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Month: October 2024

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 650: RANGO OF SLAVONIA/ MINOR SUPER-HERO: THE MASTER MYSTIC

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 650: RANGO OF SLAVONIA/ MINOR SUPER-HERO: THE MASTER MYSTIC

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(Green Giant Comics 001, 1940) We join Rango, a science villain of some description, after he has failed to conquer Europe. His next move: total destruction. After absolutely devastating a city in what is probably Slavonia, Rango heads for the United States by the simple expedient of swimming across the Atlantic. And now we encounter the main attraction, Master Mystic! What a character! Master Mystic is very much ahead of his time, both in his art style and degree of…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 026

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 026

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Just look at all these guys. Power-Man: Power-Man, aka Rip Regan, private detective or possibly just nosy guy, gets his powers in one of the classic ways: his friend Dr Austin gives him a special suit. It’s the simplest of origins and also one that puts a lot of weight on Austin’s assessment of Regan’s character. The Power-Man suit is one of the more hand-wavy bits of comic book super-science I have encountered, when you get down to it. Billed…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 649: THE MONSTER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 649: THE MONSTER

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(Funny Pages v4 008, 1940) Betty Thomas is the recipient of the sort of inheritance that seems to be aimed at causing trouble: her uncle Henry has left her a fortune, provided that she is of sound mind thirty days after the will reading. If she isn’t, the money goes to a secondary inheritor. This is of course the cue for someone to employ a huge hook-handed goon and start a nightly campaign of terror designed to drive her out…

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PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 002

PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 002

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Once again I present the worst that comics has to offer. The Great Green Turtle: The Great Green Turtle is just your standard Yellow Peril Chinatown ganglord, albeit one with a fantastic name. He does try to throw Sub-Zero, a man with ice powers, into a shark tank so we can safely say that he is not a villain with fantastic intelligence. His gem-smuggling ring gets thoroughly kiboshed. (Blue Bolt v1 004, 1940) The Lama: The Lama is a bandit…

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CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE LIVING PLANET MONSTERS

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE LIVING PLANET MONSTERS

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(Fight Comics 010, 1940) I wanted to do a fun title goof where “World” was crossed out in favour of “Space” but it seems that I don’t have that ability. But yes, it’s true! These Creeps of the World are not in fact on the world! Any world! They are in fact one of my favourite sci-fi tropes: living beings so large that they are mistaken for planets! These particular creeps show up in the solar system early in the…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 006

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 006

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More real people and their analogs. Lotta Hitlers in this one. Adolf Hitler: Hitler analogs c.1940 were often quite visually distinct from the actual man. Samson foe and dictator of Ratonia Dragor honestly looks more like a bald Stalin, and you might be excused for thinking that he was more of a pastiche of all extant dictators. The real clue is in the invasion of Belgium. (Fantastic Comics 002, 1940)  Meanwhile this as-yet unnamed dictator of the future super-nation of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 648: GARR STORM

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 648: GARR STORM

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(Fight Comics 008, 1940) The geopolitics of the future as represented in Spy Fighter stories sure is complicated! At first, the far future world of 1997 contained only three megacountries: Mongo, Russmany and Greater America, but soon enough Greater America was menaced by aggressor nations such as Grotonia, Prussany and Antarctica. Simultaneously, the timeline advanced from 1998 to a more ambiguous “early in the Twenty-First Century.” Is the unspoken background story the fracturing of these enormous countries back into something…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 025

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 025

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Just a great bunch of guys. David: I read the Samson stories in Big 3 before those in his home comic Fantastic, so while I knew about his sidekick David I didn’t really know what his whole deal was. I had read that Samson just found him sitting around somewhere and assumed that that was hyperbole but no, it’s not: Samson is investigating some mysterious plane crashes in the Rockies when he just finds a kid, who turns out to…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 647: THE MONK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 647: THE MONK

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(Fight Comics 008, 1940) I like to criticize scientist-villains a lot for their limited vision, for their inability to see the legitimate money-making options they have after inventing say a super-efficient tunnel digging machine that they view solely as a way to rob banks easily. The Monk is the opposite of that kind of guy, I reckon. (brief aside about the name: this is not in reference to the religious calling but rather the old-school, now-defunct gangster nickname, where “Monk”…

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CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE TERMITE MEN

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE TERMITE MEN

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(Fight Comics 008, 1940) No origin or motivation for the Termite Men is provided. They just burrow up through the basement of Rip Regan, Power-Man and declare their intent to destroy San Francisco via chewing. Probably San Francisco – that’s where Power-Man started out but the slow process of comic book urban alchemy might have already transferred him to New York. Anyway, he ends up gassing them all to death.