Is he today's ideal crime fighter, gliding like a shark through the shadows of the underworld, striking down the wicked, depraved and profligate with vengeance and justice?
Or is he a crass, brutal, loutish, pugnacious buffoon, wandering the streets of New York murdering his prey with out pity or the slightest moral compunction?
Is he really someone the youth of America should be looking up to?
Does he ever, even occasionally, ponder the greater universal questions like Truth, Love, Beauty, Nature... or is he happy and content to haunt our modern society's gutters, alleys and human cesspools, dispensing random acts of Horror and Death?
Will you feel your blood run cold at the very idea that this one man flying goon squad stalks the night as judge, jury and executioner ruthlessly annihilating his pathetic and hopeless victims?
The Strangler asks not for your judgement, your sympathy or your condemnation. He merely wanders off, muttering, and in search of tonight's darkest and most interesting moments.
A former studio wrestler, The Strangler got his powers of invulnerability and great strength in his hands from an enchanted bundt cake sent to him anonymously in the mail.
When he is under the influence of the magical bundt cake, it is very dangerous, even painful for him to touch metal. Thus he often wears gloves.
The ice-cream-cone-design logo on his chest and his motto "I kill for ice cream!" hearkens back to his Viet Nam Days, when members of his search-and-destroy unit were rewarded with scoops of vanilla ice cream for each kill.
The Strangler is a loner, a bit too much on the grim and creepy side even for many of his fellow Mysterymen. He lives in New York City, "just because there are so many perfect criminal victims there!" The Hummer, also a New Yorker, was The Strangler's best friend, and liked to hang around with him in spite of his dark and macabre nature.
The Hummer was a bit crazy himself, goofy crazy, but they were tight buddies like Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. They went on lots of adventures together, hung out in bars and picked up girls.
The Hummer loved action. He loved being a super hero. The Strangler always knew that the Hummer was game for a deadly mission at any hour of the day or night, in cold or rain, in sleet or snow.
The Hummer, however, was a bit too much of a party animal, and as time went by he pushed the envelope a bit too far and burned the candle of life at both ends. He was prone to bar hopping, three-day drinking binges, ridiculous stunts, and bizarre practical jokes. But what did him in was the humming device on his fist from which his super powers came. The device sent vibrations that could fibulae a criminal, rattle a car to a malfunctioning halt, or make flight of bullets erratic. But The Hummer found that, when turned low, he could "get a buzz" off the device. He used it for that purpose too much, and one day he just snapped.
The Hummer showed up one afternoon, walking around 7th Avenue in his underwear, babbling and leaving a swath of destruction and death in his wake.
The police couldn't apprehend him and lost a lot of men trying. Ironically, in the end, they called on The Strangler, his best friend, to take him out. (See Flaming Carrot Annual #1.)
In the Bushido tradition of a true warrior, a samurai who has disgraced himself must commit seppuku, a ritual suicide commonly known as Hari-Kari. Sitting cross-legged, he will cut himself open with his own knife and then, standing behind him, his closest friend will cut his head off with a samurai sword. The Strangler wasted no time dispatching his dark task, but not without a trace of sentimental sorrow as he later sauntered into Hummer's favorite 42nd St. strip joint and ordered a two Zimas, The Hummer's latest fad beverage. One he drank and the other he poured on the floor in memory of his friend who would ride with the Mysterymen no more.
The Strangler first appeared in Flaming Carrot Annual #1. His first full featured story was published in Mysterymen Stories #1.
Meet the Strangler!
About The Character