The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Blue Bolt

  • MONSTER, CRITTER AND CREATURE ROUND-UP 004

    Everyone likes a good monster now and then.

    Horned Cat:

    With every one of these round-ups I accrue more evidence that the Slightly Different Big Cat is one of the classic monster types, as seen here when Congo Jack is confronted with this horned green feline in the mystical Valley of Vango in the Congolese jungle.

    As a bonus, a few steps later he has to deal with another classic: the carnivorous plant, or in this case flesh-eating bush. (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)

    Croco-Tiger:

    As further evidence, here’s Power Nelson fending off a strangely plush-looking croco-tiger in the wilds of the planet Pluvius in the far-flung year 1982 CE. For those like me who like to see a comic book creature survive now and then, worry not for the yellow pool this beast is being flung into merely shrinks it to kitten size, which is hopefully something that it can adapt to.

    Pluvius also features its own type of carnivorous plant, in this case some sort of tentacle (or possibly tendril?) based predator. (Prize Comics 003, 1940)

    Cannibal Tree:

    Rex Dexter of Mars and gal pal Synde have their own run-in with a carnivorous plant, the so-called cannibal tree, on an unnamed extrasolar planet. (Mystery Men Comics 018 1941)

    Dodman’s Serpent:

    Though the practice is now frowned upon in zoological circles, I can’t help but love the sound of an eponymous species name, and especially when the species in question is some sort of monster. Dodman’s Serpent is great because it has the lovely rhythm of an eponym without actually being named after some guy named Dodman who will later be cancelled and require a lot of textbooks to be reprinted. Instead, it is named after its hunting grounds near Dodman’s Point in Cornwall. Or its former hunting grounds, I suppose, since it made the mistake of attacking a ship containing the Black Knight. (The Funnies 049, 1940)

    Dragon:

    I really like this dragon, which spent its days peacefully eating maidens in an unnamed European kingdom until the Golden Knight showed up and slayed it. It has all the weird goofiness of the dragons that you see in Medieval illustrations from before the concept of what such a beast looks like was really codified. (Fantastic Comics 010, 1940)

    Dragons:

    These dragons, by contrast, are just a bunch of weird lizards that the Green Sorceress keeps in a cave and throws her enemies to. I really like them. (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    Drazil:

    Here we see Neptina associate Norma Kane be ambushed and nearly killed by a very cool-looking undersea reptile called a drazil. As is often the case with long-necked creatures, the drazil is vulnerable to having its head chopped off.

    Norma really was having a day of it, as immediately before the drazil attack, she was ambushed by this heinous looking crustacean which is referred to only as a “sea-beast.” (Champ Comics 011, 1940)

    Dream Plants:

    During one of the Green Sorceress’ many attempts to conquer the whole of the underground world, she employs dark majicks and weird science to move her armies through the Fourth Dimension. While pursuing her there, Blue Bolt is nearly killed by a Dream Plant, a carnivorous plant with the ability to project sexy illusions to lure its prey closer.

    Later, a second, airborne species of dream plant that forgoes the illusory lures in favour of active hunting almost does for the Green Sorceress herself before Blue Bolt spears it in its conspicuous weak point. (Blue Bolt v1 005, 1940) 

    Jungle Horse:

    Finally we have the jungle horse, potentially the only non-hostile species present on the Gorikon in the Negative Universe, or at least the only one encountered by Meteor Martin during his time there. These peaceful animals just hang around waiting to act as beasts of burden for passing humanoids – a truly selfless species. (Amazing-Man Comics 025, 1941)

  • MONSTER, CRITTER AND CREATURE ROUND-UP 003

    I hope everyone likes monsters as much as I do because there are a whole lot of them to cover.

    Beaked Tyros:

    When polar explorer Anthony Conrad gets lost in an Arctic storm and falls through a hole in the pack ice, he reasonably expects to meet his demise. Instead, he falls into the subterranean kingdom of Artica and is chosen by the elderly Artican king – also a stranded former surface explorer – as his successor. 

