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Category: 1941

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 218: THE LIGHTNING KILLER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 218: THE LIGHTNING KILLER

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(Detective Comics v1 056, 1941) The Lightning Killer is a neat and potentially great concept that was ill-served by being featured in a 6-page middle-of-the-book strip like Cliff Crosby’s. As presented, he’s a mysterious killer who strikes only during thunderstorms and times his shots to lightning strikes so that they go unnoticed by witnesses. Unsurprisingly, he turns out to be the meteorologist Cliff consults midway through the story, as he is the only non-cop/ non-victim/ non-protagonist character featured. The Lightning…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 217: THE STONE IDOL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 217: THE STONE IDOL

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(Detective Comics v1 056, 1941) The Stone Idol is a bit of a weird one: a miner living in the ghost town of Ghost Gulch City discovers silver on town land and recruits an unscrupulous group of circus performers to aid him in driving out the town’s remaining inhabitants so as to have all the silver for themselves. The actual Stone Idol is the circus strongman disguised as a local Native American statue in order to play on the local…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 216: DR DEKER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 216: DR DEKER

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(Detective Comics v1 055, 1941) Dr Deker is a spy chief and a fifth columnist from the heady days before the US entered WWI, so of course he’s from an unnamed Fatherland and no further clarification is needed. He has the not-uncommon plan to kidnap prominent American scientists and steal their secrets, abetted by his very first acquisition: the Truth Machine, a device which unsurprisingly forces one to truthfully answer all questions. All of this is pretty comics-regular and poor…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 003

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 003

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Yet another collection of also-rans and never-weres. Philip White:  Philip White here got exactly one panel into his career as a masked spy chief before Madam Fatal unmasked him. (Crack Comics 014, 1941) Basil:  An auctioneer named Basil ran an overly complicated scheme to steal the fabled Five Bloodstones of Mu. His plans were also undone by Madam Fatal and ended in his grisly demise. (Crack Comics 016, 1941) Unnamed Crook:  This unnamed thief almost got away with the Dare Diamond…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 215: THE THREE DEVILS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 215: THE THREE DEVILS

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(Detective Comics v1 050, 1941)  The Three Devils are an early example of a fairly common minor super-villain archetype: the acrobat who turns their skill to criminal ends (and of course this is a subset of “circus folk who use their talents for crime” which itself is a subset of “talented professional turns their talent to crime” and then I guess above that is “criminals”).  I don’t think I’m going to bother calling it out every time it happens but…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 214: THE TERROR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 214: THE TERROR

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(Detective Comics v1 049, 1941) This is one of your technical qualifications: a singer’s former partner, jealous of his success, comes back for revenge. He calls himself the Terror and has a camera-gun and a bunch of hired goons with names like Smokey Joe. It all adds up to just enough to land him in the theoretical super-villain wing of the prison when Slam Bradley busts him.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 212: ECHO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 212: ECHO

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(Detective Comics v1 049, 1941) The story elements of this aren’t anything special: a mad scientist builds a giant robot (or something) and sends it to get revenge on the world what shunned him for his wild ideas about building giant robots (or something). Eventually he gets sloppy and the Crimson Avenger tracks him back to his lair and in a twist of mild irony the order that was meant to cause the ultra-literal Echo to kill the Crimson instead…

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SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: CLAYFACE 1941

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: CLAYFACE 1941

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Detective Comics v1 049, ‘Clayface Walks Again!’ Clayface’s 1941 adventure starts with two asylum guards learning a very important lesson a bit too late: if you exist in a fictional setting, never transport a homicidal maniac in a storm. It’s as true in a 1941 comic book as it was in any of the Halloween movies. Sadly, they remain unaware of the laws of narrative causality right un until their demise while Basil “Clayface” Karlo, protected by those same laws,…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 210: THE SPECTRE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 210: THE SPECTRE

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(Crackajack Funnies 035-037, 1941)  There’s a lot to like about the Spectre. His motivation is okay – his face was blasted off by American shelling in WWI and he wants revenge – and his execution is nonexistent as he ends up getting caught during the planning and preparation stage. It’s the trappings that really do it for me. Fist up: costumes. The Spectre’s own is okay, but I have nothing but joy in my heart when I see henchmen dressed…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 209: THE PANTHERMAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 209: THE PANTHERMAN

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(Crackajack Funnies 031-033, 1941)  The first costumed foe to face Dell Comics’ answer to Batman, the Owl, Pantherman strikes a very impressive figure and knows how to make an entrance. He does seem to be a very sloppy operator, however, as he initially attracts the attention of the Owl after mind controlling a man into stealing his own jewels but not somehow thinking to keep him from calling in the police (and renowned private investigator Nick “the Owl” Terry, natch) afterward….

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