Name: Patrick "Pat" Dugan
Alias(es): Stripesy
First Appearance: Star-Spangled Comics v1 #1 1941 DC
In-Universe Debut: New York City 1941
Height: 6' 7"
Weight: 280 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red
Relations, Sidekicks, Colleagues, and Teams[]
Brother Red Dugan, ex-wife Maggie Shaw, son Mike Dugan, wife Barbara Whitmore, daughter Patricia Dugan, step-daughter Courtney Whitmore
Partner Sylvester Pemberton
Member Seven Soldiers of Victory (I), Infinity Incorporated
Creation S.T.R.I.P.E.
Wayward Earth History[]
Hulk Hogan will always be my model for Pat, and while officially Pat is six-foot-one, Hogan is six-seven and unless the gangsters in the original adventures were midgets (it was the Golden Age, it could have happened) Pat was drawn as a "huge friggin' goy"*, so the six-seven is borne out. And again with the Irish stereotypes (which is coincidentally how one Terry Gene Bollea ended up a Hogan)... Born in a bad section of New York, formally uneducated, worked in a circus, but mighty handy with tools - just don't let him near the good china. Actually, the circus daredevil thing I kind of latched on to, and with the pre-war motordrome at Luna Park being quite the rage it seemed to fit pretty well with Pat's penchant for doing things to vehicles against the laws of God and Physics. And it helps with the boxing, wrestling, and acrobatics he was known for.
Jackie Gleason was born February 26, 1916 which would be twenty-five in 1941, so I'll go with that for Pat and being born to an Irish Catholic family in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Never talks about his folks so one might figure a bad end and running away to Coney Island. Proves to be a bit scary around machines and goes from roustabout to mechanic pretty fast. A few years there (and occasionally performing) and he leaves to start up his own garage. Frugal man, our Pat. From there to the Pembertons, then the Seven Soldiers and the Nebula Man disaster, and he gets deposited in the 1970s after having been a slave in Ancient Egypt for a while. Must have been something for his figure and tan.
Pat comes back from Egypt and, thanks to funding from the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs who have a special fund for time-displaced heroes, leaves New York behind for Los Angeles to set up as a mechanic once again. Of course he brings his Brooklyn Dodgers cap. Now, here's a thing - Pat's kind of an enabler of underage heroes. He's got a history there, and Sylvester had enough shit to deal with thanks to out-of-their-freakin'-mind nephews and stolen fortunes, so Infinity Inc. setting up shop in the back of Pat's garage isn't exactly out of character. And Syl joins the Teen Titans on the East Coast.
So, Pat Dugan was a gearhead before he was a Mystery Man and after the Star Rocket Racer he needed something a bit more Hot Rod Mech than that alabaster battleship he was putzing about in. And hot rods need miles of chrome and pinstriping. There's a reason I don't draw mechs or cars. Ever. Figure the cockpit on this thing is maybe eight or nine feet long (which isn't a bit obvious in the picture) and the whole thing's maybe ten feet tall. And stuffed with Knight Cosmic Tech. Who needs guns and missiles when you've got Star Power?