I’ve finally caught up on my god backlog so these are all piping fresh deities for you to peruse.
Itzalotahui:
On an expedition to Guatemala to locate their missing friend John Malcolm, Billy Batson and Whitey Murphy make camp in the lost temple of the monkey god Itzalotahui and are awoken from their slumber by the god himself, flaming and steaming and flailing about.
After an initial panic and an in-retrospect-embarassing fistfight, Captain Marvel discovers the truth: Itzalotahui is not alive but is in fact a cunningly-designed ball and socket arrangement in which the lower torso/socket is connected to a natural gas source and periodically ignites and wiggles around thanks to gas pressure.
This issue is real study in contrasts: though the name of the fictional god is literally It’s a Lot of Hooey (in keeping with 1940s contempt for non-Christian or Classical religion), Captain Marvel actually seems to respect the cultural value of the site rather than just smashing it up like so many characters might. Meanwhile, the presence of natural gas means the probability of oil as well, but both Malcolm and Marvel advocate for leaving the area free from the hell of oil extraction, even if they do so in the most patronizing/patriarchal language possible.
God Style: Idol (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)
the Angry God:
The
Angry God, aka the Dark Spirit, is a near-forgotten entity whose last
remaining priest has thrown in with the villain Half-Man and his Hitler
stand-in boss the War Lord to lend mystical power to the armies of the
Axis forces. The Angry God requires not just human sacrifice but the
sacrifice of “great men,” which might go some way toward explaining his
low levels of worshipper-retention. Please also note the fun imp-swarm
that seems to accompany the worship of this particular god – they must
be very distracting.
The
Angry God’s status as a real entity and current diminished circumstances are
both illustrated in the fact that it animates its idol in an attempt Ibis the Invincible from killing its priest and then itself falls dead once it is deprived of that one last worshipper.
God Style: Real (Whiz Comics 023, 1941)
Balka:
Balka
is the guardian tiger spirit of the ruling line of the Asian country of
Balkania, and whether the country was named after the tiger or vice
versa is left unexplored in-text. What is made clear is that the
old legends about the statue of Balka coming to life to avenge the death
of murdered Balkanian monarch are absolutely true, as experienced by regicidal
dictator and fashion maven Carnov after he kills good King Banok.
Alas,
Carnov is not torn asunder by Balka but spared by rightful heir Kelo (aka the Jungle Prince) so
that he can face more conventional justice. Balka then returns to statue form to await the next threat to Balkania. (The Arrow 003,
1941)
Quetzalcoatl:
Jungleman
and his lover Louise Carson stumble upon a hidden Aztec city while
searching for Louise’s father. Jungleman is briefly worshipped as
Quetzalcoatl as per the legend about Hernán Cortés, while Louise is slated for sacrifice by a jealous high
priestess. They manage to extract themselves from this situation with minimal fuss, for a 1940s adventure comic, and even find Louise’s father just kind of hanging around the temple on their way out. (Champion Comics 012, 1941)
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