MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 930: THE BLACK DRAGON

(Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941)

Here's the thing about the Black Dragon: though he looms large in the early adventures of Captain Battle and is a key player in the origin of Hale Battle, he doesn't personally do that much villainy.

So just what is the Black Dragon's deal? Well, he's a magic using tyrant who lives in a secret castle in some unspecified Asian mountains, and he's the secret mastermind behind the Axis Axian Powers, making him the guy behind WWII! Like I said above: he doesn't personally get his hands dirty.

So what kind of evil does the Black Dragon get up to? Mostly he captures people and turns them into monsters with his fell majicks, such as when he attempts to do so to Captain Battle, above. This attempt fails because the Black Dragon fails to think to take his prisoner's iconic jet pack away.

In his second appearance, in Silver Streak Comics 011, the Black Dragon captures Captain Battle's assistant Jane Lorrain and offers her the creep villain's choice of becoming his queen or being transformed into a monster. He then attempts to take on Captain Battle in hand-to-hand combat and is quickly disabused of any illusions he might have had about his martial prowess. 

The reason that the Black Dragon is so personally unimpressive as a villain is that all of his important evil works are done by Deaglos, giant bird-men that he makes out of captives. Monstrous humanoid mutates are nothing new in comics even this early in their history, but the Deaglos have one very cool feature that almost feels like it comes from a Vertigo-era New Weird comic: they are created using the spirits of the extinct dodo and so are immune to death.

(the Deaglos also have field commanders referred to a "your cluckness," which is very fun)

By Silver Streak Comics 012: Captain Battle gets on the right page and realizes that if he cuts off the Black Dragon from his Deaglo supply he will have little to no ability to do evil. Plus the Deaglos are technically also victims, so his prior solutions of horrifically melting them with his dissolvo ray or using their inexplicable vulnerability to radio waves to kill them all are no very heroic acts. Accordingly, he brews up a "de-witcher solution" and applies it to a captive Deaglo, restoring him to his human form of Major Ling Fu.

Captain Battle and the Major then go on to blast all the other Deaglos with the de-witcher, which coincidentally places a hostile force within the very walls of the Black Dragon's fortress (this is where Hale Battle comes from).

In his final act as a super-villain, the Black Dragon responds to this invasion by making what is probably the funniest evil exit of the Golden Age. "Ha Ha-Haaaaaa!" *strikes evil pose* *sinks into floor* *is never seen again*. I can't endorse the whole thing where he started World War Two, but this exit really engenders a lot of affection for the guy in my heart.

Categorized in: Animals (Dragons), Henchmen (Deaglos), Supercrime (Attempted World Conquest) 

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 080

It's a sidekick-heavy brew this time, chums.

the Silver Streak **UPDATE**:

It's been a gradual thing but the Silver Streak has been getting closer and closer to not just going real fast and jumping far but actually flying. I don't know if you can actually pinpoint the moment he made the transition but he is definitely on the "is flying" side of the equation by Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941. 

Mercury:

Although Whiz, King of Falcons is an exemplary sidekick to the Silver Streak, comic books are nothing if not prone to trends, and the trend for 1941 was for super-heroes to get kid sidekicks. And although there is only so much you can do to stand out among an army of gee-whillikering blonde boys, Mercury, aka the Boy Streak, aka Mickey O'Toole, does have a couple of aspects worth highlighting:

The first of these things is his origin story. Mickey O'Toole is the appropriately hard-hitting son of the late boxer Slugger O'Toole, who was murdered mid-match because he wouldn't take a dive. Mickey now shines shoes in order to provide for his widowed mother and disabled sister Mary. A sad tale indeed.

The remarkable thing about Mickey's sad backstory and struggling family the fact that it and they never come up again. Mickey starts hanging out with the Silver Streak and his family woes go right out the window. There's even a hint at the end of his debut appearance that he will get the chance to bring the man who killed his father to justice, but writing duties on "Silver Streak" transfer from Bob Wood to Don Rico with the probably-pseudonymous Rex Richards in between and Mercury's backstory gets lost in the shuffle.

