Don Hutchison suggests that "Benson's extreme personal misfortune was probably the strongest motivation accorded any of the great pulp heroes," stemming as it did from the death of his family and his own "death in life". The stories, by veteran pulp/magazine writer Paul Ernst "were well-plotted mysteries with mild science-fictional extrapolations", albeit often appearing somewhat subdued when compared to rival publications such as "The Spider" and "Operator #5". Benson was "the master of the last-minute escape", cool and intellectual, mentally "the equal of Doc Savage" but otherwise "an average-sized man". The plastic, malleable state of his otherwise immobile features allowed the character to physically reshape his face with his fingers into a likeness of any person, his features remaining in sculpted form "until they were carefully put back into place." This ability, coupled with hair dyes and colored contact lenses, earned him the sobriquet "The Man of a Thousand Faces".