ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 046

Good lord! Aliens!

Mupha's Species:

Mupha, ruler of the undersea Land of Peril, is the kind of creep who sends his subjects to kidnap women to become his queen. This eventually brings him into conflict with underwater adventurer Sub Saunders -not because Sub is looking for kidnappees but because he happens to pass by the Land of Peril and makes Mupha nervous enough to open fire on his submarine.

As Mupha appears to have only two subjects we must assume that either a) his species is nearly extinct (which explains his quest for a mate but does not excuse it) or b) the Land of Peril is a breakaway group from a larger population somewhere, political exiles, perhaps, because of their pro-kidnapping policies. In either case, the group does not survive its encounter with Sub Saunders. 

Also please note their stylish hooves, a very unusual feature in an aquatic species. (Fantastic Comics 018, 1941)

Martians:

The only example of this particular Martian species who we meet is Kodi, partner to Nick Nelson in the Space Patrol. At least, I think so. See, much like the adventures of Spacehawk, "Space Patrol" is a Basil Wolverton comic, and one thing that Basil Wolverton liked was drawing all kinds of different weird-looking aliens. So while Kodi is the only big-headed orange Martian who we see in the course of the series, there are also a variety of other Martians in a range of colours and shapes and who's to say whether they aren't all the same species? (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 012, 1939)

Spider Men:

While there are also a variety of different Venusians depicted in the pages of "Space Patrol," I am pretty confident in my assessment that they are unrelated to the Venusian Spider Men. Encountered by Nick and Kodi as they pursue a fugitive into the deep jungles of Venus (Tropical Jungle Planet being one of the old sci-fi paradigms for the planet), the Spider Men are presented as relentless predators of intelligent humanoids. They also look great, even better than my beloved Martian Spider-Men. Imagine: a whole species of balding men with unkempt beards!

The Spider Men manage to drag Nick Nelson back to their cave home (where we learn that they are tool users!) but are ultimately no match for the Space Patrol's various beams and rays. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 012, 1939)

Mercurians:

While looking into the disappearance of a space freighter and its cargo of green diamonds, Nick and Kodi track its location to a volcanic crater on Mercury, where the ship's pilot has murdered the rest of the crew, stolen the diamonds and dumped the ship itself into a lava pit, with the aid of a crew of Mercurian Mole-Men. As is so often the case in a sci-fi story, our impression of an entire species must be formed by the actions of one of its worst members, and we simply must assume that this kind of theft and murder is atypical, or however would our nameless villain have gotten his job in the first place?

As for the Mole-Men, they don't get a lot of characterization beyond the fact that they are "the savage inhabitants of the underground regions," but as always I do enjoy Wolverton's use of morphological similarities (specifically the ears, nose and especially feet and legs) to show that they and our Mercurian friend evolved from some common ancestor. Plus it's hard not to love a cave-full of little glaring goblin-men. 

The Mercurian gets a bit to smug about the fact that he has Nick and Kodi at his mercy and manages to nearly blow his own head off with a phenomenally bad shot. I do not like his knees, but I do like that horde of rampaging Mole-Men.

Having made their way back to their ship, Nick and Kodi decide to just skip the tedious parts of the legal system (arrest, trial, state-mandated punishments, etc) and skip straight to the execution. A few well-placed atom bombs and the volcano takes care of both the Mercurian and the Mole-Men for them. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 003, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 969: THE SCORPION

(Fantastic Comics 021, 1941)

The Scorpion is an Irish super-criminal who, in a classic villain move, inspires the creation of his own nemesis when he slays a man on the moors near Cork one dark night (and whether there are any moors in that area is surprisingly tedious to find out, so just colour me generically skeptical) as part of a scheme to acquire a gold deposit.

The future nemesis in question is the man's stepson, Jim O'Donnell, whose subsequent pursuit of justice for the murder leads to him becoming the costumed vigilante known as the Banshee. And speaking of banshees: the reason hat the Scorpion leaves Jim alive as a potential witness to the murder is that he mistakes a wailing gust of wind for a banshee's cry and runs away rather than finish murdering him.

