(Wow Comics 004, 1941) The Hummer, “the deadliest killer on Earth” has just gotten out of jail and is out for revenge on those responsible for sending him away in the first place, starting with Taylor, the prosecutor. Like so many of his peers in the murder community, the Hummer has an affectation: he hums while he kills, and also while preparing to kill and after he kills. He hums all the time. It’s a bit of a liability, to…
(Wow Comics 004, 1941) Mr Hyde is introduced to the reader as a homicidal maniac who murders future Mr Scarlet sidekick Pinky’s mother one night for unclear reasons. He just bursts in and kills her and there is not even attempt to justify it. In fact… I’m not 100% certain that Pinky actually knows that Mr Hyde is the killer. Pinky is relocated to Oaklawn Orphanage, under the care of director Dr Jelke, who we as savvy readers immediately recognize…
(Wow Comics 003, 1941) The Laughing Skull specializes in extortion. They call it blackmail and it is kind of framed as being blackmail but over the course of the story it becomes clear that he has no concrete dirt on any of his victims and is just counting on carrying the day with vague threats and eventually by being able to point to all the people who he killed for not paying him. Straight-up threats-of-violence extortion, in other words. To…
(Wow Comics 003, 1940) The circus is in town! And in what must be a complete coincidence, a circus-themed villain murders a prominent banker using a python! And did I mention that the circus has a big box full of pythons as one of its attractions? As someone who sincerely enjoys clown- and circus-themed villains despite having no particular affection for either in real life I have to say: do a bit better, the Black Clown. Like, try a bit…
Nova Scotia: As I always have to note when Nova Scotia pops up in a comic book: here’s Captain Aero taking in the sights on the featureless green plain that is the Halifax Airfield. (Captain Aero Comics 001, 1941) the Looming Spectre of War: Less popular than our old friend the Looming Spectre of Death, the Looming Spectre of War nonetheless deserves recognition as a potent allegorical image. (Cat-Man Comics 002, 1941) And speaking of the Looming Spectre of Death,…
(Wow Comics 003, 1941) Inventor Phineas Cox has created a mummy ray, which is a device that fires a beam that instantly mummifies living tissue, a horrible thing that could only be used ethically by the mortuary and possibly the jerky industries. Cox intends for the weapon to be used in the defense of the United States, and to that end takes it not to the military but to something called the Defend America League, where he is somewhat predictably…
(Wow Comics 002, 1940) The Scorpion is mostly a regular gang boss, but with just enough extra oomph to take him over the edge into super-villainy. First thing: he is a very Bad Boss in that particular “execute under-performing employees as an example to the others” kind of way that all corporate overlords wish that HR would let them be. Secondly, he is perhaps the closest thing to a super-villain was faced by Allan Lanier, aka the Hunchback, seen here in his civilian guise…
(Wow Comics 002, 1941) Once Atom Blake, Boy Wizard sets off on his interplanetary search for his father, his first stop is Mercury. Why? For no stated reason and seemingly just because it’s the first planet out from the Sun, and for that matter, Blake’s reason for starting his search in space rather than on Earth is simply because he can. Once he arrives on Mercury, he is almost immediately captured by an intelligent species of hive-dwelling insectoids. These Mercurians…
Something for everyone* in this one. *not really. Zambini the Miracle Man: Zambini the Miracle Man, aka Zambini the Great, is your fairly typical comic book magic man, albeit a bit more flamboyantly dressed than even that crowd normally are. Though Zambini has a lot of the regular magic abilities of his peer group his signature trick involves his magical Boomerang Amulet, which causes evil to rebound on its sender. This takes forms as diverse as a cobra returning to…
(Wow Comics 002, 1941) If a comic story opens on a description of a gem or art object like the Maharajah Jewel here the you can be sure that that item is about to be stolen by a nefarious individual. It’s just science! Sure enough, no sooner does Professor Cadiz finish his lecture on the gem and its provenance than rictus grin-sporting gang boss the Horned Hood is sending two of his top men into the Upstate Museum to grab…