Admiral Corby phoned Alan to let him know that a plane Eve Corby, the Admiral's daughter and Alan's fiancée, had been shot down and that she was presumed dead, Alan refused to believe it. Having heard that the foreign master spy known as the Mask and his gang was responsible for the plane crash, Alan suspected that Eve wasn't dead but rather taken captive by the Mask.

Later that night Alan donned his Spy Smasher costume and took to the air in his specially designed Gyrosub. He quickly located the Mask's hideout and saved Eve. The Mask however managed to escape in the process.

In the following months the Spy Smasher encountered the Mask on a number of occasions. In the spring of 1941 the Mask managed to capture and unmask the Spy Smasher. The Mask then subjected the Spy Smasher to a brainwashing device called Brainograph, intend on making the Spy Smasher the first lieutenant in his fight against the American government. The Mask ordered the Spy Smasher to work against the government and implated him with murderous tendencies. The Brainograph worked better than even the Mask had expected so when the Spy Smasher was released from the device he had only one thought in mind: "Kill". He then jumped the Mask and killed him.

Even though the Mask was now dead, the Spy Smasher was still crazed by the Mask's hypnotic command to destroy the American government. The Spy Smasher then began a wave of terrorist activities. He bombed an armory, destroyed a bridge sending a number of army trucks and their human cargo to certain death. He also tried bombing a secret conference of Army and Navy officials. Realizing that the Spy Smasher had turned against the government Admiral Corby called in the assistance of Bulletman to stop him.

Having stopped a group of convicts at a federal penitentiary equipped with guns, rifles and ammunition by the Spy Smasher, Bulletman set after the Smasher and his Gyrosub. Using one of the Gyrosub's missiles the Spy Smasher knocked Bulletman out of the air. He then took the seemingly unconscious Bulletman to the Mask's lair in order to try and get Bulletman to join in the quest. Bulletman, who had played unconscious in the hope that Spy Smasher would try just that was able to resist the hypnotic suggestions due to his increased brain power. However before Bulletman had the chance to once again submit the Spy Smasher to the Brainograph in an attempt to reverse the process the Smasher escaped.

The Spy Smasher was now so crazed that he became intent on killing his fiance, Eve Corby, because she supported the government. Bulletman managed to stop him in his quest, but then Eve biased by her love for the Smasher helped him escape.

Eventually Bulletman managed to get the Smasher back to the Mask's lair and reverse the process by once again submitting Spy Smasher to the Brainograph.

Now back to his old self Spy Smasher was forgiven his acts of sabotage and he went back to fighting crime.

In the following months the Spy Smasher went up against a number of new villains such as the Dark Angel, the Golden Wasp, and the America-Smasher.

After the war Alan put away his Spy Smasher costume and became a private investigator, calling himself the Crime-Smasher.

By the height of the Cold War he had once again donned the costume and identity of the Spy Smasher and at one time he helped out C.C. Batson getting the Scorpion, a old Egyptian artifact, out of East Germany. On their way out they ran into Baron Blitzkrieg who was also after the Scorpion. Although Spy Smasher was nowhere near Blitzkrieg's league he eventually bested the Baron and the two heroes managed to escape with the Scorpion in their possession.

Alan Armstrong has long since retired and is now living a quiet life in Fawcett City, but his heroic identity is now being used by his daughter as her undercover code name.

POWERS AND WEAPONS

Spy Smasher has no super-human powers but was a skilled hand-to-hand combatant.

Spy Smasher had a specially designed egg-shaped ship, known as the Gyrosub, that he used in his fight against crime. The Gyrosub was capable of traveling both on the ground, in the air and underwater.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Spy Smasher in chronological order click here