2200 years ago, Caius Martius was an ancient Roman superhero known as
The Dart, using his cape as a glider to swoop down, or "dart", at his opponents.
Unfortunately, one of them, Marius, was a sorcerer who managed to entomb the hero in a boulder for over 2,000 years.
Managing to finally extricate himself from the boulder, which had been transported to an American museum, Caius entered the then-present day world of 1940, where the first thing he saw upon leaving the museum was a drive-by shooting of a teen boy's parents!
"Darting" down, Caius transported the traumatized boy to safety, then struck a bargain with him.
The kid, Ace Barlow, would teach him of the amazing world of the "future", and Caius would train the kid in use of ancient weapons, martial arts, and how to "dart", in order to track down the killers of the lad's parents!
Three months of training (and one page) later, the newly-outfitted team of
The Dart and Ace, the Amazing Boy found and captured the gang who had done the heinous deed!
Caius, now much more familiar with the "future" of 1940, took the name Caius Wheeler, and became an antiques dealer to make money for the duo's living and operating expenses as they battled present-day evil with ancient weapons.
All this in
one eight-page story in
Weird Comics #5!
From that appearance to #20 (the final issue of the title in 1942),
The Dart was the book's lead feature, usually taking the cover slot as well.
But since then, nothing...until 2008, when
Alex Ross
included the duo among the plethora of Golden Age superheroes revived in
Project SuperPowers
! (In fact,
Ace is now one of the teen-hero group known as
The Inheritors!)
We at
Atomic Kommie Comics™ also revived the Daring Duo in a
line of kool kollectibles including t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs, and other goodies featuring the cover from
Weird Comics #10!
"Dart" on over to
The Dart and Ace, the Amazing Boy now, before they "dart" away!
and Dave Stevens
), designed a statuette of the Fantastic Four's disstaff member quite unlike anything on US store shelves like this
or this
!
!
convincingly?
.
, 
, 
, and starred in the cult classic 
!
!)