(Action Comics 022, 1940) The Mask is your garden-variety master of disguise, con artist subtype: he assumes the identities of others in order to acquire monies from their banks and businesses. He is distinguished from the rest of his ilk in two ways: firstly in that he is our second villain to employ the aid of the Tigress and secondly in that he actually has his face surgically altered to make his impersonations. His downfall comes when he assumes the…
(Action Comics 021, 1940) The Master of the Moor is part of the kind of comic story that starts out overly complex – the corrupt sheriff and coroner of a small town in Sussex, England plot to replace local aristocrat Lord Ralway with a double in order to steal his lands – and with the addition of a few comic book elements becomes just completely untenable. To whit: -the man who they have recruited to be the double, the Master…
(New York World’s Fair Comics 002, 1940) Dr Vreekill had a steel-melting ray and a dream (engage in the surprisingly common crime activity of extorting the attractions of the New York World’s Fair as a prelude to world domination) until Batman and Robin stuck their big noses into his business.
(Special Edition Comics, 1940) Here is a list of pertinent details about Slaughter Slade: -He talks like Swamp Thing for no discernable reason -He is stronger and more intelligent than the human norm. Together with the prior point and some general odd behavior throughout the story this kind of leads one to think he might be revealed as a robot or alien or something. He is not. -He has three henchmen: a regular gangster named Butch, a weird little freak…
(Whiz Comics 009, 1940) A rival magician seeking to steal Ibis the Invincible’s mystic Ibistick, Piang dies at the end of their first encounter, is resurrected via careless use of magic by Ibis and then dies again in their second encounter.
(Whiz Comics 009, 1940) Dr Durgan, a respected scientist, develops shrinking tech and of course uses it to force tiny men to steal for him on pain of remaining tiny. All is well until he makes the common mistake of messing with Billy “Captain Marvel” Batson, boy reporter.
(Whiz Comics 008, 1940) Fairly generic pirate captain distinguished by the fact that he manages at least two appearances. Maybe three, actually: It’s equally possible that this guy – a henchman of Dr Sivana in Whiz 021 – is intended to be the same person with a whole different aesthetic or an unrelated guy with a similar taste in names. What is certain is that he was seemingly kilt stone daid by Captain Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels
(Whiz Comics 007, 1940) Rodney Stark is a rich asshole who unfreezes some prehistoric men and uses them as a private military force in a bid to take over the world, until Captain Marvel shows up to murder them all.
(Whiz Comics 006, 1940) Like many Ibis the Invincible villains, the Hobo-Millionaire found the mystic Ibistick when it was lost for a time and who eventually attempted to kill Ibis with it, leading to is own death via magic feedback. Unlike most Ibis the Invincible villains, Hobo-Millionaire is great. I would love for them to BRING BACK this great man. It wouldn’t be hard, either! Imagine a scenario in which the Ibristick is passed down to a legacy character (this is…
(Whiz Comics 006, 1940) A smuggler who founds an island haven for fugitive criminals, the Emperor makes a key mistake: he forgets that the citizens of his island empire are all murderers and acts like a tyrant. Predictably, he gets murdered. 2025 UPDATE: I just reread this story and I think that it’s imperative that I note that the Emperor, aka Scarface Otto Krug, was specifically an ambergris smuggler.