Browsed by
Category: the

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 570: OO-LHAT

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 570: OO-LHAT

Comments 0 comment

(Champion Comics 003, 1940) There’s a lot to like about ol’ Oo-Lhat. He appears in a gross-sounding mist after explorer Walt Worthington and his aide Snowball (did you know that there was a whole category of racist nicknames for African American characters that has largely been forgotten and that involves naming them after something very black or very white? Well now you do) discover a lost Egyptian tomb containing a blazing scarab (the gem cut, not the insect) that drew…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 017

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 017

Comments 0 comment

Another fresh hot basket of also-rans, just for you. the Mask: Scoop Cody, society reporter, is secretly vigilante crimefighter the Mask. He’s not terrific at concealing this fact – both love interest Elaine and villain Carlos figure it out during the course of the one extant Mask story – but he gets the job done. Of mild interest is that Scoop Cody is also the name of the Marvel’s reporter pal. (Star Comics v1 013, 1938*) the Phantom Rider:  The…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 568: THE GORGON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 568: THE GORGON

Comments 0 comment

(The Comics 002, 1937) The Gorgon is not the most spectacular villain but does provide us with a couple of interesting contrasts to our last few entries. Firstly, we can contrast him with the Masked Czar and note how his lack of major identifying features enhances the anonymity afforded by a simple black mask. I assume that he was called the Gorgon because “anyone who has seen his face is now dead” but it would have been nice to have…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 567: THE FALCON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 567: THE FALCON

Comments 0 comment

(The Comics 001, 1937) The Falcon is a mercenary spy and Doctor Doom’s opposite number in the conflict between the kingdoms of Returia and Merovia. It’s somewhat debatable whether a couple of spies-for-hire can be classified as either heroes or villains in such a situation, but the story certainly presents them as such, with Merovia being vaguely Nazi German and Doctor Doom being proudly American to underline things. The Falcon’s espionage is also a bit more dastardly than Doctor Doom’s,…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 016

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 016

Comments 0 comment

A pretty motley collection this time. the Ermine: A frontier vigilante who wears a reversible ermine skin outfit (white for winter wear, brown for regular), leaves an ermine tail as his calling card and can communicate/ is friends with with all the creatures of the forest (except for the ermine, presumably). The Ermine would be an interesting character if he wasn’t explicitly and murderously racist against Native peoples. He’s classed as a minor hero here because all of his recorded…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 566: THE MASKED CZAR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 566: THE MASKED CZAR

Comments 0 comment

(The Comics 001, 1937)  The Masked Czar is a very minor masked gang boss who provides an object example into why most masked gang bosses are fairly physically average specimens. Villains like the otherwise-unnamed Czar here – the tall, the short, the fat, the thin, the bald or the exceptionally hirsute – tend to go in for different ways of concealing their identities that might stand a better chance of working than a thin strip of fabric. Or they go…

Read More Read More

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 012

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 012

Comments 0 comment

Management not responsible if some of the villains are not technically costumed. This fellow, known as the Boss, was the masked publisher of a newspaper known as the Weekly Tattler which functioned as a vehicle for his blackmail business: pay up or get your secrets printed in the next edition. He turned out to be the husband of one of the paper’s victims, which makes little enough sense that I reckon that they got to the end of the story…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 565: THE BLACK WIDOW

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 565: THE BLACK WIDOW

Comments 0 comment

(The Funnies 030, 1939) The Black Widow is a sinister femme fatale spy chief in the classic mode, complete with cigarette holder, tight red dress and imperious attitude. A few things that make her fun: -the vague European country she works on behalf of is Bosylvania, a country about which nothing is revealed aside from the fact that it has the best geographical suffix: -sylvania -the Black Widow is in fact Princess Maxine of Bosylvania so her activities have an…

Read More Read More

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: KIKOOS

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: KIKOOS

Comments 0 comment

(Wonderworld Comics 007, 1939) Like the Walking Mountains before after them, the Kickoos are part of a population of superhumans living in an obscure part of the world (Asia, it’s always Asia) seemingly with no actual will of their own, brought back to the US by a criminal in order to facilitate their crimes. Specifically, the Kikoos are from the Gobi Desert and their superhuman nature is explained as, essentially, them being all dried out. They’re all hundreds of years…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 562: THE HARBINGERS OF DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 562: THE HARBINGERS OF DEATH

Comments 0 comment

(Wonderworld Comics 008, 1939) As part of Yarko the Great’s second encounter with Death, he and the hapless Madame Punai journeyed to a sort of pastiche underworld (e.g., their journey took them through the Biblical Valley of Death but also involved this unnamed boatman ferrying them across the River Styx). And as with any good underworld pastiche there are some allegorical foes to get past before their goal is reached – the Harbingers of Death! Like I said, these guys…

Read More Read More