MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 994: AKINA

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 994: AKINA

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(Jungle Comics 015, 1941) Akina is the hereditary ruler of the African kingdom of Lomar, and as such she has just inherited the mystical Stone of Hanniban. As a newly invested magical being, she falls into the very common trap of deciding that she must be the very best and most powerful of all magic users right away, and immediately sets out to prove herself by challenging Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle to a death duel. This goes poorly. Tabu defeats the inexperienced Akina…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 028

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 028

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Mostly a case of the Usual Suspects today here in the Real Person Round-Up, I’m afraid. Adolf Hitler: The bulk of the comic this panel comes from is MIA as far as people without hundreds of dollars of Buy Golden Age Comics money are concerned, and this is the only real look we get of this slightly off-brand Hitler and Goering. I might not have bothered to include them here devoid of other context except for… … the splash page…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 993: ZOMAX

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 993: ZOMAX

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(Jungle Comics 014, 1941) Zomax, the “demonized marine scientist,” has a very over-the-top, Fletcher Hanks villain goal: to kill every animal in the jungle. And he isn’t afraid to say it. I won’t say that Zomax has a good reason for wanting to destroy all jungle life, but he does have some justification, stemming from a big game hunt he went on that involved, in order: 1. being mauled by a fatally wounded lion. Once the lion died, Zomax wandered away, only…

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MEDIA IN COMICS 011

MEDIA IN COMICS 011

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I’ve heard of comics in the media, but media in comics? Books: This book is only our second example of a piece of media called Crime Does Not Pay! but I am confident in predicting that that particular phrase – the regular shouting of which appears to be the major means by which people in the 1940s discouraged children from adopting a life outside the law – is going to be the one we see the most as time goes on….

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 992: THE VAHINES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 992: THE VAHINES

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(Jungle Comics 013, 1941) The Vahines, aka the Tiger-Women of Wildmoon Mountain, have a plan: kill every other woman in the world, which will then give them ultimate power over all men. Some thoughts on this setup: 1. The logistics of this plan are trash. There are maybe 15 to 20 Vahines total and estimates put world population at around 2.3 billion in 1940, so murdering half of those people will be a full-time job that will probably take the…

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FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 015

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 015

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If there’s one thing I know it’s that the world has a seemingly-inexhaustible supply of odious little fascist worms. the All-American League: The All-American League is nothing so exciting as your Nazi spies trying to poison the reservoir or prevent and/or encourage the US entrance into WWII. Instead, they are the more banal type of fascism that is popular nowadays, in which patriotism is weaponized as a way to enrich and empower a few petty men (yes, yes that’s what…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 991: ZIRA

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 991: ZIRA

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(Jungle Comics 013, 1941) While searching for her champion Sir Champion (annoying thing to have to write and the main reason I’m happy that he eventually fades into obscurity), who has failed to return from a hunt, Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire is confronted by the ghostly vision of a blonde lady who rules an ancient lost castle. This is just a kind of person you get in the undefined part of Africa that houses the Lost Empire. The…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 027

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 027

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A series of cautionary tales for budding young scientists. Orid Dass: Orid Dass is your standard jungle scientist: he’s out there making apes into men and men into apes, all for the love of the ape-man game. He also has the distinction of being the only foe faced by Fantomah the one post-Fletcher Hanks adventure in which she is still kind of a jungle demigod rather than a jungle hero who knows some magic. In that capacity, Fantomah does a…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 101

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 101

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It’s a big year for the jungle-based heroes of Fiction House, and also Radior is here. Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire **UPDATE**: 1941 is the year of change for Camilla. First off, she faces a series of threats to the Lost Empire itself, beginning when an evil magician nearly conquers and partially razes the city. (Jungle Comics 014, 1941) Next issue, the otherwise-unremarkable lech Prince Renardo finishes the job and burns the city to the ground as part of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 990: THE EMPEROR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 990: THE EMPEROR

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(Bill Barnes, America’s Air Ace Comics 003, 1941) The first chunk of the story that the Emperor appears in is not available anywhere that I can find, but what remains is enough to evaluate him and determine that yes, he is a super-villain. Specifically, he is a scientist who discovered “the secret of atomic power” and decided that the best way to use it was as part of an attempt to conquer the world. Plus he has all of his…

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