Every time I relax, another one emerges from the shrubbery. And what’s depressing is the fact that they will continue emerging at a more or less steady rate for the entire history of comics. Here’s the latest batch of Problematic Characters.
the Voodoo Man:
When Dr Bob Warren heads to Haiti to practice medicine and “investigate voodoo”, he comes into conflict with the Voodoo Man, a zombie-raising, curse-spouting, doll-pinning collection of every voodoo trope and stereotype. As compared to other headlining super-villains, the Voodoo Man’s exploits are pretty one-note: he’s trying to exert control over part or all of Haiti using zombies and other magics, while Warren foils him at every turn.
The Voodoo Man’s finest moment is probably the time he turns an old woman into a pig to vex his enemies, but as always serving a super-villain is a dicey prospect, OSHA-wise, and the pig-woman gets a knife in the back for her efforts. (Weird Comics 001, 1940)
For a couple of issues (Weird Comics 004 and 005, specifically), Bob Warren seems to be pilling a Thin Man and becoming the Voodoo Man, as in a man who battles voodoo practitioners. Rather than the original titular Voodoo Man, Warren takes on a very similar fellow named Boanga (above) and the Grand Zombie (below), but after that the one and only original returns for the rest of the feature’s annoyingly long run.
the Grand Zombie:
The Grand Zombie’s appearance coincides with a change in the “Voodoo Man” creative team, as evidenced by Bob Warren suddenly becoming a clean-shaven blonde instead of a mustachioed brunette. There is a chance that he is meant to in fact *be* the Voodoo Man, as his modus operandi – turn people into zombies for his own enrichment – is the same, but given that he looks completely different, operates at a site on the other side of the island and is called something else I’m willing to call the Grand Zombie a different character.
The Grand Zombie name, in addition to being a far better one than the Voodoo Man, reflects a linguistic quirk that might have been widespread but which I have only encountered in old comics, in which both the unquiet dead and their creators are referred to as zombies. Better name or not, the Grand Zombies is unceremoniously shot at the end of the story and the feature then reverts back to the Voodoo Man.
This issue also feature perhaps the least empathetic missionary character in Golden Age comics. (Weird Comics 004, 1940)
the Magic Mandarin:
The Magic Mandarin, aka Lee Ching, importer, is an extremely typical Yellow Peril villain. Perhaps the only moment of joy I found in his entire first appearance was when he met up with his fellows in the Brothers of the Bloody Blade (above) and they kept screaming “Allegiance!” at one another.
The thing that puts the magic in the Magic Mandarin is an artifact called the Stone or Lodestone of the Dragon which is capable of such feats as paralyzing others, creating a force field, changing someone’s clothing and telekinesis, but which is unable to function if swaddled in silk or affect someone who is wearing silk, which comes in very handy for the Mandarin’s foes Smash Dawson and his team.
The Magic Mandarin is one of your classic “seems to die at the end of every adventure but turns out to have survived in the next” villains, and like so many of those his final appearance must be assumed to be the one that finally killed him, as he was sucked into a dam in Whirlwind Comics 003 and there was no Whirlwind Comics 004. (Whirlwind Comics 001, 1940)
Fu Chu:
Fu Chu is a recurring villain of Yarko the Great, and while he is so patently a Fu Manchu knockoff that he even has most of his name, his major offence is in how boring he is. Like, I don’t find Yellow Peril comic book plots particularly fun to read, but at least they are usually rich with incident. Fu Chu’s debut involves him kidnapping the inventor of a death ray and then completely failing to prevent Yarko from waltzing in and taking him back.
Fu Chu’s second appearance, in Wonderworld Comics 016, features him as the head of a cult of the Mayan Plumed Serpent Kukulkan, for reasons that are never quite explained, as the main thrust of the episode involves Fu Chu attempting to kill explorer Doctor Mayo and his daughter and Yarko the Great intervening to save them. The whole farce ends with an earthquake destroying all or part of Chichen Itza, which is wild.
Fu Chu goes on to return at least a couple of times in 1941 but don’t hold your breath – he’ll have to really up his game to get an update, (Wonderworld Comics 013, 1940)
