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Month: April 2025

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 777: EMBER, THE EMPRESS OF FIRE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 777: EMBER, THE EMPRESS OF FIRE

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(Super-Mystery Comics v1 003, 1940) This is a bit of a weird one. Vulcan, the Volcanic Man, has just saved both a field of gasoline tanks and a government arson inspector named Grace Horner from being incinerated by “notorious arsonist-spy” Torchy Fargo, who then retires to a nearby castle* to report his failure to Ember, the Empress of Fire. Just what is the deal with these two, you ask? We shall explore that momentarily. *Vulcan is plausibly based out of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 776: THE BLUE SPARK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 776: THE BLUE SPARK

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(Super-Mystery Comics v1 002, 1940) In terms of crime, the Blue Spark is ambitious but not extraordinary: a little corporate extortion, some bank robbery, a few kidnappings. Nothing we haven’t seen a few hundred times by now.  When it comes to the trappings of super-villainy, however, the Blue Spark is on the cutting edge. Just look at that costume – it’s not quite the standardized super-villain getup we will eventually see on so many one-shot Batman villains but it’s pretty…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 775: THE OCTOPUS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 775: THE OCTOPUS

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(Super-Mystery Comics v1 001, 1940) The Octopus! Leader of a nation-wide crime wave! Keenly interested in branding! His men slap little octopus stickers on cops and burgled vaults alike! And when the Octopus talks to his men, he is represented by what appears to be an animated octopus! As far as criminal operations go, this one is pretty slick. Unfortunately for the Octopus, nothing gold can stay and that includes excellent crime setups. While he might be able to outmanoeuvre…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 774: THE TERROR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 774: THE TERROR

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(Super-Mystery Comics 001, 1940) The Terror is really Scar (or Scar-Face) Pontois, a gang boss who is expending a lot of effort in order to drive people away from a rich gold claim that he has hijacked but has perhaps gone a bit too far, as Corporal Flint of the RCMP, the hero of our story, is only nosing around Scar’s locale because of the strange rumours he and/or his superiors have heard. Please note his giant hat. In addition…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 773: CAPTAIN DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 773: CAPTAIN DEATH

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(Super Comics 027, 1940) Pirate Captain Death comes into conflict with Jim Ellis and his brother Bud when the former, a dead ringer for Death, is shanghaied by the slightly less villainous Captain “Iron” Shard in an attempt to bluff his way onto Death’s Forbidden Island headquarters and steal his treasure. This “identical hero/villain duo” situation is hardly unprecedented in fiction, and there are broadly two ways that it plays out. In the first, the villain is not so bad…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 772: THE BARON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 772: THE BARON

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(Super Comics 027, 1940) Monocle-wearing crypto-Nazi spy and major recurring foe of war correspondent Jack Wander, the Baron is one duelling scar away from being the quintessential Axis agent. Also he looks like he was designed by Paul Grist – just look at that little sneer.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 771: CAPTAIN DAVY JONES JUNIOR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 771: CAPTAIN DAVY JONES JUNIOR

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(Super Comics 027, 1940) A tough-talking femme fatale pirate captain is a pretty good foil for super magic jungle guy Magic Morro – he might be able to walk through fire and juggle three grown men like rubber balls but one thing that he definitely can’t do is hit a lady, not even a pirate lady. And speaking of her being a lady, that sure is an interesting name for a 1940s lady pirate, I wonder where she got it?…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 045

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 045

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Ah the super-hero. Ace Buckley:  Ace Buckley is a time traveller, a subgenre of comic book hero mostly notable for the fact that they have no one to blame for their troubles but themselves. Like most of his peers, Buckley (along with his intriguingly-named companion Toni Stark, whose role in the stories is to get captured and then swan around in minimal clothing while waiting for Buckley to rescue her) flings himself willy-nilly into the hotspots of human history and…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 770: GOLI

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 770: GOLI

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(Startling Comics 004, 1940) We open on a world in turmoil! The tides are going crazy! New York City is trashed! The world’s leaders turn to the mysterious Dr X for help, and he immediately recognizes that the problem must be Moon-based, and further that the solution will require his niece’s fiance Bob to go beat someone up. This is the second and final Dr X story of the Golden Age, and I really wish that there were more. Wizened…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 014

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 014

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The last couple of 1940 issues of Startling Comics featured the adventures of time traveller Ace Buckley, something that has heavily flavoured this edition of Real Person Round-Up.  Alonso de Molina: Spanish conquistador who stayed behind after one of Pizarro’s excursions to the Americas and met a mysterious fate. Time traveller Ace Buckley finds his armour and impersonates him to a presumably face blind Pizarro. (Startling Comics 003, 1940) Atahualpa: Last of the Inca Emperors. Time Traveller Ace Buckley gives…

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