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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 018

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 018

The hits flops just keep coming. This gang doesn’t bother to give themself a proper name even though their scheme is extremely big and loud: they have access to a magnetic ray device and have employed it to pull down multiple large buildings in scenic Midtown City, thus killing between one and four thousand people (a printing error obscures the exact number), all so that their demands for protection money from the owners of other buildings will be paid without…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 719: THE PURPLE GANG

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 719: THE PURPLE GANG

(Science Comics 001, 1940) The Purple Gang, a bunch of guys in a gang who all wear purple suits and are getting up to no end of crime in whatever skyline-heavy city the Eagle calls home New York City, are a perfect opponent for a super-hero’s first adventure: organized enough to pose a challenge but not so tough that thy can’t really be stunted on to show how cool the Eagle is. They also quite noticeably do not all have…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 038

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 038

Second- and third-tier Fox Features heroes: ACTIVATE Dynamo: Jim Andrews is an electrical scientist who heroically risks his own life by using his own body as a conductor to prevent some crazy bit of machinery from blowing the whole laboratory he works at to high heaven. And since he lives in a comic book world, the reward for his bravery is some super powers! He can now emit electricity, create an electrical forcefield, kind of fly by throwing a lightning…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 037

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 037

More cream rises from the milky depths of the Golden Age! Red Roberts, the Electro Man: It’s unclear what Red Roberts’ actual job is, but he is a guy who Knows Too Much about the corruption in the unnamed city he lives in and so he is framed for murder and fast-tracked to the electric chair. Luckily for Roberts, this is a comic book universe and being an innocent person sentenced to be executed via the electric chair means that…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 712: DR DEKKAR, MASTER OF MONSTERS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 712: DR DEKKAR, MASTER OF MONSTERS

(Prize Comics 005, 1940)  Comic book features with the villain as the lead were one of the rarer subgenres of the Golden Age, and so I must note that this is our third instance of one with a monster-maker as the lead. Fun! We first encounter Dr Dekkar here after he has advertised for an assistant and thus brought one Diane Clark to his laboratory-castle on the English moors. There’s a part of me that wants to get very critical…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 014

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 014

Don’t bother asking to see their degrees. This unnamed scientist has been kidnapping preteens and changing them into hulking brutes via some pretty fantastical brain surgery. He of course gets his ass fatally handed to him by the Red Panther but not before he goes on about producing a new super race and as always I have to question your devotion to science if you think that your physical alterations to these kids are going to be passed on. Who…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 703: THE GREAT INTELLIGENCE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 703: THE GREAT INTELLIGENCE

(Planet Comics 004, 1940) Flint Baker and co are making their return trip from Mars and due to an unscheduled diversion to Pluto in Planet Comics 003 they end up passing Jupiter on the way, at which point they are forced to make landfall to avoid an attack by outer space organisms referred to as “stratosphere serpents” despite being more like starfish crossed with octopuses. While there, Flint and gal pal Mimi Wilson do a bit of exploring and discover…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 702: THE DRAGON MAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 702: THE DRAGON MAN

(Planet Comics 003, 1940) The work of the Lord of Jupiter is never done, as Auro (Lord of Jupiter, natch) learns one day when he receives the alarming news that a giant flame-breathing dragon has been carrying off dozens of his subjects. And indeed, not only is there a dragon running around causing trouble but that dragon is actually a guy who can turn into a dragon and who has used his humanoid powers of reasoning to correctly identify Auro…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 034

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 034

Here they are! Some guys you’ve never heard of! the Press Guardian:  In the Press Guardian’s first outing he is known as the Falcon, but he has the same core mission as he will throughout his career: to clean up crime in Central City via the free press, even if he must do so in a pretty bad costume. A fair few places online list reporter Flash Calvert as the Falcon’s secret identity but this is one of your classic…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 697: THE CREATURE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 697: THE CREATURE

(Planet Comics 002, 1940) Having defeated the evil Sarko, Flint Baker and his crew are ready to head home to accept their accolades as the as-fas-as-anyone-knows first humans to land on Mars, when word comes from Princess Viga that the city of Ru is facing yet another deadly threat. This time it’s a giant four-armed primate that attacks three times per year and hauls Martians away to an uncertain and terrifying fate. Will Flint Baker help them? Of course he…

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