MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 1001: BARON KRAWMAN

(Lightning Comics v1 005, 1941)

Whiz Wilson and his Futuroscope are once again engaging in the Doctor Who style of time travel, in which you just kind of pop into a random time and place and ask a bystander how things are going. In this case he has ended up in Florida in the year 3000, and the vest-wearing Florida Man he speaks to is pretty smug about how great things have been for the past thousand years. Perhaps he is rounding up or thinking extremely locally, because previous Whiz Wilson stories have established a general civilizational collapse in 2040 CE and a more localized one in South America around 2500 CE.

More importantly, as if summoned by the words "these are wonderful times," this is the moment that a squad of giant robots attack the city.

Whiz Wilson is as ever a man of action and takes advantage of a poorly-secured access hatch on the back of one of the robots to get inside and beat up the pilot. This in turn causes the over-cautious leader of the robot pilots, now revealed to be a man named Baron Krawman, to recall his forces.

Joining the queue of robots in his newly-commandeered ride, Whiz follows them to a domed underwater city "about ten miles" off the Florida coast.

A quick and stealthy search of the city leads Wilson to an imprisoned woman who introduces herself as Betty Walters, Krawman's former assistant. She tells him that a) the city is part of the lost continent of Atlantis that Krawman stumbled upon (though how it was missed during a thousand years-plus of intensely ocean-facing Florida life is beyond me) and b) that he is bent on destroying civilization because they laughed at him. Annoyingly, she does not explain why all of Krawman's minions are nigh-identical bearded beefcakes, because that is all that I am asking about. Was he experimenting with cloning? Are these the descendants of lost Atlantis? Does he just have a type? 

Whiz and Betty return to the commandeered robot and engage Krawman in thrilling robot-hand-to-robot-hand combat for the future of Florida, a combat that ends with Krawman dead and his city flooded. Once again Whiz Wilson has saved the people of a time period so far in his own future that his bones are naught but dust. Hooray!

Categorized in: Accessories (Giant Robots), Origins (Villains of the Future), Royalty (Barons)

MONSTER, CRITTER AND CREATURE ROUND-UP 002

It's time for more monsters! And also critters and creatures!

Prehistoric Gorilla:

This carnivorous cave-dwelling ape lives in a hidden valley in Africa and has a pretty sweet deal going with the local pterodactyls, whereby they bring him things to eat and he seemingly doesn't have to do anything. This arrangement does eventually backfire after the pterodactyls grab Kaänga's mate Ann and the justifiably miffed jungle lord follows them and slays the gorilla. (Jungle Comics 017, 1941)

A few bonus dinosaurs from the hidden valley: some generic carnosaurs, the aforementioned pterodactyls, and a mean aquatic sauropod.

Creatures of Argus:

When the wicked Sklar, tyrant of the planet Argus, attempts to invade the Earth of the far-off Year 1982, he sends these fairly cool flame-spewing robots to do his dirty work for him. While I always appreciate a good killer robot, these ones are especially satisfying because they conform to the proportions of the people of Argus and it's always nice to see non-humans adhering to their own aesthetics rather than defaulting to ours. 

Though the robots are smashed up by champion of the people Power Nelson in short order the risk of invasion remains, so he and his love interest/companion Zora head to Argus to settle things once and for all. During their time there, they are forced to take a detour that leads them through the through the Cave of Terror, a monster-haunted locale containing such beasts as...

... the beefy, fire-breathing Dreaded Cave Monster! (smashed against a wall)

The cephalopoid Creatures of the Quicksand! (deprived of their meal but otherwise unharmed)

The extremely compelling giant rodentoid Saber Tooth Crawler! (punched out) (Prize Comics 006, 1940)

Morg:

Adventurer Planet Payson encounters this morg while investigating malfeasance on Mars, and manages to escape its clutches by merely making it sleepy rather than killing it. A true win for xeno-conservation! (Planet Comics 006, 1940)

Pteridons:

