Browsed by
Category: villains of the future

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 674: THE SCALENE ANGLES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 674: THE SCALENE ANGLES

Comments 0 comment

(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…

Read More Read More

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE LIVING PLANET MONSTERS

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE LIVING PLANET MONSTERS

Comments 0 comment

(Fight Comics 010, 1940) I wanted to do a fun title goof where “World” was crossed out in favour of “Space” but it seems that I don’t have that ability. But yes, it’s true! These Creeps of the World are not in fact on the world! Any world! They are in fact one of my favourite sci-fi tropes: living beings so large that they are mistaken for planets! These particular creeps show up in the solar system early in the…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 648: GARR STORM

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 648: GARR STORM

Comments 0 comment

(Fight Comics 008, 1940) The geopolitics of the future as represented in Spy Fighter stories sure is complicated! At first, the far future world of 1997 contained only three megacountries: Mongo, Russmany and Greater America, but soon enough Greater America was menaced by aggressor nations such as Grotonia, Prussany and Antarctica. Simultaneously, the timeline advanced from 1998 to a more ambiguous “early in the Twenty-First Century.” Is the unspoken background story the fracturing of these enormous countries back into something…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 646: THE LIZARD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 646: THE LIZARD

Comments 0 comment

(Fight Comics 006, 1940) The Lizard was (will be?) the leader of a group of Grotonian spies working to sabotage the military of Greater America in the far-off future year of 1998 AD. He had (will have?) the pretty clever idea of being arrested as a petty thief and running his operation from inside a jail cell but unfortunately for his reputation as a smart guy he then fell for the most obvious trick in the world when Saber the…

Read More Read More

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

Comments 0 comment

Science class was never like this. Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough “noxio gas” to flood the NYC of the I-think-it’s-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940) This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he’s introduced while sitting in a tennis judge’s chair for no stated reason….

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 641: ONE-EYE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 641: ONE-EYE

Comments 0 comment

(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940)  One-Eye is a stylish fellow with a real bone to pick with humankind, who have apparently rejected him for the heinous sin of Having Only One Eye, I guess? Unless having a widow’s peak and a long waxed mustache are considered disfigurements? I suppose that cultural mores do change over time and it is 8000 years in the future… in any case, the point is that he’s upset at the world and has decided to kill…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 638: THE BLACK HOOD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 638: THE BLACK HOOD

Comments 0 comment

(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940) Yank Wilson, Super Spy Q-4 (who started out as a near-future character and maybe isn’t any more but until I see a clear sign otherwise still is to me) is after Prusslandic spies Karl Wolff and the Black Hood down in Florida and is going about his search with all the subtlety of a character in a point-and-click adventure game. It’s his bad luck that the first person he asked was an agent of Prussland Intelligence…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 636: THE SERPENT LADY

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 636: THE SERPENT LADY

Comments 0 comment

(Fantastic Comics 012, 1940) We open on Mephisto, the Dreaded Poison Serpent, attacking a small boat and making off with its inhabitants. For a split second I am excited – maybe this is our long-sought criminal animal! – but then I remember the lessons I learned from Cephalopoda the Octopus and rein myself in. And it’s a good thing I did, for Mephisto is a mere tool of the mysterious Serpent Lady, who lives in a golden city in an…

Read More Read More

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 014

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 014

Comments 0 comment

Once again the also-rans. A bunch of small-time crooks get paid to fake the death of Titano (the largest gorilla in captivity!) for an insurance scam and of course use him to rob a series small-town banks. If only they had thought a bit more ambitiously they might have made the big time. (Exciting Comics 005, 1940) This Yank Wilson adventure features a fairly by-the-book super-spy ring headed by Count Lustig von Blackgard. They plot, they scheme, they are ultimately…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 631: DABLO, LAST OF THE RAY MEN AND THE HOOD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 631: DABLO, LAST OF THE RAY MEN AND THE HOOD

Comments 0 comment

(Fantastic Comics 011, 1940) THIS. IS. GREAT. We open on the trial of Dablo, Last of the Ray Men, and immediately we must ask: who are the Ray Men? And let me tell you that there is no answer beyond “guys who could shoot rays.” Dablo here shoots rays out of a big hole in his forehead but did they all do that? No clue! This is the kind of worldbuilding that people like Alan Moore will eventually get up…

Read More Read More