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Month: April 2023

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 268: GNORR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 268: GNORR

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 013, 1940)   The history of spaceflight is of course very different in a super-hero universe. For example, Empress Nara of Ligra, featured in a previous post about Professor Zog being knighted, was actually an Earth-woman who arrived on Ligra as an infant because her father invented an interstellar spacecraft sometime around 1920 or so. This it is practically unremarkable that Professor Zog was invited on a trip to the Moon in 1940 by Dr Simon…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 268: GNORR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 268: GNORR

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 013, 1940)   The history of spaceflight is of course very different in a super-hero universe. For example, Empress Nara of Ligra, featured in a previous post about Professor Zog being knighted, was actually an Earth-woman who arrived on Ligra as an infant because her father invented an interstellar spacecraft sometime around 1920 or so. This it is practically unremarkable that Professor Zog was invited on a trip to the Moon in 1940 by Dr Simon…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 267: THE SHARK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 267: THE SHARK

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 012) The Shark is a submarine pirate, a thing that is fairly common in comic books and as far as I can tell has never actually happened in real life. He’s a bit more ambitious than most such guys, and at the beginning of this particular story is trying parlay a successful streak of piracy into a general toll on shipping. He’s also a pretty snappy dresser. The US, of course, does not take an extortion…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 266: DR BRUNO VAROZ

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 266: DR BRUNO VAROZ

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 010, 1940)  I like this guy. This guy is the fun kind of mad scientist with a lot of fun details. First of all he lives in a castle roughly the same size as the island it sits on, off the coast of Cuba. Secondly, he follows the rules of Mad Scientist Grooming, which state that they must either be impeccably groomed or, as with Dr Varoz here, look like they woke up in a compost…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 266: DR BRUNO VAROZ

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 266: DR BRUNO VAROZ

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 010, 1940)  I like this guy. This guy is the fun kind of mad scientist with a lot of fun details. First of all he lives in a castle roughly the same size as the island it sits on, off the coast of Cuba. Secondly, he follows the rules of Mad Scientist Grooming, which state that they must either be impeccably groomed or, as with Dr Varoz here, look like they woke up in a compost…

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CREEPS OF THE WORLD: GHOULS

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: GHOULS

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 010, 1940) If there’s one thing you can say about just about any given super-hero universe it’s that any given cave, canyon or unguarded parking lot will have its own little group of creeps who lurk in it and are just spoiling for a chance to get up to mischief. Our inaugural creeps are the Ghouls! Hailing from volcanic caverns beneath the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ghouls just love to gather up hot ladies for volcanic sacrifice….

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HONOURS – PROFESSOR ZOG

HONOURS – PROFESSOR ZOG

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 009, 1940)  Professor Zog is made an Honorary Knight of Ligra for his services in the war between the Lion-People and the Dragon-Men. If the Lion-Person in the background looks a bit disgruntled it is perhaps because Zog was originally coerced into fighting on the Dragon-Men’s side and really did a number on the Lion-People’s army before getting free. This is possibly why he only gets to be an honorary knight.

HONOURS – PROFESSOR ZOG

HONOURS – PROFESSOR ZOG

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 009, 1940)  Professor Zog is made an Honorary Knight of Ligra for his services in the war between the Lion-People and the Dragon-Men. If the Lion-Person in the background looks a bit disgruntled it is perhaps because Zog was originally coerced into fighting on the Dragon-Men’s side and really did a number on the Lion-People’s army before getting free. This is possibly why he only gets to be an honorary knight.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 265: THE MAD DOCTOR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 265: THE MAD DOCTOR

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 009, 1940) This one, while not being particularly spectacular as a whole does contain a lot of fun elements. Let’s count them off! We open on our hero one a one-issue trip to Europe (1) where he pooh-poohs the local superstitions (2) about a castle full of vampires who steal young women (3). The Angel – for it is he who pooh-poohs – quickly gets mixed up in an attempted vampiric abduction and, surprise surprise, the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 264: THE VOICE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 264: THE VOICE

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 006, 1940) The Voice! Mysterious drug kingpin of San Francisco! Nobody has seen his face, not even his henchmen! The Voice! Using loudspeakers and radios, he coordinates his operations from a hidden place of safety! The Voice! Is a street-level supercrook who has the misfortune to be operating in a story about Electro, Marvel of the Age! All his precautions are as nothing against the giant remote-controlled robot! Adding insult to injury, he isn’t even the…

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