(Mystic Comics v1 002, 1940) Barko is a mere extortionist who has blown up one mineshaft already and is heavily implying that another can be blown up if the mining concern doesn’t see clear to paying him off. Beyond that he is remarkable mostly for how seriously and thoroughly he responds to the appearance of the Blue Blaze on the scene: Boulder. Sniper rifle. Attack dogs. And finally dual-wielded freeze ray guns. All of this during the Blue Blaze’s short…
(Mystic Comics v1 002, 1940) Scourge of the year 2300, the Black Hawk and his Mercurian space pirates loot the spaceways of radioactive plinium in a bid to take over the entire Solar System. He’s also a pretty bad father, a fact that comes back to bite him (fatally) when his daughter Alyse teams up with the Space Rangers to take him down. Kids, amirite?
(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1940) King Bascom, the first foe faced by Dynamic Man, is nothing more than a grubby little capitalist pig. I almost forgot to write him and his land-grab scheme up due to disinterest. Trouble is, while King Bascom is utterly uninteresting he is cocooned in a dense shell of interesting things: his land grab is aided by a drought that he himself is causing using a rain-prevention machine, he has anti-Dymanic Man weaponry and a deathtrap…
(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1940) The Devil of the Deep AKA the Deep Sea Demon AKA the Water Ghost, like the Sea-Devil before him, is a fellow who dresses up in a modified diving suit in order to scare pearl divers away from a particular oyster bed. Unlike the Sea-Devil, the Devil of the Deep costume is quite elaborate and convincing – you can’t, for example, clearly see the breathing apparatus strapped to his back. He’s also gone for a…
(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1940) The Green Terror gets off on the right foot with me, let me tell you. Sure he’s a mysterious figure who sends goons out to kidnap healthy young New Yorkers for unknown but surely sinister purposes, but those goons are dressed in green costumes and drive around in a green car with a green smokescreen and if there’s one thing I love, my friend, it’s a villain who sticks to a theme. The Green Terror…
(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1940) Spencer Keen AKA the Blue Blaze is an interesting character. His origin for example has a couple of classic elements that were not yet classic at the time because it was 1940. Or rather it was 1852 because Spencer Keen is from the Past. Costume: like Barbara Gordon twenty-odd years later, the reason that the Blue Blaze has a super-suit ready to go is that he was on the way to a costume party when…
(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1941) Professor Maluski is the first foe faced by the Blue Blaze after his hibernative period and while he has a lot of cool stuff (huge underground base full of crazy machines, gangster henchmen, a weird gem that flies under its own power and drags its target along in a tractor beam, etc) the real reason that he is getting his own entry rather than being tossed in the next Mad Science Round-Up is the same…
(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1940) It’s Flexo the Rubber Man! A rubber robot filled with some sort of gas created and remote controlled by scientist brothers Joel and Joshua Williams! Flexo can make huge gas-filled jumps and bound across the cityscape! Flexo can stretch! Flexo can squeeze through tight spaces and absorb small arms fire without harm! He can also expel his gas to subdue his foes! Truly Flexo is a marvel of the age! Flexo is also the recipient…
More mad science than criminal science or vice versa? You be the judge! This guy, who seems to be neither bald nor ironically hairy enough for his name of Baldy Fluger to make sense, has a hypnotic ray and a plan: to use that hypnotic ray for crime. The Green Mask and Domino the Miracle Boy have something to say about that. (Mystery Men Comics 021, 1941) If there was any more to these three (respectively named Boris, Oscar and…
(Mystery Men Comics 029, 1941) Really very strong showing from the Death Master in the splash panel, with artist Louis Cazenueve (as Lester Raye) doing some great Kirby-esque monster-man work on the man himself. And the story version of the character almost measures up! The Death Master is head of a counterfeiting gang who completely buys into his own hype – he’s a sneering, gloating villain of the type I love. But why is the Death Master called that? Why,…