(Flash Comics v1 019, 1941) The Scarlet Mermaid is elegant in her simplicity: she’s a good swimmer who lives near a river where a lot of rich people hang out on boats, so she swims out and robs them. That plus a great name (and an okay costume – could use a contrasting colour) make for a winning combo. Even a cool villain must eventually reckon with a super-hero, however, and the Scarlet Mermaid ends up being one of the…
(Flash Comics v1 017, 1941) It’s the Golden Mummy! As I have previously stated, I love fake mummies and had read this issue before, so I was anticipating this fellow’s appearance with some joy, and it is with great sadness that I must announce that he’s a complete disappointment. My threshold for fake mummy appreciation is quite low – usually they just steal a few antiquities before getting tripped up by Archie and Jughead or the Scooby Gang, after all…
(Flash Comics v1 016, 1941) Have you ever wondered what happened to the ancient Dravidians and their kingdom of Dravidia? No, because they’re an extant ethnic group and that would be a bit like wondering about the fate of the Caucasians and their fabled land of Caucasia? Excatly. But nevertheless, here’s Hawkman flying into Dravidia, somewhere in Mongolia. Furthermore, the Dravidian king claims that his people originally came from a now-sunken land called Eden. An intriguing concept – that Eden…
(Flash Comics v1 016, 1941) After an adventure in the lost city of Dravidia, Hawkgirl (well, Shiera Sanders, a few months out from being Hawkgirl) gets a cool brooch!
(Flash Comics v1 015, 1941) It’s old hat by now: like former Hawkman foe Czar the Unkillable Man and his ilk, the Hand is a henchbeing who is far more interesting to read and talk about than their creator. This is the risk you run when you set out to create an autonomous crime-servant via… I’m guessing magical means? It’s unclear in the text but magic seems more likely than science. In this case, the creator is a guy named…
(Flash Comics v1 014, 1941) Karvac himself is strictly ho hum territory: a would-be world conqueror who leads his army of heat ray-toting goons on a path of destruction before being beaten up by Hawkman. Snoresville, man. BUT: the method by which Karvac managed to acquire his army of heat ray-toting goons, now that’s the kind of comic book nonsense that we love around here. Karvac, you see, unearthed rites and rituals connected to Scorio, Alligator God of the Phoenicians,…
(Flash Comics v1 1941) This Minute Movies (“Secrets of Satan”, natch) installment posits that the Atlanteans blew themselves up via black magic and then settled in the Yucatan.
(Flash Comics v1 013, 1941) I am torn on Satana! Torn verily in twain! My standard critique of a comic book scientist-villain is that they would have been better off using their tech in a non-crime endeavor, but Satana is a brilliant and pioneering young surgeon living in 1941 and given what I know about the history of women in science I think it’s fair to say that if she had decided to make a go of it in academia…
(Flash Comics v1 013, 1941) Like Crime & Corruption Inc before him, I almost skipped over the Great Arturo or banished him to the ranks of the generic villains, because a) the Great Arturo is a terrible villain name and b) he appears in a Les Watts comic. But the more I looked at this guy, the more it became clear that he was like a savoury stew made up of all the things I love about comic book creepos….
(Flash Comics v1 013, 1941) I almost didn’t include these guys because Johnny Thunder lives in a heightened cartoon reality that only exists within the same world as the Spectre or Hawkman because of the technicality of them all being in the same club and hanging out together. But then, is the fact that New York is full of goofy-ass cartoon people in Johnny’s reality any more implausible than Alexander the Great blowing up a portion of the city without…