Comic book religion. Tricky stuff. Hercules: The thing that really jumps out at you when you first encounter this version of Hercules is that he goes to Valhalla when he dies, which is weird. The second thing is that he is appearing in a Golden Age Marvel comic and so there might be fun storytelling ramifications considering the fact that Hercules is a moderately popular (and alive) Marvel Comics character with appearances from the mid-60s to today. Perhaps the fact…
(Exciting Comics 015, 1941) The Gentleman, “the most elusive jewel thief in the country,” is after the fabulous Orloff Necklace, and District Attorney Tony Colby, aka the Mask, is on the case. I initially had my money on the goateed gallery manager being the Gentleman in a classic double bluff, but once this comically-affronted old lady showed up it became clear that my instincts were wrong. The Gentleman’s modus operandi turns out to involve a combination of disguise and smuggling gems out…
Mamas lock up your radium, because the z-tier villains are back in town. the Fuhrer of Brazil: Larry North is a US Naval Reserve Lieutenant and airline pilot who turns hand to Nazi spy-hunting when he and his companion Betty Harmon are hijacked by fascists in Rio di Janiero. They spend their first few adventures dismantling a scheme to conquer Brazil, and when in the course of this the traitorous and toothbrush-mustached Doctor Sanchez mentions a figure called the Fuhrer…
(Exciting Comics 015, 1941) The Master is a mysterious new crooks who has been going around town kidnapping wealthy men, and the Black Terror and Tim have been running around after him and trying to figure out just what the heck is going on. The Master is also a classic Bad Boss in the “ruthlessly kill your minions” mould. As it turns out, the Master has broadly the same origin story as early Batman villain the Ugliest Man in the…
Have a few mid-tier minor super-heroes, for a change. the Black Terror: Pharmacist Bob Benton is the kind of guy who will step in when a little kid is being roughed up by thugs, but despite this he is pretty relentlessly bullied by city Comptroller Rodney Clark* and (in a less overt but still insidious way) their mutual love interest Jean Starr. * Clark is such a bully, in fact, that I assumed that he was going to eventually turn out…
Once again I am plagued by the absolute dregs of villainy. A Vampire: Vampires are one of the types of character that are statistically likely to make it through my classification system and be certified as super, but this particular one who a) lives in a swamp shack, b) has two meals in a row taken away from him by the Green Knight, c) doesn’t even get a name and d) ends up dead with his shack burned down around…
Fictional books, fictional movies, fictional stage shows: it’s media in comics time! Books: Dexter, a friend of Ellsworth “the Sphinx” Forrester, has written a book titled Who’s Who in Murder which is one of those grand exposes that causes everyone in crimedom to attempt to kill the author before they can publish. That’s gotta be great publicity. (Exciting Comics 010, 1941) While Guns Make Dust is very plot relevant in this Ellery Queen mystery, as a doped-up stamp thief hides his…
(Exciting Comics 008, 1941) This fellow expends an awful lot of effort setting up and facilitating a city payroll robbery by gang boss Owney Biggers. He is eventually revealed to be City Treasurer Robert V. Shaw, who has set the whole thing up, double-crossed Biggers, faked his own death and murdered several people in order to cover up the fact that he had been embezzling city funds. The most annoying thing about this annoying man (seriously, just an irritating character. True…
Today we present some of the many aliens of Jupiter. Ganymede Pirates: After facing the upsetting menace of Orro, Ted Hunt and Jane Martin, the Star Rovers, are captured by space pirates and taken to their home base on Ganymede. Whether they are native to Ganymede is hard to say, as the Space Rover Solar System is one that is populated mostly by aliens that look like white guys. This could be a completely heterogeneous group of Ceresians, Martians, Venusians, Jovians and…
(Dynamic Comics 002, 1941) It’s a story as old as comics and then some: an inventor has come up with a cool superscientific gizmo – in this case an invisibility serum – and no sooner are they done than some gangsters come stiffing around looking to exploit it. This particular gang is headed by an unnamed and trigger-happy fellow who guns down the scientist and then his own men in order to get his mitts on the single available dose…