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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 592: ORRO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 592: ORRO

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(Exciting Comics 006, 1940) The Space Rovers are Ted Hunt and Jane Martin, two young adults whose dads built a spaceship and who were compelled to steal that ship rather than see it and its ray cannon fall into the nefarious hands of some ambiguously foreign spies. Subsequently, they have just the worst luck at getting back to Earth, with each issue of Exciting Comics featuring some space danger that derails their progress. This time around they come across another…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 591: THE CULT OF DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 591: THE CULT OF DEATH

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(Exciting Comics 006, 1940) The Cult of Death comes into conflict with adventurer Ted Crane and his pals as they look for their associate, Egyptologist Dr Turner, in Luxor. Despite its very evocative name, the Cult of Death seems to sort of broadly worship the concept of Ancient Egypt and resent those who would pry into its secrets – Dr Turner has in fact been killed by them for seeking the lost tomb of King Mephtet. Does the cult’s leader…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 588: THE MASK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 588: THE MASK

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(Exciting Comics 004, 1940)  Famed Broadway star Sandra Cummings is dead, either by her own hand or anothers’, and she has for some never explained reason left behind a note detailing the extent of political corruption in NYC and more importantly naming the names of those involved. This note is immediately stolen and soon afterward someone pretending to be the Mask starts extorting and murdering those named in the note. I’ve said it before: impersonating a super-hero is completely understandable…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 586: THE RED BLIGHT

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 586: THE RED BLIGHT

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(Exciting Comics 003, 1940) Technically, the Red Blight is a ray weapon developed by mad scientist Dr Hodl on behalf of ideologically nonspecific aggressor General Pasko in order to facilitate the conquest of Europe, but just like when a guy with a regular name is tooling around in a vehicle with a cool codename I reckon that the good name should take precedence, particularly as 1) Dr Hodl never returns and 2) people make reference to the Red Blight as…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 013

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 013

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Here come the also-rans. We’ve got another Leader, and this time he’s not a generically-fascist spy but the head of a gang looking to extort the New York World’s Fair via a series of bombings. Of course the Fantom of the Fair cannot let this stand and quickly tracks them down to a small island base. If the first reason I included the Leader aka Relmar here is because I enjoy a monocled man with a high opinion of himself…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 582: BARON BLOOD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 582: BARON BLOOD

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(Detective Eye 001, 1940) Not the first knockoff of Count “the Most Dangerous Game” Zaroff we’ve met, and certainly not the last. Baron Blood incorporates quite a lot of elements that you’ll find in various adaptations of the story: the island castle with built-in lighthouse to draw victims in via shipwreck, the monocle and prominent facial scar and the pack of hunting dogs and huge hunting guide/servant. What sets the Baron apart from the rest of the bored island-dwelling human-hunting…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 010

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 010

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We have mad scientists at criminal scientist prices. Dr Koch is one of the many people hungry to get their hands on the secret vitamin supplement that turned the Champ (derogatory) into the Champ (aspirational) after its creator Dr Marlin is murdered. Koch’s mild claim to fame is the fact that he’s the first one to get ahold of the formula long enough to do anything with it. What he did, specifically, was to mix up a big batch and…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 580: BLACK MICHAEL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 580: BLACK MICHAEL

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(Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940) Black Michael is the leader of a band of space pirates based on Pluto and beginning in the year 2140 he terrorizes the solar system, killing and plundering at will. It’s unclear in the original story how long this state of affairs persists for, but a later installment of “the Solar Legion” takes place in 2260, suggesting that Black Michael and his crew might have been going strong for upwards of 120 years. That’s a…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 578: SEMMURABI

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 578: SEMMURABI

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(Champion Comics 010, 1940) Have you ever wondered what happened to the Chaldeans, the ancient Mesopotamian people whose height was from the 9th to 6th centuries BCE, who were mentioned frequently in the Bible and whose name was lent to a Babylonian dynasty? Well wonder no longer! They were merely tucked away in a little hidden city less than a day’s travel via horse from Jerusalem! At least until 1940, that is, because that’s when the city’s leader, a fellow…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 577: THE BLACK LAMA

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 577: THE BLACK LAMA

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(Champion Comics 010, 1940) It’s a small consolation but this guy isn’t actually a lama! Unlike the Mad Lama or the Four Lamas before him (and more than a few to come), this fellow is merely a bandit chief presumably called the Black Lama because he is Tibetan! It this better than a whole class of holy men being portrayed as evil scheming villains? A little! I also want to say that it’s because his headquarters are a former lamasery…

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