The second thing to note about Mercury is the origin of his powers: Silver Streak gives him a shot of secret super juice. Not anything to write home about in and of itself - every third super-hero is on some sort of serum or powder or elixir, after all - but because the common knowledge about this kid is that he got his powers from a Silver Streak blood transfusion. I myself asserted this in my entry on the guy! I mean, it's not like we're out there getting the origin of the Flash wrong or something but it is an interesting example of how misinformation can become more prevalent than fact (also this kind of clears up the mysterious origin of the Silver Streak's own powers: he took the juice!) (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

Meteor:

The third thing about Mercury is the fact that after two issues he is replaced by Meteor, the Boy Speed-King and no two of the half dozen nerds who care about this kind of thing can agree on whether Mercury and Meteor are the same kid with two different names or two different kids with no explanation of where the first one went or the second one came from, with the argument fr the second position boiling down to the fact that they never say that the two are the same. 

Personally, I lean toward the "one kid, two names" hypothesis, as it's slightly cleaner. Why invent a whole new kid? (Silver Streak Comics 013, 1941)

Categorized in: Elements (Mercury), Locations (Space Places), Origins (Sidekicks) 

Whiz, King of Falcons **UPDATE**: 

Whiz, King of Falcons, the Silver Streak's original sidekick, in perhaps his final appearance before he is supplanted by one or more flying kids, demonstrates the heretofore-unseen ability to talk. And to be an annoying smartass, if I'm honest. Whiz returns later on in Silver Streak's career, so it'll be interesting to see if he retains this ability. (Daredevil Comics 001, 1941) 

Captain Battle:

Captain Battle: patriotic hero, scientist, former soldier and in fact World War One veteran, in which conflict he lost his left eye. Lest we think him too old, the text is at pains to reassure us that he was in fact the youngest person to fight in the Great War, which I think is supposed to make him seem tough but mostly instills a deep horror in my being. Particularly after I looked it up and found that that would make him something like seven years old, at least until a few issues later when they clarify that he was the youngest member of the American Expeditionary Forces, making him a comparatively venerable 12 or so.

Like many patriotic heroes there isn't a lot going on with Captain Battle beyond his love of country, but here are all of the interesting trappings of his character:

1. His assistant, Jane Lorrain: she's got a rhyming name and she'll push back on sexist language. Like many potentially interesting female supporting cast members she is pretty thoroughly sidelined once Battle gets a sidekick.

2. His patriotism. Not only is he dedicated to the defense of the US but he has sworn to only defend the US. He helps save a British fleet in his first appearance explicitly because they act as a buffer between the Axis Axian Powers and America. Presumably he would otherwise let them be destroyed. Every once in a while when he is not directly helping an American he gets kind of huffy about it.

3. His gadgets, while not unique, have very cool names, including the Curvoscope (remote viewer), the Dissolvo (death ray pistol) and the Luceflyer (jetpack). The Dissolvo is also really disgusting, as it melts its target into a quivering pile of goo. (Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941)

Captain Battle gets a couple of issues of his own comic in 1941 and for precisely one story he makes an extremely feeble attempt at having a secret identity with no consideration for the fact that a) there aren't a lot of guys running around with eye patches in any given area, which makes the usual secret id excuses appear even more ridiculous and b) Captain Battle's real name is in fact Captain Battle. "You know, I never see Captain Battle and Captain Battle in the same room together..." Ridiculous.

If I'm honest the story in question has a couple of indications that it originally starred another character and Captain Battle was a late addition, and if that is the case then the secret identity stuff is just a holdover from that. (Captain Battle Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Various), Origins (Patriotic Heroes), Origins (WWI Vets)

Hale Battle:

The prevailing trend in 1941 was for super-heroes to have sidekicks and so Captain Battle eventually gets a sidekick. But just how does he acquire a boy? Very simply! See, Battle's recurring foe the Black Dragon (tune in tomorrow for that jerk) had a thing where he turned people into giant bird-man minions called Deaglos, and the final Captain Battle/Black Dragon confrontation the surviving Deaglos were all restored to their human forms. Most of them were adult men who had lives to return to, but among them was one unclaimed boy.