Analogous to our own woolly mammoths, these pteridons were once native to Pluto but now lie frozen beneath a layer of ice. Though a gang of crooks attempt to exploit these curiously adorable beasts by thawing them out and deploying them as rampaging engines of destruction, they are stopped by Buzz Crandall before things get too out of hand. (Planet Comics 006, 1940)

Aqua-Scorpio:

Despite the fact that people in the 40s thought that octopuses were inherently gross, menacing and deadly,  sometimes the comic book people felt the need to up the ante a bit and so we get things like the aqua-scorpio her, as encountered by oceanic adventurer Captain Gallant. I really like this guy's head, especially the combination of the compound eyes and chinless beak, but the hooked tentacles might be overkill. (Super-Mystery Comics v1 005, 1940)

Arena Monsters:

The wicked 'bdula Khan pits these three beasts against the Golden Knight seemingly purely for the love of being evil. Only one of them, the bat wing monster, gets anything approaching a name, but that doesn't prevent it from being slain as easily as its companions generic dragon and land kelpie. (Fantastic Comics 006 1940)

Bat-Serpent:

The Rocket is confronted with and slays this bat-serpent while he is the captive of a group of Ape-Men, and it's a good thing that he does so because it moves him out of the category of "prisoner" and into that of "potential leader." I do feel a little bad for the bat-serpent here, though. Sure, the caption box says that it is a "blood seeking enemy of all animal and human life" but that face says "adorable puppy-cow" and that holds a lot of weight with me.

As part of his ascent to chiefdom, the Rocket must venture into the Cave of Horrors and face the various horrors therein. He only gets to one of them before being interrupted, but it's a good one, the fire-breathing, flashlight-headed rayoceros, which look like the kind of creature you'd find in an early Sixties comic set on Krypton. (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 1000: THE MUMMY

Number 1000!!*

(Lightning Comics v1 005, 1941)

The Old Man of the Pyramids summons (F)lash Lightning to his thundercloud lair to warn him about trouble at Midton College, and he is right, as can only be expected of a wise old oracular father figure. This particular trouble is called Professor Vatz and is a professor of chemistry who is ready to give up academia for the heady world of supercrime.

Vatz's new career is founded on two inventions: his "Hotlight," a ray gun that seems to spit out both bright light and great heat sufficient to kill a regular person or knock out a superhuman figure like Lightning, and a radium compound that makes ordinary cloth into a form of armour resistant to conventional attack. Vatz decides to apply this solution to mummy wrappings, and while I can kind of see that being a way to ensure that the his armour is applied as close to his body as possible, but just what his justification is for using wrappings from an actual mummy is completely inscrutable to me.

As always, mummy wrappings are a fantastic look and they are only enhanced by the fact that Vatz either chooses to leave the little flyaway portions of his hair sticking out of the sides or simply does not care that they are. It's some very very strong bald guy energy and perhaps the most significant addition to the mummy look in two thousand years.

The newly-fledged Mummy recruits a few gangsters and goes on a mild crime spree but is soon tracked down by a recovered Lightning. This leaves the problem of the Mummy's invincibility to solve, and Lightning does so with aplomb: if the wrappings are the vehicle for the invulnerability, simply remove the wrappings before applying violence.

(please note that the Mummy had a calling card all ready to go, and it's a cute one. He only ever gets to use it the once, however)

The Mummy returns in Lightning Comics v1 006, in what is effectively a bottle episode. Professor Vatz, given far both too much credit for a rapid reformation and unfettered access to the prison laboratory, is able to recreate his radium solution and take over - but not actually escape - the prison he has been locked up in.

The only thing that the Mummy seems to be unable to replicate in prison is his Hotlight. Instead, he sports a much cooler "Nitro Gun" that shoots explosive pellets. He is also able to whip up a "Lightning Arrester" to drain the electric energy from Lash Lightning's body when he inevitably turns up to foil the Mummy's plans.

Despite the fact that he is able to disable Lightning and throw him into the prison gas chamber, the Mummy does not account for the possibility that his lightning powers might return to him and allow him to escape. He is soon recaptured in the exact same manner as he was in their first encounter and I must say that the fact that Professor Vatz failed to account for this - perhaps by means of a tricky little knot or fastener - really lowers him in my estimation.

