711 Isn't Just A Store

Having nothing to do with the store chain that would use the same name five years later, 711 had possibly the most imbecillic comics run out of any Golden Age superhero. Getting his own feature starting in Quality's Police Comics #1, young attorney Daniel Dyce ends up taking the rap for his best friend Jake Horn who he just happened to be the spitting image of. Daniel posing as Jake gets life imprisonment as Lifer 711 while Jake was free to watch over his newborn baby, even though the proud papa gets run over and dies a few days later. Daniel is now stuck in jail after reading about the accident. Why the police never figured out that the Jake Horn that died wasn't the same one they had in prison is never told, nor why Daniel just didn't come clean and tell them he wasn't the real Jake so he could go free. Instead of trying to clear his name, Daniel manages to somehow dig out of his cell, even though he rationalizes that he can't go back to his old life since he has been in jail for so long, so he instead decides to just stick out his life behind bars. A new inmate named Slick Panzer who plans on spending his short sentence while a fortune he swindled lies away for him when he gets out sparks Daniel's sense of justice and decides to become a superhero inside the confines of his state penitentiary. Daniel miraculously managed to acquire a fedora, suit, plus a cape while under heavy guard, and adopts his prisoner number as his secret identity to become 711. He escapes to stop Panzer's plot and drops the evidence off at the district attorney who immediately accepts the word of this oddly dressed stranger. 711 then sneaks back into jail and repeats this process through the duration of his comics run, usually dealing just with other thugs and goons, except for his one supervillain nemesis of Brick Bat. This went on for nearly two years until racketeer Oscar Jones literally stepped out in front of the comics page to introduce himself, gives his life story, and is confronted by 711 who he shoots dead. For reals! This was one of the first times a superhero character was killed off in his own feature. Oscar gets caught in the next few issues by the new esper superhero Destiny with help from 711's ghost and the crook gets brought to justice. 711 was not only one of the original comics heroes that used a number for his alias, but also one of the first title characters to achieve permadeath.

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