Browsed by
Category: 1941

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 973: THE MASTER MIND

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 973: THE MASTER MIND

Comments 0 comment

(Fight Comics 011, 1941) Just when the futuristic (i.e., early 2000s) nation of Greater America thinks that it can relax, it is simultaneously attacked from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans! Acting quickly, Saber, aka the Spy Fighter, super-powered Head of Greater American Espionage, sets out to discover who is behind this dastardly deed.  Saber uses his telepathic abilities to trace the impulses that are directing the armies to an isolated outpost where he finds a fellow variously referred to…

Read More Read More

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 049

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 049

Comments 0 comment

Yesterday we met Tuk, caveboy of the year 50 000 BCE. Today we meet all the various humanoids and hominids that populate his world. Shaggy Ones: The Shaggy Ones are a kind of Missing Link-style ape man species that we don’t really get too much of a sense of because Tuk’s foster father Ak is the very last one. If we extrapolate the whole species out from him, Star Wars-style, they were a fairly altruistic species, if a bit given…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 095

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 095

Comments 0 comment

There really are a lot of these guys, aren’t there? Hurricane: As presented, Hurricane is a real mythological mash-em-up: “son of Thor” but also “last descendant of the Ancient Greek immortals,” and arch-enemy to the Roman god Pluto. Pantheism, baybee! Hurricane’s whole deal is in being super fast, like mythically fast. The fact that he has a divine opponent is quite nice, in that it offsets some of the tendency of speedster characters to walk all over their opponents as…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 972: THE BLACK TALON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 972: THE BLACK TALON

Comments 0 comment

(Captain America Comics 009, 1941) The Black Talon is honestly such a disappointing character. Two-thirds of him is composed of concepts that I love, but that remaining third is very rough. A hard character to endorse. First good Part: The Black Talon, aka Pascal Horta, is a mad artist who kills both as a way of eliminating his rivals and as a means of deriving inspiration for his series of horror-themed portraits. I always love seeing the mad arts represented…

Read More Read More

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 025

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 025

Comments 0 comment

If comics are reflections of the real world then why should we be surprised to find them so full of real people? Adolf Hitler: Hiller is the “mad dictator” who inspires Hercules to reincarnate and eventually become Marvel Boy. He’s about as close as you get to putting a Hitler in your comic as you can get without actually saying the name. The whole name. The “t” part. (Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940) This otherwise-unnamed Fuehrer of a likewise nameless…

Read More Read More

MEDIA IN COMICS 006

MEDIA IN COMICS 006

Comments 0 comment

Now that’s entertainment.  Magazines:  Are magazine titles in comics more likely to be plays on real ones than other forms of media? Perhaps. We’ll just have to see how many variations on Life and Time we can find over the years. Pretending to work for Living has enough caché that it gets these fascists into a secure aircraft plant – how long has it been since magazines were so relevant? (Big Shot Comics 014, 1941) Movies: I never actually mentioned it in the entry on the Hunchback of…

Read More Read More

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 044

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 044

Comments 0 comment

Bored? Unemployed? Why not explore a career in low-tier supercrime?  the ABC Gang: I must regretfully inform you that the ABC Gang that is described here does not appear in this issue, as Spencer Steel and his pal Doakes instead get sidetracked by a different gang that is looking to rob the bank that they pegged as the logical next target in the ABCs’ pattern. This is a real shame, because “gang who robs banks in alphabetical order by name,…

Read More Read More

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 043

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 043

Comments 0 comment

You give a guy access to a mask and some super-science and how does he repay you? Crime! Karno: The dapper Karno has a cool flying submarine, a metal-melting weapon and a plan to combine the two and do some old-fashioned piracy with them. He thinks that this scheme will be enhanced by the expert submarine piloting skills of Sub Saunders, but quickly learns the same lesson that all villains do upon incorporating a hero into their plans: it’s more hassle than…

Read More Read More

DIVINE ROUND-UP 031

DIVINE ROUND-UP 031

Comments 0 comment

It’s a wide-ranging and complicated theological world out there.  the Death Orchid: Once again we have a giant flower – in this case a carnivorous one – that is being worshipped as a god. Interestingly, the people doing so are Lamas, which I think might be being incorrectly used as a general term for Tibetans of a religious inclination, unless there are some major aspects of Tibetan Buddhism that I haven’t heard about. Adventure aviator Captain Kidd flies a fellow named Professor…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 971: THE MONSTER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 971: THE MONSTER

Comments 0 comment

(Fantastic Comics 023, 1941) The comic opens in media res, as a (the) Monster bursts into the hotel room of art critic Iona Hall and carries her off into the night. Cut to the Gorman Art Gallery the next day, where we see… Iona Hall!? As you might have guessed, this isn’t the real Iona Hall, and “famous art connoisseur” Dan Kenneth spots this when he is introduced to the false Hall by gallery owner Gorman. When Kenneth attempts to discover…

Read More Read More