(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 014, 1940) We open on our poor Werewolf as he approaches the great occultist (but apparent werewolf-skeptic) Dr Martin Keller in search of a potential cure for his affliction. This is the werewolf-as-victim, as someone just as much at the mercy of his bestial alter ego as those he kills. Should I even place him in the category of super-villain? The answer, I think, is yes, if only because anyone so careless as to come into…
(Lightning Comics v2 001, 1941) Lash Lightning, while aimlessly flying around the countryside at night, encounters a footsore scientist named Amy Lane. Turns out that her castle (!) has been stolen by a man named Mastermind and that she has been walking for several hours in an attempt to get help. In a move that always seems kind of rude to me, Lightning immediately flies her all the way back to the castle to investigate. The mysterious Mastermind is no longer present…
Number 1000!!* (Lightning Comics v1 005, 1941) The Old Man of the Pyramids summons (F)lash Lightning to his thundercloud lair to warn him about trouble at Midton College, and he is right, as can only be expected of a wise old oracular father figure. This particular trouble is called Professor Vatz and is a professor of chemistry who is ready to give up academia for the heady world of supercrime. Vatz’s new career is founded on two inventions: his “Hotlight,”…
(Lightning Comics v1 005, 1941) We meet Fang Ryan after he grabs a payroll from the recently-deceased messenger who was in the process of delivering it. He then escapes despite the fact that Police Detective Danny “the Raven” Dartin is on the scene to engage him in thrilling gunplay, but drops his signature weapon, a stick with a couple of snake fangs on one end. It’s a neat gimmick: the stick has a reservoir full of poison inside of it,…