(Amazing-Man Comics 010-011, 1940) The Magician from Mars’ final foe is a two-issue affair, but the first one is a bit of a nothing story: a mysterious terror attack at an airport turns out to be the work of a villain named the Hood who has found a way to… play a loud sound into a glass ball and then use it as a grenade. It’s a weird contrivance even by sci-fi super-hero comic standards. In any case, the Magician…
The Foot Test For Guns: I sincerely can’t believe we’ve found another person trying the Foot Test For Guns, the worst of all ways to see if a gun is working. (Big Shot Comics 004, 1940) Kids Playing Super-Heroes: Jibby Jones is a pretty weak sauce comic strip (seen here in comic book reprint, natch) but dang if I’m not intrigued by this Moon Man character. (Big Shot Comics 005, 1940) Honours: Jeff Cardiff, Spy-Chief saves Washington DC from being…
(Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940) The Elemental! An extradimensional intruder who insinuates itself into the unspecified future world of hero the Magician from Mars via the music of unwitting dupe Bill Wend. Is this a future with wildly relaxed standards for professional music performance or has the musical director of Concert Hall also being influenced by the Elemental? This question will go unanswered, alas. Having achieved its goal of entering our reality, the Elemental feeds not only on the crowd’s fear…
(Mystic Comics v1 004, 1940) Professor Monte is the type of criminal scientist that I want to see in more comics: he has an idea (develop a gold-attracting magnet and use it to steal gold), he secures funding from crooked businessman Prentiss, he tests his device with a series of jewelry store robberies before scaling up to using the big dirigible-mounted model… he has a plan, in other words, rather than a vague idea of how they’re going to take…
(Mystic Comics v1 003) Every long running super-hero universe is going to acquire some Herculeses and the Marvel Universe might just have the most of all – I counted an even dozen just now and I’m sure there are more that aren’t properly documented on the fan wikis – the DCU doesn’t come close even if you count reboots of the same characters. Why? Not sure! This Hercules is the son of one Dr David, raised on Snow Island in…
(Mystic Comics v1 004, 1940) The Trustees of Hate are a group of villains operating at least nominally along corporate lines, with strategy meetings, what appears to be a board of directors etc. Because their headquarters is in the evocatively named Horror Hall, on the border of the fictional European countries of Borsia and Gratzia, the Blue Blaze is given a new power especially so that he can go beat them up: he returns to his grave between cases and…
(Mystic Comics v1 003, 1940) The Hood is a dude in a sheet ghost costume who is seemingly the head of an extortion gang targeting bankers and ruthlessly killing any who defy him. And perhaps you’ve noted that “seemingly” and are wondering what it could mean. Well, This ruthless banker-murderer… is actually a banker! He’s Willard Thomas and his extortion scheme was a front for a murder scheme that would have left him, the last banker standing, holding the keys…
(Mystic Comics v1 003, 1940) Just a gang boss running an arson scheme, but a particularly ruthless one with a particularly great name. Having a cool name doesn’t help you when a couple of brothers rock up with their super-powered rubber robot. Still, the Iron Duke! What a name!
(Mystic Comics v1 003, 1940) It must be something of a point of pride for a super-hero to get to the point where they are effective enough that super-villains are being hired specifically to get rid of them, and that’s where the Star-Gazer comes in. A criminal astronomer and/or astrologer, the Star-Gazer is approached by crimelord Dr Gair to get rid of the pesky Blue Blaze. In fact, not only has the Blue Blaze reached “super-villain contract hit” levels, he…
(Big 3 004, 1941) In a change of pace from the usual heaping of honours on the various costumed do-gooders of comics we have here the Flame giving out an award called the “Flame Badge of Merit” to someone who helped out on a case. A fun twist!