Fire-Eater, Eater Of Fire

Great Comics Publications' secondary series Choice Comics had yet another circus-based superhero, the flamboyant Fire-Eater. Running in only the first two issues, Mike O'Malley is described as being "a lusty yankee whose amazing conquest of flames keeps audiences gasping, and criminals cringing", which is a fancy way of saying he's a masked circus performer who doubles as a crimefighter that uses his fire eating gimmick as a superpower by consuming a special capsule. This was created by an artist using the alias Wood Byrns which shows how far they wanted to separate themselves from the character. Mike's girlfriend is Louise Peters, a nurse who runs to tell him about an arson ring that is planning on springing their boss Dr. Nagel from the state hospital. The gang is so determined that they send their firebug Smoky Karsh to sabotage Fire-Eaters pills. Mr. Eater takes a good pill to confront Smoky and his boys in a chase to the hospital while breathing fire on them. His power is useless though against a thug in an asbestos suit, but it makes him fireproof as he runs into the burning building where Nagel is escaping from and defeats all the baddies with just his fists. The second and last story sees Fire-Eater getting called to duty for the harbor patrol as their boats keep getting torched. He spots a U-boat and melts its periscope while Louise gets kidnapped by Nazi spies. Fire-Eater grabs a flight on a sports plane to catch the Ratzis as they transfer Louise to their submarine. He uses his fire breathing to melt bullets in their getaway, and then gets some goons on a pier to blow themselves up with their own grenades. Whether he's busting mafia or Nazi chops, Fire-Eater managed to get the most out of his particular set of skills, which makes you wonder if there should be an entire superhero team of circus acts like Captain Trapeze or The Mighty Juggler.