(Wonderworld Comics 014, 1940) The Scar is a fairly ordinary crypto-fascist spy chief – in his first appearance he is leading a gang of incompetents in a plot to blow up a Europe-bound supply ship, for example – but I’ll be danged if he isn’t well suited to his nickname. Most guys named Scar in 1940s comics are maybe rocking one big facial scar, while our friend here not only has three, but is missing at least one ear! Whatever happened…
(Wham Comics 002, 1940) Just after Blue Fire gets his powers and vows to use them to beat up “criminals, racketeers and foreign spies” he is served a chance to do so on a silver platter when his local newspaper carries an account of a ship at sea being sabotaged by a very cold man who just stood around in the engine room until everything broke. Making his way to the ship in question, Blue Fire uses his intangibility power…
(Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) The Mosconians, stand-ins for Nazi-allied Russia (or possibly just Russian-flavoured stand-ins for Nazi Germany) have a lot more stick-to-itiveness than your typical gang of foreign espionage agents, to the extent that they manage to not only bedevil the Wizard for three whole issues but also the Shield over in Pep Comics, leading to what is touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics (as previously seen here). The Master is the shadowy figure behind the Mosconian schemes…
Will we ever run out of fascist goons? the Green Shirts: The Green Shirts’ claim to fame is their army of the resurrected dead, which they employ in their attempted takeover of the US. Or it would be, that is, if the test run of the resurrection device hadn’t resulted in the death of its inventor and incidentally the creation of the super-mummy Mystico, who ultimately ends up destroying the Green Shirts in a very satisfyingly cyclical kind of way….
I’m not sure that these guys all have degrees. This fellow is known only as the Professor, and he conducts experiments in long- and short-range mind control on Lost Hope Island until Secret Naval Agent Spike Marlin shows up in search of a missing ship’s crew. (Speed Comics 009, 1940) This unnamed scientist has developed a drug that puts people into indefinite comas and has used it to kidnap and store ten millionaires, presumably with the intent of ransoming them…
(Sure-Fire Comics 003a, 1940) The Grand Dictator, aka Miko, is on a mission to conquer the US, and he’s doing it from a cool flying fortress. Miko and his men are probably intended to be at least Nazi-adjacent, but they don’t really come off that way, at least as compared with their contemporaries. I mean, sure, they’ve got the uniforms and the attitude, but where are the dimwitted goons named Hans and Franz shouting “Jah, jah!” as they scuttle off…
(Super Comics 027, 1940) Monocle-wearing crypto-Nazi spy and major recurring foe of war correspondent Jack Wander, the Baron is one duelling scar away from being the quintessential Axis agent. Also he looks like he was designed by Paul Grist – just look at that little sneer.
(Startling Comics 001, 1940) “Dr Slade is one of those rare and unfortunate villains who are a part of a super-hero’s origin story but who also die as a part of that origin, so that they don’t even have the dignity of actually properly being a part of that hero’s rogues gallery. That’s sad! On the other hand, Slade did develop his resurrection technology in order to build an army of the formerly-dead in aid of a fascist takeover of…
(Speed Comics 009, 1940) The Count is a fairly by-the-book pseudo-Nazi spy with a very audacious plan for acquiring US military secrets: kidnap the US Secretary of State (a moderately off-model Cordell Hull) and extract them from him via gear-based torture. Unfortunately for the Count his plans were anticipated by the US Secret Service, who proactively substituted Ted Parrish, aka the Man With 1000 Faces, for Hull. Led to the spies’ farmhouse hideout by a special radium tracking device, the…
Making his triumphant return to comics, the dome-headed goblin of crime: Baron von Kampf! Baron von Kampf’s initial return in Speed Comics 004 involves him heading a sabotage ring for an unnamed European nation that is probably meant to be Nazi Germany, and it’s possible that this is a relationship that were were meant to understand was behind his actions all along, but frankly it seems to me to be beneath him. The Baron’s schemes on behalf of his fascist…