    As part of the coronation process, Anthony must prove his mettle to his prospective subjects, and step two of that process is Thrilling Arena Combat with the horrible beaked tyros “Lord of Artica’s Jungles,” and I love this thing. Though it looks like just another low-rent carnosaur at first glance, upon closer examination it has many bizarre features, including weird bird legs, thin, unpleasant-looking teeth, radially-symmetrical hands that are possibly equipped with suckers on the palms, and skin that is described as “hairy” in the caption box. Truly this is a strange and wonderful beast that sadly must be chopped up in service to the story. (Cyclone Comics 001, 1940)

    the Beast:

    When asked to prove his worthiness to wed the Princess Ahloo, our hero Abdallah knows exactly what to do: ride directly to a nearby valley full of dinosauroids and slay one of them. Though one of the pteranodon-adjacent flying reptiles that confront him when he enters the valley would probably be sufficient to satisfy Ahloo’s father, Abdallah instead opts to battle a creature referred to only as the Beast, a possibly-fire-breathing, possibly-carnivorous sauropodoid that give him a truly heroic-level challenge. And it works! He gets the girl! (Funny Pages v2 003, 1937)

    the Birds:

    These vulture-monsters come very close to destroying the Blue Bolt on his very first adventure. They are only prevented from doing so, in fact, because they work for the Green Sorceress and she has become infatuated with Our Hero here on sight.

    I’m always a big fan of these kinds of monster birds that up the ante on deadliness by throwing most of the birdliness of the creature out the window and instead give them the body plan of a griffin. Really great stuff and my only note is that some of the tails are very unpleasant to look at. (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    Bolu:

    Meg and Mickey are two children who have access to a magical time-travel stone and use it to just kind of blunder around throughout history. In this particular instance they have ended up in the Stone Age and are only saved from being eaten by some uncharitable portrayals of our collective ancestors by the appearance of a dinosaur, called Bolu by the cavemen and of course far, far more out of place than two 20th Century kids could ever hope to be. There is some indication that the bolu was summoned by the Spirit of the Stone to save the two from becoming dinner, but if that’s the case then why do the cavemen already know about it? (The Comics 007, 1938)

    Carnicantileia:

    The swamp-dwelling carnicantileia briefly menaces Flip Falcon and his associates during one of his early adventures when he mostly uses his fantastic time-and-space machine to go to Mars. It’s a pretty impressive snake-style beast, and as such it’s a real shame that it is killed in such a goofy way, by having a big rock thrown down its gullet. (Fantastic Comics 003, 1940)

    Carnivoplant:

    The carnivoplant is a classic man-eating plant, subtype seaweed, that almost kills adventurer Kinks Mason before it in turn is preyed upon by a swarm of phosphomites. And just what are phosphomites, you may ask? Contextually, they are small glowing creatures that eat carnivoplants, and that is all the information we get. (Fight Comics 001, 1940)

    Cave Monster:

    Modern day cowboy hero Bull’s-Eye Bill and his companions meet this cave reptile while pursuing an outlaw, and as I previously observed, it was clearly meant to set up an adventure into a prehistoric underground world that subsequent creators chose not to take advantage of. 

    As for the one beast that we do get to see fight some cowboys, I really appreciate how lizardy it looks, as well as how it seems to be posing for maximum dramatic effect in every panel, even when killing a guy or writhing around in its death throes. (Target Comics v1 007, 1940)

    the Ozix:

    Someday
    when I post a picture of a creature that is just a big cat with some extra stuff stapled onto it in one of these round-ups I will be able to refer to it
    as a standard type of creature, but I simply haven’t done the work yet.
    The ozix, then, is a beast with the body of a leopard and the head of a
    crocodile – how novel a concept! Adventurer Congo Jack must slay this
    one during his adventures under the earth. (Lightning Comics v2 002,
    1941) 

    Dakk:

    Returning to the adventures of King Anthony in the sub-Arctic world of Artica, here we see him as he is about to tour his kingdom on the back of a domesticated dakk, and I must say that I like the very beast-of-burden look that they have given to this creature’s head. Sadly, this particular dakk has been poisoned as part of an attempt to assassinate the new king.

    This assassination attempt is only partially successful, as Anthony survives the fall into the jungles of Artica but is then placed in further peril at the claws of the various creatures that live there, such as this amazing giraffe-patterned water lizard.

    Though he escapes the lizard, Anthony is almost immediately attacked by a great horned tigrid, which is is of course a regular tiger with two little horns on its head, and another example of what I was talking about in the ozix entry.

