MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 643: THE MASTER

(Fight Comics 003, 1940)

Kinks Mason is back on the case! And just what sub-oceanic mystery is he attempting to solve by just wandering around underwater? Why, it's Just Where is All the Salt Going? And somewhat astonishingly, he figures it out almost immediately: it's going into this building.

The building turns out to belong to a race of ocean-dwelling humanoids referred to only as the Amphibians, though I can't imagine that that's what they call themselves. I kind of appreciate how generic their design is, like a greatest hits of underwater humanoid features with the single eye added on for flair.

The Amphibians are ruled by the Master, who similarly is a fairly generic comic book undersea ruler villain: he and his people have developed some cool offensive technology and are now out to conquer the surface world. The most intriguing thing about this whole setup is just what all the salt is for - I kept hoping that everything would be powered by a big glowing salt crystal but no such luck. 

(Also the Amphibians refer to their tech as a "poison ray" but later it seems to be a generic ray gun, and while I of course appreciate an evocative name I would much prefer to see a ray gun - preferably salt-powered -  poison a guy)

Kinks Mason is of course not going to stand for this sort of nonsense and so for the second time in as many issues he possibly wipes out an intelligent underwater species, this time using stray torpedoes from all of the partially-destroyed submarines littering the seafloor around the Amphibians' base. Do adventure heroes ever have crises of conscience about this kind of thing?

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

Science class was never like this.

Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough "noxio gas" to flood the NYC of the I-think-it's-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940)

This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he's introduced while sitting in a tennis judge's chair for no stated reason. He lives in an inactive volcano, probably in Africa, and is developing a horrible poison dust that he has used to destroy the neighbouring village - it's probably a good thing that Captain Kidd melts him. (Fantastic Comics 008, 1940)

Dr Loy here has created an army of chemical androids that he controls and aims to take over the world with. Two problems: the Fantom of the Fair is on the case and Dr Loy's androids dissolve in water. Loy is quickly arrested. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 002, 1940)

Chung Hang has a simple dream: wait until the world is exhausted by WWII and then take over using his mind control ray. And he might just get there some day, because Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron just punches him out and leaves once he and his pals have escaped Chung Hang's science dungeons. (Fight Comics 002, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 642: QUEEN OF THE WEED PEOPLE

(Fight Comics 002, 1940)

After spending so long with Sub Saunders in the far-off year 10 000 it's a bit strange to detail an undersea menace that he isn't battling but here we are and our focus is present-day adventurer Kinks Mason, who sets out with nothing but a helmet that extracts oxygen from seawater to solve the mystery of just where all these missing ships have been getting to and ends up discovering an underwater civilization of seaweed people.

(I really like the Weed People, as they are referred to in the text a couple of times - their krinkly kelp frond aesthetic is very pleasing to me. It's quite different from the look of Kozar's Sea-Weed Men but I enjoy them in a similar fashion. Just something about humanoids made of seaweed, I guess)

Weed Person society is dependent on a giant whirlpool-powered chlorophyll manufacturing plant. Just where this infrastructure came from and how the Weed People existed without it is not elaborated upon - did their primitive ancestors subsist on naturally occurring chlorophyll or spend their days basking in the sun photosynthesizing and then completely abandon that lifestyle once some unnamed Weed Person genius created the machine? Plausibly!

Chlorophyll isn't just the Weed Person staff of life, however. It also turns humans into Weed Creatures, which, though they look and are named similar to the Weed People are in fact distinct and who serve as slaves of the Weed People in their bid to take over the world.

The Weed People and their Queen have made the crucial mistake of not being genre savvy enough to know that any lone adventurer, particularly one with an action hero-y name like Kinks Mason, should be killed immediately and they end up dead for their trouble. Specifically, Kinks goes ahead and blows up the chlorophyll machine, dooming all Weed People society to extinction. Hopefully there's some hipster Weed Person subculture on the fringes of society still harvesting chlorophyll in the ancient ways because it tastes better, if only for the sake of Kinks Mason's conscience.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 641: ONE-EYE

(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940) 

One-Eye is a stylish fellow with a real bone to pick with humankind, who have apparently rejected him for the heinous sin of Having Only One Eye, I guess? Unless having a widow's peak and a long waxed mustache are considered disfigurements? I suppose that cultural mores do change over time and it is 8000 years in the future... in any case, the point is that he's upset at the world and has decided to kill humanity off.

