(Bulletman 001, 1941) The Largest Man in the World is exactly what it says on the tin: an unfeasibly enormous dude. By himself, not much of a threat so long as he gets a regular supply of molasses to eat. It’s just too bad for society that he is spotted by crooks and used as a living siege weapon to rob and kill. The really remarkable thing about the Largest Man in the World is that his gangster pal is Machine…
(Bulletman 001, 1940) There is a pretty broad swath of the super-villain community (and an even larger cohort of generic costumed villains) who have the common origin of being respectable members of society who need a second identity to head a gang or catburgle or do murders under the guise of. The gang leaders tend to stick to a few different styles of dress: there’s the domino mask wearers, the executioners-style hood guys and the more cautious head-to-toe robe wearers….
(Bulletman 001, 1941) What makes them a super-villain? The Black Spider is Jules Rey, a French crook who got caught in NYC and shipped back to France, where he was thrown in a dungeon, went blind, befriended the spiders in his cell and escaped. Now he’s back for revenge on those he blames for his circumstances, including Jim “Bulletman” Barr and his coworker and future father-in-law Sergeant Kent. Plus he dresses in a kind of low-rent Batman costume. What is…
(Blue Beetle Comics 010, 1941) Once again I am faced with the painful dichotomy of a villain with all of the trappings I love – he’s a bombastic loudmouth with a bunch of costumed henchmen, who uses simple trickery to appear superhuman – but uses them in service to some frankly uninspired crimes. In this case, the Swamp Master (great name, too!) emerges from the swamp (natch) with his wet-suited Swampmen and a saurian monster that is actually a disguised…