(Action Comics 025, 1940)
The “World’s Greatest Hypnotist,” Medini embarks on a life of crime using his gifts. He’s so good at hypnosis, in fact, that he is able to put Superman himself out of commission with the power of his mind, which might be why his story ends with Superman throwing an entire plane at his head.
(Whiz Comics 005, 1940)
Dr Lake has a hypnotism machine which he uses to found a nation-wide network of child thieves. He doesn’t reckon, though, with the fact that Captain Marvel is secretly a child.
(More Fun 049, 1939)
An archaeological dabbler who loots digs in the Valley of the Kings until he is put paid by short-lived detective character Bulldog Martin. Really really enjoy his gold mask/ pharaonic headpiece/ dark red robe combo.
(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.
(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.
(Action Comics v1 001, 1938)
The Tigress was both Zatara’s first foe and his only real recurring villain, showing up a dozen times over 3 years. She acted in the role of what was occasionally called a “friendly enemy”: a villain of the opposite gender who the hero has a soft spot for, implicitly or explicitly because they’re horny for them. A Catwoman situation, in other words.
Like Catwoman and Batman, the Tigress occasionally teamed up with Zatara against a worse foe, and Zatara frequently let her escape at the end of a case out of horny sentimentality. Unlike Catwoman, the Tigress was absolutely a multiple murderer, running armed robbery, assassination and extortion rings at various times as well as acting as lieutenant for several other super-villains such as the Mad Lama.
Ultimately, Zatara caught the Tigress for the last time and seemingly persuaded her to reform. Whether it stuck or not, she never appeared in a comic book again.
(Feature Funnies 007, 1938)
Our first Quality Comics super-villain!
Otherwise, not very interesting – he doesn’t even wear the mask in the story, just tries to frame the Clock and finds out how far that kind of thing gets you in the comic book game.
(Feature Funnies 007, 1938)
Our first Quality Comics super-villain!
Otherwise, not very interesting – he doesn’t even wear the mask in the story, just tries to frame the Clock and finds out how far that kind of thing gets you in the comic book game.
(Detective v1 019, 1938)
Nemesis of Inspector Kent of Scotland Yard with maybe three appearances – but he’s the kind of dreaded evil mastermind who shows up already the most wanted man of all time, so he feels more significant.
(Detective v1 016, 1938)
The Broadway Bandit is just a disgruntled actor who puts on a mask and robs box offices until Slam Bradley shows up to settle his hash but he might be out first illustration of the very basic level of super-villainy: a good name, a basic but distinctive costume and the commission of crimes while in the possession of both.
SHOULD THEY BE BROUGHT BACK? No, but in a super-hero universe I reckon that there should be way more guys adopting this kind of persona to do basic crimes like armed robbery. In a world with cosmic threats named Molecule Man and such running around you might not even need a weapon to stick up a corner store if you strolled in in a plausible enough costume.