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Month: May 2025

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 048

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 048

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The triumphant return of Ace Magazines to the round-up! Flash Lightning: Educated and possibly also raised by Ancient Egyptian mystic the Old Man of the Pyramids, young Robert Morgan is eventually deemed worthy of the Amulet of Annihilation, a mystic artifact that grants him the powers of flight, super strength, bulletproof skin, the ability to hurl lightning bolts and sundry others (the amulet is also immediately forgotten about, as far as I can tell – the armband design remains a…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 783: PHATSO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 783: PHATSO

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(Superworld Comics 003, 1940) Buzz “the Invisible Avenger” Allen and Will “also invisible but has no special name” Lawrence are taking an Alaskan vacation with some of the reward money they have earned via vigilantism (and it’s nice to see a variation on super-hero morality now and then – someone has to be accepting awards when offered, surely) when they, hard-core radio amateurs that they are, pick up a panicked broadcast from nearby. Making their way to the location, they…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 782: ERIC MACFADDEN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 782: ERIC MACFADDEN

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(Superworld Comics 001, 1940*) Eric MacFadden is a criminal scientist who has some sort of longstanding beef with Hip Knox, the Super Hypnotist, that was presumably covered in Superworld Comics 001, a comics I have yet to encounter for the simple reason that it would cost me at least $ 2000 US. MacFadden’s signature technology is the extremely stylish mesh anti-hypnosis mask that he wears to protect him from Hip Knox’s super-hypnotism, and he even has extras made to shield…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 047

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 047

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Astonishing super-heroes of the past! And future! the Invisible Avenger:  Teen radio enthusiast Buzz Allen discovers the secret of personal invisibility shortly after the death of his father at the hands of criminals and so is perfectly primed to become part of a super-vigilante duo alongside his friend Will Lawrence (if the issue of whether they should be the Invisible Avengers ever comes up then it is in the initial adventure which I alas cannot read).  Their adventures are structured…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 020

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 020

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We’re stretching the definition of the term “generic” this week, folks. Carr, the self-styled Planetary Potentate, is released from the insane asylum that he is imprisoned in when a resurrected sub-sea dinosaur called the Amphisaur crashes into it. He sets out to claim his rightful place at the head of society, along with his friend/ companion/ army, the wild man Simeo. While murdering and robbing a gas station attendant, Carr learns of the Amphisaur and its role in their escape…

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NOTES – MAY 2025

NOTES – MAY 2025

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Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:  The Raven, a nonviolent thief who crucial only steals ill-gotten gains from the wealthy and powerful, draws a lot of police fire over the course of his activities. (Sure-Fire Comics 002, 1940) Treasury agent blazes away at a fleeing diamond smuggler in the middle of NYC. (Target Comics v1 004, 1940) A Good Line to Exit A Burning Building With: Especially if you have no intention of being a waffle. (Sure-Fire Comics 002, 1940) Insufficiently…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 781: DR ANDERSON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 781: DR ANDERSON

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(Super Spy 001, 1940) A series of bank robberies rock the community of Unnamed Comics Book City, USA. Witnesses place local physician Doc Anderson at the scene of each crime, but when detectives look into it they find that he has a terrible alibi for each one: he was home alone. It sounds like an open and shut case, but another robbery occurs while the police are at his house. Just what is happening? Could the fact that the title…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 780: THE MUMMY

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 780: THE MUMMY

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(Funny Picture Stories v3 002, 1939) Like every other of my long-term projects, writing this blog has been an exercise in taking a simple premise (writing fairly succinctly about minor DC Comics super-villains) and expanding the scope until the seams start to creak (writing somewhat extensively about all super-villains and super-heroes and a bunch of other comics things and also maintaining a set of variably-useful indices about them all). This is all to lead into the fact that a comic…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 779: THE CLOWN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 779: THE CLOWN

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(Super-Mystery Comics v1 005, 1940) The Clown! One of the more prolific non-Marvel or DC/Fawcett/Quality super-villains of the Golden Age, and I’m kind of glad that he only made one appearance in 1940 because like his fellow crime clown the Joker, the Clown gets up to a wide variety of different schemes and plots and it’s nice to have the breathing room to just introduce his concept without having to detail a bunch of extra antics as well (and speaking…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 046

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 046

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Enjoy these ancient delights! the Black Spider: Mild-mannered district attorney Ralph Nelson, like many comic book lawmen, sallies forth at night in order to deal with criminals that the law can’t touch. Nelson is despised by his colleague Police Inspector Stern for being too soft on crime/ dedicated to the letter of the law to allow the cops to torture confessions out of people, while the Black Spider is hated by Stern for showing up the police by being so…

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