    Finally, after stumbling upon the roots of the conspiracy against him and dealing with them violently, King Anthony makes his way home on a humble unicorn. (Cyclone Comics 003, 1940) 

    the Storm Monster:

    A giant reptilian beast that plagues an African village on a yearly basis (during a huge storm, natch), the Storm Monster meets its end after swallowing Kaänga whole, upon which he carves his way free of its guts with his trusty knife. (Jungle Comics 021, 1941)

  • CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 010

    CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 010

    I’m beginning to think that the super-hero scene is pretty hazardous.

    the Blue Bolt: 

    The Blue Bolt’s first outing against the Green Sorceress is marred by the fact that he gets near-fatally clawed by her vulturoid monsters. (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    the Cloak: 

    Jeff Cardiff, aka the Spy-Master, aka the Spay-Chief and the future Cloak, gets a classic skull crease. On purpose! This is the way that that goon chose to knock him out! Such confidence! (Big Shot 002, 1940)

    Jeff’s choice to adopt the Cloak identity comes after his identity as a government man gets around and enemy agents start gunning for him. Specifically, they gun him in the left shoulder. Twice! (Big Shot 015, 1941)

    Being a costumed super-hero is no guarantee that you won’t be shot, however, and Jeff gets his skull creased once more on his third outing as the Cloak. (Big Shot 018, 1941)

    the Flame:

    The Flame turns off his bullet-melting heat aura for just an instant to pick up a lady in need and gets his skull creased by a bullet. (The Flame 007, 1941)

    Phantasmo:

    Phantasmo is one of the last super-heroes who one would expect to get injured, seeing as how his whole deal is supposed to be sending out a huge, invulnerable astral form to fight crime. Nevertheless, he keeps on starting adventures in his very vulnerable human body, and so he inevitably gets shot in the left shoulder. (The Funnies 061, 1941)

    Skyman:

    Skyman dodges a bullet at close range – an impressive feat – but he still gets a bloody gash across his enormous chest. (Big Shot 003, 1940)

    Zanzibar the Magician:

    Zanzibar takes an arrow in the right shoulder courtesy of a dastardly Walrus Man. (Mystery Men Comics 005, 1939)

    A couple of years later but the same shoulder: Zanzibar is shot. (Mystery Men Comics 023, 1941)

     And what Golden Age super-hero goes very long without getting his head creased by a bullet? (The Flame 006, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 008

    MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 008

    Some real highs and lows in this one.

    the Twister: 

    The Twister is a quite minor Golden Age super-hero – he managed more than one appearance but not more than seven – who has the distinction of having one of the most well-designed costumes of the era. Not my favourite costume, mind you, but boy oh boy, you can really tell that his creators (Ray Gill and Paul Gustavson as it happens) really sat down for a good think about how to evoke “tornado” via the medium of clothing.

    The Twister turns out to be Bob Sanders, and he turns out to be a descendant of perennial fave Greek hero Odysseus. It turns out that the story of Aeolus gifting Odysseus two bags of wind and his men opening the bag of storm winds thinking that it was full of treasure was more than just another delay in Odysseus’ Bad Voyage, it was akin to the opening of Pandora’s Box and Aeolus had charged Odysseus or his descendants to round up all of the evil violent winds and return the to captivity. 

    Evidently over the years the charge to gather up evil winds has expanded to fighting all evil, and the Twister’s power set allows him to run roughshod over just about anyone using wind control, a tornado form and invulnerability to anything that couldn’t harm actual wind. There is some attempt to establish that he is vulnerable to being locked up somewhere with no airflow but that proves even easier to defeat than all the times that Silver Age Aquaman is locked up and forced to source water from unexpected places.

    The Twister’s other claim to fame is that he was introduced as a mysterious tornado that appeared in the Blue Bolt, Sub-Zero and Dick Cole stories in the issue he first appears in, which is enough to be counted as a rare Golden Age crossover even though none of them shared words. (Blue Bolt v2 001, 1941)

    Freezum:

    On an adventure that takes him to Alaska, Sub-Zero happens upon a little Inuit or Aleut boy frozen in a glacier.

