This bit where Hawkman intends to attend a costumed event as himself but doesn’t quite make it (Flash Comics v1 022, 1941) made me realize that I’ve missed a few examples of super-heroes attending costume parties as themselves, one of my most favourite tropes in comics! Time for some catchup rectification! Here’s the Red Gaucho being mistaken for someone who was dressed as him, who is then impersonated by a third person in a story that was not called “Too Many…
(Flash Comics v1 009, 1940) King Jupo is the leader of the Kogats, a race of water-breathing caveman types who live beneath New York Harbor and have a fun mix of technologies, being armed with either stone axes or laser pistols. They’ve decided to invade the surface world, for no substantial reason other than that it seems like a good idea, and immediately run afoul of Hawkman. Needless to say, this does not end well, and the entire Kogats race,…
(Flash Comics v1 010, 1940) I’ve alluded now and then to the colonialist assumptions that comics worked off of and that seemingly were endemic to the mindset of the American people. The White Renegade offers an example of the two major prongs of these assumptions, which boil down to the idea that the world is divided into White People and Everyone Else, and that: 1. All offenses committed by Everyone Else against White people shall be repaid with great vengeance. …
(Flash Comics v1 008) Professor Kitzoff makes me sad because he is categorically not the Sunspot Wizard. Oh sure, someone at DC or in the fan community went back and assigned titles to all the untitled Golden Age stories and they called this one “the Sunspot Wizard”, but that’s nothing. I love an unofficial name as much as (probably more than) the next guy, but they have to a) come from the text of the story itself and b) can’t…
(Flash Comics v1 008, 1940) Dr Brine should be in the soon-to-be-unveiled first roundup of minor mad and criminal scientists who don’t quite qualify as super-villains. He’s a guy in a purple pin-stripe suit who has a plan to steal a bunch of submarines and then profit from that somehow. There are two very important reasons for his inclusion here: 1. He’s either a guy who named himself Dr Brine after getting into the submarine piracy game or (even better)…
(Flash Comics v1 008, 1940) Dr Brine should be in the soon-to-be-unveiled first roundup of minor mad and criminal scientists who don’t quite qualify as super-villains. He’s a guy in a purple pin-stripe suit who has a plan to steal a bunch of submarines and then profit from that somehow. There are two very important reasons for his inclusion here: 1. He’s either a guy who named himself Dr Brine after getting into the submarine piracy game or (even better)…
(Flash Comics v1 007, 1940) Long before guys like the Joker and the Riddler made leaving baroque clues to taunt the forces of Law ahead of your next crime a super-villain cliché, the Clue Criminal was out there getting things done, with a name that I must assume was used in a low-effort Batman pastiche some time in the late 60s. Speaking of names, the Clue Criminal steals actual real painting “the Blue Boy” and then goes on to…
(Flash Comics v1 007, 1940) The epitome of minor: Johnny Thunder spent one issue as a costumed hero named Thunderbolt. It’s possible that he tried his hand at the costumed crimefighter game some other time – I’m hardly a Johnny Thunder expert – but this is the only time I know of.
(Flash Comics v1 007, 1940) Like Echo or Hugo Strange’s Monster Men before him, Czar the Unkillable Man is arguably less a super-villain than a tool created by a super-villain, but where’s the fun in listing a buncha guys named Dr Samuels and Professor Tompkins or in this case Boris Nickaloff? Nickaloff is a bit of a mystery – he creates Czar by sculpting a complete human body – inside and out – out of “plasm-clay” and then shocking it to…
(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940) A simple concept, but an endearing one: the Snow-King is a famous spy who only works during the winter, hence the name. He’s possibly French (at least, he says “au revoir” a lot) and definitely cocky – he is so sure of success pulls the classic move of calling up the authorities to warn them of his next escapade. Eventually, crack government agent Cliff Cornwall is brought in on the case and works out just…