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Month: July 2025

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 056

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 056

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Some hot Archie/MLJ super-hero action.  **Hero Update** Bob Phantom: Perhaps in honour of his making the jump from Blue Ribbon Comics to Top-Notch Comics, Bob Phantom gets two hitherto-unseen powers: super-breath powerful enough to turn aside oncoming bullets and the ability to summon cyclones by flapping his cape. (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940)  Bob Phantom also demonstrates super strength sufficient to tear an airplane to pieces in mid air. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940) And not content with three new super powers, in Top-Notch 010, Bob…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 006

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 006

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Martians aplenty, plus more!  Martians:  Time traveller Scott Rand and his companions stumble into a Martian invasion of Earth during a jaunt to the far-distant future world of 2000 CE, and they immediately get in on the planet-defending action. Featuring a Viking vs Martian battle, for all those fans of classic 2010s mashup humour. These particular Martians aren’t anything special, but I must say that I appreciate their minimalist, doorstop-shaped spacecraft. (Top-Notch Comics 002, 1940) Martians:  Scott Rand soon makes…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 831: THE BLACK DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 831: THE BLACK DEATH

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(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940) Perry Knight has a problem: instead of starring as the titular costumed antagonist of stage production “The Black Death” he has been jailed for murder. He can’t remember doing it, but evidently he gunned down his costar Tinker in cold blood during the dress rehearsal. Enter Peggy Allen, the Woman in Red, who quickly discovers that there is a second Black Death running around when they have a confrontation in the wings. Is this a foolish…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 830: ROBERT W MARSH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 830: ROBERT W MARSH

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(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940) Fifth column activities are wreaking havoc on the US! Why, it’s so bad that the new National Defense Building has been bombed! Doc Strange is called in along with a crack team of industrialists to help solve the problem, and is pointed toward fellow committee member Henry Dallas by yet another member, Robert W Marsh. Could this be so easy a problem to solve? Henry Dallas kills himself rather than own up to working with the…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 024

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 024

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None of these guys are ever going to be in a movie.  It’s been a while since we’ve seen any masked cowboys, so here’s a particularly well-dressed bunch about to have a scrap with the Rio Kid. He doesn’t get the upper hand in this particular encounter, but by gum he eventually brings rancher John Wendel and his whole gang of rustlers to justice. (Thrilling Comics 002, 1940) Likewise, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a masked Nazi spy,…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 829: LOBELO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 829: LOBELO

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(Thrilling Comics 008, 1940)  Lobelo is a modern day pirate, as you might guess from the splash panel above, and while my strong pro-pirate bias means that he was an easy inclusion in the ranks of the minor super-villain he is also a source of great frustration to me.   First, though, I will note one thing that I really like about Lobelo and that is his array of costumes. Not only does he wear two distinct pirate outfits during…

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FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 010

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 010

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Will we ever run out of fascist goons?  the Green Shirts: The Green Shirts’ claim to fame is their army of the resurrected dead, which they employ in their attempted takeover of the US. Or it would be, that is, if the test run of the resurrection device hadn’t resulted in the death of its inventor and incidentally the creation of the super-mummy Mystico, who ultimately ends up destroying the Green Shirts in a very satisfyingly cyclical kind of way….

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 828: THE BLACK TERROR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 828: THE BLACK TERROR

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(Thrilling Comics 006, 1940) The Central Art Museum has a problem: a cloaked figure who creeps through the halls at night, murdering the guards and making off with their bodies. To make things worse, the investigation is being led by the boorish Inspector Cavanaugh, the Woman in Red’s new and very annoying comic foil, who I regret to inform you is a permanent addition to her cast. But speaking of the Woman in Red, she is also on the case. As…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 019

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 019

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Science for all! Whether they want it or not!  Doctor Ivan has been pursuing a scheme in which he is systematically taking out insurance policies on everyone he knows and then having them murdered, and he is extremely smug about it. Now, I’m no expert in insurance fraud, but I have to say that I am certain that it requires a bit more subtlety than that, even if you’re doing it as a one-off. Forget the fact that the Flame…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 827: MORGAN LE FAY

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 827: MORGAN LE FAY

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(Thrilling Comics 005, 1940)  Sometimes when I’m writing the original drafts of these entries I’m tired or rushed or the like and I go into Extreme Shorthand Mode, and sometimes that version of the writeup is very charming to me when I come back to it a couple of weeks later. Which is all to say that the younger, rushed version of me wrote “merlin stung by brutal own” to describe how the venerable wizard took being exposed as a fraud by…

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