    Thawing the kid out and finding him to miraculously be alive, Sub-Zero (as well as an unfortunate doctor) is further astounded to discover that they share the same sort of cold-based powers due to their similar near-death freezing experiences. The kid names himself Freezum, and that’s just the first salvo of a barrage of tired comic relief sidekick shenanigans. Yes, we’ll be sighing and rolling our eyes for the remainder of Sub-Zero’s run – the joys of the Golden Age, friends! (Blue Bolt v2 005, 1941)

    Lois Blake:

    Lois Blake is a woman who Blue Bolt meets while attempting to take down a gang that was swindling immigrants using fake citizenship papers and decides to team up with. At some point when the gang is being particularly elusive he remembers that his pal Dr Bertoff down in the underground Kirby world has a viewscreen that can see virtually any location and so they head down there to use it. Bertoff then very helpfully offers to transfer some of Blue Bolt’s power to Lois and a new crimefighting team is born! (small aside: Golden Age comics don’t get a lot of praise for their art but I really enjoy both the small detail of Lois gripping Blue Bolt’s arm for comfort in the first panel above and her delighted expression in the third).

    Lois never gets a super-hero name and only really makes a handful of appearances before Blue Bolt ditches his costume and powers to become a regular if oddly-named soldier, but he’s such a nonentity post Simon and Kirby that I can’t help but love her for adding some life to the strip.(Blue Bolt v2 007, 1941)

    the Marvel:

    The Marvel is your classic mask-and-tuxedo vigilante, who specializes in showing up to bail reporter Scoop Cody out of the kind of jams you can get in when you’ve cracked a juicy crime story but not accounted for the possibility that the criminals involved might want to stop you from reporting on it.

    Three things about the Marvel: 

    1. The nose cutout never looks as cool as the full-face cowl does but I reckon it’s a heck of a lot more comfortable, so you have to give him some credit for choosing function over form.

    2. Scoop Cody and thus the Marvel only had two appearances and both of them had a teaser at the end promising that the Marvel’s identity would be revealed in the next issue. It’s always possible that they were planning on making the Marvel a completely new, never-before-seen guy but if they weren’t then literally the only suspect is this guy, Scoop Cody’s crusty old unnamed editor.

    3. Love a super-hero calling card, even in the rare cases when it’s a literal calling card.

    Also here is the Marvel’s second appearance in its entirety. (Blue Ribbon Coimcs 002, 1939)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 008

    MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 008

    Some real highs and lows in this one.

    the Twister: 

    The Twister is a quite minor Golden Age super-hero – he managed more than one appearance but not more than seven – who has the distinction of having one of the most well-designed costumes of the era. Not my favourite costume, mind you, but boy oh boy, you can really tell that his creators (Ray Gill and Paul Gustavson as it happens) really sat down for a good think about how to evoke “tornado” via the medium of clothing.

    The Twister turns out to be Bob Sanders, and he turns out to be a descendant of perennial fave Greek hero Odysseus. It turns out that the story of Aeolus gifting Odysseus two bags of wind and his men opening the bag of storm winds thinking that it was full of treasure was more than just another delay in Odysseus’ Bad Voyage, it was akin to the opening of Pandora’s Box and Aeolus had charged Odysseus or his descendants to round up all of the evil violent winds and return the to captivity. 

    Evidently over the years the charge to gather up evil winds has expanded to fighting all evil, and the Twister’s power set allows him to run roughshod over just about anyone using wind control, a tornado form and invulnerability to anything that couldn’t harm actual wind. There is some attempt to establish that he is vulnerable to being locked up somewhere with no airflow but that proves even easier to defeat than all the times that Silver Age Aquaman is locked up and forced to source water from unexpected places.

    The Twister’s other claim to fame is that he was introduced as a mysterious tornado that appeared in the Blue Bolt, Sub-Zero and Dick Cole stories in the issue he first appears in, which is enough to be counted as a rare Golden Age crossover even though none of them shared words. (Blue Bolt v2 001, 1941)

    Freezum:

    On an adventure that takes him to Alaska, Sub-Zero happens upon a little Inuit or Aleut boy frozen in a glacier.

