Hourman is a name shared by three superheroes from DC Comics.
The first was Rex Tyler, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #48 (March, 1940). He was co-created by Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily. One of the original "mystery men" of The Golden Age of Comic Books, Rex was a biochemist who discovered a particular mixture of vitamins and hormones that he dubbed "Miraclo" which enabled enhanced strength, agility, speed and endurance for an hour before wearing off.
Tyler's decision to become a superhero was two-fold: 1) he wanted a human trial with a panel and subject he could trust (himself) and 2) he wanted the drug to be used "altruistically." As it ended up, he started his career by putting ads in the paper and aiding respondents. Eventually team-ups with other heroes led him to pool his resources with the Justice Society of America. Like most of his generation, a great deal of his crime-fighting career was in service to Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.
Hourman was one of the first characters cut from the JSA roster, and the character vanished until the 1960s, when he would show up for the regular crossover stories between the JSA and JLA. He was a part of the short lived Justice Society of America series from the early 1990s, and then came Zero Hour...
Rex's career ended, along with most of the founding members of the JSA, when he was aged to death by the Crisis Crossover villain Extant in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!. Next up in the line was his son, Rick Tyler, first appearing in Infinity, Inc. #20 (November, 1985). Rick spent time with other second-generation superhumans calling themselves Infinity, Inc. Rick was brash and overbearing in his career, embodying many of the darker aspects of his father's alter ego when left to run unchecked. Several events led to Rick giving up the mantle for a time, but he was ultimately stopped from continuing as Hourman by the illness that had ravaged his body from prolonged use of the toxic Miraclo. When the third Hourman found him, he was enraged at a robot taking up his father's identity. He attacked his usurper but was ultimately thrown into the Timepoint, a place of suspended time, where he would wait until a cure could be found several years later.
The third Hourman was an android who called itself Matthew Tyler, created by Tyler Chemorobotics during the 853rd Century based upon the genetic make-up of Rex, making the android his descendent. He first appeared in JLA #12 (November, 1997) when he traveled from the far future to help the modern Justice League of America. Matthew begins as a Harbinger of future crises, then transforms into Chekhov's Gunman in the DC One Million mini-series. Afterwards, his omnipotent power mixed with a general lack of experience and maturity led to him seeking out the most humanizing sidekick/mentor in the JLA's roster: ...Snapper Carr. In the midst of his solo adventures with Snapper and several other friends, Matthew spent time connecting with the newest incarnation of the Justice Society of America. Years later, after curing Rick of his illness and reuniting him with his father, Matthew took Rex's place in the time-line, allowing himself to be "killed" and giving Rex and his son a chance to find their place in the current world.
After Flashpoint rebooted the DCU, no Hourman existed, although Miraclo did and was a plot point in Earth 2, until a version of Rick Tyler appeared in Earth-2: Society who became part of the Wonders of the World (the New 52 version of the Justice Society). Doomsday Clock and Infinite Frontier restored the JSA characters to continuity, with Rick playing a role in Dark Crisis and Matthew appearing in Stargirl: The Lost Children, with both of them currently starring in Justice Society of America (2022).
Various incarnations of Hourman have appeared occasionally in live action. The Rex Tyler version briefly appeared in the Arrowverse series Legends of Tomorrow, portrayed there by Patrick J. Adams. On DC Universe (2018)'s Stargirl, both Rex and Rick appear as Hourman in varying capacities; Rex as a posthumous character (portrayed by Lou Ferrigno Jr. in flashbacks) while Rick (Cameron Gellman) becomes the second Hourman in Stargirl's revived Justice Society. An Hourman series was also once reported to be in development
at The CW in 2013, but it never materialized.
For tropes on Rex and Matthew, see Justice Society of America. For Rick, see Infinity, Inc..
Tropes for the 1999 comic book run:
- Affably Evil: The Undersoul is a demon lord who tortures people to exorcitate the sin out of them, but he is otherwise a Benevolent Boss to his demons, encouraging them with kind words contantly, sharing jokes and treating them to snacks.
- Ambiguous Time Period: It's not specified when does Hourman Century take place, because after a while, people just stopped numbering centuries and instead began to assign them themes. We only know it's very far in the future, farther even than the 853rd century.
