(More Fun Comics 055, 1940) The Wolf Man: – has a bunch of trained wolves – wears a wolfskin outfit complete with wolf head cowl – constantly refers to himself as the Wolf Man – exclusively robs prospectors in the Canadian wilderness. The Wolf Man puts in too much effort, in other words.
(More Fun Comics 055, 1940) An economics professor who dresses in a bat-winged robe and injects college students with experimental “artificial blood” while they sleep, the Bat is probably more the story of a man’s mental breakdown than a super-villain.
(More Fun Comics 055, 1940) Zor is from pretty early in the Spectre’s run, back when his concept was “resurrected dead guy” rather than “literal embodiment of the Wrath of God”. More specifically but also vaguely, he was an “earth-bound ghost” which was never really defined but was a pretty powerful thing to be. Zor was also an earth-bound ghost, only he was older and thus more powerful than the Spectre, and also evil: Zor makes a couple of Golden Age appearances…
Names: (Batman Comics 008, 1941) It was on brand for the Joker to use the aliases “A. Rekoj” and “I. Rekoj” in the last year but I am pretty upset that Batman just used “I. Namtab” and that the Joker fell for it. (Blue Beetle Comics 008, 1941) In the Dynamo story he goes up against a guy who calls himself the Crime Dealer, a good name for a bland guy. Riddles: (Batman Comics 007, 1941) “When is a Duke…
(More Fun Comics 054, 1940) If a crooked importer named Crandall hatches a scheme to kill off his business rivals and then makes up a villain named the Cloak to blame the crimes on, is he in fact that villain? This correspondent says yes.
(Feature Comics 032-037, 1940) Of the dozen or so heroes and villains named the Voice, this is the best of them all, hands down. Let’s review: -shipwrecked on an island in 1790, lives off of special herbs that extend the human lifespan and empower the body -finally picked up in 1940, moves to NYC at 150-something years old -successfully synthesizes the herb’s properties, ensuring that his life will continue indefinitely. Decides to fight crime -learns ventriloquism and close-up magic The…
(Feature Comics 034, 1940) What is interesting about them? The Black Mask is about as basic as a mask-and-code-name guy can get, but he’s the only thing approaching a super-villain to fight the Voice, which gives me an excuse to talk about that very fun guy in the next entry. Also, 100 minor super-villains! Congratulations, Black Mask, it’s more honour than you deserve.
(Feature Comics 029, 1940) What makes them a super-villain? The Reaper is another just-scraping-into-the-ranks gang boss. Between his cool name and a setup where he gives his gang orders through a closed-circuit TV and microphone, he makes that final leap, presumably into a slightly higher security prison cell.
(Detective Comics 041, 1940) What makes them a super-villain? He’s an espionage guy with an invisibility formula. What is interesting about them? Invisible guys are often pretty dull comic book villains, but I will give the Invisible Man/ Dr Ellis this: his cover identity is as a scientist in the team that is trying to catch him, and he’s evidently arrogant enough that he actually developed a formula for a gas that would render him visible again but assumed that investigator Cliff…
(More Fun Comics 052-054, 1940) The Wizard is the kind of guy you get in comics who develops a robot army and a few different types of rays, destructive and otherwise, and immediately turns around and takes over (what I assume to be) his home town. I do appreciate that he looks like someone who has been sitting in a basement or a cave soldering robot faces for twenty years, but it’s no excuse for incivility.