Domino's New Grey Topping

Tons of heroes made their premiere before or during World War II after which became hard for them to get into until the Silver Age. Australia broke convention though with their title character Grey Domino which was first released in 1951. Hugh Standish was a commando for the British army during the war who after bashing Nazis took on a new occupation by using the skills he acquired in the military to become the masked vigilante Grey Domino. This hooded hero uses the old world term for a cloaked masquerade and went with the stunning color of grey, but he keeps up the domino theme while trying to keep peace between nations by thumbing them under the domino theory. Like most characters coming out at the tail end of the Golden Age, Grey Domino had his work cut out for him in trying to gather any attention even though Australia was just then breaking into the superhero comics market. Our mystery man would sometimes get help from his part-time sidekick Brutus who was your wonder dog placeholder that quite a few non-powered heroes would have. The series was first published in landscape format to fit in with most other Australian comics at the time to reprint newspaper strips. Creator Terry Trowell also worked on Australia's own take of the Golden Age Ghost Rider which helped him line up Mr. Domino where like the Bronze Age version of Ghost Rider he was a celebrated motorist. When he wasn't going back in time to fight Roman centurions, Grey Domino would lock horns with arch-fiends like the enigmatic Tarantula, fight giant animals with an atomic laser, and track down spies trying to beat England in the early days of the space race. Domino would operate as a secret agent for the British government while maintaining his double identity as a international racer and mystery man to save MI6 having to pay the bill for a foreign submarine that he blew up while on assignment. In many ways, Grey Domino was the prototype for what Speed Racer would use for their own masked racer/spy, Racer X. Too bad that NASCAR doesn't have more luchadores under their payroll because it might have made for a bestselling retro hit.

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