REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 027

Real people? In comic books? Now I've seen everything.

Abu Khan:

I sincerely cannot tell if this Black Knight foe is supposed to be Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, last ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanate, or if they just pulled a couple of syllables out of the air and added "Khan" to the end and called it a day. On the one hand, the real Abu Khan never tried to invade Egypt, as the Black Knight is trying to prevent him from doing, but on the other he is from about the right time to be a Black Knight character, i.e., within about two hundred years of all the other elements of the comic. (The Funnies 059, 1941)

Adolf Hitler:

Pays for the services of super-villain the Artist to facilitate the invasion of Tomania with his soul-stealing powers. (Jackpot Comics 004, 1941)

Al Capone:

"Scar Lapone," used as a generic gangster name. (Green Mask v1 005, 1941)

Jean Lafitte:

A false vision of Lafitte is summoned by a fake medium. (Green Mask v1 007, 1941)

Napoleon Bonaparte:

Viewed through a time machine's viewscreen by the Black Hood. (Jackpot Comics 003, 1941)

Nero:

Kim Hale and the Purple Zombie, blasted back in time, are condemned to death by Emperor Nero for telling him about things that he hadn't heard of before. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 008, 1941)

Though the duo make it out of the gladiatorial arena okay, they almost get caught up in the Great Fire of Rome before being shunted to another time zone by their allies. Unusually, Nero is not shown fiddling at all. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 009, 1941)

Nero, or at least his ghost, appears in a very different form after being summoned by the would-be necromancer Ford. Is this barbaric Nero a reflection of how the Emperor saw himself, or did the artist just kind of wing it? (Jackpot Comics 003, 1941)

Paul Revere:

Minor comic book protagonist Paul Revere Jr is awfully smug for someone who just has the name of a famous patriot, and that goes double for his friends Betsy Ross and Patrick Henry.

His father Paul Revere Sr is at least out there writing a column called "America, Awake!" and putting himself in the crosshairs of local fascists. (Banner Comics 003, 1941)

Sherlock Holmes:

Yet another comedy Holmes analog with a terrible if intriguing name. Foreclose is just close enough to a play on Sherlock to be particularly maddening. Featuring: a Watson analog named Batsin Belfry. (Great Comics 001, 1941)

Walter Winchell:

He only appears as a corpse, but gossip columnist Walt Willard is a clear play on Walt Winchell. (Jackpot Comics 004, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 980: THE WERE-WOLF

(Four Favorites 001, 1941)

Lash Lightning is one of those characters who is so very powerful that he outclasses all regular human opposition, barring some extraordinary circumstance. That's why a movie-style, immune-to-all-harm werewolf is a perfect foil for him!

The story of the Were-Wolf begins c.1921 (or possibly 1911 - accounts vary!), when Sumter Military Academy student Adolph Krimetz, sick of being bullied and nicknamed "Wolf" because of his unusual appearance, attacks a fellow student and accidentally kills him. Fearing official reprisals, Krimetz flees into the wilderness, where he remains for the next twenty (or thirty!) years. 

Eventually, Krimetz decides to get revenge on the men who bullied him at school, as he blames them for his exile from society. He is emboldened in his quest by the fact that at some point in the intervening years he discovered that his childhood nickname was ironically close to the truth, because he is in fact an actual werewolf!

Krimetz's particular style of lycanthropy is worth noting here: he transforms into something approaching a fully canine form, but only in his upper body, meaning that he technically remains humanoid. It's a wild look, particularly when paired with his homemade fur kilt and footwraps. As the Were-Wolf, Krimetz is super strong, able to travel long distances in a series of super-jumps and is completely immune to all harm - presumably excepting harm caused by silver, but this is never really brought up.

Starting with his old classmates Generals Andrews and Johnson (and Johnson's daughter Joan, filling the role of damsel in distress), Krimetz proceeds to kidnap at least sixteen people. Like fellow revenge-seeker the Master, he seems to be compelled to assemble all of his potential victims before killing any of them, and like the Master this ultimately backfires on him. Krimetz, at least, has a motive beyond revenge for doing so, as he plans on torturing military secrets out of his enemies so that he can sell them to the highest bidder.

Before doing any of that, however, Krimetz sets out to destroy Sumter Military Academy, the scene of his childhood humiliations. Since he has captured Lash Lightning and is thus leaving him alone with all of his prisoners, this is effectively a recipe for their escape. Having freed everyone, Lash rushes off to prevent the bombing.

While Lash might be incapable of harming the Were-Wolf, it turns out that a big old lightning bolt can compel him to turn back into a human, and a human is very vulnerable to, for instance, being punched headlong onto a barrel of TNT and exploding.

REVENGE KILLER SCORE: either 0/16 or 0/216+ if we're including all of the military school kids he also failed to murder.