    Thawing the kid out and finding him to miraculously be alive, Sub-Zero (as well as an unfortunate doctor) is further astounded to discover that they share the same sort of cold-based powers due to their similar near-death freezing experiences. The kid names himself Freezum, and that’s just the first salvo of a barrage of tired comic relief sidekick shenanigans. Yes, we’ll be sighing and rolling our eyes for the remainder of Sub-Zero’s run – the joys of the Golden Age, friends! (Blue Bolt v2 005, 1941)

    Lois Blake:

    Lois Blake is a woman who Blue Bolt meets while attempting to take down a gang that was swindling immigrants using fake citizenship papers and decides to team up with. At some point when the gang is being particularly elusive he remembers that his pal Dr Bertoff down in the underground Kirby world has a viewscreen that can see virtually any location and so they head down there to use it. Bertoff then very helpfully offers to transfer some of Blue Bolt’s power to Lois and a new crimefighting team is born! (small aside: Golden Age comics don’t get a lot of praise for their art but I really enjoy both the small detail of Lois gripping Blue Bolt’s arm for comfort in the first panel above and her delighted expression in the third).

    Lois never gets a super-hero name and only really makes a handful of appearances before Blue Bolt ditches his costume and powers to become a regular if oddly-named soldier, but he’s such a nonentity post Simon and Kirby that I can’t help but love her for adding some life to the strip.(Blue Bolt v2 007, 1941)

    the Marvel:

    The Marvel is your classic mask-and-tuxedo vigilante, who specializes in showing up to bail reporter Scoop Cody out of the kind of jams you can get in when you’ve cracked a juicy crime story but not accounted for the possibility that the criminals involved might want to stop you from reporting on it.

    Three things about the Marvel: 

    1. The nose cutout never looks as cool as the full-face cowl does but I reckon it’s a heck of a lot more comfortable, so you have to give him some credit for choosing function over form.

    2. Scoop Cody and thus the Marvel only had two appearances and both of them had a teaser at the end promising that the Marvel’s identity would be revealed in the next issue. It’s always possible that they were planning on making the Marvel a completely new, never-before-seen guy but if they weren’t then literally the only suspect is this guy, Scoop Cody’s crusty old unnamed editor.

    3. Love a super-hero calling card, even in the rare cases when it’s a literal calling card.

    Also here is the Marvel’s second appearance in its entirety. (Blue Ribbon Coimcs 002, 1939)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 509: KING ROCKY THE FIRST

    (Blue Bolt v1 010, 1941)

    Some preamble: in Blue Bolt v1 007 the Green Sorceress managed to capture the Blue Bolt and thus in Blue Bolt v1 008 she was able to force Dr Bertoff to surrender to her forces. Her incompetent scientists subsequently triggered a series of devastating explosions while attempting to extract radium from Bertoff’s mineral fields, with the one positive effect of opening a passage to the surface world. The Green Sorceress then travelled to the surface to do espionage, followed by the Blue Bolt, who had escaped paralysis and freed Bertoff’s people since her departure.

    The Green Sorceress’ main surface henchman was gang boss Rocky Roberts, King of the Rackets, who got pretty thoroughly beaten up by the Blue Bolt but then manages to pop out of a little hatch in the Green Sorceress’ escape rocket and propose an alliance against Dr Bertoff and the Blue Bolt, to which the Sorceress agrees.

    This goes poorly! Rocky immediately takes over the Green Kingdom and declares himself King Rocky the Foist.

    Rather than rule in a traditional manner, King Rocky establishes himself as the head of a gang consisting of the Green Sorceress’ former army, with the citizens of the Green Kingdom being subjected to gang-style protection rackets, kidnappings, torture and garden-variety murder. This is a Jack Kirby idea, it has to be – even if he never made up another one to vex someone like Jimmy Olsen with the Sci-Fi Gangsterocracy is one of the most Kirby ideas I can think of.

    It’s tough to articulate but I respect King Rocky for his decision to murder the Green Sorceress. Believe it or not, it’s a refreshing change for a Golden Age villain, most of whom would see an attractive captive and start yelling about making her “my Queen!”

