Darwin Jones is a fictional character appearing in media published by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. He first appeared in ''

Strange Adventures ''Strange Adventures'' is a series of American comic books published by DC Comics, the first of which was August–September 1950, according to the cover date, and published continuously until November 1973. Original series ''Strange Adventure ...

'' #1 (August 1950), and was created by David V Reed and

Paul Norris Paul Leroy Norris (April 26, 1914 – November 5, 2007) was an American comic book artist best known as co-creator of the DC Comics superhero Aquaman, and for a 35-year run as artist and writer of the newspaper comic strip '' Brick Bradford''. B ...

Publication history

The first Darwin Jones story appeared in ''Strange Adventures'' #1 (August 1950), written by creator David V Reed, (better known for his war and fantasy stories), and drawn by artist

and inker Bernard Sachs. This was a single appearance as opposed to the start of a series - there were no further stories until ''Strange Adventures'' #48 (September 1954). His further appearances in the 1950s were irregular - ''Strange Adventures'' #58 (1955), #66 and #70 (1956), #76, #77, #79 and #84 (1957), then #88 and #93 (1958), after which no Darwin Jones stories were published until he eventually re-appeared in ''Strange Adventures'' #149 (February 1963) and a last story in ''Strange Adventures'' #160 (January 1964). Although he utilised many of the classic National writers and artists of the day, ''Strange Adventures'' editor

Julius Schwartz Julius "Julie" Schwartz ( ; June 19, 1915 – February 8, 2004) was an American comic book editor, and a science fiction agent. He was born in The Bronx, New York. He is best known as a longtime editor at DC Comics, where at various times he ...

made no attempt at continuity with the production team on the stories. In thirteen stories Darwin Jones was penned by no less than eight authors: his creator David V Reed,

Gardner Fox Gardner Francis Cooper Fox (May 20, 1911 – December 24, 1986) was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC ...

, Sid Gerson,

Bill Finger Milton "Bill" Finger (February 8, 1914 – ) was an American comic book writer who co-created the DC Comics character Batman with Bob Kane. Despite making major (sometimes, signature) contributions as an innovative writer, visionary mythos/world ...

, Joe Samachson,

Otto Binder Otto Oscar Binder (; August 26, 1911 – October 13, 1974) was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books. He is best known as the co-creator of Supergirl and for his many scripts for '' Captain Ma ...

, John Broome, and Ed Herron, and an equally large number of artists, including

Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editing, editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are ...

, Sy Barry,

Gil Kane Gil Kane (; born Eli Katz , ; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character. Kane co-created the modern-day vers ...

, John Giunta, Joe Giella and

Murphy Anderson Murphy C. Anderson Jr. (July 9, 1926 – October 22, 2015) was an American comics artist, known as one of the premier inkers of his era, who worked for companies such as DC Comics for over fifty years, starting in the Golden Age of Comic Books in ...

. An oddity of the series is that none of the stories were actually headlined as Darwin Jones tales, and many do not even mention him until part way through the story. Since then there have been no further Darwin Jones stories as such; he has only made a small number of minor appearances in other titles - ''Daring New Adventures of Supergirl'' #7 (May 1983), a cameo role in the DC Comics cross-over story ''

Crisis on Infinite Earths ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' is a 1985 to 1986 American comic book fictional crossover, crossover series published by DC Comics. Written by Marv Wolfman and penciller, pencilled by George Pérez, it was first released as a 12-issue limited ser ...

'' #9 (1985), the out-of-continuity DC staff round robin adventure ''

DC Challenge ''DC Challenge'' was a 12-issue comic book limited series produced by DC Comics from November 1985 to October 1986, as a round robin experiment in narrative. The series' tagline was "Can You Solve It Before We Do?" Publication history The ''DC C ...

'' #4-6 (February 1986 - April 1986), '' Power of the Atom'' #15 (August 1989), ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics Inc., which later merged into National ...

'' #683 (November 1992) and '' Underworld Unleashed: Patterns of Fear'' #1 (December 1995). The character resurfaced during the ''

Final Crisis "Final Crisis" is a crossover storyline that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics in 2008, primarily the seven-issue miniseries of the same name written by Grant Morrison. Originally DC announced the project as being illustrated solely ...

'' storyline.

Father Time Father Time is a personification of time, in particular the progression of history and the approach of death. In recent centuries, he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, sometimes with wings, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe ...

, the Commander of the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive (S.H.A.D.E.) has an off-page conversation with an unseen 'Darwin'. Although this has not actually been confirmed as Darwin Jones, the two are contemporaneous heads of U.S. Government Agencies (covert or otherwise), both responsible for investigating threats to the country so a link is likely. He is referred to in the Justice League series '' JL: Cry for Justice'' (2009).

Fictional character biography

As originally created, Darwin Jones "science detective" was the Chief of Staff of D.S.I. (The Department of Scientific Investigation), a top secret U.S. Government Bureau which is "called on to solve the unsolveable...to explain the inexplicable...and to understand the things that few men on this Earth have understood". In his first known case he investigated a seemingly immortal actress, deducing a radioactive pool in Mexico that she had swum in while filming may have been the cause. His later investigations mostly involved investigating aliens, most notably rampaging alien snowmen, although an eyeless creature from inside the Earth, a robot from ancient Atlantis, and an evil super-intelligent gorilla (actually a hoax by aliens bent on world domination) also featured. Later Darwin was made Director of the D.S.I. He had also made the acquaintance of a group of youths called the Young Scienceers, who had made him an honorary member, and together with the club President, Tommy Dane, Jones once again defeated an alien plot. After this, nothing is known of his exploits until

Lois Lane Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1 (June 1938). Lois is an award-winning ...

contacted him to help the Metropolis police solve a murder. Later, during ''

'', Jones investigated the time and space anomalies caused by the

Anti-Monitor The Anti-Monitor is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He served as the main antagonist of the 1985 DC Comics miniseries ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' and later appears as an enemy to the Green Lantern Corps ...

. By 1989, he and other scientists created a computer mind, 'The Gestalt' - a revolutionary brain implant that links their minds to the Gestalt and each other so they can share knowledge directly. The Gestalt however began working autonomously, creating a cyber-villain, Humbug, which took the

Atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...

to defeat. He next encountered

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

while investigating cattle mutilations and a mysterious plane crash in Ohio, his last actual appearance to date.See note #1 above.

References

Notations

* ''Who’s Who Update'' Vol 1 #2 (DC Comics, 1987)
''Who's Who of American Comic Books''

''Grand Comics database''

External links

DCU Guide: Darwain Jones
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Darwin Characters created by Paul Norris Comics characters introduced in 1950 DC Comics scientists DC Comics superheroes Superhero detectives Fictional paranormal investigators