The Unofficial Biography of...
Hourman

.....Growing up in upstate New York, young Rex found an affinity for chemistry, particularly those areas involving biology. Working his way through college, he landed a job researching vitamins and hormone suppliments at Bannerman Chemical. A series of discoveries and accidents lead him to the "miraculous vitamin" or Miraclo. He found that concentrated doses of that "vitamin" gave a strength and vigor to test mice several times that of normal. Taking a dose, Rex found that his strength and vitality and speed increased to that of super-human levels. However, the human body could only process the Miraclo for an hour at a time, whereafter the subject was weakened and returned to human strength levels.

.....Keeping the discovery of Miraclo a secret, Tyler decided that human trials would be limited to the only subject he could trust...himself. Feeling that the Miraclo-induced abilities should be used for good purposes, he decided to use the abilities to help those that needed it...sort of a hero. His first mission came as a result of Tyler's placing an ad stating that "The Man of The Hour" would help those that needed it. Tracking down one respondant to the ad, he aided a housewife whose husband was falling in with the wrong crowd, and stopped a robbery. Using a costume he found in an abandoned costume shop, he started to adventure as The Hour-Man (later dropping the hyphen ).

.....Nearly eleven months later, after becoming noted for helping the "common man" and battling weird menaces, Hourman became a charter member of the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA. Faced with heroes that used magic, flew and wielded mystical rings, Hourman further strengthened his Miraclo and this led to it slowly becoming addictive. During one case, Tyler's heart gave out, his system poisoned with the toxic side effects of Miraclo. Doctor Fate, through mystical means, cleansed Hourman, and after the case, he retired from active crimefighting, taking a leave of absense from the JSA. During that final case, he was irradiated with chronal energies that slowed his aging later in life.

.....Taking the next six months to heal and work on various cures for Miraclo addiction, Rex semi-retired from adventuring. On the night of December 6, 1941, however, he was visited by the personification of the American Spirit, Uncle Sam. He warned Rex and several other heroes of the impending attack on the American territory of Hawaii by the Imperial Japanese fleet. Throwing caution to the wind, he took a revised Miraclo formula and joined Uncle Sam and his FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

..... The superheroic efforts, however, were not enough and nearly all of the FFers were killed by the superior numbers of the Japanese Zeros. Hourman was captured and spent the next three months as the prisioner of the Japanese. He was later freed and joined the All-Star Squadron. After his release, he discovered that the Miraclo in his system could be activated by a "black light", and used this method instead of the drug whenever possible.

.....Even dimished use and refinement led Rex to abandon his Hourman identity in 1943, the physical and emotional strain too great even for occasional use. He did assist the JSA on occassion, but after 1945, he devoted his time and effort to biochemical advances. Using independant patent royalties, he purchased Bannerman Chemical and renamed it Tyler Chemical Company ( later TylerCo ). With branch labs around the US, Rex Tyler had little time to relive his wartime glory days.

.....About twenty seven years ago, Rex began to take up company with Wendi Harris, an up-and-coming stage actress. During one of their dates, they ran across The Psycho-Pirate, a modern criminal whose mentor was an old Justice Society foe. Along with a recently empowered Doctor Fate, the duo defeated the villain and Rex worked up the courage to ask Wendi to marry him, despite the twenty-some odd year difference in their ages. Wendi agreed, and they were soon blessed with a son, Richard. To Rex's consternation, Rick showed no interest in things acedemic, instead leaning towards sports and art. This was a amjor sourse of friction between father and son for most of their lives.

....for a brief period of time, after the birth of his son, Rex was taken through time to head up Tyler Chemorobotics, an 853rd Century version of his company. While there, he created the android that would later come to live in the early 21st Century and be known as Hourman. The android Hourman at one point travbelled back to the future and freed the mind-controlled Rex, erasing the knowledge of his time in the future.

........Eleven years ago, when several of his friends decided to re-instate the Justice Society, Rex threw his cowl into the ring and was drawn at random to attend the first meeting of the group. They assisted the newly formed Justice League of America in capturing a combine of foes from both groups. Rex, feeling that his Miraclo was now safer to use, began to infrequently join up with his friends on their adventures with the Justice League.

.....Seeing that one day his son might want to take up the cause and fight for justice, Rex began secretly tailoring the Miraclo formula using genetic enginneering for use by Rick or his descendants. He forbade Rick in taking up the Miraclo Pill, citing its side-effects. However, during the Crisis, to save the lives of people trapped during one of the time-storms, Rick took the pills and began to adventure as Hourman as his father and his fellow Justice Socity members were caught in a limbo-like dimension.

