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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 549: THE GREEN LIZARD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 549: THE GREEN LIZARD

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(Smash Comics 004, 1939) The Green Lizard is a Floridian crook who specializes in extorting wealthy men and then kidnapping them when they fail to pay. This is the sort of thing I’ve spoken of before and will again: it absolutely makes sense to adopt a colourful identity like this if you’re a criminal in a super-hero universe, even in the not-exactly-a-rich-and-interconnected-tapestry Quality universe of 1939, with stories of the Clock or Bozo the Iron Man trickling out of New…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 547: THE HOODED TERROR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 547: THE HOODED TERROR

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(Smash Comics 003, 1939) It’s a good name but I’m afraid that the Hooded Terror is just a stock crypto-fascist European saboteur attempting to destroy the Panama Canal and trap the US fleet in the Pacific in order to set up an invasion of the East Coast. It’s no great loss to fiction when he gets cold-cocked by G-2 agent Wings Wendall and left behind in a sinking submarine to drown. Other than some degree of admiration for his ability…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 003

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 003

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Once more they ride: the REAL PEOPLE OF COMICS Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln’s shadow is used to symbolize the power of the US exerting a calming effect on the European belligerents. (Smash Comics 005, 1939) Adolf Hitler: Chancellor Rudolf of Wurtberg here is a more dynamic than usual Hitler analog (Smash Comics 004, 1939) Misc minor appearances: Getting some bad news about Nazi operations in Yugoslavia (Blue Ribbon Comics 015, 1941) Captain Kidd: For no particular reason this aviator/ adventurer is…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 544: DR VON THORP & THE IRON MONSTER / MINOR SUPER HERO: HUGH HAZZARD & BOZO THE IRON MAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 544: DR VON THORP & THE IRON MONSTER / MINOR SUPER HERO: HUGH HAZZARD & BOZO THE IRON MAN

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(Smash Comics 001, 1939) We open on a city (later established as almost certainly NYC) in the grip of terror. A robot known as the Iron Monster is wantonly robbing and murdering and also stealing one or more babies for reasons that are never made clear. Seriously, we never find out what the deal was with those babies. The Iron Monster is the creation of Dr von Thorp, your classic scientist rejected from society for his outre beliefs, though considering…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 543: VLAMIR KORAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 543: VLAMIR KORAN

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(Smash Comics 001, 1939) Vlamir Koran, Argentinean Adolf Hitler pastiche in charge of Nazi pastiche the Black Spot, takes over the entirety of South America in about half a page, because the real action of the story is centred around his attempt to continue his conquering ways into the United States. Koran’s first couple of attempts to invade the US are stymied by technology and tactics, so he hires the “greatest of all spies”, Mata Hari pastiche Mara Hani, to…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 013

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 013

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More. MORE! Spiritman:  It’s impossible to say if Spiritman’s real name is Spirit Malcolm or if Spirit is just a nickname. The Golden Age is definitely a time in which nicknames are clearly signposted with quotation marks (including names like “Hank” half the time) but they’re also an age of inconsistent editorial standards. Let’s assume it is his given name, because then it’s another fun case of comic book nominative determinism. Spiritman is a scientific hero: armed with a Rayodine…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 542: THE HOODED RAVENS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 542: THE HOODED RAVENS

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(Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939) Just a regular group of modern-day masked rustlers notable for two things: their better-than-average name and… … their insanely bad opsec. “Adventure-Hunter” Barry Lane waltzes into sight, makes up a fake toughguy name and backstory and before you can blink twice he has the entire lowdown on the gang’s operations and an invitation to join. And all this in a crowded bar. And the local sheriff had to specifically bring in help to hunt these…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 541: THE HOODED FIGURE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 541: THE HOODED FIGURE

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(Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939) Simply a man who reacts to losing his pilot’s license in a very rational way: he sabotages planes at the local airfield and also booby traps all the parachutes so that they will strangle anyone that uses them. Upon being hunted down by two-fisted detective the Duke, the Hooded Figure makes the common mistake of trying to get away in a plane that he himself had already sabotaged. Ah, irony.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 540: THE WILL-O-WISP

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 540: THE WILL-O-WISP

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(Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939) As we open, simply everyone’s worried about the Will-o-Wisp, a mysterious crook who shows up at crime scenes and steals what other crooks were about to make off with. The police chief looks bad because he can’t catch the Will-o-Wisp! The gangs are mad because they keep getting robbed by the Will-o-Wisp! The Will-o-Wisp’s big mistake comes when he butts in on the mugging of Neal Carruthers III, aka Mister Midnite, which of course arouses…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 539: THE CLAW

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 539: THE CLAW

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(Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939) The Claw is a character we will be returning to – he’s one of the most prominent Golden Age super-villains, after all – but this entry is concerned only with his first appearance in accordance with my new policy of approaching things as they come. And while the Claw who eventually battles super-heroes like the Ghost and Daredevil and massacres thousands in an attempt at world domination is a size-changing monster-man this first version reads…

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