(Whiz Comics 009, 1940) Dr Durgan, a respected scientist, develops shrinking tech and of course uses it to force tiny men to steal for him on pain of remaining tiny. All is well until he makes the common mistake of messing with Billy “Captain Marvel” Batson, boy reporter.
(Whiz Comics 008, 1940) Fairly generic pirate captain distinguished by the fact that he manages at least two appearances. Maybe three, actually: It’s equally possible that this guy – a henchman of Dr Sivana in Whiz 021 – is intended to be the same person with a whole different aesthetic or an unrelated guy with a similar taste in names. What is certain is that he was seemingly kilt stone daid by Captain Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels
(Whiz Comics 007, 1940) Rodney Stark is a rich asshole who unfreezes some prehistoric men and uses them as a private military force in a bid to take over the world, until Captain Marvel shows up to murder them all.
(Whiz Comics 006, 1940) Like many Ibis the Invincible villains, the Hobo-Millionaire found the mystic Ibistick when it was lost for a time and who eventually attempted to kill Ibis with it, leading to is own death via magic feedback. Unlike most Ibis the Invincible villains, Hobo-Millionaire is great. I would love for them to BRING BACK this great man. It wouldn’t be hard, either! Imagine a scenario in which the Ibristick is passed down to a legacy character (this is…
Just an astonishing way to test a gun: (early issue of Superman or Action or World’s Finest) (All American 033, 1941)
(Whiz Comics 006, 1940) A smuggler who founds an island haven for fugitive criminals, the Emperor makes a key mistake: he forgets that the citizens of his island empire are all murderers and acts like a tyrant. Predictably, he gets murdered. 2025 UPDATE: I just reread this story and I think that it’s imperative that I note that the Emperor, aka Scarface Otto Krug, was specifically an ambergris smuggler.
(Whiz Comics 005, 1940) Dr Lake has a hypnotism machine which he uses to found a nation-wide network of child thieves. He doesn’t reckon, though, with the fact that Captain Marvel is secretly a child.
(Whiz Comics 003a, 1940) Explosives expert who blowed himself up and lived to tell the tale, only to go back into explosives-based crime, go up against Dan Dare (the Fawcett Comics detective, not the UK comics space guy) and get caught.
(Whiz Comics 002, 1940) Kind of a generic evil scientist type – he invents a ray that can restore the dead to life but must kill folk in order to test it – but his name is James Kirk, so that’s fun!
(Whiz Comics 002-015, 1940-1941) This fellow right here is the spy that Spy Smasher was trying to smash for the first year and a half or so that he was in action. I tend to think of him as a bigger deal than he actually is because of my tendencies re: thinking too much about comics, but certainly if Spy Smasher himself had managed to remain a going concern after the 40s then the Mask would have eventually been brought…