(Human Torch v1 003, 1940) After helping foil a Nazi faux-Japanese* invasion of the US and only committing a few hundred war crimes, Namor is personally thanked by FDR and given a big parade. *confusion arose from the fact that Namor had already tangled with a group of Nazis in NYC and a Nazi-analog invasion fleet in the Atlantic in the same issue, but the invasion fleet that he’s receiving kudos for above was definitely in the Pacific.
(Human Torch v1 002, 1940) As our story opens, what is presumably New York City is under siege by a mysterious killer who drains their victims of their blood. Dr Jack “the Fiery Mask” Castle decides to get involved. He sets a trap by announcing to the paper that he has a lot of blood on hand and then waits for the fiend to show up – too bad for him it’s not just one guy, as twenty blood-hungry maniacs…
(Daring Mystery Comics 008, 1942) Hitler is going to show up more than a few times as you go through the history of comics, even if you set aside all the times he or a pastiche of him show up as the antagonist of a WWII comic you have reams of They Saved Hitler’s Brain or I Recruited the Worst Men of History stories. This here is possibly the first of those and there’s not a lot to it. So:…
(Daring Mystery Comics 008, 1942) Like he says in his dying moments above, Gore is a weird-looking guy who lashes out at society via a series of radio-themed deathtraps, always preceded by a broadcast of the letter D in Morse Code. As a villain he’s all right – he gives the Thunderer a run for his money at least. My major gripe with him is that there was ample opportunity for him to be called the D Killer or the…
(Daring Mystery Comics 008, 1942) A certain number of uboat captains are going to be written villainously enough to meet all of my criteria and Captain Erich von Wolff, AKA the Barracuda, is one such. Like seriously a real stinker of the highest order. It’s a good thing that the Fin is on the case to beat the tar out of him and deliver him to the British. I was going to say that hopefully he was tried and executed…
(Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940) The costumed fighter pilot might just be one of the most basic levels of super-villain. Here we have the Black Ace, Nazi and foe of the Flying Flame. He has a tower with an anti-aircraft vibrational cannon in it and a plane with a skull and crossbones on it. He gets shot down at the end of the story. FIN
(Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941) Lot to like about the Thunderer: great name, trend-based origin (ham radio enthusiast who finds crime on the airwaves/ rigs up a microphone to enhance his presence with a booming voice), nice-looking costume that was ultimately his downfall (because Marvel Comics 1000 established that virtually every Marvel character who wore a full-face black mask were wearing the same mask, and some of them retroactively had to have died for the chain of mask-wearers to continue)….
Pets: Jerry “the Thunderer” Carstairs has a pet dog named Mike. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941) Cops Attempting to Murder Fleeing Suspects: A really concerted attempt to murder the Challenger by the cops in this issue. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941) Legitimately surprised to see a reference to drinking a Zombie cocktail in 1941 but it seems that it dates from 1934 (Human Torch v1 005b, 1941)
(Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940) There’s not much substance to the Legion of the Doomed, but there’s a lot of cool ideas, so lets knock them out. a) a weird figure imposes a baby on a couple dwelling in haunted hill country. The baby, it is later revealed, cries with the voice of a man. b) subsequently, a killer begins stalking the streets of a nearby city, probably New York. Panic ensues! The Fiery Mask is on the prowl. c)…
Back again with another collection of science-villains who didn’t quite make the grade! Fritz Cardif here has a gunpowder-exploding ray and a lot of big plans. He probably would have made the main list except that I personally find his antics very dull, with the exception of the lil’ stinker moment pictured above. (Hit Comics 006, 1940) Dr Marko figured on using kidnapped scientists as research slaves in his Grand Canyon hideout, but he too was corralled by Neon the…