(Science Comics 004, 1940) Cosmic Carson is a fairly generic space hero whose main distinction up to this point was that each issue he fought a different kind of alien with a cool species name (from Science Comics 001 and going forward: the Fang-Men of Jupiter, the Skull-Men and the Hoof-Men), but other than that he wasn’t really of interest to us on this here blog. Until now, that is, because Science Comics 004 features a Cosmic Carson adventure illustrated…
(Science Comics 003, 1940) Flashback to my times in the Fiction House content-recycling mines of Planet Comics! What we have here is a Dr Doom story nestled snugly into an issue of Science Comics just where Dr Doom stories always go, but it’s not the right Dr Doom! Was this a story about a different science villain that was renamed to fit the space, or did “Richard Crater” (Dick Briefer, possibly) just kind of freestyle a fill-in gig and go…
(Science Comics 003, 1940) Dynamo has been stirring up trouble in the Unspecified City underworld. He’s captured Rats Rako and a significant portion of his gang and now Rats’ lieutenant Gun Ramey must figure out just how to deal with a superhuman do-gooder. It’s lucky for him that Unspecified City has a resident criminal scientist, the Genius (ignore the fact that they’re calling him Electro, this is from his first adventure before he changes it). I’ll be honest, my first…
(Science Comics 001, 1940) Dr Doom, another super-villain with his own series (I swear that they’re rare over all but 1940 sure is a fertile year for them), lives in an unspecified future and is your classic mad science polymath, as demonstrated by his various schemes: In his very first outing, Dr Doom decides to do some extreme testing of his latest formula and uses it to shrink Jan and Wanda, two otherwise-nondescript youths who just happen to also be…
The hits flops just keep coming. This gang doesn’t bother to give themself a proper name even though their scheme is extremely big and loud: they have access to a magnetic ray device and have employed it to pull down multiple large buildings in scenic Midtown City, thus killing between one and four thousand people (a printing error obscures the exact number), all so that their demands for protection money from the owners of other buildings will be paid without…
(Science Comics 001, 1940) The Purple Gang, a bunch of guys in a gang who all wear purple suits and are getting up to no end of crime in whatever skyline-heavy city the Eagle calls home New York City, are a perfect opponent for a super-hero’s first adventure: organized enough to pose a challenge but not so tough that thy can’t really be stunted on to show how cool the Eagle is. They also quite noticeably do not all have…
Second- and third-tier Fox Features heroes: ACTIVATE Dynamo: Jim Andrews is an electrical scientist who heroically risks his own life by using his own body as a conductor to prevent some crazy bit of machinery from blowing the whole laboratory he works at to high heaven. And since he lives in a comic book world, the reward for his bravery is some super powers! He can now emit electricity, create an electrical forcefield, kind of fly by throwing a lightning…
(Samson 001, 1940) Mask here has a fairly ordinary set of plans and goals, for Masked Criminal levels of ordinary. His associate Dr Dag has developed a super-germ and his other associate Ko has control of a death cult, and he is going to use the latter to deliver the former to a number of nearby cities as revenge for tossing him out on his ear. Plus he’s going to loot once the cities are cleared out by disease, but…
(Rocket Comics 003, 1940) The Phantom Ranger is just minding his business one day when he receives a sternly-worded letter via throwing knife, warning him to “steer clear of the red-headed girl.” This is of course your classic case of warning the hero off before he has a dang clue what’s going on. Everything is okay though, because the young woman who shortly rides up and requests the Ranger’s help has blonde hair. The “red-headed girl” must be seeking aid…
More cream rises from the milky depths of the Golden Age! Red Roberts, the Electro Man: It’s unclear what Red Roberts’ actual job is, but he is a guy who Knows Too Much about the corruption in the unnamed city he lives in and so he is framed for murder and fast-tracked to the electric chair. Luckily for Roberts, this is a comic book universe and being an innocent person sentenced to be executed via the electric chair means that…