To that end, One-Eye has gathered together a collection of generic mutants, all of whom are more interesting looking than him (and one of whom appears to be wearing some shockingly high-cut booty shorts).

Among these recruits is this "giant devil-octopus" which a) has six arms, b) appears to be made of human skin and c) is the most unsettling thing I've seen in a comic in a long time.

By contrast Kuga the man-eating giant cat is a walk in the park, a beauty to behold! Plus it is stuck in a too-small room so that One-Eye can drop people down a trap door in his office and have them slide directly into its mouth. Barely threatening at all!

Ultimately Sub Saunders beats up the mutants, blows up One-Eye's undersea base and hands him over to the authorities.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 640: YEW BEE

(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940)

Yew Bee! A scientist/fifth columnist working for an unnamed nation to soften the US up for invasion! A pretty common type of guy in Golden Age comics if I'm honest, and I might have passed him by if he weren't a Stardust the Super Wizard villain. Even the most rote Fletcher Hanks creations have at least a couple of interesting things about them.

The first thing is obviously the name. Yew Bee. Is it a reference to a public figure who I have been unable to track down? Is it a private joke? If Yew Bee looked anything like Ub Iwerks I might've tried to figure out if he and Hanks had ever crossed paths and had a bad interaction but he really doesn't. Another one of those mysteries of the ages, I guess!

The invasion is nothing special, though it is suitably over the top. I will highlight these cool and also dumb looking super tanks, though. A fun design, say I!

Stardust pulverizes the entire invasion force without breaking a sweat, of course.

The real reason to cover Yew Bee is the fact that after a surprising amount of Stardust villains being shown leniency over the course of 1940, this is the group that really draws his ire. The bulk of their leadership are turned into icicles and melted. This turns out to be comparatively merciful.

The top four leaders are turned to rats and chased through the streets of New York by Stardust in the form of a panther until they swim out to sea and drown. Except for Yew Bee, of course.

Changed into a horrible little rat man, Yew Bee gets to spend his days being interrogated by the FBI. It really does feel like this guy is a reference to someone specific who Fletcher Hanks did not like, doesn't it?

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 639: LU CHENG THE FORBIDDEN

(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940) 

A vampire holed up in a cave in the Gobi Desert with a bunch of lady vampires, Lu Cheng the Forbidden talks a big game but I reckon that he's super screwed. He's somehow found himself in one of the largest deserts in the world, presumably farther from human habitation than is comfortable for a vampire - when Captain Kidd wanders into his cave all Lu Cheng is concerned with is using his plane to get the heck out of the Gobi.

Lucky for Captain Kidd, Lu Cheng is not the kind of vampire that is immune to everything that isn't a specific vampire weakness, or maybe is a kind of vampire that is vulnerable to grenades. Either way, he ends up dead for real. And as a bonus, the lady vampires are the kind of vampire thrall that returns to normal once the head vampire is killed! Hooray!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 638: THE BLACK HOOD

(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940)

Yank Wilson, Super Spy Q-4 (who started out as a near-future character and maybe isn't any more but until I see a clear sign otherwise still is to me) is after Prusslandic spies Karl Wolff and the Black Hood down in Florida and is going about his search with all the subtlety of a character in a point-and-click adventure game. It's his bad luck that the first person he asked was an agent of Prussland Intelligence but it was only a matter of time given his tactic of asking everyone he saw if they had seen any espionage going on.

Lucky for Wilson, the Black Hood is incredibly gullible and accepts him as a fifth columnist named Bruno Schmidt without question (don't worry: Yank crossed his fingers while swearing allegiance to the Fatherland - no need for a court marshal). I was going to make a crack about how even though it was nice to see the Black Hood dressed in what would become the conventional super-villain ensemble unlike so many of our recent entrants it was in fact completely unnecessary because he is obviously Karl Wolff, but I say was because Yank Wilson does not in fact put two and two together until he is told directly that it is four.

Yank is pretty swiftly uncovered as a US intelligence agent by Count von Heindorff, the one spy in the entire story who bothered to pay attention in espionage school, leading to a whole lot of malarkey and gunplay and a final airplane chase that spells the end of both von Heindorff and the Black Hood.