(Whiz Comics 008, 1940) Fairly generic pirate captain distinguished by the fact that he manages at least two appearances. Maybe three, actually: It’s equally possible that this guy – a henchman of Dr Sivana in Whiz 021 – is intended to be the same person with a whole different aesthetic or an unrelated guy with a similar taste in names. What is certain is that he was seemingly kilt stone daid by Captain Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels
(Whiz Comics 007, 1940) Rodney Stark is a rich asshole who unfreezes some prehistoric men and uses them as a private military force in a bid to take over the world, until Captain Marvel shows up to murder them all.
(Whiz Comics 006, 1940) Like many Ibis the Invincible villains, the Hobo-Millionaire found the mystic Ibistick when it was lost for a time and who eventually attempted to kill Ibis with it, leading to is own death via magic feedback. Unlike most Ibis the Invincible villains, Hobo-Millionaire is great. I would love for them to BRING BACK this great man. It wouldn’t be hard, either! Imagine a scenario in which the Ibristick is passed down to a legacy character (this is…
(Whiz Comics 006, 1940) A smuggler who founds an island haven for fugitive criminals, the Emperor makes a key mistake: he forgets that the citizens of his island empire are all murderers and acts like a tyrant. Predictably, he gets murdered. 2025 UPDATE: I just reread this story and I think that it’s imperative that I note that the Emperor, aka Scarface Otto Krug, was specifically an ambergris smuggler.
(Whiz Comics 002-015, 1940-1941) This fellow right here is the spy that Spy Smasher was trying to smash for the first year and a half or so that he was in action. I tend to think of him as a bigger deal than he actually is because of my tendencies re: thinking too much about comics, but certainly if Spy Smasher himself had managed to remain a going concern after the 40s then the Mask would have eventually been brought…
(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.
(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.
(Action v1 015, 1939) Just a regular sort of science villain with a regular sort of plan: create a heat ray cannon and use it to ransom the world by melting the ice caps. Derailed and frozen solid by Zatara after a mere few flooded cities. Actually, that would be a neat way for him to come back: thawed out by global warming. Occasionally a clear super-villain is unnamed in the course of a story and I have to go…
(Action v1 009, 1939) In a fairly typical display of respect for the Tibetan peoples and their religion, the Mad Lama is a ruthless villain bent on world domination. Presumably he achieved his powers through rigid dedication to the popular “evil” style of Tibetan Buddhism. The Lama himself doesn’t get to do much other than bloviate for a while before being incinerated in a magic duel with Zatara, so the most interesting thing about him is the fact that he…
(Action v1 008-009, 1939) Dr Kichung menaced Tex Thomson for a couple of issues in a fairly standard scientist-who-puts-human-brains-into-apes kind of way until the local apes, sick of his malarky, killed him dead. I really liked his apes though. They had gravitas.