    But of course if you shoot at a super-villain you best not miss. King Rocky the Foist’s plans are interrupted by Blue Bolt and he meets the traditional end for a super-usurper: giant laser blast.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 509: KING ROCKY THE FIRST

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 509: KING ROCKY THE FIRST

    (Blue Bolt v1 010, 1941)

    Some preamble: in Blue Bolt v1 007 the Green Sorceress managed to capture the Blue Bolt and thus in Blue Bolt v1 008 she was able to force Dr Bertoff to surrender to her forces. Her incompetent scientists subsequently triggered a series of devastating explosions while attempting to extract radium from Bertoff’s mineral fields, with the one positive effect of opening a passage to the surface world. The Green Sorceress then travelled to the surface to do espionage, followed by the Blue Bolt, who had escaped paralysis and freed Bertoff’s people since her departure.

    The Green Sorceress’ main surface henchman was gang boss Rocky Roberts, King of the Rackets, who got pretty thoroughly beaten up by the Blue Bolt but then manages to pop out of a little hatch in the Green Sorceress’ escape rocket and propose an alliance against Dr Bertoff and the Blue Bolt, to which the Sorceress agrees.

    This goes poorly! Rocky immediately takes over the Green Kingdom and declares himself King Rocky the Foist.

    Rather than rule in a traditional manner, King Rocky establishes himself as the head of a gang consisting of the Green Sorceress’ former army, with the citizens of the Green Kingdom being subjected to gang-style protection rackets, kidnappings, torture and garden-variety murder. This is a Jack Kirby idea, it has to be – even if he never made up another one to vex someone like Jimmy Olsen with the Sci-Fi Gangsterocracy is one of the most Kirby ideas I can think of.

    It’s tough to articulate but I respect King Rocky for his decision to murder the Green Sorceress. Believe it or not, it’s a refreshing change for a Golden Age villain, most of whom would see an attractive captive and start yelling about making her “my Queen!”

    But of course if you shoot at a super-villain you best not miss. King Rocky the Foist’s plans are interrupted by Blue Bolt and he meets the traditional end for a super-usurper: giant laser blast.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 505: MARTO

    (Blue Bolt v1 006, 1940) 

    Blue Bolt is a fine comic book character in the classic setting of a vast underground world full of sci-fi/fantasy concepts but 100% the best thing about him is that 10 or so of his first dozen appearances were by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon and boy does Marto here show it. Just look at this classic Kirby creation!

    Marto was originally Martin Hall, a scientist who accidentally bombarded himself with the very cosmic rays he had been studying and found himself mutated into your prototypical future human: big brain, tiny shrivelled body and compulsion to change his name to something short that sounds like an Australian gave him a nickname. 

    “Martin Hall” doesn’t sound like a Voltoran name to me (they trend more to things like Count Gorth, Major Kadronin and Captain Drogar), so Marto presumably made his way to the Green Sorceress’ underground kingdom from the surface in his little chair-bot.

    Marto’s initial offer is to help the Green Sorceress in her quest to conquer the underground world but he pretty swiftly reveals that he is a little incel creep and his real plan is to either stick his head on Blue Bolt’s body or to merely transfer his mind into Blue Bolt’s head. Either way, his next step is to mate with a mind-controlled Green Sorceress, create a super-race and subjugate the world (and the way that he says this makes it clear that he is racist against everyone). 100% creep, in other words.

    Luckily for literally everyone, Marto failed to factor “armed resistance” into his plans and he is crushed by rubble during an attack by Doctor Bertoff’s air force.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 502: THE GREEN SORCERESS

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 502: THE GREEN SORCERESS

    (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940) 

    The Green Sorceress! Possibly named Norzimo, absolutely the ruler of the underground kingdom of Voltor aka the Hidden Empire aka the Green Empire. Locked in a cold war with Dr Bertoff, leader of Deltos aka the Scientific City, as she wants the Deltosan radium fields in order to power her war machines and invade the surface while he wants to destroy her kingdom and everyone in it.

    According to Bertoff, the Green Sorceress is descended from a long line of black magic practicioners. Appropriately, she demonstrates some magical skill herself, mostly related to teleportation via a green mist, though she does summon at least one demon.

    There’s a Batman/ Catwoman aspect to the relationship between Blue Bolt and the Green Sorceress, in that they are absolutely horny for one another and keep infuriating their allies by letting the other get away rather than taking victory at the cost of the other’s life. The Green Sorceress even reforms a couple of times (well, sh’e brainwashed by Bertoff once and reforms another) but just can’t quit her evil ways.

