(Jungle Comics 009, 1940) Minor Super-Villain 666 is somewhat in line with how underwhelming our milestone numbers in the past have been. Just two entries away from being the Devil his own two-headed self. I suppose I could have shuffled things around to make it work out in a more satisfying way but that would really taint the pure joy we’ll experience when entry 1000 or 1600 or 69420 turn out to be amazingly apropos. Who we have instead is…
Bless ’em, they’re trying. The first few adventures of Hydroman, a character I have an inexplicable affection for, are concerned with what at first seems like some real standard Yellow Peril bullplop (“Oriental invaders” and so forth) but then there are gangsters involved and the two factions variously mention a higher-up named “the Great One” and “the Big Boss”, respectively. Still later, the whole operation seems to be run by this collection of pseudo-Nazis on a yacht in New York…
(Jungle Comics 007, 1940) Not quite a normal super-hero/ super-villain interaction, this. Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle intervenes to stop the wind elemental Sirocco from wreaking havoc and in so doing incurs the wrath of the unspecified but very Norse-looking Wind God. At this point we have a simple misunderstanding over a poorly-trained pet. Everyone involved now escalates things simultaneously. The Wind God unleashes lightning, storms and tornadoes on the valley and Tabu counters using both his own power and…
(Jungle Comics 007, 1940) Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire, having made the transition from capricious villain to noble hero and staved off a couple of attempts on her throne and her life, is getting ambitious. She is determined to descend into the Cave of Sighs, a local portal to Hell, and banish the Devil from her lands. Together with the reformed assassin Caredodo, Camilla passes the Copper Gates of Hell after a brief encounter with one of my favourite…
(Jungle Comics 006, 1940) The Jungle Demon starts out as an unnamed boy lost in the jungle and true to the old trope he is found and nurtured by a beast – we’ve seen it many times before. The beast in this case is a mind-bogglingly large constrictor snake, which is fun. Boy grows to man and he and the snake (charmingly named “Powerhouse”) are at peace with the people and animals of the jungle until one day the still-unnamed…
(Jungle Comics 005, 1940) Mundoor is a scientist who hangs out in the Fantomah part of the Jungle Comics Omnijungle and has seemingly been spending his time looking for a vitamin-rich plant that will induce giant growth in those that eat it, and in an astonishing turn of fortune an asteroid bearing that very plant lands on his doorstep one day! And the asteroid is also stuffed full of viable monster eggs! What a day for Mundoor. Mundoor raises his…
(Jungle Comics 005, 1940) As far as being minor super-villains goes, the Masked Arrows are all right: a group of cloaked bandits who manage to run circles around the local forces of law until they push their luck too far and are wiped out. The far more interesting thing about the Masked Arrows is the fact that they appear in a story that highlights just how literal the title Jungle Comics is, that virtually all of the stories that appear…
(Jungle Comics 005, 1940) Conceptually, I love the Ant Woman, a ruthless bandit who lives in a giant anthill and sends swarms of venomous ants out to kill and loot for her. I particularly love her little ant tiara – is it the source of her preternatural ability to control the beasts? I cannot say for they did not go into that. (these pics are a bit more racist than I usually go for but they really front loaded it…
They’re trying, bless ’em. Hydroman: I was going to say that much levity has been mined from Hydroman’s origin over the years, but realistically this guy is obscure at best. Some levity has been mined from Hydroman’s origin over the years. Is it deserved? Certainly. Scientist Harry Thurston is having fun mixing up chemicals (specifically water, alcohol and sulphuric acid, though there is some speculation that there might have been some mystery residue in the glassware used) and manages to…
(Jungle Comics 002, 1940) What’s this? Another Camilla? Yes, for some reason, the story of the lost Norse city in the African jungle was retold one issue later as one of a lost Mongol city in the African jungle. The two Camillas look the same but where the original was 600 years old Camilla II seems to not be superannuated at all. Camilla II is also far less classically villainous than her predecessor: sure she claims that her city has…