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Author: skeletonmunroe

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 014

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 014

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Once again the also-rans. A bunch of small-time crooks get paid to fake the death of Titano (the largest gorilla in captivity!) for an insurance scam and of course use him to rob a series small-town banks. If only they had thought a bit more ambitiously they might have made the big time. (Exciting Comics 005, 1940) This Yank Wilson adventure features a fairly by-the-book super-spy ring headed by Count Lustig von Blackgard. They plot, they scheme, they are ultimately…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 633: CHONGO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 633: CHONGO

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(Fantastic Comics 012, 1940) Flip Falcon’s Fourth Dimension Machine has served various roles as a sort of all-purpose portal to adventure over the course of his tenure in Fantastic Comics, starting out as an interplanetary teleporter allowing access to the various planets of the Solar System and later acting as a time machine. Now it is entering what I believe to be its final form as a gateway to the Fourth Dimension itself, a weird hellscape of the imagination briefly…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 632: THE BOSS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 632: THE BOSS

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(Fantastic Comics 012, 1940) The Boss is actually Roulf, editor of the Daily Standard newspaper in NYC. He pulls the classic villain mistake of acting as a concerned citizen recruiting the protagonists – in this case Samson and David – to investigate his own villainous alter ego. It’s the kind of error that you can emphasize with to a certain extent: how better to ensure that a super-powered busybody doesn’t unexpectedly show up and wreck your plans then by controlling…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 631: DABLO, LAST OF THE RAY MEN AND THE HOOD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 631: DABLO, LAST OF THE RAY MEN AND THE HOOD

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(Fantastic Comics 011, 1940) THIS. IS. GREAT. We open on the trial of Dablo, Last of the Ray Men, and immediately we must ask: who are the Ray Men? And let me tell you that there is no answer beyond “guys who could shoot rays.” Dablo here shoots rays out of a big hole in his forehead but did they all do that? No clue! This is the kind of worldbuilding that people like Alan Moore will eventually get up…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 630: SKULLFACE KURD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 630: SKULLFACE KURD

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(Fantastic Comics 011, 1940) Every once in a while a comic book crook will organize a gang along military lines and that’s just what Skullface Kurd here has done. He’s got super-tommy guns. He’s got an air force. He has three hundred thousand men, which is more than a hundred thousand more than were in the US Army as of 1939. Hell, they’re in New York City and according to the historical population numbers on Wikipedia about one in 24…

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NOTES – OCTOBER 2024

NOTES – OCTOBER 2024

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Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects: The NYPD (or the cops in some other town. but probably the NYPD) attempt to murder the Green Mask and Domino the Miracle Boy because they were wearing masks near a crime and had the audacity to run away. (Green Mask v1 003, 1940) Vexing Conundrum: These panels are from a strip called Flyin’ Jenny, the details of which are not important, save for the fact that a character has cheated in an air race…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 629: QUEEN SULIA

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 629: QUEEN SULIA

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(Fantastic Comics 011, 1940) We begin with the old comic book trope of Ignoring Bad Feelings When a Woman Has Them, as Alice senses something in the wind and Sir Richard tells her to shut up just before a giant bird gets them both. They are flown to Soulless Isle and meet its ruler Queen Sulia, along with her coterie of beastly subjects. She wants a sword fight and Sir Richard of Warwick is who she wants it from. If…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 628: PROFESSOR DONALDSON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 628: PROFESSOR DONALDSON

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(Fantastic Comics 011, 1940) Sometimes it’s nice to read a story about a straightforwardly criminal scientist, and that’s just what Professor Donaldson is. He’s invented an “electronic exploder” which can turn steel to dust and by gar if he isn’t going to use that to extort some money out of people with steel things that they would like to stay intact, such as the superstructure of a skyscraper. Donaldson is also prepared to pivot: when his original attempt to set…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 627: CHONG

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 627: CHONG

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(Fantastic Comics 010, 1940) Chong is basically just a pirate, but there are three things worth noting about him. The first is that his name is Chong in a comic book published in 1940 and he is not a horrendous Asian stereotype of one sort or another. It’s a low bar and he cleared it with aplomb. The second thing is Chong’s weapon of choice, an enormous spiked wheel that rises out of the depths to wreck ships. It’s not…

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