Who's This? A pill addict.
The facts: Likely based on a "Minuteman" pun, the Golden Age Hourman, Rex Tyler, premiered in Adventure Comics #48 (March 1940), his home for the next three years, ending with issue #83. He headlined and got the cover for that first year, losing it to the likes of Sandman and Starman after that. He was also a member of the JSA and was featured in the first 7 issues of All-Star Comics, then in the 70s revival, leading to being fairly important to All-Star Squadron. Seemingly killed in Zero Hour, Rex was later rescued by the android Hourman and allowed to quietly retire.
How you could have heard of him: Rex Tyler is perhaps most famous for the latter-day retcon that told us Miraclo was addictive and that he was, like Speedy, a super-addict. He continues to appear in stories set in the Golden Age, JSA flashbacks, etc., and is one of the heroes who lost their sidekicks (Tick-Tock) to time and memory according to Stargirl: The Lost Children. There is a Rex Tyler Hourman in the Arrowverse, indeed two (Legends of Tomorrow/Earth-1 and Stargirl/Earth-2), played by Patrick J. Adams and Lou Ferrigno Jr. respectively.
Example story: Adventure Comics #57 (December 1940) "The Menace of Dr. Togg" by Ken Fitch and Bernard Baley
The superhero (sorry, mystery man) who was so great, he went by three names - "Tick-Tock Tyler", "The Man of the Hour", and "Hour-Man" (we would remove the hyphen later). The splash panel also promises action by the "Minute Men of America", his team of Dickensian street urchins. So let's get into it. Our villain is Dr. Togg, who has been doing heinous experiments on animals, like a Golden Age B'wana Beast.
But we're not here for him, we're here for Hourman. And if you're looking for confirmation that he was a Miraclo addict all along, it does seem very suspicious that he would pop a pill just to go to a meeting of the Minute Men.
There's absolutely no reason to give yourself super-strength, especially with the one-hour duration, if all you're going to do is wear the costume and recite an oath. So addict... true? (At least Tom King or someone like him hasn't decided to retcon him as a groomer.) So it's with part of his golden hour already wasted that Hourman leaps into action, leading some of the kids to stop a nearby bank robbery. I bet taking minors into action won't backfire...
I just lot that bet. The other Minute Men do prove useful, blocking off the street with carts full of fruit, which that getaway car crashes into and stalls. The cops take it from there. But what does this have to do with Dr. Togg (answer: nothing). He's busy making a race of real-life griffons - basically Great Danes with wings, bird claws, "slippery skin" and a limited vocabulary. He sends them to commit crimes so he can finance his unethical experiments.
Using his scientist sense, Tick-Tock Tyler correctly intuits that a radium shipment will be hit next. Once again, he takes a Miraclo pill before he needs one - it's like he thinks he can't fill out the costume without it, and for all I know, he's right - calls the Minute Men, and comes upon a solution to the animals' slipperiness - butterfly nets!
Hopped up on super-strength, Hourman bounds towards the creatures and captures them in his net before climbing into Toggs' lar. Togg isn't there, and remotely sics his buzzwolves on the hero, who sees explosive chemicals on a table and uses them (chemistry for the win). Only thanks to Miraclo does he survive the blast, the combined animals aren't so lucky. It is assumed here that Dr. Togg WAS inside the building, even if he was speaking through a giant screen, because he never appeared again. Not until the android Hourman series when it is revealed he survived housed in one of those creatures' bodies. It was pretty crazy.
To my surprise, despite the one-hour weakness, which is right there in his name, it never comes up. Hourman always has enough time to get through the mission, even though he charges up way early. The strip really needed someone like Stan Lee who made that kind of thing his bread and butter.
Who's Next? A pill-popping legacy.
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