K The Lesser Known Black Owl

Despite the fact that there was a silent film in 1924 with the same name, K The Unknown was also the handle given to a superhero that premiered in 1940 by Feature Publications Inc. in the first issue of their anthology of Prize Comics. K by the next issue would be renamed Black Owl which most people would know him better for, but his initial adventure had K oddly enough on vacation instead of defending his home turf. K in his secret identity of your average rich playboy of Doug Danville who while on a skiing holiday comes across his old college bud Terry, a cute blonde girl that recently became a private eye. While going down the mountain, they run into a snowman which contains a buried corpse. Terry decides to do some investigating, but Doug is a big enough male chauvinist that he can't let a lady be a detective, so he puts on his superhero suit which he remembered to pack along with his toothbrush. Now as K The Unknown, he follows Terry as she gets attacked by some mugs, one of which makes a fast getaway. K worms the truth of the caught hood that the killer was treasurer Max Johnson who snuffed the victim because he found out he stole some funds. Mister "The Unknown" heads back to the hideout to free Terry and then corners Johnson who swats our hero with a handy paper weight. K counters with a head kick and that Johnson is really the international crook Sigmund Rathko in disguise. K bungles by huge mistake of leaving Rathko unconscious in the snow with a note for the authorities, but Terry finds the knocked-out swindler who wakes up and nearly strangles her to death. Because he prematurely left the bad guy out in the snow and didn't tie him up with some rope, K has to rescue Terry again and struggles with Ratkho on a downhill bobsled which finally puts Rathko to sleep as K leaves his signature letter in the snow to inform the police that evil was thwarted by a looser hero with only one letter in their name. Later on, Doug Danville went on to join the army during WWII, so he gets a replacement in the form of Walt Walters who happens to be the father of pair of patriotic twin brothers that were already the superhero duo of Yank and Doodle, and the three of them form a crime-fighting trio with the dad acting as the boys' sidekick instead of their mentor. Why Black Owl would name himself after an obscure movie instead of going with the trendier animal theme is really unknown, least of all wearing a tacky light brown getup with a dumb uppercase letter K on the chest to differentiate him from a certain Man of Steel.