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Category: 1941

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 940: THE PARSON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 940: THE PARSON

(Silver Streak Comics 014, 1941) The Parson is a weird little dude who takes over a gang of opportunistic London-based looters who have been taking advantage of the ongoing Blitz to make big bucks off of the misfortune of their fellows. Though the gang is initially against the notion of, again, a little weird dude muscling in on their racket, the Parson presses the issue with his powers of hypnotic domination, the source of which is as mysterious and unexplained…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 031

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 031

Great value for your alien and so forth dollar today: seven for the price of four! the Nameless Ones:  “The Bingham Boys” was a short-lived feature about twin brothers Billy and Bobby Bingham and their dipshit friend Specs inserting themselves into the life of adventurer Dusty Travis. I their first appearance, the trio tag along on what turns out to be a flight to Mato Grosso, Brazil to search for a clue to the fate of lost Atlantis, for some…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 939: THE BLACK PHARAOH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 939: THE BLACK PHARAOH

(Silver Streak Comics 014, 1941) After his initial defeat at the hands of Thun-Dohr, the villainous Sin Khaii is on the lookout for an ally in his war on humanity and he finds one in the pages of a tome called the Book of the Dead, and presumably it’s the Egyptian Book of the Dead because the candidate he lines up is called the Black Pharaoh, the only Pharaoh evil enough that he was cursed and sealed up in a pyramid to…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 938: HERR SKULL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 938: HERR SKULL

(Silver Streak Comics 014, 1941) Herr Skull is the leader of the Skull Men, a band of fascist saboteurs who dress up like ghoulish skeletons in order to facilitate their crimes. Why do they have spikes on top of their heads? I do not know the answer to that. Perhaps Herr Skull just thought the look needed a bit more to really pop. Spike aside, the plan works! The Skull Men are terrifying enough that their victims are caught completely…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 937: THE SCARLET SKULL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 937: THE SCARLET SKULL

(Silver Streak Comics 013, 1941)  The Scarlet Skull was a real surprise to me! Going by cover dates, he debuted about the same time as the second/”real” Red Skull over at Marvel, which means that he was probably created in the window between the death of the original, George Maxon, and the debut of the Red Skull we will eventually know as Johann Shmidt. Obviously the fact that these are now considered to be two separate characters is all retcon…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 936: SIN KHAII

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 936: SIN KHAII

(Silver Streak Comics 013, 1941) Sin Khaii, a lama at the same monastery that Thun-Dohr was raised at, has been cast out for unspecified reasons. His reaction to being an outcast – to steal Pandora’s Box and use it in a war on all humanity – would seem to retroactively justify the exile, however. Just why a Tibetan monastery would be the hiding place of Pandora’s Box is likewise left unexplored. Sin Kahii is able to use the Box to…

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NOTES – MARCH 2026

NOTES – MARCH 2026

Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects:  The NYPD do their level best to gun down the Challenger for wearing a mask near the scene of a crime. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941) Some probably-also-NYPD officers try to do the same to the Black Cobra. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941) Some definitely-NYPD officers try to gun down a fleeing Mask. (Exciting Comics 010, 1941) Honours: Heroic dog K-9 is given a medal and made an official officer in what is also likely supposed to…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 081

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 081

Lev Gleason characters filling every available ecological niche over here.  Thun-Dohr: We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again: Thun-Dohr (Thun-dohr?) is a white guy brought up in the traditions of a Tibetan monastery and he’s just the best dang mystic anyone’s ever seen, much better than all those Tibetan monks could ever be.  Like Iron Fist, the 1970s version of this character archetype, Thun-Dohr was orphaned when his parents succumbed to the elements while attempting to reach the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 935: PROFESSOR BLANKHORNE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 935: PROFESSOR BLANKHORNE

(Silver Streak Comics 013, 1941) Dickie Dean, Boy Inventor has a new invention: the Photo-Lightning Machine, with which he can cause a bolt of lightning to crash down on anyplace he pleases, like the deserted house across the road from him that nobody was planning on using, hopefully. The only catch is that he hasn’t yet figured out how to get the lightning to strike a target that is in water. Dickie and his pal Zip Todd take the plans…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 038

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 038

Criminals! Unnamed Gambler:  Not much is revealed about this fellow, but what we do know for sure is that he has access to a super strength drink and that he has been using it to clean up on gambling by slipping it to boxers and race horses with long odds. He also relies on the potion to help him escape from the cops, which backfires on him because Presto Martin, having taken the place of one of the boxers, is…

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