Comic book religion. Tricky stuff. Hercules: The thing that really jumps out at you when you first encounter this version of Hercules is that he goes to Valhalla when he dies, which is weird. The second thing is that he is appearing in a Golden Age Marvel comic and so there might be fun storytelling ramifications considering the fact that Hercules is a moderately popular (and alive) Marvel Comics character with appearances from the mid-60s to today. Perhaps the fact…
(Exciting Comics 009, 1941) Dr Zinn feels like a character who is somehow aware of my classification system and who is desperate not to be relegated to the ranks of the Generic Costumed Villain (yes, the “costumed” part has lost all meaning, I know) and so has shoehorned as many extra details into his appearance as possible to force me to give him Minor Super-Villain status. “what if I wasn’t just a super tall hypnotist, but also obsessed with snakes? And what…
Fictional books, fictional movies, fictional stage shows: it’s media in comics time! Books: Dexter, a friend of Ellsworth “the Sphinx” Forrester, has written a book titled Who’s Who in Murder which is one of those grand exposes that causes everyone in crimedom to attempt to kill the author before they can publish. That’s gotta be great publicity. (Exciting Comics 010, 1941) While Guns Make Dust is very plot relevant in this Ellery Queen mystery, as a doped-up stamp thief hides his…
Today we present some of the many aliens of Jupiter. Ganymede Pirates: After facing the upsetting menace of Orro, Ted Hunt and Jane Martin, the Star Rovers, are captured by space pirates and taken to their home base on Ganymede. Whether they are native to Ganymede is hard to say, as the Space Rover Solar System is one that is populated mostly by aliens that look like white guys. This could be a completely heterogeneous group of Ceresians, Martians, Venusians, Jovians and…
Everybody gets shot now and then. the Bronze Terror: The Bronze Terror is shot in the left arm during his first adventure by the wicked Scar Thornton, which gives him an excuse to show off his penchant for knocking out crooks’ teeth. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941) Whiz, King of Falcons: Whiz is shot through the left wing by a Lord Haw-Haw analog, and since this is the one issue in which he has the power of speech, he gets to…
Where are we going to put all of these aliens? Undergrounders: I want to call these guys mole men who invade the surface world in the year 3050 CE, but looking at the battle scene and the remainder of this adventure I reckon that Abovegrounders of that particular future also look all bald and gangly. It’s a whole world of mole men! Science adventurer Captain Daring kills the Undergrounders’ underground Fuehrer and installs his own ladyfriend as the new Queen…
Every once in a while I hit a particularly dense seam of aliens and so forth and this week is one of those times. Neptunii: The Neptunii (and that name is a guess based on the fact that one guy uses “Neptunus” as a singular version of the noun) live in Neptunia, an underground kingdom that could be described as “a big cave” at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. There, they seem to just kind of fly around shouting,…
If the last group of minor Marvel super-heroes had a tiny chance of appearing in a modern comic book I would say that this group’s chances are tiny-plus. Like a further 5% chance. Except for Dynaman. Dynaman: Dynaman, aka Lagaro, which means “Dynaman”, was born in the ancient super-advanced Kingdom of Korug, located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Endowed with super strength, a photographic memory and enhanced intelligence, the ability to fly and a general superiority to even his peers in the…
Once again we bring you some aliens. the Tribe of Gurban: The Tribe of Gurban come down out of “the upper valley of the Nile” and clash with the ancient superhuman Dynaman in his one Golden Age adventure, and there’s a part of me questions whether it’s even worth noting groups like this who are just humans but bigger (about eight to ten feet tall if I’m any judge). But no: giants in caveman singlets who attempt to conquer Egypt…
Comedy and parody super-hero strips are just as old as the more sincere kind, but they don’t get very plentiful or very good until the MAD Magazine era (and even if I’m setting myself up for a fall by saying that, I would love to be proven wrong). Until we get to that far-off time this will be a round-up in name only – I have enough partially-completed entries clogging up my drafts as it is. Stuporman: As befits his status as…