(Exciting Comics 003, 1940) Technically, the Red Blight is a ray weapon developed by mad scientist Dr Hodl on behalf of ideologically nonspecific aggressor General Pasko in order to facilitate the conquest of Europe, but just like when a guy with a regular name is tooling around in a vehicle with a cool codename I reckon that the good name should take precedence, particularly as 1) Dr Hodl never returns and 2) people make reference to the Red Blight as…
(Exciting Comics 002, 1940) The Specter is actually Harmon, foreman of the Diamond D Ranch, who dresses up like the ghost of a KKK member and kills people with a fanged ring to simulate rattlesnake bites. It’s never explicitly stated but he seems to be trying to drive away the owners of the ranch so that he can take full control of a secret gold mine that only he knows about. Or maybe he’s just killing off anyone who gets…
(Exciting Comics 002, 1940) Recently graduated top college athlete Ted Crane and famed anthropologist Professor Hawkins (and Hawkins’ daughter Betty, who stowed away as all young women had to if they were going to have adventures in the 40s) set out to find Kenya’s lost Konogo Tribe but almost immediately meet opposition from one of the Leopard Men. Despite being a supposedly mythical group, this Leopard Man has a gas-dispenser in his mouth that really knocks Ted for a loop…
Here come the also-rans. We’ve got another Leader, and this time he’s not a generically-fascist spy but the head of a gang looking to extort the New York World’s Fair via a series of bombings. Of course the Fantom of the Fair cannot let this stand and quickly tracks them down to a small island base. If the first reason I included the Leader aka Relmar here is because I enjoy a monocled man with a high opinion of himself…
(Exciting Comics 001, 1940) The Space Emperor first makes himself known to the solar authorities of 3964 AC (and no, I do not know what the C stands for) by either sending or allowing to escape an intelligence agent named Sperling who was investigating trouble on Jupiter for the President of Earth. Sperling has been transformed into a beast-man so horrible to behold that the President’s assistant kills him on sight but not before he can get the word out….
The most minor bunch so far! Don Rance and the Mysticape: Don Rance saves an old man from a tiger in the Indian jungle and is given a mystic cape as a reward. In his single documented adventure he runs into spy trouble while ferrying some papers from the American embassy in London to Washington DC and must use the cape’s powers (generic physical enhancement and slow falling or some other way to jump from a plane and land safely…
Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects: The cops try to gun down the fleeing Sphinx. (Exciting Comics 004, 1940) Aliens: Can’t get over how much these alien bat-folk look like they’re Simpsons characters (Exciting Comics 005, 1940) It’s a shame that these Mercurians are weird misogynists, because I really dig their look. (Fantastic Comics 005, 1940) A few issues later, Flip is back on Mercury and meets these giant insect-men and their queen, whose father (never seen) somehow made his way to…
There’s a little super-hero in all of us, I reckon. Volton: Volton comes on strong. I mean, look at the guy: crotch-forward, power device on a chain welded around his waist, moisturized, in his lane. The very second he figured out how to have super-powers he was in his element. And because Volton (aka Guy Newton) HATES CRIME and HATES CRIMINALS he heads on down to the local police station in his only-the-most-confident-heroes-wear-them sweater vest and beats up cops until…
We have mad scientists at criminal scientist prices. Dr Koch is one of the many people hungry to get their hands on the secret vitamin supplement that turned the Champ (derogatory) into the Champ (aspirational) after its creator Dr Marlin is murdered. Koch’s mild claim to fame is the fact that he’s the first one to get ahold of the formula long enough to do anything with it. What he did, specifically, was to mix up a big batch and…
You can’t deny that they were real people. Adolf Hitler: This unnamed leader of the unnamed forces that the Flying Trio are battling on behalf of the little nation of Sylvania is a real Hitlerian fellow (Crash Comics Adventures 005, 1940) Amelia Earhart: Two variations on a theme: using the story of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart as fodder for a damsel-in-distress story. The first (Amazing-Man Comics 018, 1940) involves the Shark rescuing Amelia Reinhardt from an old man who…