    (Professor Bertoff would absolutely be a super-villain if a) his main opponent weren’t a bigger one and b) his main ally weren’t a super-hero)

    The greatest change to the status quo of the underground kingdoms comes in Blue Bolt v1 007 when the Green Sorceress manages to force a surrender of Scientific City by capturing Blue Bolt (note the incredible power play of calling from bed). Her hamfisted scientists set off an series of enormous explosions in the radium fields and open a passage to the surface. This is the point at which a captured surface man calls the inhabitants of the Green Kingdom “scientific barbarians” and it’s a really terrific characterization that has to have been a Kirby contribution if only because of how prominent a theme it would be in his later work.

    In Blue Bolt v1 009 the Green Sorceress hits the surface in a new identity: the Masked Princess! Supposedly European royalty travelling incognito, the Masked Princess was actually a highly efficient one woman espionage unit who vamped intelligence agents and other important men and then hypnotized them into revealing their secrets. Unfortunately for her, the very instant she left her minions managed to let Blue Bolt get away and he ends up following her to the surface to bust up the Masked Princess’ operation.

    Simon and Kirby leave Blue Bolt after issue 10, at which point the Green Sorceress has reformed again, this time after being saved by Blue Bolt from a terrible end that will be detailed soonish. We will eventually see her again but it’s not the triumphant return that she deserves – I reckon that in the right hands and with a slightly more interesting foe the Green Sorceress could be a real classic super-villain – the hot-headed wizard-queen of a nation of Kirbyesque scientific barbarians striking from a land beneath those we know, plus there’s a different, slightly less evil guy trying to kill her at the same time? this is fertile storytelling ground! BRING her BACK, someone!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 502: THE GREEN SORCERESS

    (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940) 

    The Green Sorceress! Possibly named Norzimo, absolutely the ruler of the underground kingdom of Voltor aka the Hidden Empire aka the Green Empire. Locked in a cold war with Dr Bertoff, leader of Deltos aka the Scientific City, as she wants the Deltosan radium fields in order to power her war machines and invade the surface while he wants to destroy her kingdom and everyone in it.

    According to Bertoff, the Green Sorceress is descended from a long line of black magic practicioners. Appropriately, she demonstrates some magical skill herself, mostly related to teleportation via a green mist, though she does summon at least one demon.

    There’s a Batman/ Catwoman aspect to the relationship between Blue Bolt and the Green Sorceress, in that they are absolutely horny for one another and keep infuriating their allies by letting the other get away rather than taking victory at the cost of the other’s life. The Green Sorceress even reforms a couple of times (well, sh’e brainwashed by Bertoff once and reforms another) but just can’t quit her evil ways.

    (Professor Bertoff would absolutely be a super-villain if a) his main opponent weren’t a bigger one and b) his main ally weren’t a super-hero)

    The greatest change to the status quo of the underground kingdoms comes in Blue Bolt v1 007 when the Green Sorceress manages to force a surrender of Scientific City by capturing Blue Bolt (note the incredible power play of calling from bed). Her hamfisted scientists set off an series of enormous explosions in the radium fields and open a passage to the surface. This is the point at which a captured surface man calls the inhabitants of the Green Kingdom “scientific barbarians” and it’s a really terrific characterization that has to have been a Kirby contribution if only because of how prominent a theme it would be in his later work.

    In Blue Bolt v1 009 the Green Sorceress hits the surface in a new identity: the Masked Princess! Supposedly European royalty travelling incognito, the Masked Princess was actually a highly efficient one woman espionage unit who vamped intelligence agents and other important men and then hypnotized them into revealing their secrets. Unfortunately for her, the very instant she left her minions managed to let Blue Bolt get away and he ends up following her to the surface to bust up the Masked Princess’ operation.

    Simon and Kirby leave Blue Bolt after issue 10, at which point the Green Sorceress has reformed again, this time after being saved by Blue Bolt from a terrible end that will be detailed soonish. We will eventually see her again but it’s not the triumphant return that she deserves – I reckon that in the right hands and with a slightly more interesting foe the Green Sorceress could be a real classic super-villain – the hot-headed wizard-queen of a nation of Kirbyesque scientific barbarians striking from a land beneath those we know, plus there’s a different, slightly less evil guy trying to kill her at the same time? this is fertile storytelling ground! BRING her BACK, someone!