THAT’S RIGHT, WE MOVED TO OUR OWN WEBBED SITE
There’s still a lot of stuff to do, but regular posting should resume in a day or so.
SUPER-VILLAIN 003 UPDATE: NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER 1940
When we last saw Namor the Sub-Mariner he had decided to renounce his vow to war upon the surface and instead be a good guy, and the State of New York had reasonably responded with, “Okay, but what about the people you killed while you were a bad guy?” and then Namor essentially just nodded and said, “Exactly. I was a bad guy and now I’m a good guy so it’s all cool.” and then they put him on trial…
MEDIA IN COMICS 016
Production on these Media in Comics showcases must sadly slow down now, for I have worked my way through my backlog. As evidence of this, today we are showcasing some magical books, which are genrally unique items that fall under nobody’s definition of mass media but which I want to include anyway, for fun’s sake. Books of Magic: You all remember the fabled Black Book of Sorcery that the wicked Egyptologist Ford committed all those murders for, well here it…
PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 009
It it the nature of comic books that we will always be doing Problematic Updates. Dr Finkle: Dr Finkle himself is nothing special: he’s a psuedo-Nazi teamed up with the pseudo-Japanese Matsui in a scheme to steal securities belonging to Axis-conquered countries that are held in America. The real issue lies with Finkle’s primary agents, who you may notice being referred to as “Indian Monsters” in the final panel above. These “Indian Monsters” are straight out of something like Bone…
ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 057
Can you tell that I’ve hit the “M” portion of my aliens spreadsheet Martians: These very humanoid Martians have a whole series of problems: 1. some heavenly object is due to smash into their planet 2. they are bad at science 3. when they turned to Earth to look for help with their problem the only person they could get to help them was this jerk named Ritton, who intends to cash in his Mars favour for help in taking…
MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 028
These guys use science for crime and evil, for which we excoriate them, but they also make entertaining villains, for which we celebrate them. Dr Stone: Dr Elijah Stone has a calling and it is in creating and disseminating deadly plagues upon mankind. This, however, is the kind of passion that society frowns upon and Stone is locked away in the State Mental Hospital. Unfortunately for mankind, the State Mental Hospital seems to be one of those places that contracts…
MONSTER, CRITTER AND CREATURE ROUND-UP 005
You won’t catch me not having a whole lot of monsters to show you. the Elipticoon: True to his name, the wicked Sophus, the Mad Philosopher engages in a slightly more abstract version of villainy in which he traps people in a pan-dimensional maze and delights in their despair (okay, this is pretty standard villainy, I’ll admit it. I just like the name). A major feature of this maze is the Hall of the Elipticoon, which houses its namesake, a…
SUPER-HERO 006 UPDATE: THE ANGEL 1940
The Angel is a wandering vigilante, which in turn is a type of super-hero that generates very little new information for these update posts, given that they typically have very little in the way of a supporting cast or everyday life. Even so, we have a couple of Angel developments for 1940. First off, the Angel’s secret identity is revealed to be Tom Hallaway – though the accepted spelling is now Halloway – as a consequence of not wearing a…
ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 056
Aliens are just like us if you think about it, man. Atlanteans: First things first: these are not actually Atlanteans, at least not yet. As far as I can tell, the word “Atlantis” is not employed in any Namor appearance from 1939-1941, and his people are collectively referred to as “Sub-Mariners” just like their prince. We are left with one of our signature Vexing Conundrums: just when do the Sub-Mariners become Atlanteans? Will we find out before we learn the…
SUPER-HERO 007 UPDATE: NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER 1940
He’s back and newly benevolent after a five-minute speech from Betty Dean, so what does he do now? Marvel Mystery Comics v1 005 sees Namor beg off of his eternal war on the surface (and the attitude that Emperor Thakorr gives off really implies that this was less of an Atlantean thing than a side project or Namor and his mother’s). He then heads off the New York City to offer his services to humanit, and is immediately swarmed and…