In addition to the fact that he is very superstitious and also our first Irish super-villain, the third noteworthy thing about the Scorpion is the fact that he doesn't look anything like a scorpion, and instead has a kind of demonic imp look going on, perhaps one that is meant to be a kind of "if a scorpion was a guy" concept. 

The Scorpion next heads to NYC to murder Jim's step-cousin Joan O'Neill as his original victim's last surviving heir (as mentioned in the Banshee entry: Jim and his step-father were close in a "vengeance ques" but not a "be left something in the will" kind of way).

The Scorpion is of course captured before he is able to murder Joan, and it's a rough one for him: in addition to being unmasked, he is distracted at a critical moment by a police siren (and if that's the threshold that he has for "banshee noises" then he must live in a state of perpetual fear, even in 1940s NYC), has Jim fall on him and break his leg while stumbling around with a clothesline worth of sheets rapped around him, and to add insult to injury is taken to jail by the only two non-Irish cops in comic book NYC ("what the heck is a banshee?", sheesh).

Not to be dissuaded, the Scorpion breaks jail and gets into the arms smuggling business with a new green mask. His major rival in this is crooked air transport company owner Joe Collins, who coincidentally happens to be Joan's boss who has just agreed to give Jim a job as well. Despite some particularly gruesome warnings in the form a missing pilot's head and hand, Collins refuses to give up his smuggling business and gets himself murdered by the Scorpion. 

The Scorpion remains wildly superstitious, however, and once Jim shows up in his Banshee costume it's basically all over. Do you reckon he gets sent back to Ireland to serve time for his crimes there, or does he go to American jail first?

Categorized in: Animals (Scorpions), Narrative Footballs (Origin Story Guys), Supranormal Beings (Imps)

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 014

Surely fascists will stop being such a problem eventually, right?

the German Help Club:

Probably the most straightforwardly cynical version of the German American Bund that we've seen so far, the German Help Club is simply a mass extortion scheme in which the German-American residents of NYC are forced to give up 15% of their earnings or see their relatives back in Germany be persecuted and jailed. Pat Patriot breaks them up with extreme prejudice. (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

Gorilla-Suited Saboteurs: 

This bunch of Nazis dress up in bulletproof gorilla suits in order to sabotage British operations in Uganda, but they are unable to contend with jungle adventurer ed Crane. (Exciting Comics 008, 1941)

the Nazi Bund:

The Nazi Bund is yet another riff on the German-American Bund as an actually impactful spy organization. Is Bund leader Fanz Mann a version of the real-life Bund leader Fritz Kuhn or just a Nazi with a generic German name? Hard to say, but in either case he gets smashed up by Samson. (Fantastic Comics 020, 1941)

Herr Arson:

Herr Arson runs one of those Fifth Column cells that gave 1940s comic book heroes so much trouble. He has three major claims to fame: 1) Herr Arson is a fantastic name for a Nazi saboteur, 2) Given that, the fact that, of four acts of sabotage he commits this issue, only one is arson is very funny.

3) Herr Arson might just get the most killed that I have ever seen in a comic, as the Flame uses his flame gun to utterly vaporize him in the middle of the street. (The Flame 006, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 609 UPDATE: LUCIFER

When we covered the Fourth Dimensional being called Lucifer, who might be the for-real Devil (if the Fourth Dimension is also the afterlife) and might just be a big weirdo (if it isn't), I said that we would see him again. Well here he is!

Flip Falcon next encounters Lucifer after he takes a woman named Nora into the Fourth Dimension in order to heal her face, which was scarred with acid by a vindictive man. This is a noble quest, but it once again raises the question of just how all these regular people are accessing accurate information about the properties of the Fourth Dimension, e.g., that it contains "a purifying element which restores the marred"? It's not Flip, as he never seems to know about these things when people tell him about them. Then who? Is Flip's assistant Peg publishing 4D guidebooks on the sly?