Note that the boy gives his name as "Nathan Hale" and Captain Battle immediately renames him "Hale Battle." This is weird. It's a weird thing to do. Particularly as "Nathan Hale" is a very patriotic American name, which Battle should totally be into! Also note just how small this kid is. This doesn't last long, as he is definitely around the thirteen to fifteen year-old range that most Golden Age sidekicks fall into and is drawn to look more like it as time passes.

Hale Battle is among the minority of Golden Age sidekicks who aren't recruited as sidekicks but who insist upon becoming them. Not that Captain Battle puts up much resistance - once Hale gets this poor war refugee to sew him a uniform he's got the job.

Aside from these small points of interest, Hale Battle is one of the most generic sidekicks in comics. He does have a minor obsession with collecting souvenirs of his adventures, which is something I in turn enjoy writing about, but if I'm honest he approaches it without joy. It feels like an attempt to have more of a personality than a hobby. (Silver Streak Comics 012, 1941)

Categorized in: Origins (Amnesiacs), Origins (Sidekicks) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 539 UPDATE: THE CLAW (1941 PART 1: THE CLAW VS DAREDEVIL)

The Claw simply has too many appearances in 1941 and if we covered them all in one post it would be exceptionally long. Thus, we are breaking things up into three chunks. The first and longest of these chunks concerns the Claw battling his most famous opponent, the Daredevil, across five issues of Silver Streak Comics.

The Claw is now firmly established as being based in Tibet and he has a brand new headquarters: a cool skull-shaped castle. He also has a new goal, to invade and conquer the United States, and to that end he uses a combination of a drilling machine and the labour of his horde of undifferentiated fanatical Asian followers (a hoary old racist trope when this comic was published in 1941 and one that crops up again to this day). I was all set to clown on the Claw for going under the Atlantic rather than the Pacific but then I checked on a map and it seems that it is in fact 5000 km shorter to go that way.

The Claw's initial approach to conquering the US is to use simple shock and awe to cow the nation into surrender. He attacks New York City in his giant form and employs an underground generator to fire lightning bolts from his fingers in a way that I don't quite understand. Is the Claw shooting lightning and the generator merely draws it downward or is the generator solely responsible for the bolts? Either way, New York takes a real beating - so much so that the next issue features a short segment on how it gets put back together again.

It is at this point that the Daredevil, long established as a New Yorker, steps in. He busts up the lightning generator and beats up the ground troops that the Claw had sent in to pillage the town, then engages the Claw himself. This first battle between them ends when a temporarily-ingested Daredevil drops a stick of dynamite down the Claw's throat and the villain retreats in a puff of smoke.

The Claw returns Silver Streak Comics 008 with the maximum degree of subtlety that he appears to be capable of exercising. In an excellent initial plan, he mind control the President (and possibly other government officials) and begins shaping government policy through him. The only major flaw in this plan is the fact that the Claw is constitutionally unable to operate at anything but full throttle, and so he essentially speedruns totalitarianism with a series of reforms designed to impoverish the nation and curtail personal freedom.

It is only at the point that armed guards are preventing people from going to church that the Daredevil once again takes a hand and exposes the fact that FDR is a mind-controlled thrall. The reins of government are passed off to the Vice-President - presumably Henry A. Wallace, given the publication date - and the Claw is so annoyed by this that he has his men begin to systematically loot US cities including Boston, Philadelphia and Washington.

Daredevil manages to play on the Claw's pride and goad him into single combat at a normal human size, which ends in the Claw being beaten up so badly that he is no longer able to access his powers and is easily slung into jail.

