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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 560: VLADIM

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 560: VLADIM

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(Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939)  Our hero, Yarko the Great, is driving along a country lane outside London when his travels are interrupted by a bestial figure who runs out of a nearby castle and immediately drops dead. While Yarko is examining the body a monocled creep emerges from some nearby bushes Homer Simpson-style to introduce himself as “Vladim, a genius!” For me, this is exciting, because he shares his somewhat-unusual name with the seldom-mentioned, never-seen airplane designer of the Blackhawk…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 559: THE COUNCIL OF VAMPIRES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 559: THE COUNCIL OF VAMPIRES

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(Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939) Firstly: re the first panel, I really struggled with whether to call these guys the Deadly Council of Vampires or just the Council of Vampires. Still doubting myself. Secondly: I am going to lay out these guys’ whole deal up front in order to properly critique them in the manner I am compelled to: they are not, despite the name, vampires. Instead, they are what seems to be a cult devoted to a vampire named Anya…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 558: DOXOL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 558: DOXOL

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(Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939) We (and the Flame) start in media res, as a young woman unsuccessfully attempts to flee a car full of hooded goons, is captured and brought back to an ominous manor in the woods. The Flame cottons on to this and follows them. Inside we find Doxol! Doxol is a wizened green fellow who is using mind control drugs (mystic ones!) to create his own little crime cult. This is where the slice-of-life nature of the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 555: SHADDIBA

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 555: SHADDIBA

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(Wonder Comics 002, 1939) Shaddiba appears in the first adventure of magic hero Yarko the Great as an old enemy of Yarko who has come to the town of Hexville in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. His exact reasons for doing so are unstated, so I reckon that it’s equally likely that Hexville is an especially ripe spot for crime as that he was attracted by the old haunted mansion on the hill that he moves into. Comic book expectations…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 554: THE MASK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 554: THE MASK

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(Wonder Comics 001, 1939) A gun runner doing business with rebel forces in the probably-South American country of Mauchako, the Mask doesn’t bring a lot to the table beyond a fairly snazzy take on the low-effort costume. He’s also the first foe faced by super-spy K-51 (is his original callsign of K-5, as you may have noticed). He’s also a US Senator, which is a heckuva job to split your attention from – also, weirdly he’s not our first one….

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 551: THE MAD PROFESSOR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 551: THE MAD PROFESSOR

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(Smash Comics 004, 1939) It’s a classic set-up: squat in some out-of the-way location – an isolated island, a desert, or as in this case the mountains of Alaska – bring down planes or draw in ships using a big magnet or fake monster or as here an engine-killing ray, and bingo bango bongo you have your own fleet. You can supply your own crew or save even more money like the Mad Professor by subjecting the existing crew to…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 547: THE HOODED TERROR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 547: THE HOODED TERROR

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(Smash Comics 003, 1939) It’s a good name but I’m afraid that the Hooded Terror is just a stock crypto-fascist European saboteur attempting to destroy the Panama Canal and trap the US fleet in the Pacific in order to set up an invasion of the East Coast. It’s no great loss to fiction when he gets cold-cocked by G-2 agent Wings Wendall and left behind in a sinking submarine to drown. Other than some degree of admiration for his ability…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 544: DR VON THORP & THE IRON MONSTER / MINOR SUPER HERO: HUGH HAZZARD & BOZO THE IRON MAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 544: DR VON THORP & THE IRON MONSTER / MINOR SUPER HERO: HUGH HAZZARD & BOZO THE IRON MAN

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(Smash Comics 001, 1939) We open on a city (later established as almost certainly NYC) in the grip of terror. A robot known as the Iron Monster is wantonly robbing and murdering and also stealing one or more babies for reasons that are never made clear. Seriously, we never find out what the deal was with those babies. The Iron Monster is the creation of Dr von Thorp, your classic scientist rejected from society for his outre beliefs, though considering…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 541: THE HOODED FIGURE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 541: THE HOODED FIGURE

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(Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939) Simply a man who reacts to losing his pilot’s license in a very rational way: he sabotages planes at the local airfield and also booby traps all the parachutes so that they will strangle anyone that uses them. Upon being hunted down by two-fisted detective the Duke, the Hooded Figure makes the common mistake of trying to get away in a plane that he himself had already sabotaged. Ah, irony.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 535: VON HAUPT

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 535: VON HAUPT

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(Fantastic Comics 001, 1939) Von Haupt is  more like a journey through the traits and attributes of a style of  super-crook than a character: Aviator Captain Kidd is flying over an unspecified jungle when his plane is forced down by an engine-killing ray. Captured by costumed goons, Kidd is brought to a jungle fortress before a vaguely European man  with a German-sounding last name and a monocle. Though threatening, this exchange turns out to be a job interview, as von…

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