(All American 029, 1941) A simple first costumed foe for Dr Mid-Nite: a mine owner founds his own secret society in order to control public opinion about such things as unionization and also to have a ready-made lynch mob if needed. Really appreciate how on-theme the Cobra Kingdom – wearing a version of King Cobra’s own costume, natch – were at all times, down to referring to their enemies as “mongoose.” It wasn’t a big shock that they almost killed…
(All American 028, 1941) Just a weird little creep with a drug that can mind control someone and then kill them. The Spider hits on a scheme where he is paid by ne’er-do-wells to have their rich relatives write them back into their wills and then mysteriously keel over – and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for Green Lantern and his pesky pals.
(All American Comics 025, 1941) A masked man running a gang of saboteurs to ruin production of war goods as a US steel plant in the name of a vague Cause – at this time most likely fascism – is pretty run-of-the-mill for 1941, but it turns out that the Leader’s real scheme is to drive down the steel mill’s stock price so that he can gain a controlling interest and make big bucks! He’s just duping the fascists-or-maybe-anarchists-or-communists into doing…
(Adventure 069, 1941) An early example of quite a few villain tropes, the Red Dragon is a guy who turns to evil because he was rejected by society due to his deformed face (1). He then decides to set himself up in opposition to the heroic Shining Knight, choosing to become the Red Dragon – less dramatic than a Bizarro-style evil opposite situation but still an evil opposite situation (2). After his first (unsuccessful) foray into crime, he is recruited…
(Adventure 068, 1941) An orchestra conductor who goes off the deep end when he gets fired. Not a terribly deep concept, but he kills his replacements with an electrified conductor’s baton trap and he leaves comedy and tragedy mask symbols to show his involvement so there’s a lot for me, a themed crime enthusiast, to enjoy.
Places: The Chandler Building, seen here, is “half a mile high”. In other words, about the same height as the Burj Khalifa! What a win for not-yet-Fawcett-City-but-not-quite-New-York-City! Even if the top does get blown off in this story! (Captain Marvel Adventures 003, 1941) Decoration: Really really excellent custom motivational poster hanging in Dr Sivana’s hideout. (Captain Marvel Adventures 005, 1941) WWI vets: Richard “Madam Fatal” Stanton (Crack Comics 002, 1940)
(Adventure 067, 1941) Sometimes you have to admit to yourself that your judgement is subjective enough that you’re going to count an ordinary “I invented a shrinking formula and shall now crime” scientist as a super-villain just because you like the name “Doombie”.
(Captain Marvel Adventures 002, 1941) Captain Marvel gets a statue!
(Adventure 066, 1941) Mr Cuthbert Cain, the Camera Eye (and I call him that because it’s what he himself signs on an ominous note – at various points in the story he is called the Camera Fiend and the Camera Criminal) is part of a long tradition of super-villains who take a recent technological or cultural trend and extrapolate it into a criminal gimmick – in this case, candid photography. Using black magic and photographic equipment, Cain captures souls and…
(Adventure Comics 065, 1941) Another in a long line of scientist-villains faced by Hourman, Dr Darrk has a moderately cool name, a lighthouse HQ and an invisibility ray but ultimately is overshadowed by his really excellent robot goon, Giganto: Just look at that cool robot!