Hudson City

The new prosperity carried over into the 1920s and ’30s, an era that saw the debut of a phenomenon many people closely associate with Hudson City:  costumed vigilante crime-fighters. Prohibition, made the law of the land by the Volstead Act, allowed organized crime — mainly the Mafia — to flourish by providing bootleg liquor in addition to gambling, prostitution, and other forms of vice. Italian crime families like the Morellis and Torccones got their start during this period, and their leaders became some of the most powerful men in the city.With smuggling, murder, and mayhem on the rise, a breed of men and women arose to oppose the gangsters and fiendish masterminds who beset the city.

The first and foremost among these was the Raven, a masked man dressed in black and wearing a black cloak. He claimed to have mystic powers of foresight, but to the readers of the Hudson City papers it often seemed as if his quick trigger finger and unerring aim were the most important abilities he brought to his war on crime. Accompanied by his companion, the lovely and vivacious Velvet Phantom, his pet raven Cagliostro, and a group of helpers known as the Midnight Brigade, the Raven smashed crime syndicates, foiled the plans of murderous arch-criminals, and repeatedly saved the city from disaster despite being wanted by the police.

As the 1920s turned into the '30s and the tide of crime (both normal and “weird,” as the papers dubbed it) rose, several other “masked mystery men” took their place beside the Raven on the front lines of crime-fighting. The Golden Tiger, an American who somehow learned the secret Oriental fighting arts, brought his skills to bear in an unending war against the tongs of Chinatown. Captain James Battle and his Science Police used their technological know-how and arsenal of gadgets to fight all manner of crime, including the insidious Dr. Fang and his Legion of Evil. The Scarlet Shadow wielded a Gas-Gun that allowed him to lay criminals low without harming them. Rawboned FBI agent Sam Spivey didn’t wear a costume, but he worked with the likes of the Raven or Jim Battle so often that he was often associated with them in the minds of the public. Together these men, and others like them, kept the good people of Hudson City from falling under an onslaught of crime.