MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 492: THE BLUE DEATH KILLER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 492: THE BLUE DEATH KILLER

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(Big Shot Comics 006, 1940) Someone is killing old policemen! And furthermore, they’re doing it in such a way that their skin is tinted blue as they die! Unsurprisingly, this ends up being called the Blue Death. But Who is administering it, and why? It’s a short story, so we find out pretty quickly that the culprit is one Doctor Swanson and he’s getting revenge on the eight police officers who arrested him twenty-three years earlier, using special arsenic/ phosphorous/…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 491: THE WEASEL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 491: THE WEASEL

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(Big Shot Comics 001, 1940) Just a simple head of a gang that specializes in stealing furs (and I would call that over-specialized but we’re just a couple of years off from wartime rationing and with it gangs that specialize in meat, tires and scrap metal theft) but he has a number of super-villainous aspects: -the biggest one has to go first and it’s that he has the chutzpah to track a police informant through the streets of New York…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 490: THE HOOK

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 490: THE HOOK

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(Big Shot Comics 003, 1940) Is a hook hand the most basic gimmick that automatically flips a gang boss over to being a super-villain in my mind? We don’t have enough data to call it yet but all signs point to Probably.  This Hook is Hook Horner and there’s not too much to say about him: he kidnaps a young woman sometime between the death of someone she is set to inherit millions from but before she herself knows about…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 489: THE GOLDMASTER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 489: THE GOLDMASTER

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(Big Shot Comics 002, 1940)  The Goldmaster is one of my very favourite subtypes of super-villain: the guy who really leans into the bit. Specifically, he is a fellow who has discovered the secret of making gold and subsequently adopted all of the trappings of a Medieval alchemist. Or possibly he was a guy who was really into the alchemy lifestyle who made the luckiest find ever. Either way, he doesn’t have to live like this! It’s a choice! No…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 005

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 005

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All Columbia Comic Corporation edition! Skyman:  Skyman (properly the Skyman but it just doesn’t scan for me) is a pilot hero, normally a ho-hum sort of character for me. But between his sci-fi super plane (the Wing), his blood-freezing stun ray (the Stasimatic) and his cool on-the-edge-of-being-too-busy costume there’s just enough super-hero peanut butter mixed in with the pilot chocolate to make it appealing (bonus running list of Skyman’s super science: atomic explosives, invisible glass phonograph, disitegrator ray, explosives-detonating ray…

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NOTES – APRIL 2024

NOTES – APRIL 2024

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Nazi Superweapon: There’s nothing terribly special about this giant dirigible that the Phantom Sub encounters after it starts to fly as well as submerge, but I do appreciate a dirigible that can not only camouflage itself as a stormcloud but has a proper old-school lightning cannon mounted underneath. And is filled with hydrogen, nuch to its later detriment. (Blue Bolt v2 007, 1941) Honours: Corporal Collins, Infantryman earns the French Croix de Guerre. (Blue Ribbon Comics 002, 1939) Rang-a-Tang the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 488: THE RED SIGNET

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 488: THE RED SIGNET

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(Big Shot Comics 001, 1940) The Red Signet is a seemingly unaligned spy chief who has the misfortune of being the antagonist in the very first adventure of pilot super-hero Skyman and so gets just completely owned. Like, “captured within ten minutes of this panel in which he learns that Skyman might be on to him” owned. He does have a really excellent name, at least. BONUS TROPHY ROOM: Skyman nicks the Red Signet’s red signet at the end of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 487: THE EEL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 487: THE EEL

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(Big 3 006, 1941)  Our story opens with Samson investigating a series of mysterious deaths and ship disappearances in naval yards across the country. Cut to beloved Samson supporting character J. Rembrandt Speedball hilariously painting camouflage on a Navy cruiser. He is briefly distracted by horniness, and when he manages to get ahold of himself *pow*, the ship has vanished. Speedball is arrested as a spy and spends the rest of the issue failing to commit suicide in his cell…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 486: THE MONSTER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 486: THE MONSTER

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(Big 3 006, 1941) The Monster, while an imposing figure engaged in some extremely villainous and questionable activities – kidnapping wealthy young women from some sort of summer camp – ultimately fails to satisfy. And here is exactly why: this is the kind of story that benefits from a bit of mystery: a red herring or two; a few suspects – but this George Benson guy not only is the singular suspect but has spent twenty-plus years saying things like…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 485: THE CONDOR

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 485: THE CONDOR

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(Big 3 005-006, 1941) As far as super-villains go, the Condor is a simple concept: the modern pirate. But the modern pirate is a classic character type! Murder on the high seas! Sneering braggadocio! Calling people swabs! And the Condor himself fits the role to a T. It doesn’t hurt that he’s such a well-designed character: who knew that a guy in a black suit would look so good as a pirate with the simple addition of a cape and…

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