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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 005

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 005

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All Columbia Comic Corporation edition! Skyman:  Skyman (properly the Skyman but it just doesn’t scan for me) is a pilot hero, normally a ho-hum sort of character for me. But between his sci-fi super plane (the Wing), his blood-freezing stun ray (the Stasimatic) and his cool on-the-edge-of-being-too-busy costume there’s just enough super-hero peanut butter mixed in with the pilot chocolate to make it appealing (bonus running list of Skyman’s super science: atomic explosives, invisible glass phonograph, disitegrator ray, explosives-detonating ray…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 488: THE RED SIGNET

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 488: THE RED SIGNET

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(Big Shot Comics 001, 1940) The Red Signet is a seemingly unaligned spy chief who has the misfortune of being the antagonist in the very first adventure of pilot super-hero Skyman and so gets just completely owned. Like, “captured within ten minutes of this panel in which he learns that Skyman might be on to him” owned. He does have a really excellent name, at least. BONUS TROPHY ROOM: Skyman nicks the Red Signet’s red signet at the end of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 487: THE EEL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 487: THE EEL

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(Big 3 006, 1941)  Our story opens with Samson investigating a series of mysterious deaths and ship disappearances in naval yards across the country. Cut to beloved Samson supporting character J. Rembrandt Speedball hilariously painting camouflage on a Navy cruiser. He is briefly distracted by horniness, and when he manages to get ahold of himself *pow*, the ship has vanished. Speedball is arrested as a spy and spends the rest of the issue failing to commit suicide in his cell…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 486: THE MONSTER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 486: THE MONSTER

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(Big 3 006, 1941) The Monster, while an imposing figure engaged in some extremely villainous and questionable activities – kidnapping wealthy young women from some sort of summer camp – ultimately fails to satisfy. And here is exactly why: this is the kind of story that benefits from a bit of mystery: a red herring or two; a few suspects – but this George Benson guy not only is the singular suspect but has spent twenty-plus years saying things like…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 485: THE CONDOR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 485: THE CONDOR

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(Big 3 005-006, 1941) As far as super-villains go, the Condor is a simple concept: the modern pirate. But the modern pirate is a classic character type! Murder on the high seas! Sneering braggadocio! Calling people swabs! And the Condor himself fits the role to a T. It doesn’t hurt that he’s such a well-designed character: who knew that a guy in a black suit would look so good as a pirate with the simple addition of a cape and…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 483: THE WEB

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 483: THE WEB

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(Big 3 004, 1941) As a Blue Beetle villain, the Web of course wants nothing more than to take over NYC York City and is particularly ruthless in his pursuit of that goal. He attacks essential services like power and water in order to sow confusion, while also attacking targets such as orphanages to spread terror. The Web also has an… intense relationship with his underlings. They seem to be some sort of BDSM cult? For lack of better terminology?…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 006

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 006

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It’s time for more mad and criminal scientists! Round ’em up! The fantastically-named Doctor Evecloud has a plan: shrink everyone else on the planet so that he, the only big person, will be in charge. As so often happens, one of his first guinea pigs is a super-hero, in this case the Shark. Things end poorly for Doctor Evecloud. (Amazing-Man Comics 016, 1940) This fellow is Dr Scowl and so far we’re sitting at 2/2 great scientist names. Dr Scowl…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 004

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 004

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the Lone Warrior (and Dicky):  The Lone Warrior and Dicky are Stan and Dicky Carter, son of the now-deceased “world’s greatest scientist” and recipients of his Power Elixir injections, leaving them generically physically enhanced and well-equipped to battle pseudo-Nazi forces seeking to wreck America’s military. Plus he made them a land/ air/ sea plane/tank called the Wonder Ship which is very useful. There is of course a knee-jerk impulse to snidely point out that a guy called the Lone Warrior…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 003

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 003

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King of Darkness:  Radio engineer Bruce King develops the amazingly-named Black Zero Transmitter that selectively allows him to negate light and/or heat in its range of operation, plus an insulated costume and night-vision goggles so that he is immune to its effects. He ends up dealing with nosy reporters and spies inadvertently egged on by said nosy reporters and so adopts the alias of the King of Darkness. Probably the best thing about him is the fact that he will…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 477: THE DICTATOR’S SHADOW

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 477: THE DICTATOR’S SHADOW

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(Banner Comics 003, 1941) The Dictator’s Shadow is the “head of the fifth column in America” and the major villain of patriotic hero the Lone Warrior and his kid brother Dicky, in the vein of the Red Skull. A notable thing about him is that he is not explicitly a Nazi, which is both unusual for someone whose name is so evocative of Hitler as the capital-D Dictator of the day but also for a character appearing in Banner Comics,…

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