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Category: 1941

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 881: THE TIGRESS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 881: THE TIGRESS

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(Spy Smasher 002, 1941) After the heady times of having an actual Nazi agent in the person of the Red Death last time, we are back in the realms of plausible deniability and no-name fascism in the person of the Tigress. Though the Tigress does indulge in some activities relating to her chosen theme, including somewhat gruesomely using her two trained tigers for corpse-disposal duties, her main line is in murdering US officials such as Senator Whitney here and then…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 880: THE RED DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 880: THE RED DEATH

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(Spy Smasher 002, 1941) Spy Smasher occupies a niche in the crimefighting community: he smashes spies, and since he also stars in a comic book, the spies he smashes adopt increasingly baroque themes as time goes on. Take the Red Death, a master spy who also dresses like a skeleton man out of an Edgar Allen Poe story, and who also happens to be the only one of Spy Smasher’s 1941 foes to creep far enough over the line of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 879: THE DARK ANGEL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 879: THE DARK ANGEL

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(Spy Smasher 001, 1941) We’ve entered 1941 and the crypto-fascist spies are getting closer and closer to being just plain old Nazis. Case in point: the Dark Angel, a classic femme fatale spy with just enough plausible deniability to satisfy comics’ compulsion to stay just barely technically politically neutral.  The Dark Angel’s name might be straight out of the mid-90s but her plans are 1941 all the way down. As the story opens she is sending two of her men to blow…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 022

DIVINE ROUND-UP 022

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Oh my gosh this place has so many god options. the Sacred Leopard:  The animal-worshipping tribe who all dress like the animal in question is a regular trope in jungle comics so of course Kalthar, lord of the jungle eventually encounters some of them. In this case it’s Leopard Men from the Leopard Village, who dress in leopard skins and worship Karno, the leopard (Karno seems to be the collective singular noun for the leopard, a thing that happens a…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 021

DIVINE ROUND-UP 021

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Just scads of gods. Yum Chac:  These Mayan priests have tied a recent drought to some archaeological excavations in the Yucatan and have decided that the only thing for it is to revive the practice of human sacrifice to Yum Chac, aka just Chac, god of rain. They of course do this just in time for Zambini the Miracle Man to show up and wreck their whole operation. The really interesting thing about this whole episode is that it takes…

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NOTES – NOVEMBER 2025

NOTES – NOVEMBER 2025

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Honours – Captain Marvel:  Not only does Billy Batson win the award for Outstanding Radio Work of the Year, but he has his ver own fan club! (Whiz Comics 015, 1941)  Honours – Smasher Spy: Spy Smasher, turned evil and sometimes but mostly not known as Smasher Spy, is doing such a good job of sabotaging America that he is offered a medal and a position from the euphemistically-named War Lord by two Nazi stereotypes. If there’s one thing that…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 020

DIVINE ROUND-UP 020

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Human sacrifice is the order of the day with this bunch of deific bad-boys.  Shem:  Shem, the Sun God, is worshipped in the Land of Shem by the Shemmites, aka the Men of Shem. It’s a very well-branded religion.  The Shemmites capture and attempt to sacrifice Kalthar, king of the jungle, but fail to reckon with his tendency to grow to fifteen feet tall and be invulnerable to harm, and are ultimately driven from their lands.  God Style: Invoked (Zip…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 022

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 022

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Top-quality aliens, fresh-baked!  Unnamed Species: This unnamed species has that most delightful and implausible of features, an organic wheel that they use to locomote around! Other than that they’re your typical underground dwelling species: they live far enough under the surface or have an extensive enough range that one can enter their kingdom in the Himalayas and exit in Iran; they have a captured surface woman named Rina as their queen but the real power lies with “He”, who is…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 018

DIVINE ROUND-UP 018

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Idols, idols, idols!  the Great God Khwass:  Khwass, Great God of Vengeance, is a comparatively rare villain’s god who actually follows through on his promises. He is invoked vs Dr Fung by the daughter of a former foe and not only replies to her prayers but deploys sleeping gas and a weird monster to aid her in her quest for vengeance.  God Style: Real (Wonderworld Comics 016, 1940) Ice God Emul: Captain Venture and the Planet Princess Zyra’s great enemy,…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 017

DIVINE ROUND-UP 017

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You’ll never believe it: more gods.  the Serpent Gods:  While pursuing crook Rango in the African jungle, Yarko the Great comes across a couple being sacrificed to the Serpent Gods by being flung into a pit of sacred serpents. But are the serpents the Serpent Gods themselves? There is no further context given, so we must assume that they are. God style: Animist (Wonderworld Comics 015, 1940)  Gorm:  Gorm is the god of the villainous Hatchet Cult, a gang that…

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