BUT WAIT:

Even though the Were-Wolf is clearly exploded at the end of his first appearance, he does not in fact die. He returns in Four Favorites 002, still obsessed with revenge but directed against the US military in general, rather than the specific people and institutions who harmed him in his youth. To that end, he derails a troop train that is travelling across the Midwest, and goes on to attempt similar acts against an army convoy and some troop-transporting aircraft

A lot of the dramatic focus of this issue is taken up by the plight of Old Mike Jasper, the railway switchman who Krimetz frames for the derailment and who is almost convicted for the crime a mere one day later despite the fact that a) the case against him is extremely circumstantial and b) much of it is based around a general skepticism of his claim that a werewolf did it, never mind that a werewolf just kidnapped more than a dozen high-level army officers and is currently out there sabotaging military transports. Old Mike has a terrible lawyer, is what I'm implying.

Krimetz is jailed for the mass murdering, but he will return for a further two appearances in 1942! 

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 099

Super-heroes. Like heroes, but super.

Captain Midnight:

Like the second, more popular (though still pretty obscure) Captain Midnight that will be published by Fawcett starting in 1942, this fellow is an adaptation of the radio character, and unlike the second Captain Midnight, this one is a pretty direct adaptation. It's a bit abbreviated and you kind of have to keep referring to the Captain Midnight Wikipedia page to fill in the gaps where your assumed familiarity with the radio show lies, but it's all there:

Captain Midnight is an otherwise-unnamed pilot who gets his nickname after returning on the stroke of 12 after completing a secret mission to prevent Paris from being captured by the Germans during World War One. In the present day (1941) he is recruited to head a secret counter-espionage unit called the Secret Squadron by a mysterious government official who is implicitly Franklin Delano Roosevelt in disguise. 

The Secret Squadron has hidden airbases and headquarters all over the United States and is comprised of a horde of agents referred to by alphanumeric designations starting at SS-1 (Captain Midnight) up to at least SS-85 (the guy who runs the elevator in one of the bases). The "SS" part of the names is quietly changed to "SQ" once the US enters WWII, but I don't think that this comic book adaptation goes on long enough for that to be a concern.

Finally, Captain Midnight's flying clock insignia is very fun. (The Funnies 057, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Captains), Locations (Temporal Locations), Origins (WWI Vets)

the Great Zarro:

The Great Zarro is otherwise nameless adventurer with the power of flight. He is also one of the most bland super-heroes in the history of the medium, personality-wise.

A former circus acrobat, the Great Zarro lost his job, fiance and friends when a gang of extortionists burned the whole circus down and killed everyone but Rags, his lover's kid brother. The two swear an eternal war on crime and Zarro gains his ability to fly by consuming some magical herbs given to him by the circus fortune teller, who was just good enough to fortell that he would need them but evidently failed to see why. 

There are precisely two interesting things about this character: Firstly, that as a circus acrobat he was known as Eagle Man, while as a flying super-hero he goes by the Great Zarro. That's a fun little inversion of naming conventions!

Secondly, there's Rags. Rags is an example of something that you occasionally get with comic relief characters, where they and only they are rendered as a full cartoon while everyone else is in a comic book. This is a particularly egregious clash of styles in a comic as full of stiff, human-proportioned figures as "The Great Zarro," rendering Rags more of a figure of horror than comedy. Rags finally becomes a real boy in the third and final Zarro adventure, but it's too little too late. (Great Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Day Jobs (Circus Acrobats), Language (Superlatives (Greats)), Powers (Flight)

Madame Strange:

On the one hand, Madame Strange is pretty great: she's at least somewhat super fast and super strong, will throw a knife at the drop of a hat and prevents the Japanese destruction of Pearl Harbor in November 1941 (though not the one in December). Just like Ripley in Alien, she is an example of a character not being written as a "girl-version" of a default-male archetype but simply as that archetype, which is basically always the more entertaining option.

On the other hand, Madam Strange suffers from the same lack of depth - including any sort of backstory - as so many of her peers. Sure she can throw a knife into a goon from a city block away, but is that enough? I also do not care for the combination of red top, pale blue bottoms, aesthetically.  (Great Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Strangeness), Genrica (Madames), Powers (Enhanced Strength and Speed) 

the Green Mask and Domino the Miracle Boy **Update**:

I am reasonably certain that this is the first time that Domino is given a first name. Don! He's Don! (Green Mask v1 006, 1941)

The same issue that Don gets his name also marks the introduction of the Green Mask's expanded supporting cast. Joining his reporter pal News Blake are heiress/ love interest Olivia Tracey and her chauffeur Peters, who serves as comic relief thanks to his two character traits of "enthusiastic tinkerer" and "very clumsy and hapless." (Green Mask v1 006, 1941)

I can't find anywhere that it's explicitly stated (which may be exacerbated by the fact that the only copy of this issue that I can find is missing 8 pages or so) but by Green Mask v1 008 Olivia Tracey seems to explicitly know that Michael Shelby and the Green Mask - and by extension Don and Domino - are the same.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 979: PROFESSOR OCTOPUS

(Four Favorites 001, 1941)

Professor Octopus was honestly due for a trip to the next Problematic Update, but that is a place for characters who I feel should be acknowledged but who I don't want to talk about too much. Who could resist talking about a guy like Professor Octopus, even if he is a weird sinister Asian spy caricature?

