Browsed by
Category: dead

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 897: MR SKELETON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 897: MR SKELETON

Comments 0 comment

(America’s Greatest Comics 001, 1941) Mr Skeleton is one of the handful of minor super-villains who are foundational to this blog, the true weirdos who my mind turns to whenever the subject of obscure comic book characters comes up, and so it’s a real relief  to have him finally hsow his face here. This will keep happening at least until we reach 1978 and train-themed super-villain Casey Jones appears here. There are three really important aspects to Mr Skeleton that…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 895: THE GHOST OF THE DEEP

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 895: THE GHOST OF THE DEEP

Comments 0 comment

(America’s Greatest Comics 001, 1941) The Ghost of the Deep, a dastardly fellow indeed. As the comic opens, a captive scientist named Hugo has just completed a mysterious formula for him, only to be rewarded with murder. In the following days, the Ghost attacks US West Coast shipping, each time leaving behind a calling card in the form of a message in a bottle. The Ghost even tries to silence Billy Batson’s fairly routine reporting on the attacks (but why…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 892: MR HYDE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 892: MR HYDE

Comments 0 comment

(Wow Comics 004, 1941) Mr Hyde is introduced to the reader as a homicidal maniac who murders future Mr Scarlet sidekick Pinky’s mother one night for unclear reasons. He just bursts in and kills her and there is not even attempt to justify it. In fact… I’m not 100% certain that Pinky actually knows that Mr Hyde is the killer. Pinky is relocated to Oaklawn Orphanage, under the care of director Dr Jelke, who we as savvy readers immediately recognize…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 888: THE SCORPION

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 888: THE SCORPION

Comments 0 comment

(Wow Comics 002, 1940) The Scorpion is mostly a regular gang boss, but with just enough extra oomph to take him over the edge into super-villainy. First thing: he is a very Bad Boss in that particular “execute under-performing employees as an example to the others” kind of way that all corporate overlords wish that HR would let them be. Secondly, he is perhaps the closest thing to a super-villain was faced by Allan Lanier, aka the Hunchback, seen here in his civilian guise…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 887. MIGHTY ADWAHL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 887. MIGHTY ADWAHL

Comments 0 comment

(Wow Comics 002, 1941) Once Atom Blake, Boy Wizard sets off on his interplanetary search for his father, his first stop is Mercury. Why? For no stated reason and seemingly just because it’s the first planet out from the Sun, and for that matter, Blake’s reason for starting his search in space rather than on Earth is simply because he can. Once he arrives on Mercury, he is almost immediately captured by an intelligent species of hive-dwelling insectoids.  These Mercurians…

Read More Read More

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 031

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 031

Comments 0 comment

They’re not good people and they’re not good at what they do and yet they still have a certain charm.  This guy is exclusively called “the Fiend” in narration boxes even though he is introduced as “the Great Master” and “Mako”. He practices voodoo and just sort of generically terrorizes the Haitian countryside until Yarko the Great comes at the behest of the intriguingly named Doctor Medico to settle his hash. And speaking of names, this issue features multiple characters…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 873: SATAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 873: SATAN

Comments 0 comment

(Zip Comics 003, 1940) Zambini (the Miracle Man) is on his first vacation in years and Satan, presuming that his guard will be down or that he left his magic amulet at home I guess, decides that this is the perfect time to attack and murder him for being such a thorn in the side of Evil.  (Please note the near-identical guy kind of capering behind Satan’s throne up there, as he represents my favourite thing about this adventure, that…

Read More Read More

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 022

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 022

Comments 0 comment

The Ethic Committee is going to have a field day.   Dr Belos is a single-issue mad scientist: he wants to turn men into birds, and to that end he has set up camp in a place called the Valley of Terror and gotten to work creating surgical chimeras called Vulture Men. His downfall comes about because he kidnaps surgeon Dr D’arne to act as his unwilling assistant, thus causing D’Arne’s daughter to bring in the Flame to help rescue him. …

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 870: THE CHIEF

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 870: THE CHIEF

Comments 0 comment

(Zip Comics 002, 1940) While walking down the street one day in what is almost certainly supposed to be New York City, Jim “the Scarlet Avenger” Kendal witnesses the protection racket-related bombing of a tailor shop. What’s worse, the police response to the blast makes it pretty clear that they are on the take! Using his network of operatives, the Scarlet Avenger discovers when and where the next bombing is set to take place and intervenes by way of a…

Read More Read More

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 030

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 030

Comments 0 comment

I seal up the cracks but the dang things keep getting in.  Klang is your classic rejected-and-shunned-by-society-due-to-his-appearance villain, who has channelled his bitterness into inventions such as heat rays and the explosive Super X-X Nitro Glycerine, which he secretes in the bottle of christening champagne in order to destroy the Navy’s newest battleship. Just how this is meant to bring him closer to his goal of becoming the dictator of America is left unexplored, as it draws the heroic Navy…

Read More Read More