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Month: May 2023

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 283: N-4

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 283: N-4

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941) N-4 is the kind of Nazi spy that really reminds one that the swastika was a costume design go-to for a while there. Gonna be swastikas cropping up basically forever, aren’t there. Like Captain Nazi still shows up from time to time, doesn’t he. More interesting than N-4 being one of our earlier costumed Nazis is that they’re a trend-based crime villain! The trend: highways! Their whole scheme revolves around the recently-completed Pennsylvania Turnpike…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 282: KHOR, THE BLACK SORCERER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 282: KHOR, THE BLACK SORCERER

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 022, 1941) Khor, the Black Sorcerer is one of those magical generalists I was talking about back when I wrote about the Mor the Mighty, with a diverse range of magic abilities including stun bolts, paralysis spells, teleportation spells and shrinking spells. He’s a Jack Kirby troll-man special who comes to the attention of the Vision when he kidnaps a whole-ass Antarctic science expedition because he’s a lonely immortal who doesn’t know how to make friends normally….

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COUSINS OF THE WAR-WHEEL

COUSINS OF THE WAR-WHEEL

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 022, 1941) During the Human Torch and Toro’s time foiling the Nazi invasion of clear-stand-in-for-Yugoslavia Aslavia they encounter and sink this submersible fortress: But FAR more importantly they encounter what may be the best ridiculous Nazi superweapon I have ever seen: The German Invasion Wall! The superweapon so ridiculous that even in a comic book it has to have bits of wood propping it up so that it doesn’t fall over when firing its cannons! I love…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 281: THE WEIRD GHOST OF AMBER SWAMPS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 281: THE WEIRD GHOST OF AMBER SWAMPS

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 021, 1941) I got lazy here and clipped the setup, sorry. In brief, the story takes place at Chellcroft, the swampland mansion of wealthy Georgian C.J. Miller (just one letter off from being quite funny), formerly a centre of art and society but now fallen into disrepair. To make things worse, the Weird Ghost of Amber Swamps has started haunting the property and killing people, including Norton, the poor butler pictured fleeing the house in the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 280: PRINCE ITOR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 280: PRINCE ITOR

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 021, 1941) I like Prince Itor because he’s a weenie. Not enough of those in the Golden Age. He’s not even really the focus of this story, which ain’t called “The Idol of Death” for nothing. So: Morrison here owns the titular Idol and is loaning it to the Egyptian Museum, but the transfer process and time was leaked in the papers, which leads to at least half of he story being taken up with a…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 279: THE CAT’S PAW

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 279: THE CAT’S PAW

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 018-020, 1941) The Cat’s Paw gets a pretty classic intro: Dr Lin, the Angel’s old mentor and friend who was introduced in the previous issue, is ruthlessly murdered via high-speed application of poisoned dart. The Angel give chase, but fails to make the bust. The next day we see some of the Cat’s Paw’s scheme begin to emerge. She’s killing industrialists for some reason. But why? Here’s our first look at the villain in question, because…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 278: THE VAMPIRE KILLER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 278: THE VAMPIRE KILLER

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941) We open on a fear-gripped Star City (not the one you’re thinking of), in which ten people have been killed and drained of their blood. VAMPIRE! KILLER! An eleventh soon joins their ranks, and we get a look at the Vampire Killer in his cool as hell Shadow cosplay. VAMPIRE! KILLER! INTO! FASHION! But it seems all is not as we thought! Extradimensional smoke-man the Vision, exercising the oft-overlooked super-hero skill of Research, discovers…

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HONOURS – SUB-MARINER

HONOURS – SUB-MARINER

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941)  It’s a bit marginal, but this is a boxing match between Namor the Sub-Mariner and Killer Casey, the Heavyweight Champion of (the US/ the World). Was it for the title? Who knows, but Namor won.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 277: THE MASKED CHIEF

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 277: THE MASKED CHIEF

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941) This here is the Masked Chief, at least according to the caption boxes (welcome to the unofficial name club, fella), a fairly standard masked gang boss enhanced by several factors of variable wildness. First and least: he is yet another in the long line of Human Torch foes who choose to use arson as their  modus operandi. Sure he’s not specifically challenging the Torch, but he must know that he’s employed by the city, right? The…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 276: THE INVISIBLE SLAYER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 276: THE INVISIBLE SLAYER

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(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 019, 1941) There’s a bit in the introductions to the Top 10 anthologies in which Neopolis mayor John Q. Public lays out the exponential propagation of super-heroes, -villains, -pets, -monsters and so forth that takes place in a comic universe that I think of often as I read through these old adventures. Heroes inspire sidekicks and imitators; their enemies build robots and create doppelgangers to counter them, etc, until you have superhumans everywhere.  There’s one thing that isn’t…

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