(Master Comics 011, 1941) It’s our second villain named the Dragon and our second Dragon who turns out to be a white dude in yellowface. Will it happen again? Only time will tell. The only really interesting thing about this guy is that a key part of his plan was to divert suspicion from himself by repeatedly sending his gang to kill his own secret identity (see above). Whether he was banking on Zoro the Mystery Man to show up…
MORE! MORE! Another Nazi spy-cell headed by a guy in a cloth mask called the Leader, this time in Switzerland for a bit of variety. (Captain America Comics 009, 1941) Having just read a year’s worth of Jumbo Comics, I can tell you that this guy here, name of Sam Bradford, is the closest thing to a super-villain in them and it’s mostly because of the decent outfit. He’s an agent who kills a producer or something because of professional…
(Master Comics 008-011, 1940-1941) A regular-style Old West outlaw chief with the somewhat lyrical name of Santos Figaro, the White Arrow’s main distinction is that he was a multi-issue rather than one-off foe of Marshal Buck Jones. Jones himself is far more interesting than poor Santos Figaro, being a real-life cowboy actor cast as an Old West lawman (probably – I think I’ve mentioned before that the media of the 1930s-40s doesn’t draw a lot of distinction between the Old…
(Master Comics 009, 1940) Like the Blue Devils before them, the Horned Masks dressed up in robes and cowls and took over a small town. In the Masks. case, it’s a very small town up in the Ozarks and they go about things less like a gang and more like an offshoot of the Klan with all sorts of nonsense ceremony to what amounts to extortion on a grand scale. Unlucky for them that Zoro the Mystery Man happens to…
(Master Comics 008, 1940) Not a particularly distinguished entry today: the Twister is a gang boss who employs child pickpockets and keeps them in line with the threat of some semi-eponymous neck-twisting. No idea why he bothers with the robe and cowl – El Carim doesn’t even bother to unmask him. More fun than the Twister himself, in fact, is that his old gang is loyal enough to try to take revenge on El Carim in the next issue –…
(Master Comics 007, 1940) Once more we find ourselves with a cult on our hands, and it’s my favourite kind of cult: a) completely fictional and b) just a bunch of bored rich people taking what probably started as an excuse for some light swinging or BDSM way too seriously. It’ the Cult of Jama the Devil-God, folks! Officially broken up by the US government in 1919, they have in fact been lurking in the shadows of the probably-New York…
(Master Comics 007, 1940) The Leopard Men are whatever. Groups of evil African (or South American or Indian or Native American etc etc) warriors who dress up like big cats or other animals are a dime a dozen in jungle adventures and I usually don’t find them noteworthy enough for inclusion here (also the racism inherent in the whole Jungle Adventure genre kind of dampens the ol’ enthusiasm). Why include them here? Why because they are the arch-foes of Nedda,…
(Master Comics 007, 1940) Let’s start with the good things about the Sea-Devil: he’s part of one of my favourite super-villain traditions: the guy who dresses up like a creature in order to play off of local superstitions. Nothing specific in this case – he’s just banking on the local oyster divers not wanting to contend with a mysterious horned humanoid while they’re trying to earn an already dangerous living. To that end, his costume isn’t the most elaborate fake…
(Master Comics 004, 1940) The Firehawk is an extortionist of the particular kind that you get in comic book stories that have to clock in at under 5 pages: a dumb one. See, he has a pretty good threat to hold over the heads of his victims in that he can seemingly set them on fire at will. Since he’s operating on a movie set, he does so by mixing up batches of thermite-impregnated makeup that presumably self ignites after…
(Master Comics 004, 1940) This is a simple one because it’s simply a matter of scale, plus the fact that everyone involved is wearing a stylish purple cloak/ robe combo. A mass of bandits loot arsenals across the Eastern US, stealing tanks, artillery and armoured cars. Panic ensues! Soon enough, the band makes its goals known with a bold attack on that sweetest of targets: Fort Knox. And they almost get away with it! They actually have the gold loaded…