In the Mummy's final appearance, in Lightning Comics v2 001, he is broken out of a prison hospital by Lash Lightning's new archfoe Mastermind, who is hoping to learn the secret of Professor Vatz's radium coating in order render himself immune to harm. 

The Mummy makes three key mistakes in his dealings with Mastermind: 1) he tries to negotiate after the initial deal has been struck, proposing that the radium formula be revealed in exchange for the secret to Mastermind's own ability to command lightning. This might work if the Mummy were dealing with a reasonable person, but Mastermind is a super-villain, a class of inherently unreasonable people. 2) The Mummy escalates the confrontation to a physical one without first applying the radium solution and thus rendering himself immune to harm, and 3) he gets himself obliterated by a lightning bolt. he does therefore mess up Mastermind's plans by taking his formula to the grave, but it must be cold comfort when one is a smouldering corpse.

Farewell, the Mummy. You weren't a very good super-villain but you were an entertaining one.

Categorized in: Accessories (Anti-Hero; Heat Rays), Day Jobs (College Professors), Supranormal Beings (Mummies)

*technically Fang Ryan is number 1000 and the Mummy is number 999, but I like mummies more than snake-themed gangsters so I fudged it for the sake of the round number.

MEDIA IN COMICS 013

Today in Media in Comics, we're all about the Movies:

Movie star Dawn O'Dare returns to her home town of Holtville to premiere her new picture Love Me Forever! but the whole affair is almost undone when her understudy attempts to impersonate her and make off with the theatrical take, only to in turn be foiled by local copy boy Hap Hazard. (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)

Angry Waves, a sea epic, features a found footage action scene as one of the Strange Twins rescues the other from drowning. (Hit Comics 016, 1941)

It's time for our first movie titled Crime Doesn't Pay, starring police officer Sally O'Neil and featuring a real on-screen murder. (National Comics 010, 1941)

I fear that we will only be able to evaluate all of the Gone with the Wind parody titles once we have enough of then together to compare. That said, Flown with the Breeze, here about to be attended by Allan "the Hunchback" Lanier and date, has to be one of the more goofy of the bunch. (Wow Comics 002, 1941)

This adaptation of Ivanhoe had a troubled production thanks to an on-set protection racket. It is also distinguished by the fact that its arms and armour consultant was Justin Arthur, aka the Shining Knight. (Adventure Comics 068, 1941)

Jungle Justice, another troubled production due to on-set criminals, boasts its own heroic consultant in the person of Congo Bill. (Action Comics v1 042, 1941)

Though Red River Days managed to get made without any notable hiccups, its premiere in the actual town of Red River is marred by organized crime. (Adventure Comics 060, 1941)

Thrills of Africa, is a jungle movie that gives one crook the opportunity to dress up in a gorilla suit and rob the theatre it's playing in after posing as a statue in the lobby for who knows how long. Also, his two pals are there in blackface.

While chasing these problematic miscreants, Hourman passes a poster for The Count of... something. Perhaps Monte Cristo? Whatever it is, it must be printed real small, given the size of that poster. (All-Star Comics 006, 1941)

During the Dummy's tenure ans one of the Five Fingers of the Hand, he heads off to Hollywood to run a kidnapping scheme, and of course this ends up involving a whole plethora of movies. To begin, we have Aircraft Carrier, the premiere of which is ruined when star Rex Mason is seemingly turned to stone but actually spirited away.

Six-Gun Serenade, a Western, features occasional Vigigilante sidekick Billy Gunn as an extra.

While Vigilante is visiting Billy on-set, he gets involved in the latest kidnap attempt on the nearby set of sports film Touchdown Blues.

The crooks' getaway then takes then through the set of Bars and Stripes, which may or may not be a patriotic prison movie.

Finally, the Dummy's men are run to ground on the set of jungle picture Tropic Doom. (Leading Comics 001, 1941)