SUPER-VILLAIN 002 UPDATE: CAPTAIN NAZI (1941)

SUPER-VILLAIN 002 UPDATE: CAPTAIN NAZI (1941)

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Our second full-fledged super-villain is the odious Captain Nazi, and he had a short but busy run in 1941: After being deployed by Adolf Hitler himself as a foil to the threat of the American super-hero, Captain Nazi makes a very public appearance in Times Square in order to issue a challenge to Bulletman. This also attracts the attention of Captain Marvel, leading to the second Fawcett Comics character meetup of 1941 as they decide to team up and kick his…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 911: RAMESES

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 911: RAMESES

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(Whiz Comics 025, 1941) We open in Egypt, where a group of partisans led by a fellow with the unlikely name of “Girbo, the Mad Mullah”* are brainstorming ways in which they might expel both the Germans and the British from their country, and Girbo has an innovative solution: he has procured the mummy of the Pharaoh Rameses, along with a vial of mummy-resurrection juice, and is going to bring the ancient king back to life to lead them. And it works!…

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SUPER-VILLAIN FILE 002: CAPTAIN NAZI

SUPER-VILLAIN FILE 002: CAPTAIN NAZI

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(Master Comics 021, 1941) Our very second full-fledged super-villain is Captain Nazi, a fellow who I would be tempted to shelve under Minor status if it weren’t for the fact that he just keeps on showing up to this very day (or three years ago, at least). Most of the time he’s just padding out a crowd scene and/or acting as a target for some super-hero to really beat the tar out of, but any way you shake it just…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 910: HERR GLOOBELS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 910: HERR GLOOBELS

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(Whiz Comics 024, 1941) Herr Gloobels is a mysterious and somewhat gruesome figure who murders a motorcycle messenger in order to get ahold of some troop transport schedules and then murders a second one to get them again after Spy Smasher recovers them from the first theft. He does all of this using his Tornado Gun, a device that seems to be a ray gun but which actually fires beams of compressed air that can sink a ship as easily as perforate…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 034

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 034

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Since we’re currently reading Whiz Comics for 1941, it’s time yet again for another load of unscrupulous people to get their hands on the Ibistick and then kill themselves with it. And here they are: the Widow Zorn: Ibis lends the Ibistick to old Professor Grubb  for scientific study after Grubb finds it outside of an exploded building and uses its magic to restore the building and everyone inside – which included both Ibis and Taia, along with their their young ward…

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SUPER-HERO 001 UPDATE: CAPTAIN MARVEL (1941)

SUPER-HERO 001 UPDATE: CAPTAIN MARVEL (1941)

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Just a few notes on developments in the character of Captain Marvel in 1941:  In Whiz Comics 014, Captain Marvel contends with a Dr Sivana who has worked out a mathematical formula for passing through solid matter, and thanks to the Wisdom of Solomon is able to replicate this feat. Even more remarkably this power turns up again in Whiz Comics 016 after Captain Marvel is sealed up in a pit by Smasher Spy. It’s virtually unprecedented to see something like this crop up…

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MEMES OF YORE: GE-SPEAK

MEMES OF YORE: GE-SPEAK

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Here’s an obscure one that I have only encountered in early Golden Age comics: the German or pseudo-German accent that includes a prominent use of the prefix “ge-” as a word modifier, in the same way that a bad French accent might append “la” or a bad Russian accent might add “-ski” to the end of words. How widespread was this? Did it exist outside of comics? No clue. How widespread was it within comics? That we can attempt to solve by…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 909: THE SPIDER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 909: THE SPIDER

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(Whiz Comics 022, 1941) In what turns out to be Dan Dare’s final recorded case, he is asked to protect a man named Dr Phoebus Weber from being murdered by a mysterious figure known only as the Spider. Upon entering Weber’s home, Dan and Carol are almost immediately attacked by the Spider, who I have to give partial credit to for the costume. Sure it appears to have a more beetle-like body plan and the head of a mosquito, but…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 026

DIVINE ROUND-UP 026

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I’ve finally caught up on my god backlog so these are all piping fresh deities for you to peruse. Itzalotahui: On an expedition to Guatemala to locate their missing friend John Malcolm, Billy Batson and Whitey Murphy make camp in the lost temple of the monkey god Itzalotahui and are awoken from their slumber by the god himself, flaming and steaming and flailing about. After an initial panic and an in-retrospect-embarassing fistfight, Captain Marvel discovers the truth: Itzalotahui is not…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 908: THE RATTLER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 908: THE RATTLER

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(Whiz Comics 022, 1941) As we join the action, a passing stranger informs us and also Golden Arrow that the Rattler has broken jail! And he’s handing out calling cards!  Turns out that the Rattler, notorious outlaw of the West, is out to get the men who served on the jury at his trial (and, we must assume, the judge and prosecutor as well), and he’s being impressively proactive about it: the above scene takes place the morning after he breaks jail…

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