(More Fun 048, 1939)
A man has a mental health crisis and starts living in a swamp, emerging only to mug strangers. That’s a sad story!
Put a gorilla costume on him though… a compelling villain!
Category: minor super-villain
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 041: THE SPEAKING FROG
(More Fun 045, 1939)
The Speaking Frog is possibly the most obscure villain in the DC Universe, and that’s including Fawcett, Quality and Charlton characters in the mix. This is a shame because simply based on their name and appearance they are the strongest BRING THEM BACK candidate I have ever encountered.
Some backstory: in 1938 a strip called “Marg’ry Daw” began in More Fun Comics, running for just a few issues. A Little Orphan Annie knockoff, it featured the titular little girl and her dog having adventures with evil scientists and the like while being left alone by her wealthy but distracted father. Or it would have, but someone wasn’t feeling it and it was wrapped up in about four issues.
Flash forward a year and “Marg’ry Daw” is back. This time it involves a more attentive Luther Daw taking his daughter on a train trip across the country. Over the course of five installments the following happens:
-They befriend a Hindu mystic on the train. He has a vision of impending calamity and convinces them to disembark with him in Idaho. The train subsequently crashes.
-They accompany Ahm, the mystic, to his friend’s secluded mansion. There they meet Stephen Dean, a wealthy vegetarian technophile who collects mummies and Indian artifacts, wears a robe and chortles constantly. A wide array of other eccentric servants and houseguests are alluded to.
-Dean shows off his various gadgets to his new guests, including a voice-activated vault door and the Speaking Frog, a metal statue that talks if a specific object is placed in its mouth.
-A guest is shot in the gardens. Ahm goes for help. Dean disappears. Someone wearing the Frog as a headpiece threatens Luther Daw’s life. He knocks them out and looks under the mask but the person’s identity is not revealed on-panel. Subsequently Dean’s adopted daughter indicates that there may be multiple people in Speaking Frog outfits and tells Daw to kill the real one. (his easy willingness to do so, plus some talk of the Frog not being a man plus Dean being a tech nerd leads to my private theory that the Speaking Frog is meant to be a robot)
AND THAT’S IT. The feature ends with Daw firing at a Speaking Frog and could have been intended either to wrap up immediately or go on for a dozen more episodes – if there’s a person alive who has any idea what was intended then I for one will be as shocked as any person has ever been.
That’s about it: all setup, no payoff. The perfect candidate for revival, as they could be anyone! The greatest costume of all time! The most obscure villain of the DCU is ready to walk again!
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 041: THE SPEAKING FROG
(More Fun 045, 1939)
The Speaking Frog is possibly the most obscure villain in the DC Universe, and that’s including Fawcett, Quality and Charlton characters in the mix. This is a shame because simply based on their name and appearance they are the strongest BRING THEM BACK candidate I have ever encountered.
Some backstory: in 1938 a strip called “Marg’ry Daw” began in More Fun Comics, running for just a few issues. A Little Orphan Annie knockoff, it featured the titular little girl and her dog having adventures with evil scientists and the like while being left alone by her wealthy but distracted father. Or it would have, but someone wasn’t feeling it and it was wrapped up in about four issues.
Flash forward a year and “Marg’ry Daw” is back. This time it involves a more attentive Luther Daw taking his daughter on a train trip across the country. Over the course of five installments the following happens:
-They befriend a Hindu mystic on the train. He has a vision of impending calamity and convinces them to disembark with him in Idaho. The train subsequently crashes.
-They accompany Ahm, the mystic, to his friend’s secluded mansion. There they meet Stephen Dean, a wealthy vegetarian technophile who collects mummies and Indian artifacts, wears a robe and chortles constantly. A wide array of other eccentric servants and houseguests are alluded to.
-Dean shows off his various gadgets to his new guests, including a voice-activated vault door and the Speaking Frog, a metal statue that talks if a specific object is placed in its mouth.
-A guest is shot in the gardens. Ahm goes for help. Dean disappears. Someone wearing the Frog as a headpiece threatens Luther Daw’s life. He knocks them out and looks under the mask but the person’s identity is not revealed on-panel. Subsequently Dean’s adopted daughter indicates that there may be multiple people in Speaking Frog outfits and tells Daw to kill the real one. (his easy willingness to do so, plus some talk of the Frog not being a man plus Dean being a tech nerd leads to my private theory that the Speaking Frog is meant to be a robot)
AND THAT’S IT. The feature ends with Daw firing at a Speaking Frog and could have been intended either to wrap up immediately or go on for a dozen more episodes – if there’s a person alive who has any idea what was intended then I for one will be as shocked as any person has ever been.
That’s about it: all setup, no payoff. The perfect candidate for revival, as they could be anyone! The greatest costume of all time! The most obscure villain of the DCU is ready to walk again!
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 040: THE INVISIBLE TERROR
(More Fun 044, 1939)
Not much to this fellow, just a scientist who turns himself invisible and immediately starts criming it up. He is our first invisible guy though, and he’s yet another collar by the Radio Squad. Well, almost – he hurls himself out a window rather than go to jail.
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 039: THE SLUGGER
(More Fun 043, 1939)
A common or garden-variety mugger, the Slugger’s technique (sneak up and bash ’em on the head) and the frequency of his attacks lead to a lot of press coverage, starting a city-wide panic (as in our previous entry). In response, the Slugger leans into it, up to and including sending taunting messages to the police, a favourite villainous move of mine. Crime can’t be seen to pay in a comic book, though, so he is eventually hauled in by the Radio Squad.
The Slugger represents my absolute lowest level baseline version of the super-villain by dint of scale of crime. While I’m sure that there are other super-muggers out there to be discovered, I will be very surprised if I encounter another uncostumed, non-powered one.
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 038: THE MONSTER
(More Fun 039, 1939)
A man who trained a pair of great danes to steal, leading to a city-wide panic after glimpses of the dogs caused people to assume that some sort of creature was involved, which then lead to newspaper front pages. The Radio Squad eventually got their man, though sadly the dogs did not survive.
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 037: THE GORILLA KING
(Action v1 019, 1939)
Classic mad scientist stuff here: work out a revolutionary technique to transplant human brains into gorillas and then aim no higher than sending your gorilla-men out on horseback to plunder Mexico. Blows himself up, as per the above image.
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP
(Action v1 017, 1939)
Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.
Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP
(Action v1 017, 1939)
Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.
Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis
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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 035: THE CULT OF THE TIGER
(Action v1 017-018, 1939)
There’s a lot of ancient murder-cults in comics, and a lot of them are orientalist nonsense about primitive superstitions and such. I present this one (duped into doing the bidding of a couple of no-good brothers) solely because of the magnificent crotch-throne.