Imagine being the kid who shelled out a hard-earned dime because you wanted to see Dynamic Man take on an anatomically-impossible dinosaur, only to find a boring story of Dynamic Man taking on some sports gamblers. And no dinosaur, accurate or not, to be found in any of this comic’s 64 pages!
This was the second version of Dynamic Man published by Dynamic Publications, one of many imprints started by Harry Chesler. Their first version was an android, with the powers of flight, super-strength, and limited invulnerability.
However, Timely Comics (the company that became Marvel) also had a character named Dynamic Man who had similar powers and was also an android (this Dynamic Man was featured in the 2008 Marvel mini-series The Twelve.)
Chesler was mindful that DC Comics had recently brought Fox Features to court, alleging that Fox’s Wonder Man character infringed on the Superman copyright. DC won the case, and Wonder Man (or at least that version of him) disappeared forever. Chesler did not want the same kind of trouble with Timely, so by Dynamic Man’s second appearance he was no longer an android.
Instead, the hero was now basketball coach Bert McQuade, who received his abilities from “treatments” he got from a doctor. Identical in powers and appearance to his android forbear, McQuade fiought crime as Dynamic Man.
A few years later his younger brother, Ricky, underwent the same “treatments” and became Dynamic Man’s sidekick, Dynamic Boy.
Many years later the characters would appear again, as part of Dynamite’s Project Superpowers comic book series. In that series, both Dynamic Man and Dynamic Boy are androids, but Dynamic Man uses the Bert McQuade name occasionally.
