Just a little crypto-fascist saboteur named Dr Vee who battled Dynamic Man but I like his name and I like his style. His sartorial style. Not the fascism. (Mystic v1 002, 1940) Lemo here has a mechanical mole-style tank and reckons he can take over the world with it after almost destroying one (1) circus tent. It’s a good thing he was blown up by one of Marvel’s many Herculeses before he could get too far and get disappointed. (Mystic…
(Mystery Men Comics 023, 1941) Our story begins in media res as Lieutenant Drake of Naval Intelligence cleans up the goons of Nazi crypto-fascist (they get real close to calling her a Nazi in this one but she works for the Opatseg instead of the Gestapo, so I guess she’s just another Izan) femme fatale spy named Frau Izan. Izan gets away and is subsequently given an injection by sinister Nazi Izan scientist Doktere von Shnyder that turns her into…
(More Fun Comics 067-068, 1941) On paper I should love Dr Mause, a weird little creep who preys on Allied shipping for his legally-distinct-from-German masters using not only an “electroblast ray” but a cool floating island base, but in practise he leaves me cold. I’m glad he gets captured by Captain Desmo, see if I’m not.
(More Fun Comics 068, 1941) Mister K is an unspecified enemy agent encountered by macho adventurer Clip Carson in Panama. His plots and schemes are pretty rote – any comic set in Panama is almost certainly about trying to sabotage the Panama Canal, after all – but his tool of choice is a carnivorous plant called the Devil-Flower, so that’s fun. Interestingly, we last saw Clip Carson battling unspecified enemy agent Mister Z in Colombia. Assuming a linear distribution, we…
(More Fun Comics 067, 1941) It’s always simultaneously great and perplexing when someone in a comic story calls themself something like the Evil One. Like obviously there are cackling devil-themed villains throughout comics who are aware of the role they are playing, but theoretically even a crypto-Nazi spy like this fellow believes that they are in some way doing the right thing by their country, right? Is calling yourself “the Evil One” mere propaganda or is it an indication that…
The hits keep on coming: This Fellow’s name is Becker and he and his wife run a gang while pretending to be among its victims. An okay scheme, but not really up to foiling Bulletman and Bulletgirl. (Master Comics 014, 1941) This guy here is why I have such a hard time relegating masked Western bandits to the dregs of the generic costumed villains: he’s as by-the-numbers a bandit as they come, he robs one stagecoach total, he ends up…
(Minute-Man 002, 1941) AKA the Blitz Force AKA the Panzer Gang. I almost started out by saying that the idea of a criminal gang operating along military lines was an old one but no, it isn’t yet. It’s not a new idea – there might be half a dozen examples in this list so far and I’m sure it cropped up more than once in the pulps – but it’s not quite the mid-tier trope that it eventually will be….
(Minute-Man 002, 1941) As mentioned in our last entry, the Green Hood was retroactively revealed to be the boss of Illyria, Queen of Spies in her final appearance (probably for the best as it’s hard maintain queenly authority when people know that you have a supervisor). He’s your standard hooded mastermind/ spymaster, albeit with a much more dramatically draped hood than most. He is also A Bad Boss, as shown by his demonstration of managerial style above. Having tasked Illyria…
(Master Comics 012-014, 016-017, 019-020; Minute-Man Comics 001-002, 1941) Illyria, Queen of Spies! (AKA Queen Spy, Spy Queen, Queen of All Spies, Queen of Foreign Spies, etc) Definitely in the running for my favourite of the “recurring femme fatale spymaster” subgenre of super-villain, particularly as she is a foe to Minute-Man, one of the most bland piles of wallpaper paste ever to wear a patriotic costume. Beyond merely distracting me from how bored I am by Minute-Man, Illyria provides interest…
(Minute-Man 001, 1941) Korozan is a not-quite-Japanese spylord whose two gimmicks are a) that he is very ugly and b) that his spy cell are all basically a cult dedicated to that cool idol, with Korozan as the cult leader/ godhead. Nothing really interesting is done with the cult angle beyond an abortive sacrifice – it’s just your standard Yellow Peril stuff about foreigners and their savage religions. Korozan gets kicked into a furnace and that’s the end.