(Big 3 Comics 003, 1941) Dr Krako is a 1940s Blue Beetle villain, so he’s a (gang boss/ criminal scientist) attempting to (kill Blue Beetle and then take over the city/ take over the city if he has to kill Blue Beetle to do it). He also has the optional Dr Dodo Memorial Sidequest of trying to kill Joan Mason because she is somehow the only person to know what he looks like even though he is going by his…
It’s time for more mad and criminal scientists! Round ’em up! The fantastically-named Doctor Evecloud has a plan: shrink everyone else on the planet so that he, the only big person, will be in charge. As so often happens, one of his first guinea pigs is a super-hero, in this case the Shark. Things end poorly for Doctor Evecloud. (Amazing-Man Comics 016, 1940) This fellow is Dr Scowl and so far we’re sitting at 2/2 great scientist names. Dr Scowl…
(Big 3 002, 1940) De Structo (properly “Master-Mind” de Structo, but he’s only referred to in that way the once in-story) is a man with a dream, and that dream is to kill everyone in the US in a position of authority so that he can step in and take over society. To that end, he has his gang (grandiosely referred to as “Troopers”) distribute an “oxygen destroying ray” in vials (and here we’re going to have to assume that…
the Lone Warrior (and Dicky): The Lone Warrior and Dicky are Stan and Dicky Carter, son of the now-deceased “world’s greatest scientist” and recipients of his Power Elixir injections, leaving them generically physically enhanced and well-equipped to battle pseudo-Nazi forces seeking to wreck America’s military. Plus he made them a land/ air/ sea plane/tank called the Wonder Ship which is very useful. There is of course a knee-jerk impulse to snidely point out that a guy called the Lone Warrior…
(Big 3 002, 1940) Obviously the most remarkable thing about Porky Hogg is that he looks like a pig-man but more than that he is a pig-man who has a real gift for motivation and teambuilding. These gangsters are worked into a dang frenzy over the prospect of killing the Blue Beetle – I’m pretty sure they killed that guy in the third panel! – if Porky Hogg had the real Beetle on hand during this little rally they might…
(Big 3 001, 1940) There are a couple of interesting things about Dr Blood but I’ll be honest: it’s mostly the name. Great, over the top villain moniker, Dr Blood. Furthermore, Dr Blood runs a costumed gang called the Inner Crime Ring, which is not nearly as good a name as Dr Blood but still better than an unnamed collection of gangsters. What Dr Blood is a doctor of is hard to say. The Inner Crime Ring has access to…
(Big 3 001, 1940) Here’s the thing about Borgo: they call him the Mirror Murderer in the opening blurb and then never do so again, even though he kills several people using mirrors. It’s a good name and I’m sad that I can’t justify using it so I’ll keep this short. Borgo’s got one goal in life and that’s to kill the five scientific James Brothers, seemingly because one of them fired him for stealing radium. Is it rational to…
Who will rid me of these fascist goons? The Nordland Bund is another German-American Bund analog but operates as more of a traditional spy operation on behalf of Nazi Germany stand-in Prussland. Their moderately complicated plan to get explosive coal onto US ships leaving Bermuda is foiled by Secret Agent D-13 and his Canadian counterpart/ love interest Lorraine MacAlinn (Mystery Men Comics 019, 1941) Like the man’s feet say, the Hoops are a bunch of Nazis (proper Nazis – Fox…
King of Darkness: Radio engineer Bruce King develops the amazingly-named Black Zero Transmitter that selectively allows him to negate light and/or heat in its range of operation, plus an insulated costume and night-vision goggles so that he is immune to its effects. He ends up dealing with nosy reporters and spies inadvertently egged on by said nosy reporters and so adopts the alias of the King of Darkness. Probably the best thing about him is the fact that he will…
(Banner Comics 003, 1941) The Dictator’s Shadow is the “head of the fifth column in America” and the major villain of patriotic hero the Lone Warrior and his kid brother Dicky, in the vein of the Red Skull. A notable thing about him is that he is not explicitly a Nazi, which is both unusual for someone whose name is so evocative of Hitler as the capital-D Dictator of the day but also for a character appearing in Banner Comics,…