(Master Comics 018, 1941) Okay, I am a big fan of the Black Hood. Let’s count down the reasons: One: very exciting to see the classic super-suit being worn in the early days of suits and robes. This look won’t take long to become ubiquitous once it catches on but it’s still pretty rare in 1941. Two: not only is he a fashion pioneer but he is a thought leader in the field of henchman couture. Dressing your guys in…
(Master Comics 016, 1941) I always have an instinct to skip the really racist ones, but I think it’s better to acknowledge them? There’s lots of messed up shit in old (and new) comics, folks. Anyway, Mumbo Jumbo is a guy named Graynor who poses as a voodoo god/ priest in classic (often quite racist) comics style and uses the believers at his command in order to… get revenge on his old boss. It’s a shocking lack of ambition on…
(Master Comics 016, 1941) I almost missed the fact that this guy is an evil equivalent of El Carim! I somehow read that opening blurb and thought that his name was Diablo but it’s not, it’s Olbaid – he has a backward name like El Carim! What’s more, Olbaid has roughly equivalent magical powers to El Carim, and uses magical items to supplement them just like him. In Olbaid’s case, this involves the Snake Pool, a magical pool of water…
(Master Comics 015, 1941) Mr Murder is your “pay or die” style of extortionist and a) has a pretty great name and b) is presumably in an early stage of his career as there is a lot more “die” going on than “pay”. Mr Murder also has a great understated costume: tunic, hat, cape, scarf, gloves. Just a bit off of what you might see someone actually wearing – nice and menacing in a Shadow sort of way. And of…
(Master Comics 015, 1941) This really illustrates how the life of a mysterious adventurer is different from that of the rest of us: while driving through Florida, Zoro the Mystery Man stops at a random mansion, is rebuffed when he seeks admittance, and decides to snoop around. While you or I might discover, say, a private birthday party or merely a normal family who don’t particularly want to entertain every stranger who knocks on their door, Zoro instead finds a…
(Master Comics 015, 1941) Minute-Man receives the “highest award for valor” from the South American nation of Rinaldo for stopping a load of Nazi stand-ins from blowing up their Washington embassy. (Master Comics 016, 1941) The Companions Three receive the Decoration for Valor of the European nation of Cabarro for facilitating and then stopping the theft of their crown jewels.
(Master Comics 013-014, 1941) I’m not going to lie: when I started reading this story I got excited for one of the more niche reasons I ever have. See, the prior Buck Jones story – the one with the Ghost Killer gang – was still wrapping up and I had a moment where I thought there would be some very exciting gang continuity if any of the former Ghost Killers, already relict of the White Arrow gang, had joined up…
(Whiz Comics 015/ Master Comics 014, 1941) Basics first: the Crystal is nothing particularly special. He’s a businessman or something named Mr James who has a wealthy ward named Ronnie Keller and covets the money that he is charged with administering. It’s a pretty common turn of events in comics and Mr James is part of the significant minority of greedy guardians who decide to skip the simple embezzlement and advance straight to costumed thuggery. He’s got goons and everything!…
(Master Comics 013, 1941) The long and the short of it is that the Choker is an old-fashioned escaped homicidal maniac of the sort who indiscriminately kills everyone who crosses his path – more akin to a rampaging monster than a villain, plot-wise. He gets into a couple of scrapes with Zoro the Mystery Man (who, by the way, proves susceptible to the worst little old lady disguise in comics history) before meeting a rare Death by Cheetah. Also: a…
Ripped from the headlines: The acclimation of a new Dalai Lama must have been big headlines in 1941 because not only did Zoro the Mystery Man save him from being kidnapped for ransom… (Master Comics 014, 1941) … but over on Earth-Two, the Three Aces did the same! (Action Comics 032, 1941) Great Folk: Wizzar, Father of All Magic, teacher and mentor of El Carim, dead and returned as a spirit who appears “when some great crime against the dead…