Few would associate one of America’s earliest and most successful authors with comic books. However, some feel that Nathanial Hawthorne, the same man who wrote The Scarlet Letter, may have created America’s first superhero. 

As with much of Hawthorne’s work, The Gray Champion takes place in New England. It is a wonderful piece of historical fiction that first appeared in New-England Magazine in 1835. It also appeared in his collection Twice-Told Tales (Vol.1) in 1937.

The villain of the piece is a British Officer who is abusing his power over the citizenry. As the tale opens Hawthorne reminds readers that, even though things are tough now, they were once much, much harder to deal with.

“There was once a time, when New-England groaned under the actual pressure of heavier wrongs, than those threatened ones which brought on the Revolution.’

Like great story-tellers often do, he is reaching into the past in order to reflect on the present. He takes the reader back to the streets of Boston in 1689 where a group of British Officers are gathering.

A crowd gathers to protest the domination of the British. As it does ministers and citizens and everyday people start to march in order to show how serious they are with their complaints against the British. A voice from the crowd yells “ ‘Oh! Lord of Hosts,’ cried a voice among the crowd, ‘provide a Champion for thy people!’ ”

From the crowd an elderly man appears and stands before the abusive Governor and orders him to “stand”.

Naturally the Governor demands to know who this man is and where he has come from.

“ ‘I am here, Sir Governor, because the cry of an oppressed people hath disturbed me in my secret place;…’ ”

Ending his message The Gray Champion tells the Governor his fate lest he not back down. That “ ‘… to-morrow, the prison!–back, lest I foretell the scaffold!’ ”

Defenseless and aged, The Gray Champion has stood up to the Governor. Inspiring the crowd with his actions he then disappears. Leaving whispers among the crowd about who he was. It is only then as they ask “Who was that Gray Champion” that he acquires his name and legend.

Little, if any real heroics actually take place inside the story. There are no battles or death-defying stunts. But The Gray Champion is inspirational in the way that the best of heroes are.

He stirs the crowd to action and eventually the British Officer who has been abusing his power is replaced. When he is done, he slips into darkness and never asks for a reward for his bravery. He did it out of duty to what is right.

What comic fans will find significant is that the idea for such a hero comes from the mind of an American Writer. Hawthorne also approaches the idea of a patriotic ghost with the energy of a modern comic book writer. He incorporates various literary ideas that would eventually become comic book conventions.

First up is the idea of the unknown hero. Even though the Gray Ghost doesn’t wear a mask, like Daredevil, Batman and almost everyone else, his true identity is concealed. The crowd never learns who he actually is. Since they know everyone in town, he certainly wasn’t a local.

There is also the concept that The Gray Ghost comes from a hidden place. Much in the way that Superman came from Krypton or has The Fortress of Solitude. Or that Batman has The Batcave.

It is also significant that Hawthorne didn’t call him “The Gray Ghost” For the story is really the story of a ghost who appears. However, by deliberately using the word “Champion” Hawthorne removes him from the world of the supernatural and gives him a sense of corporal reality. As if he is one of us and not an apparition. The word “Champion” also rings of a heroic mission.

Read the closing paragraph as written by Hawthorne and try and tell us that Stan Lee couldn’t have done just as nice a job at the end of a first issue. Or that, with considerably fewer words, an episode of the fifties TV version of Superman didn’t say almost the exact same thing at the close of an episode.

“His hour is one of darkness, and adversity, and peril. But should domestic tyranny oppress us, or the invader’s step pollute our soil, still may the Grey Champion come, for he is the type of New England’s hereditary spirit; and his shadowy march, on the eve of danger, must ever be the pledge that New England’s sons will vindicate their ancestry.

The story is readily available from a number of sources on line. To find a great copy in print check out The Library of America’s collection of Hawthorne’s work titled Tales and Sketches.