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Month: April 2026

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 539 UPDATE: THE CLAW (vs. The Ghost, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 539 UPDATE: THE CLAW (vs. The Ghost, 1941)

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(Daredevil Comics 005, 1941) Everything gonna be all right – the Claw hasn’t been seen for 10 days after he was set on fire and disappeared into the Hudson River. Psych, he’s back after maybe a month or two total, getting his huge fingerprints all over the skyscrapers and gassing on about taking over the US. And who will stop him this time, with the Daredevil out of the Claw-fighting game, Bill Hopkins understandably keeping a low profile and Jerry…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 083

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 083

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Oh boy! Minor super-heroes! 13:  13 (aka Thirteen, although the numerical version of the name is the official one) is the alias of Harold Higgins, whose life has been haunted by a series of misfortunes related to the number thirteen. A timeline of some of them: February 13, 1940: Harold’s brother Bob dies in a plane crash. March 13, 1940: Harold loses his life savings in the stock market. May 13, 1940: Harold’s sister Margy is paralyzed in a car…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 953: THE COUPLE KILLER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 953: THE COUPLE KILLER

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(Daredevil Comics 006, 1941) New York’s dating scene is in trouble, as courting couples are being murdered at a blazing clip: six couples in two weeks as the story begins and a seventh just one page in – that’s fourteen people! That’s a person a day! On average! Nightro is on the case, but merely patrolling the parks and other canoodling spots is a bust as the killer knows to look out for costumed vigilantes and even leaves a taunting…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 024

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 024

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You just can’t keep ’em out of comics, those real people. Adolf Hitler: Dispatches super-spy Miss X to America. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941) Raymond Stokes, the actor playing Hitler in a British propaganda film about London (the super-hero, not the city) inexplicably also turns out to be a Nazi agent who attempts to murder the Prime Minister when he makes a cameo appearance in the movie. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941) Al Capone:   No-first-name Perrone here is another classic example of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 952: WOLF CARSON

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 952: WOLF CARSON

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(Daredevil Comics 006, 1941) Wolf Carson, gang boss, is in the hospital after being gunned down by his own traitorous associates. Faced with a choice between 1) dying of his wounds or 2) recovering so that the authorities can scoop him up and take him to jail, Carson takes the ever-popular option 3) take the nearby unethical doctor up on his offer to help cheat death via experimental science, in this case a total brain transplant! True to his word,…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 539 UPDATE: THE CLAW (post-Daredevil, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 539 UPDATE: THE CLAW (post-Daredevil, 1941)

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In keeping with my decision to split the Claw updates for 1941 by heroic foe, here are the details of his three-issue dalliance with engineer Bill Hopkins. When last we saw the Claw… he was in the Pacific, roughing up Adolf Hitler. But before that, at the end of his long back-and-forth with the Daredevil, there was the small matter of his asking Lucifer for aid and getting it, with the caveat that if he still lost in his next…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 951: THE DEADLY DOZEN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 951: THE DEADLY DOZEN

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(Daredevil Comics 005, 1941) We open on a demonstration by one Dr Roe of his invention the Death Detector, which he purports is able to determine if someone is incapable of murder (yellow light displayed), potentially capable of murder (red light) or has in fact murdered someone (blue light).  While the implications and legalities of this device are legion (e.g., how does it determine this, does it distinguish between killing in self defense and manslaughter and premeditated murder, would widespread…

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NOTES – APRIL 2026

NOTES – APRIL 2026

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Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects: Here’s an intrepid officer trying to shoot the Black Terror and his (very young) sidekick Tim in the backs as they run away from the scene of a late-night disturbance. (Exciting Comics 015, 1941) Samson Does the Thing:  Several new additions to the premiere Samson supercut: Marthas: A new addition to the League of Marthas: the Golden Knight’s mother, Queen Martha of the Tree People! (Fantastic Comics 015, 1941) Places and History: In a rare…

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PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 007

PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 007

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Damn their problematic hides! Rango:  A former Vaudeville magician who employs a magical gem and some rubberoid mask blackface to establish himself as medicine man/bandit chief in Africa, Rango aka Harrigan is ultimately unmasked by Yarko the Great. (Wonderworld Comics 015, 1940)  Unnamed Witch Doctor:  This unnamed Haitian witch doctor has a very unusual scheme: blind entire American cities with a floating vision of some of his men and then loot those same cities of all of their diamonds. Why…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 950: HANS MEYER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 950: HANS MEYER

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(Daredevil Comics 004, 1941) Bart “Daredevil” Hill and his fiance Tonia Saunders are accompanying their friends Jeff and Sue Hart on their honeymoon (!) yacht trip when they encounter the killer combo of rough stormy seas and a mysterious lighthouse that sends them right onto a reef. Happily for all involved (except two sailors who are swept overboard and never mentioned again) the yacht is merely wedged rather than sinking and there is a convenient nearby island. An inhabited one,…

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