....After two years, Rex and his friends were able to free themselves from "Ragnarok Limbo" and return to Earth. Rex found himself mourned as dead and his son dying from an illness, unable to use the Miraclo to strengthen himself to stand the treatments that might save his life. With encouragement from Johnny Quick, Rex found that he could trigger the Miraclo in his bloodstream by force of thought, without further ingestion of the drug. Rex passed this on to Rick, who slowly began to recover.

.....One last time, three years ago, joining with his friends of fifty years, the Justice Society battled the time-tyrant Extant, and in the course of the battle, was robbed of his youthful chronal energies and converted to his natural age of 84, whereupon he immediately died of natural causes.

.....Hourman derives all his super-human abilites from the "miracle vitamin" Miraclo. The active ingredient is a special form of phosphorus, which bonds temporarily with the ATP in muscle cells to create a "Atrphine Quad-Phosphate" which energizes the cells. The energy released gives the subject increased strength, limited invunrability and heightened stamina for about an hour. After that time, the "AQP" burns itself out, and the waste toxins generated need to be eliminated in the bloodstream over about a 24 hour period.

.....Over the years, repeated dosages have left Hourman with a residue of the AQP in his bloodstream and at the end of his career, he was able to cause it to activate through sheer willpower. His son, also exposed to Miraclo, was found to be able to activate it the same way with much less exposure, less than 3 years compared to nearly fifty for the senior Hourman.

Chronological Listing of Comic Book Appearances

All-Star Comics(v2)# 1 ( flashback ) 1919

Secret Origins(v3)#13/SandmanMysteryTheatre# 37-40/Adventure Comics# 48 December 31, '38
SandmanMysteryTheatre# 69-70December '39
Adventure Comics# 49-50
New York World's Fair Comics 1940
Adventure# 51-52
All-Star Comics(v1)# 1
Adventure# 53-55
All-Star(v1)#2
Adventure# 56-58
DC Special# 29/Secret Origins(v3)# 31 November 7, '40
All-Star# 3-4/ASSq# 67November 22-27, '40
Adventure# 59-64
All-Star# 5
Adventure# 65-66
All-Star# 6
Impulse: Bart Saves The Universe
Adventure# 67-68
All-Star# 7 ending June 27, '41
All-Star Squadron Ann# 3 June 28, '41
DC 2000# 1-2 June 30 thru July 3, '41
Adventure# 69-73
ASSq# 32 (flashback) December 6, '41
ASSq# 33-35 February 22-23, '42
Green Lantern: Fear Itself
ASSq# 38-42
ASSq# 44 March 4, '42
Adventure# 74-75
ASSq# 48-51 April '42
ASSq# 53-54
ASSq# 57-60
Adventure# 76
Young All-Stars # 3 May 3, '42
YAS# 7
Adventure# 77-78
YAS Ann# 1 May 23, '42
YAS# 25June 11, '42
Adventure# 79/YAS# 27 June '42
Adventure# 80-83
All-Star(v2)#1 February '45
Smash Comics(v2)#1 February 11, 42
All-Star(v2)# 2 late February '45
Flash (v3)# 161 ( flashback ) 1949
Starman(v2)# 77-79 December 28-31, '51
Showcase# 55-56
Triumph # 1 1968
Hourman# 24 September 21-24, 1969
JLA:Year One# 6, 11-12 Twelve Years Ago
Justice League of America(v1)# 21-22
JLA:Incarnations# 1
JLA(v1)# 55-56
JLA(v1)# 64-65
Spectre(v1)# 7
JLA(v1)#82-83
JLA(v1)# 100-102
JLA(v1)# 107-108 No longer in continuity
JLA(v1)# 113
JLA(v1)# 123-124 No longer in continuity
All-Star# 62-65, 67-70, 75
Adventure# 462 No longer in continuity
Adventure #466/3
DC Comics Presents# 25/2
JLA# 195-197
JLA# 219-220 No longer in continuity
Infinity Inc# 1, 2 December 24, Eight Years Ago
America vs Justice Society# 1-4No longer in continuity
IInc# 19-20 July, Seven Years Ago
II Ann# 1, IInc# 21, 22/Crisis # 5( behind the scenes ), 9-10
IInc# 25
Last Days of the Justice Society# 1 November, Seven Years Ago
Armageddon: Inferno# 3-4
Justice Society(v2)#1, 8-10
Justice League Task Force# 5-8
Zero Hour# 4
Starman(v2) #37 ( as a ghost )

Before the White Wall... A Commentary on Pre-Crisis History

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This Page was Created... a long time ago...
This Page was last Updated January 15, 2002.

All Characters and situations copyright DC Comics, 2002.

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