MINOR SUPER-HERO 019: THE CLOCK

MINOR SUPER-HERO 019: THE CLOCK

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(Funny Picture Stories/ Funny Pages/ Feature Comics/ Crack Comics, 1936-1944) The Clock has the distinction of probably being the earliest masked crimefighter and definitely that of being the earliest one to stick around, which would make him the earliest super-hero if Dr Occult hadn’t made his debut in 1935. A lot of the details about him are fairly cliché, both because they were cribbed from existing pulp clichés and because the Clock helped define the clichés of the genre. So:…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 182: THE BIG SHOT

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 182: THE BIG SHOT

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(Crack Comics 001, 1940) A series of facts about Golden Age super-hero comics: -most of them take place in cities -they are either set in a specific location (e.g. Wonder Woman being in Washington DC or the Red Bee in Superior City) or an unidentified large city -in the latter case, over time the city acquires characteristics that either lead to it becoming its own thing (e.g. Batman’s unidentified large city becomes Gotham) or being identified as New York City…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 181: THE SWAMP DEVIL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 181: THE SWAMP DEVIL

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(Captain Marvel Adventures 005, 1941) The Swamp Devil! Part of a couple of fairly populous subgroupings of supercrook: the “kill or scare off folk in order to do a land-grab” type and the “pose as a figure from local legend in order to capitalize on preexisting fear, etc” cohort (a frequently paired duo). Specifically, the Swamp Devil is actually Woggs, an engineer tasked with draining part of the Great Dismal Swamp to create more farmland who is instead flooding nearby farms…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 180: KING OF THE CRATER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 180: KING OF THE CRATER

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(Captain Marvel Adventures 005, 1941) This rockabilly-looking feller is King of the Crater and I like him quite a bit. His plan, as laid out above, is to weaponize a seam of magma that runs under the Rockies and the Andes in order to lay claim to a strip of territory running the length of the Americas. It’s not a bad plan if you subscribe to the attitude that violent conquest is an acceptable means of achieving control over territory….

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 179: THE BEAST-RULER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 179: THE BEAST-RULER

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(Captain Marvel Adventures 003, 1941) The Beast-Ruler’s origin is simple: for reasons of his own, Dr Sivana builds a human out of animal parts – the muscles of a gorilla, the memory of an elephant and yes, the life-force of a thousand beasts – and that creation promptly rebels and runs off with the remaining beasts that have not had their life-forces squeezed out. A real rookie mistake on Sivana’s part if you ask me – this isn’t his first…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 178: THE ARSON FIEND

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 178: THE ARSON FIEND

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(Captain Marvel Adventures 002, 1941) The Arson Fiend! A simple villain conceptually: fire insurance salesman George D. Tweedle just can’t sell any fire insurance and so he starts what is nominally a protection racket but really seems to be an excuse for wholesale arson. The twist in this particular tale is that Tweedle has somehow developed or otherwise gotten his hands on a formula that transforms him into the fire-spewing and fireproof Arson Fiend. Legitimately super-powered crooks being a bit…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 177: BRAM THIRLA

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 177: BRAM THIRLA

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(Captain Marvel Adventures 001, 1941) I waffled a bit on this guy – he’s just a regular-style vampire, after all. But a regular-style vampire is like a ninja or a xenomorph (or a knight, a pirate, a robot, etc): a deadly threat super-villain level singly, while also being easily killed when part of a group. So: Bram Thirla demonstrates a couple of important safety concerns specific to comic book science. Firstly: if you must combine the practices of science and…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 176: Z

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 176: Z

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(Captain Marvel Adventures 001, 1941) Z is (spoilers) an android built by Dr Sivana to destroy Captain Marvel. He’s a cool guy and a fun villain: slick, full of attitude, almost powerful enough to do the job. Plus he doesn’t seem to know he’s a robot, which I find to be a fun feature in an android character – it allows for shocking reveals! Z should definitely be BROUGHT BACK, if only as disposable muscle for Sivana. We wuz robbed…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 175: THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 175: THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE

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(Bulletman 002, 1941)  Gangster Scar Malone was convicted of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. He swore revenge against the judge and jury, as you do. And once you’ve done that kind of thing, you only have a few options: fake your own death so you can come back as a fake ghost to kill your enemies; arrange for your body to be taken to a scientist or magic man for post execution revival so you can slay your…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 174: THE LIMPING MUMMY

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 174: THE LIMPING MUMMY

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(Bulletman 002, 1941) I cannot tell a lie: I love a fake mummy. I can’t help it – there’s something about a crook going to the trouble of wrapping themself up in old linen that is very endearing to me. And as with our friend here, they often have a modifier to distinguish them from the workaday mummies that you see everywhere. They’re a Golden Mummy or a Missing Mummy, or, as with our boy here, a Limping Mummy. The actual reason…

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