MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 561: LAILANI, QUEEN OF THE VALLEY

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 561: LAILANI, QUEEN OF THE VALLEY

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(Wonderworld Comics 006, 1939) It’s another Yarko the Great adventure! This time we find Yarko and his companion Li Wan journeying to the isolated Valley of the Moon in Tibet, in search of the fabled Hoshai Plant, which bleeds human blood. And they find it, growing in pools of “moulten lava”! They are also immediately captured by bow-wielding women. Yarko and the weirdly misogynistic Li Wan are marched back to the women’s cave/ palace HQ, where they meet Lailani, Queen…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 560: VLADIM

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 560: VLADIM

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(Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939)  Our hero, Yarko the Great, is driving along a country lane outside London when his travels are interrupted by a bestial figure who runs out of a nearby castle and immediately drops dead. While Yarko is examining the body a monocled creep emerges from some nearby bushes Homer Simpson-style to introduce himself as “Vladim, a genius!” For me, this is exciting, because he shares his somewhat-unusual name with the seldom-mentioned, never-seen airplane designer of the Blackhawk…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 559: THE COUNCIL OF VAMPIRES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 559: THE COUNCIL OF VAMPIRES

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(Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939) Firstly: re the first panel, I really struggled with whether to call these guys the Deadly Council of Vampires or just the Council of Vampires. Still doubting myself. Secondly: I am going to lay out these guys’ whole deal up front in order to properly critique them in the manner I am compelled to: they are not, despite the name, vampires. Instead, they are what seems to be a cult devoted to a vampire named Anya…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 558: DOXOL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 558: DOXOL

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(Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939) We (and the Flame) start in media res, as a young woman unsuccessfully attempts to flee a car full of hooded goons, is captured and brought back to an ominous manor in the woods. The Flame cottons on to this and follows them. Inside we find Doxol! Doxol is a wizened green fellow who is using mind control drugs (mystic ones!) to create his own little crime cult. This is where the slice-of-life nature of the…

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NOTES – JULY 2024

NOTES – JULY 2024

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Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects:  The cops send a “shower of bullets” after the Fantom of the Fair as he swings over the densely-populated New York World’s Fair. (Amazing Adventure Funnies 001, 1940) Spider Drawn Without Reference: Tarantula: a perfect black sphere covered in root structures. (Champion Comics 006, 1940) Memes of Yore: COWARD!: The “cowardly and superstitious lot” line that Batman is quoted as saying was not a one-off thing but it was in fact a widely-promoted idea of the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 557: DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 557: DEATH

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(Wonderworld Comics 003, 1939) Like I said in the Devil’s entry yesterday: Death and the Devil have teamed up as a sort of Yarko the Great Revenge Squad because Yarko saves so many live and souls, respectively. I also mentioned that Death did all of the legwork toward getting Yarko just where they wanted him, and here that is: Death kills a seemingly random London man then delivers him to the police, leaving only a calling card behind. The discovery…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 556: THE DEVIL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 556: THE DEVIL

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(Wonderworld Comics 003, 1939) Maybe it’s because the MLJ version of the Devil is so fresh in my mind but… this is an underwhelming version of the Devil. He teams up with Death – and it’s a measure of how lacklustre this Devil is that I’m going to deal with the Death separately rather than treat them as a duo – to eliminate their common enemy Yarko the Great. Death does all the legwork toward this goal so we’ll discuss…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 555: SHADDIBA

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 555: SHADDIBA

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(Wonder Comics 002, 1939) Shaddiba appears in the first adventure of magic hero Yarko the Great as an old enemy of Yarko who has come to the town of Hexville in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. His exact reasons for doing so are unstated, so I reckon that it’s equally likely that Hexville is an especially ripe spot for crime as that he was attracted by the old haunted mansion on the hill that he moves into. Comic book expectations…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 015

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 015

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Once again we take you to the world of the minor super-hero. See them dance for your amusement.  the Mystic:  Later known as Kardak the Mystic, the Mystic is a stage magician who uses stage magic to battle crime, specializing in fraudulent mediums etc. His stage magic eventually gets rounded up to real magic, of course. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939) the Phantom o’ the Hills: The Phantom o’ the Hills is an otherwise unnamed masked cowboy who rights wrongs in…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 554: THE MASK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 554: THE MASK

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(Wonder Comics 001, 1939) A gun runner doing business with rebel forces in the probably-South American country of Mauchako, the Mask doesn’t bring a lot to the table beyond a fairly snazzy take on the low-effort costume. He’s also the first foe faced by super-spy K-51 (is his original callsign of K-5, as you may have noticed). He’s also a US Senator, which is a heckuva job to split your attention from – also, weirdly he’s not our first one….

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