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Category: 1940

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 680: MADAMOISELLE MORGUE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 680: MADAMOISELLE MORGUE

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(National Comics 006, 1940) Madamoiselle Morgue is an interesting case, because technically she does not exist. I mean, technically none of the characters I write about here exist, but even within the fictional world within the story, she is a false person. See, Scar Celleni, big time New York gang boss, has decided that the key to success is to wage all-out war on the police and that the optimal first move in this war is to assassinate prominent police…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 678: AMNOZO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 678: AMNOZO

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(National Comics 003, 1940)  Cyclone is an extremely minor Quality Comics future spaceman hero of the year 3000 who, in National Comics 001, participates in a competition between the planets of the solar system to see which one gets to colonize the newly discovered planet Vito. He wins of course, and the remainder of his four appearances are spent dealing with various threats to the new colony, including at least one civilization native to the planet, because colonialism. Do they…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 677: MARS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 677: MARS

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(National Comics 001, 1940)  Once Jock Kellog decides to turn his back on his playboy ways and put his inherited magic cloak to use as Merlin the Magician, he really goes for it. He hits the battlefields of WWII to aid the beleaguered soldiers of the front and ultimately rises into the realm of the gods to confront Mars, God of War and Destruction himself.  Mars turns out to be a huge jerk bully who is inciting nations to fight…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 031

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 031

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Great guns! More of them? the Masked Angel: Steve Oakes, wealthy playboy just so happens to also be the Masked Angel, vigilante feared by the underworld and wanted by the police. Steve’s father Detective Inspector John Oakes was murdered by crooks, so the Masked Angel act is his way of getting back at the criminal fraternity. It also seems to be a way to troll his brother, Detective Inspector John Oakes II, who is an asshole and who hates the…

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FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 007

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 007

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Once again we must discuss the fascists. The Black League are a pretty regular-style gang of fifth columnists with two points of distinction: 1) they call one another “Black One”, which is kind of fun and 2) they are trying to steal this completely awesome WWII mech suit and get beat up by Dick Cole, Wonder-Boy for their efforts. (Blue Bolt v1 011, 1941) The nation of Bundonia deploys this crack squad of idiots, the Bundsters, to Hollywood to prevent…

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NOTES – DECEMBER 2024

NOTES – DECEMBER 2024

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Drawn Without Reference:  The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds find themselves facing a very off-model spider in the lad of the Batmen. (Pep Comics 003, 1940) Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects: I was briefly tempted to give the cops of the MLJ universe a pass on shooting at the Comet because he did after all kill a bunch of them while mind controlled but then I remembered that a) that’s still no excuse to gun someone down in the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 676: THE DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 676: THE DEATH

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(Miracle Comics 003, 1940) A scientist/spy who is sabotaging diplomatic talks between the UK and South America by killing diplomats with fog-activated poisoned wallpaper, the Death, aka Jaeger, meets his end at the hands of Secret Agent K-7 and his assistant Yvonne. He’s just the latest in a long line of villains with extremely metal names and not much else going on, except of course for the poisoned wallpaper.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 675: THE EYES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 675: THE EYES

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(Miracle Comics 002, 1940) The Eyes is a spy chief (singular) who has a cool gimmick (contact lenses or similar which can emit powerful light beams to spooky effect) and goes all in on it as a theme. Specifically, the Eyes is all about destroying eyes via blinding light, acid or simple traumatic injury – honestly a pretty effective thing to threaten most people with, even if they are for example very loyal to the aircraft company they work for….

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 674: THE SCALENE ANGLES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 674: THE SCALENE ANGLES

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(Miracle Comics 001, 1940) “Police athlete” Dash Dixon’s first super-heroic adventure involves him travelling to the small European Republic of Scalene in search of the murderers of several US exporters. Turns out that they were killed to prevent arms and other supplies from being brought into the country, because the Scalene Angles, a group of wealthy jerks, were looking to conquer it. The most important thing about the Scalene Angles is of course their name. It’s fun, but it also…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 030

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 030

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Some real obscurities from the Hillman House of Ideas: the Sky Wizard: The Sky Wizard is an otherwise-unnamed super-scientist who seemingly dresses in his futuristic super suit 24/7. There’s not too much else to him other than that because he’s one of those characters who has so many gadgets and gizmos that all the narrative focus goes to them rather than him. A partial list: wing suits, super planes, super strength serum (the amazingly named “powerstrength formula”), a paralyzing Q-Ray…

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