- An Arm and a Leg: Snapper gets both hands amputated in Issue #20 by a group of Khunds torturing him.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted by Matthew and Tomorrow Woman, but played straight by virtually every other android in the series. Matthre actively questions if it's an inevitable flaw of design or something he has a choice in.
- Heck, Tomorrow Woman did rebel against her maker; but since her maker was an evil Robot Master and she wanted to be a hero, that was actually a good thing.
- Aliens Love Human Food: Snapper Carr is able to defeat the demon Torcher in the Day of Judgment tie-in issue by inviting him to some cheesecake.
- Arc Words: In the first issue, Snapper recites a list about a dozen strange terms ("The timepoint, the giant nanites, the Century of Solitude" and several others) which he doesn't understand, but which he knows are going to affect his and Hourman's future. Throughout the course of the series, each one plays an important role in the story. In the final issue, just before he and Hourman part ways Snapper recites the terms again, but this time as a list of fond memories.
- Art Shift: When Hourman time travels to the 1940s, everything is rendered like a Golden Age comic book.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Future-Ty. While he is a better, stronger, more heroic version of Hourman from the future, he also causes Tyler huge self-esteem issues by constantly putting him down, and he stalks Bethany by pretending to be a dog. Issue #19 reveals he is actually Amazo and all the humilliations he made Matthew endure where 100% intentional.
- Break the Cutie: Snapper's torture at the hands the Undersoul's demons significantly traumatizes him, and leads to him growing distant with Hourman.
- Expy: Torcher, a Laughably Evil demon who ends up hanging around a bar after being peacefully subdued, comes off as one for Baytor, from Garth Ennis' The Demon and Hitman (1993).
- Hate Plague: The demon Torcher makes the people inside the Mad Yak cafe irritable and agressive.
- Granola Girl: Bethany, the curious and precocious ex-wife of Snapper Carr and predestined girlfriend of Hourman. Rick Tyler's mother derisevely calls her a "hippie".
- Green-Eyed Monster: Amazo's reason for impersonating a future version of Hourman to destroy him emotionally and steal everything he has is that he's envious of Matthew being a more advanced model than he is.
- Mad Scientist: Professor Rocco Togg fits this to a t, having fought the Golden Age Hourman back in the 1940s, having the style of clothing and physical appearance associated with the character, employing Mix-and-Match Critters named "Gombezi" as mooks and strapping women to tables to mutate them.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Professot Togg's mooks, the Gombezi, are an artificial race of animals that look like a mix of dogs and birds of prey.
- Ms. Fanservice: Bethany, Snapper's ex-wife, is recognized In-Universe to be beautiful, and tends to wear skimpy clothes.
- Planet of Hats: Earth itself will become this in the future, where instead of numbering centuries, they'll be given themes that humans will follow religiously for 100 years. Hourman frequently visits the "Hourman Century", where everybody has Hourman-themed names and clothing and every building is devoted to honouring Tyler, to blow off steam.
- Rags to Riches: Rex Tyler, the first Hourman, came from a very humble background, but he became interested in chemistry as a young kid and that allowed him to study in university, eventually leading to him founding a succesful pharmaceutical company.
- Side Kick: Snapper Carr, member of the first incarnation of the Justice League of America and the Rick Jones of the DC Universe.
- Tears of Joy: Tomorrow Woman sheds these when Hourman explains that she sacrificed herself to save the Justice League, rather than betraying them and killing them all like she was initially programmed to do.
- Trapped in the Past: At the end of Issue #20, Snapper realizes he didn't die, but instead was sent to the past — particularly during his time in the Blasters.
- Unfortunate Names: Crusty Old Doc Tyler. No, that's not a nickname, that's her full name, Crusty Old Doc Tyler.
- Unwilling Robotization: Issue #6 sees Amazo reveal his new plan to, instead of absorbing powers, absorb the genes of organic beings to become human himself. The first victims of this, the JLA, are transformed into cold robotic versions of themselves.
- Wham Episode: Issue #19: Amazo has been impersonating future-Ty and breaks Snapper's neck when he finds out.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A large theme of the Hourman series, Tyler goes around asking many other androids their perspective on identity and what it means to be a person.