Prof Octopus comes to the attention of Magno when his men round up Magno's sidekick Davey for defending a too-inquisitive reporter named Ferren from their tender attentions. He cuts quite a figure, with his seven-foot frame, four arms, claws and fangs (plus a really innovative choice of clothing - seldom do you see the multi-armed go with Big Sleeve rather than a more intensive but presumably less accommodating tailoring choice). Sadly, this is all mere window dressing that serves to make him an example of the evil Asian = inhuman monster trope. The "Octopus" part of his name might as well refer to the fact that he operates out of a submarine as that he has six limbs, for all that he uses them.

Octopus is also quite easily defeated in his two major interactions with Magno and Davey, first by a mere chair to the dome while he is strangling Ferren (and note that he is using all four arms to do it in the only exception to my earlier complaint) and then by the two of them despite his big sword (that he only uses two hands to wield - why not add a couple of shields or some daggers to that loadout?) that is of course magnetic and thus easily countered.

Though Professor Octopus' submarine ends up on the bottom of the ocean, the man himself escapes to fight another day, only not really because as far as I can determine this is his only appearance. Still, better to survive an encounter with a super-hero and then fade into obscurity than die in a sinking submarine, as I always say.

This is the second octopus-themed villain to face Magno - will there be another?

Categorized in: Animals (Octopodes), Ideologies (Pseudo-Japanese Fascists), Powers (Extra Limbs)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 050

All these fictional aliens and we don't even get one other inhabited planet in our solar system.

Moon-Men:

These Moon-Men are encountered by Phantasmo (seen here in his less-nude human identity) and his pal Whizzer McGee during an impromptu trip to the Moon. They live deep beneath the satellite's surface and appear to have a mining-based culture that is pretty hostile to outsiders, and that is all we know. While I must commend the "Phantasmo" team for not automatically making every alien race fluent English speakers or gifted telepaths, it does make for a more limited mode of storytelling. "Why are the Moon-Men mad at us, Phantasmo?" "No idea." (The Funnies 060, 1941)

Inhabitants of Ru:

These very humanoid Martians are encountered by Flint Baker and his convict crew upon making the historic first second rocket voyage to Mars. They very specifically inhabit Ru, which is either the name of their country or the entire Light Side of Mars, and are a peaceful society in that sci-fi way that means that they are completely unable to deal with threats. Flint is thus required to save them from both the Earthman Sarko (late of the actual first manned mission to Mars) and then the diabolical Creature and his monster. (Planet Comics 001, 1940)

One-Eyed Monster Men of Mars: 

And speaking of Sarko, his plan to conquer Ru revolves around the One-Eyed Monster Men who inhabit the (non-existent) Dark Side of Mars. Though they are intensely fun-looking creatures, the One-Eyed Monster Men don't get a lot of character development in the course of the story due to being mere foot soldiers and also possibly mind controlled.  (Planet Comics 001, 1940)

Martians:

As the "Spurt Hammond, Planet Flyer" series is at least initially set in the year 40 000 CE, there is a strong possibility that both the Martian and Venusian peoples pictured above are descended from some long-ago human colonists. Heck, that might just be the best backstory to explain a planet of warlike Martians or of peaceful Venusians who name their kids things like "Amoura:" because they have built their societies around the cultural assumptions and legends that tie into their planets. (Planet Comics 002, 1940)

Despite the fact that Spurt Hammond managed to resolve the conflict between Prince Khangiz of Mars and Queen Amoura, Venus was clearly subject to some sort of political upheaval because just four issues later the planet is ruled by Queen Veloptan. Perhaps Amoura was determined to be just a bit to on-the-nose, even for Venus. (Planet Comics 006, 1940)

Venus is another one of those conflict-averse pacifist societies, and just two issues later they are turning to Spurt Hammond once more. This time the entire planet is swiftly becoming uninhabitable and the population are forced to become refugees, prompting this array of Plutonian, Saturnian and Jovian rulers doing their best impressions of WWII 20th Century most world leaders throughout modern history. And as a bonus: a new Martian leader named Kaga! (Planet Comics 008, 1940)