One of the first color-themed superheroes was Blue Beetle who went on to have a long legacy in comics, but debuting in the same first issue of Mystery Men Comics by Fox Features in 1939 was a similar character who spawned off a multitude of people using the same stage name called the Green Mask. Each one of these incarnations has someone wearing a green mask even though the rest of their outfits doesn't share the same color. The very first Green Mask was actually a villain who arched X the Phantom Fed, a government agent that was also a master of disguise, and he had his own council of green masked goons as he tries to sabotage relations between America and Malaysia, so X puts on some blackface to thwart Green Mask's scheme who turns out to be a rich sportsman that kills himself upon being captured. The next Green Mask was a genuine hero although his first appearances made his mask seem blue who didn't even have a secret identity and just read about crimes happening in the newspaper from his hidden lair, and he had genuine superpowers like enhanced strength and flight which throughout his run in Mystery Men was never given a backstory but is considered to be a separate character on his own. The next hero premiered in the self-titled Fox comic The Green Mask where this version is rich detective Michael Shelby that happened to get hit with vita-rays which gave him powers equal to the prior Green Mask and he fought crime along with his token sidekick Domino the Miracle Boy who also gets a vita-ray shower even if Domino never seemed to display any of the same powers. Then in issue 10 of the Green Mask comic, the story shifts to a totally different universe where the first person to use the moniker was Walter Green with the similar powers to the other reality's Green Mask, although we never learn this fellow's origins either, but his powers seem to be hereditary in nature as his son Johnny got them too. Walter Green was drafted into battling the Axis Powers during WWII, so while he was kicking axis on the other side of the planet, Johnny was left back in America as a troubled teenager living on his own with his dog Curly and whenever he gets upset and says "Eeeow!" he goes through an Incredible Hulk-like transformation, but instead of a huge green monster it's an adult superpowered version of himself dressed in full Green Mask regalia sort of like Captain Marvel. Now, Johnny is fighting crime as the next generation Green Mask, normally crooks and gangsters, although in one case his girlfriend doubled as Green Mask for a lookalike contest and gets kidnapped by the gang of a crooked little person who puts on his own Green Mask attire to rob the contest money. Johnny also goes up against an evil robot duplicate of himself which makes for an entire quintet of Green Masks in this reality. When Walter Green eventually returns from the war, there's no mention of him being the prior Green Mask or how Johnny got his powers in the first place, plus his mother finally makes an appearance as a member of the family after it was previously stated that she was dead. So, the final total of known Green Masks out of all multiverses comes to about 8 altogether, 5 good and 3 bad, leaving out a sidekick and a faithful pet. With all the infinite Earths in comic books, it's very likely there's probably an entire Green Mask Corps made up of heroes of varying ages, gender, and robot parts.
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