First Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics #2 (February 1940).
Golden Age Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics #2.
Modern Appearances: None.
Years Active: 1940-?

Dennis Burton is a young Assistant District Attorney from a long line of law enforcement officers. He grows frustrated at how difficult it is to first catch and then convict gangsters, and so he decides to take the law into his own hands. From somewhere he finds a phosphorescent glowing laughing mask (as you can see in the picture to the right) and wears that as a disguise while he fights crime in his own way, as "The Laughing Mask." The Laughing Mask's approach to fighting crime, however, is to find criminals and kill them with two .45s, leaving the bodies for the police to find. He is definitely a killer vigilante, even shooting a bound and helpless gangster.

Apart from his athleticism, the Laughing Mask has no superpowers, but he is athletic, a good brawler, and good with his .45s.

Note: After the events of Daring Mystery Comics #2 Burton apparently felt the need for a change--perhaps he grew tired of his own bloodthirstiness? perhaps things grew too hot for the Laughing Mask, who after all murdered several men, gangsters though they were--and so changed his superhero name to the Purple Mask.