Regardless of where she got it, Nora's information was sound and her face is cured almost immediately upon entering Flip's dimensional portal. And just as soon as she is healed, Lucifer swoops in and kidnaps her in order to turn her into a giant woman with "my mind" as he puts it, and whether this is meant literally or if it's just a way of saying that she will have his moral outlook is tough to say. Either way, it's a real wild insight into Lucifer's psychology and sense of the romantic.

We never do get to meet Lucifer's ideal woman, as Flip Falcon simply zips in to interrupt the process and then sneaks out the back door. It is, all in all, an embarrassing episode for the (possible) arch-devil. (Fantastic Comics 015, 1941)

This humiliating defeat possibly explains why Lucifer's next appearance involves him returning to his roots with an attempt to wipe out humanity. Specifically (vaguely?) he is forcing "elements of dimension space" into our atmosphere, to disastrous effect.

 Unfortunately for Lucifer, Flip Falcon has a new trick since he last foiled this specific plan by this specific guy, and so rather than employing his trail of pan-dimensional energy to merely immobilize his foe, he instead annihilates him utterly. What the destruction of the Great Adversary might mean to the faithful is not explored. (Fantastic Comics 020, 1941)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 045

No matter how many comic book aliens we catalogue, there are always more to see!

Fish-Men:

While fish men are nothing new, these particular ones have a couple of points of distinction: firstly they just look kind of nice, a bit more gracile and svelte than your usual humanoid fish. Secondly, they are in fact Moon Fish-Men, as they serve demi-god(?) and would-be King of the Moon Bakalma. This also makes them Moon Fish-Men from the 12th Century, as Bakalma is an enemy of former Crusader the Golden Knight. Finally, this means that many if not all of them were blown up by a volcano. (Fantastic Comics 017, 1941)

Martian Imp Men:

The Martian Imp Men are the servants of Martian villain Skomah the 7th, aka the Brain. They are unfailingly loyal and probably also mind-controlled, so we don't get much of an idea of their culture is like, but their strong resemblance to something like a cross between a Gremlin and a D&D goblin is certainly giving me ideas. (Fantastic Comics 001, 1939)

Martian Ogres:

The Martian Ogres are a also pledged to the service of the Brain. They are larger, seemingly more intelligent and a bit less spiky than their presumably-distant cousins the Imp Men, and as such are sent off in a space fleet to destroy the Earth with Anti-Earth Demolishing Rays.

Despite their best efforts - and whether it is due to mental conditioning or sheer love of the game they tray very hard - the Ogres are unable to overcome the full might of the Earth space fleet. (Fantastic Comics 002, 1940)

Martians:

In 1939, inventor Montague Dexter and his wife pilot an experimental rocket to Mars as a part of the New York World's Fair. Stranded there by damage to their vehicle, they live there among the Martian people until 2000 CE, when their son Rex flies the newly-repaired rocket back to his ancestral planet. Though Rex sets out with the promise to return some day, this is to my knowledge the only appearance of the Martians in question. I really like them! I think that the artist was going for an amphibian look over all, but the slight bovine cast to the face is quite pleasant. Plus it's nice to see some benevolent Martians now and then. (Mystery Men Comics 001, 1939)

NOTES - JUNE 2026

Comics Crossovers:

In one of Golden Age comics' rare but casual crossovers, Judy Jackson, rival of reporter-hero Scoop Mason, is attending the same Governor's ball in the Bahamas as Newsreel cameraman Speed Martin. (The Funnies 051, 1941)

Then in the very next issue, Scoop Mason himself shows up to take in a football game! (The Funnies 052, 1941)

ADDENDUM: I just realized that the team that they're watching is Elmhurst College featuring star player Wally Williams, from his own feature in Popular Comics. Layers upon layers!