Silver Streak Comics 009: With the Claw in jail, powerless and scheduled for execution in one week's time, Bart "the Daredevil" Hill decides that, having saved the entire nation on two separate occasions, it's high time that he take a vacation. So resolved, he hops a yacht for the South Seas and some fishing.

This proves to be a grave mistake, as the charge of the electric chair is just what the Claw needs to be revitalized. In short order, he breaks jail and sets out with his fellow prisoners, now joined up with him as a criminal army, to make yet another attempt to take over the US. 

The Claw and his new followers retreat to an extinct volcano in the Rockies and there found a criminal city, which is a concept that I personally have a great deal of affection for and am very pleased whenever I encounter. There, the Claw develops another comic book classic, the engine-killing ray, and uses it to systematically lure and capture US military aircraft until he holds absolute air superiority over the North American continent.

(about here is when Daredevil II, aka Bart Hill's unnamed and unmourned brother, makes his run at the Claw and is moderately ceremoniously killed)

Using his overwhelming air might, the Claw forces the US - possibly still under Vice-Presidential control, which would go far to help FDR's legacy in light of what happens next - to surrender to his rule. The newly-proclaimed Emperor of America is without effective opposition, having captured the original Daredevil when he deigned to return from his vacation. The modest crime city in the Rockies grows into a bustling new capitol city of the USA over the multiple months that the Claw is in control of the country.

Having achieved his goal, the Claw enacts a nationwide search for an appropriate consort, finally settling on a luckless young woman to be his unwilling Empress of America. This backfires almost immediately, as the new Empress uses the freedom of her position to sabotage the execution of Daredevil and then escape with him on a handy motorcycle.

Daredevil returns, of course, and in swift order tricks the Claw into stomping his foot hard enough to set off the dormant volcano under his city, thus destroying it, his criminal army and seemingly himself (and probably a lot of political prisoners and rejected Empress of America candidates, too). The Nation is safe!

Silver Streak Comics 011: Having repeatedly met defeat at the hands of one man, the Claw grows somewhat discouraged and so turns to the dark arts for aid, and specifically turns to the "genii" Lucifer, to whom he claims to have already sold his soul. A few things about all this:

Why call him a genii and not a demon? No idea. If this comic were produced in the mid 50s or the mid 80s I might say that it was an attempt to avoid the scrutiny of moral crusaders, but nobody else in 1941 is shy about calling a demon a demon.

Did this Lucifer stuff ever come up before? It did not and furthermore will not come up again. The Claw has used magic in the past, however, so I guess we must assume that he gained that power through selling his soul.

If Lucifer already has the Claw's soul then what's in this deal for him? Lucifer seems to accept the Claw's proposal out of mere caprice. Perhaps he looks forward to seeing more chaos being inflicted on the world. The only payment he extracts from the Claw is a stipulation that if he does not defeat Daredevil this time then he will be "banished to Asia," which I read as some sort of mystic travel restriction.

Flush with new power, the Claw challenges the Daredevil to a battle to the death and enhances the challenge by attacking the country with various demonic genii entities. How can Daredevil hope to prevail?

With relative ease, as it turns out. The Claw's monstrous minions might be dangerous but, like all of us,  are vulnerable to the awesome might of an avalanche, while the Claw, weakened and abandoned by his demonic genii ally, once again falls prey to a Daredevil right hook. The Daredevil and the USA are free of the Claw forever!

(in actuality the Claw and Daredevil meet up one last time, in Daredevil Comics 001, aka Daredevil Battles Hitler, though the Claw never knows that Daredevil is there. In the story, the Claw has made a pact with Hitler to aid the Japanese in their conquest of China and Daredevil employs subterfuge and sabotage to set the two villains against one another. Also, the Claw absolutely returns to the US - I guess that's what comes of going with a genii instead of a demon for your fell curses)

And one last thing that didn't fit anywhere else: though the Claw is a long-time size changer, this is the year that he demonstrates the ability to selectively grow parts of his body, seen here in Silver Streak Comics 009.