(All American Comics 010, 1940) The Master, in one of those escapades that causes a lot of trouble for folks who feel compelled to work out what’s in continuity and what isn’t, briefly took over NYC using an electricity projector, killed hundreds if not thousands of people, and mobilized a full fascist organization before being stopped by G-2 operatives Red, White and Blue and Doris West. Which, to be fair, is the answer. You have to explain whether or not…
(Action Comics 027, 1940) What makes them a super-villain? It’s 100% the name plus the fact that “air pirate” along with “submarine pirate” and for that matter “regular pirate” are styles of crime that just reek of super-villainy for me. What about them is interesting? Aside from the inherent romantic nature of the air pirate, the only real thing of note about the Blue Raider is that his plane is named Hank.
(Adventure Comics 057, 1940) As I’ve said before, sometimes a character is very clearly a super-villain but chooses no name for themself, in which case for administrative purposes I pick something that the text boxes or other characters refer to them as and go with that. Scientists are usually easy – they just go by their name. This fellow, on the other hand, is basically only ever referred to as “Uncle,” so Uncle I call him. And Uncle is a…
(Adventure Comics 057, 1940) Yet another Hourman science-villain. Dr Togg was really into hybridizing dogs and buzzards in various fun ways. Such a cool guy was he, in fact, that he was brought back as an ancillary character in the 90s Hourman series, himself mutated into a partial dog/buzzard in a retconned final encounter with Hourman before he was sent to prison. Thinking about him (and fellow Hourman foe Iker in about 50 entries or so), has made me realize…
(Adventure Comics 056, 1940_ Dr Slight is similar to Dr Snegg, in that he is a scientist-villain with a method for bringing inanimate statues to life for crime purposes who is stopped by Hourman. But Dr Slight brings *plaster* statues to life, not wax ones.
Costumes: All-Star 005 features the debut of Hawkgirl, and a stunning revelation about her and (presumably) Hawkman’s costumes: the green part ain’t tights it’s boots!
(Adventure Comics 052-054, 1940) A properly fun invisible villain, finally! In order: -great hat, great mustache -has to get nude -filled with hubris vis-à-vis just how much you can get done just by being invisible (world conquest?) Although to that last point they (they being heroic boxer Socko Strong) had to set a trap to electrocute him in order to stop him.
(Adventure Comics 051-052, 1940) Snegg’s your classic villain who can’t handle the thought of revising a plan. In his first appearance he animates a trio of crime boss statues from a wax museum to serve him as henchmen and then, having been foiled once by Hourman, he tosses the whole idea of animated wax out the window to indulge in hypnotism-based crime. If he hadn’t died in a car accident he might be thinking up new implausible schemes to this…
(Adventure Comics 049, 1940) The Tiger-Men are… contextually villains, I guess, in that they do arson and murder and are opposed by hero Steve Conrad. They are ALSO part of a pattern that emerges if you read a lot of old comics that take place in international locales: the hero rocks up and helps solve a problem between colonizers and the native population and the narrative frames what are usually pretty reasonable demands by the latter as rank villainy. In…
(Adventure Comics 046, 1940) The Coin is a few different super-villain clichés rolled into one. Firstly he’s an old college chum of Wesley “Sandman” Dodds, and “old schoolmate of hero turns out to be villain” is as much a recurring thing in comics as an old friend showing up and immediately dying. Which the Coin also does. Finally, the Coin is a man who dresses up as an old lady to do crime, which is a super-villain bit and also…