(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 name.
As with so many villains who use a cool signature weapon, the Adder ends up falling on his own ring. A sad end.
(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 name.
As with so many villains who use a cool signature weapon, the Adder ends up falling on his own ring. A sad end.
(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 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.
(Slam-Bang Comics 006, 1940)
If there’s one thing that leavens my disdain for jungle comics, it’s that there are some real fun villain tropes in ’em, and one of the best is “human raised by animals who disdains civilization”, and the Ant Queen is one of the most fun
She was raised by giant ants! That’s so great! She controls them with her lil antennae! I love her!
I mean I guess you could look at the “traitor to your own kind” stuff that the Jungle King is spouting in that last panel as a version of the white supremacy that old jungle and adventure comics were rife with, wherein the greatest crime was e.g. a white person taking the side of another race over that of other white people, but maybe we’ll leave that for another time – the White Renegade is coming up in a few months, anyway. No for now let’s just enjoy how much the Ant Queen rules.
(Slam-Bang Comics 006, 1940)
The Sky Demon is a heretofore-unseen old enemy of Diamond Jack who starts strong with an overall Satanic look and a little skull on the front of his trunks – just the right amount of accessorizing to make a pretty basic super-outfit pop.
I also love his plot to conquer Earth and/or wipe out humanity: get some gorillas, give them wings and revolvers and let them loose. I can’t say whether or not his plan would have succeeded because he was fatally prevented from carrying it out by Diamond Jack.
Gorilla-based schemes aside, I really like the parallel of Diamond Jack the magic ring-powered hero vs the Sky Demon and his little magic cape. A sub-ecosystem of heroes and villains weilding magic items of various kinds sounds like it could be interesting comics fodder!
(Slam-Bang Comics 006, 1940)
The Sky Demon is a heretofore-unseen old enemy of Diamond Jack who starts strong with an overall Satanic look and a little skull on the front of his trunks – just the right amount of accessorizing to make a pretty basic super-outfit pop.
I also love his plot to conquer Earth and/or wipe out humanity: get some gorillas, give them wings and revolvers and let them loose. I can’t say whether or not his plan would have succeeded because he was fatally prevented from carrying it out by Diamond Jack.
Gorilla-based schemes aside, I really like the parallel of Diamond Jack the magic ring-powered hero vs the Sky Demon and his little magic cape. A sub-ecosystem of heroes and villains weilding magic items of various kinds sounds like it could be interesting comics fodder!
(Slam-Bang Comics 005, 1940)
An early entry in the grand tradition of comic book characters that indirectly make the assertion that the Salem Witch Trials were entirely justified, since Salem was crawling with actual, factual witches such as this dapper fellow.
See? Witches were real and they summoned fire devils and tried to sacrifice pure-hearted time-travelling children to them!
The foils to this dastardly and historically accurate fiend are teacher Rodney Kent and his pupil/ ward Mark Swift, two prime examples of a comics type: time travelers who have precisely zero concept of not leaping in to express good old 20th Century American values no matter what time period they find themselves in.