(Action Comics v1 039, 1941) The Ghost is one of Superman’s earliest superpowered foes, being Brett Bryson, a chemist who was accidentally irradiated while conducting an experiment and, having found himself with both a burning radium touch and a short time left to live, set out to steal enough in the time he had left to provide for his family once he was finally gone. But there is a twist to the Ghost’s story! The lab accident? Planned by Bryson’s…
(Action Comics v1 037) Just a society playboy who puts on a mask to run his crooked casino empire. He might just be my new example of the bare minimum that I need to consider someone a super-villain – nobody is even surprised when his identity is revealed, but he has the barest film of anonymity along with a secret boat dock and a moderately cool name. Also he gets hit by a boat.
(Action Comics v1 036, 1941) Another day, another spy from no specific nation striking at the US military for uncertain reasons. This one is even less successful than usual, as he almost blows up an Army convoy and almost blows up an artillery range. But what can I do: I’m a sucker for a monocle, a guy who throws poisoned darts and a neato name.
(Action Comics v1 035, 1941) Yet another spy encountered by Clip Carson, the Adder was interested in blowing up the Panama Canal for unclear reasons. Much more interestingly, he took his name from a snake-shaped ring which both fatally poisoned those he punched with it and left a cool snake mark on the spot he hit, and evidently he used it enough that his men spoke of him in hushed terms as “the Child of Death,” which is an amazing…
(Action Comics v1 035, 1941) The Spider is a foreign agent with a lot of guys named Herman and Otto working for him who attempts to disrupt US military preparedness. To that end he blows up a military parade and almost manages to poison an entire army camp being captured by Mr America.
(Action Comics v1 032-033, 1941) Mister Z is actually plantation owner Grasso, who is actually X-11, notorious agent of a “hostile government” whose schemes are placed in jeopardy when a mineral deposit is discovered near his hideout in Colombia. His efforts to shut down the incipient mining operations bring in adventurer Clip Carson but he meets his actual end when he’s gunned down by a young boy whose father he had killed.
(All American Comics 025-028, 1941) On the list of Obscure Comic Book Characters, Hop Harrigan doesn’t rate very high. Any discussion of Golden Age comic books will eventually mention the teen aviator whose feature was popular enough to support a fan club, radio serial and movie and also ephemeral enough to have completely disappeared from public consciousness around 1948 CE. Most writeups of Hop will mention that he adopted a couple of costumed identities over the years, and while I…