Witness
Real
Name: Unknown
Identity/Class: Unrevealed
Occupation: Radio host
Affiliations: None
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unknown
First Appearance: The Witness #1 (Timely Comics, September 1948)
Powers/Abilities: Good fighter. He may also have had some sort of extra-sensory power that allowed him to know when and where a crime would be committed, so that he could be present in time to witness it happening.
History: (The Witness #1, Ideal #4, Captain America Comics #71, Amazing Mysteries #32, Marvel Mystery Comics #92) The Witness was a mysterious individual who observed crime and other strange behaviour, passing Watcher-like comments on what he saw through the medium of a radio show.
Comments: Unlike the Witness seen in Mystic Comics, who was very much a participant in the adventures shown, the Witness seen from Witness #1 on was purely a narrator of weird tales. Initially I thought they were the same character, but the Marvel miniseries The Twelve confirms them to be two distinct individuals, since the wartime Witness was in suspended animation when the radio host was active.
Thanks to Jess Nevins for allowing me to use information from his excellent Golden Age Heroes Directory and his Guide to Golden Age Marvel Characters. Thanks also to Richard Boucher & Darrin Wiltshire @ PR-Publications for permission to use information from their equally brilliant collection of Golden Age Sites, PR Publications. Their knowledge of Golden Age characters far outstrips my own.
CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with
The Witness, a character from Marvel's New Universe
The Witness, his crimefighting predecessor
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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