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Category: dead

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 319: DR NARR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 319: DR NARR

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(Daring Mystery Comics 005, 1940) Poor Dr Narr. all he wanted was to make good robots, but all he could make were terrible robots (in comics terms. Even today, bipedal, semi-autonomous robots capable of running and throwing nets etc are wildly advanced. Be less hard on yourself, Narr). Too bad for Narr that he chose the villain’s path: rather than reevaluating his metrics for success in a robot he kidnaps Marvex the 5th dimensional super-robot in hopes of discerning his…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 318: DORK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 318: DORK

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(Daring Mystery Comics 005, 1940) There’s a great temptation when dealing with an evil scientist named Dork to focus on easy, puerile humour rather than appreciating the other things that make him a good super-villain. I had a whole bit about how his big plan was to flood the city with white goo (hur hur) and kidnap women to experiment on their bodies but it wasn’t sustainable. Ironically, I would have had to jump through more hoops to obliquely reference…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO 037: THE PHANTOM BULLET

MINOR SUPER-HERO 037: THE PHANTOM BULLET

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(Daring Mystery Comics 002, 1940) There’s a lot of people on the internet who like to opine on the morality of bat-themed rich-guy vigilantism, but I gotta tell you that it could have been a whole lot worse. Case in point, the Phantom Bullet, a rich guy who gets ahold of an untraceable ice pellet gun and immediately thinks “what this city needs is a whole lot more extra-judicial killings.” But instead of becoming an unstoppable media juggernaut, the Phantom…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 315: THE ZOMBIE MASTER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 315: THE ZOMBIE MASTER

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(Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940) The Zombie Master has layers. Top level is deeds: he is a scientist who kidnaps people on the fringes of society and uses a combination of hypnosis and radiation to turn them into bright green mind controlled thralls – fairly standard stuff for a mad scientist. Next though, is his origin: he felt rejected by society because of his great height – something like 20 feet tall, according to some sources – and so moved…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 314: THE RED TERROR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 314: THE RED TERROR

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(Tough Kid Squad 001, 1942) A fairly undistinguished costumed gang boss, the Red Terror has three things going for him: 1. he gets around in a very cool rocket-powered dirigible 2. he is the only super-villain to face Golden Age underachiever the Human Top 3. he really goes above and beyond in his attempt to rid himself of the Top, hitting him with, in quick succession: mountain lions, flame throwers, an avalanche and a bursting dam. That’s the kind of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 311: THE GOLD LEECHES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 311: THE GOLD LEECHES

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(Red Raven Comics 001, 1940) The Gold Leeches are not terrifically interesting villains, but there are precisely two interesting things about them and that’s enough for me. Uninteresting preamble: Zeelmo, the Gold Leech (unofficial name) is a gold-obsessed gang boss with a few super-scientific gadgets (the Gazegrapho Machine for remote  viewing and the Trembling Death gas which kills via accelerated aging) and a birds-and-skeletons decorating motif that I wish had come up more often. Zeelmo attempts to recruit B-tier Golden…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 310: ZARPO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 310: ZARPO

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(Captain America Comics 009, 1941) Zarpo is a classic example of why if you are a government or large business, etc,  you should have a process for vetting wild crackpot claims from scientists who come to your door. When a man says to you, for example, “my name is Zarpo and I have invented a bomb that blows up after spending a certain amount of time near a human being,” perhaps consider not calling him a crackpot and throuwing him out…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 308: THE BLACK WITCH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 308: THE BLACK WITCH

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(Captain America Comics 008, 1941) So: the Black Witch is a witch’s ghost that supposedly haunts Hagmoor Castle, one of the many castles that dot the landscape around Camp Lehigh (and don’t imagine that it’s the same on from the Hunchback of Hollywood case, because that was called Ebony Castle). Hagmoor Castle, coincidentally, is the subject of an eccentric will that sees one Karin Lee having to spend three nights there alone in order to  inherit her uncle Jonathan’s estate. Perhaps…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 306: THE FIDDLER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 306: THE FIDDLER

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(Captain America Comics 007, 1941) The Fiddler, being a man who can play his violin at special pitches in order to hypnotize or kill, has the dubious honour of being our first super-powered Nazi villain.  The Fiddler is an overplanner, no bones about it. His mission in the US is to kill anti-Nazi politicians (specifically senators, or maybe he’s working up  to governors etc). Here’s his process for doing so: -become an acclaimed musician with regular radio gigs -establish an…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 305: THE BLACK TOAD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 305: THE BLACK TOAD

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(Captain America Comics 007, 1941)  Here’s the problem with the Black Toad: he looks great. A really top-notch costume, like something Batman would have worn in a stage production in the 30s. No notes. And that’s the only interesting thing about him. He’s a baseball manager who wants to buy into the team and is killing players in order to drive the price down. HO HUM. (I guess he does use a bomb hidden inside a baseball at one point….

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