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Month: November 2023

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 385: THE GREAT MEDICINE BIRD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 385: THE GREAT MEDICINE BIRD

(More Fun Comics 067, 1941) It’s an old, dumb trope: diamond thief Gordon Slade escapes into the jungle with his loot and then takes over a tribe as it’s spiritual leader – sometimes it’s a god but in this case it’s as a medicine man. Between the name and the outfit the Great Medicine Bird, like a lot of his shitty compatriots, technically qualifies for the status of minor super-villain. But since I don’t especially like them, they’re going into…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

(More Fun Comics 067, 1941) Deeja Kathoon is an occultist and necromancer who has the ability to summon and bind ghosts to his service and uses this power to unleash a ghostly crimewave on Cliffland, NJ. He has what turns out to be an Indian surname but there’s no indication in-story that he’s supposed to be Indian and so I must assume that it’s a coincidence and that my first guess was correct and his name was chosen by picking…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

(More Fun Comics 067, 1941) Deeja Kathoon is an occultist and necromancer who has the ability to summon and bind ghosts to his service and uses this power to unleash a ghostly crimewave on Cliffland, NJ. He has what turns out to be an Indian surname but there’s no indication in-story that he’s supposed to be Indian and so I must assume that it’s a coincidence and that my first guess was correct and his name was chosen by picking…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 383: THE VOODOO KING

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 383: THE VOODOO KING

(More Fun Comics 066, 1941)  The Voodoo King is nothing special: a colonial administrator in the the Kangean Islands of Indonesia (meaning that he is probably our first Dutch super-villain), he uses his weird getup and knowledge of chemistry to scare off iron miners so that he can steal the diamonds that are also abundant in the mine. Too bad for him that the mine owner is friends with pilot/ adventurer Captain Desmo and so he gets his clock cleaned….

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 383: THE VOODOO KING

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 383: THE VOODOO KING

(More Fun Comics 066, 1941)  The Voodoo King is nothing special: a colonial administrator in the the Kangean Islands of Indonesia (meaning that he is probably our first Dutch super-villain), he uses his weird getup and knowledge of chemistry to scare off iron miners so that he can steal the diamonds that are also abundant in the mine. Too bad for him that the mine owner is friends with pilot/ adventurer Captain Desmo and so he gets his clock cleaned….

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FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 004

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 004

More goon/ more fascist The Band AKA the Anti-American Band AKA the Un-American Band are yet another take on the German-American Bund distinguished by the fact that they were infiltrated by Bruce Blackburn – Counterspy so a) they were one of the few gangs of fascist goons to last more than one adventure and b) they were the villains that Blackburn created his shortlived alter-ego the Destroying Demon to fight (Feature Comics 038-041, 1940-1941) The Advance Front! Fascist agitators who…

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FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 004

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 004

More goon/ more fascist The Band AKA the Anti-American Band AKA the Un-American Band are yet another take on the German-American Bund distinguished by the fact that they were infiltrated by Bruce Blackburn – Counterspy so a) they were one of the few gangs of fascist goons to last more than one adventure and b) they were the villains that Blackburn created his shortlived alter-ego the Destroying Demon to fight (Feature Comics 038-041, 1940-1941) The Advance Front! Fascist agitators who…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 382: THE MAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 382: THE MAN

(More Fun Comics 066, 1941)  Out of nowhere one day, giant monsters attack Cliffland, New Jersey! After driving them off a couple of times, the Spectre manages to follow them back to their base of operations, a weird painting of unknown provenance hanging in a Cliffland museum. There he finds that the monsters reside in a metal city ruled over by a man referred to only as the Man. The Man is clearly modeled after the fascist dictators of the…

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FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 003

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 003

More goons. Fascist goons? Yes. The Anti-American Party operated in the South American country of Santa Palos, home of the Red Gaucho, and got up to a lot of malarky at a fancy dress ball. Crucially, they disguised one of their agents as the Red Gaucho, leading to a lot of mixups between the agent, the Gaucho and a clueless dope who also came dressed as the hero (Nickel Comics 006, 1940) The Black Guard, agents of the Germany-analog country…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 381: NYARL-AMEN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 381: NYARL-AMEN

(More Fun Comics 065, 1941) Okay, so the guy on the throne is Nyarl-Amen, AKA the Ancient One AKA the Lost Wisdom AKA the Wonder Wisdom. Fifty thousand years ago he ruled the world from beneath the waves as head of the Nyarl-Amen Dynasty. Nyarl-Amen has lived in the City of Nyarl-Amen for one hundred thousand years… His arsenal includes the Magic Eyes of Nyarl-Amen… And together with his minions the Fish Men of Nyarl-Amen he seeks to reconquer the…

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