MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 920: MHERSA

(Champion Comics 003, 1940/ Champ Comics 011, 1940)

Half sister to the mercurial undersea tyrant Neptina, Mhersa originally appears as the head of the Maella, a rebel group comprised of female members of the same race of underwater beings as Neptina (I'm not going into that again). Mhersa and the Maella are isolationist but reasonable compared to Neptina's capricious ways. (Champion Comics 003, 1940)

The Maella help Lt Brad Fletcher off and on during his conflict with Neptina, but Mhersa's next major move comes in Champ Comics 011, when she seizes the throne of Amloza while Neptina is out and about. Though this is a pretty reasonable act considering the way that the kingdom was being run, it is framed as villainous due to the fact that Neptina had just finished reforming her ways when she got the news. 

Still, in my eyes Mhersa is still on the side of the angels, just trying to do right by the people of Amloza. Right up to the point that she surrenders the city to the fascistic King Walro of the Walrus Men in exchange for an easy life in his administration, that is. 

Just why Mhersa does this is never explained - perhaps her opposition to her sister was less about justice and more about some sort of irrational rivalry and this is the best way that she can think of to spite her? (Champ Comics 013, 1941)

Neptina and her allies (now including Prince Eon, former ruler of the Walrus Men and new Neptina love interest) prepare to take the fight to Mhersa, but before they get much further than their initial brainstorming session Neptina gets a psychic vision: Mhersa has left Amloza. It turns out that she was somehow less popular than her half sister and is now gone by popular demand. 

Mhersa enlists the aid of King Walro in an attempt to murder Neptina outright that really cements my theory that this is all about sibling rivalry rather than differing opinions on good governance.

Believing Neptina to be dead, Mhersa leads a force of Walrus Men to retake Amloza, only to be defeated, captured and jailed by her sister, never to be seen again. (Champ Comics 014, 1941)

Categorized in: By Birth (Undersea Beings), Generica (Ends in A), Theft (Usurpers) 

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 012

I know we're all tired of fascist, but these are fake, historical fascists who get beat up, so it's cathartic at least. 

the Blitzys:

The Blitzys, aka the Yellowshirts, have a never-clearly-articulated plan to divide American society by beating people up for not joining the Army. I assume that there must be more to it than that but the focus of the adventure is not on Spy Smasher beating up these particular fascists (though beat them he does) but in avoiding them long enough to get to Washington and warn the President about this fifth column activity. (Whiz Comics 020, 1941)

The Blitzys, armed with a completely silent bomber plane, continue to vex Spy Smasher and America on behalf of their boss the War Lord through to Whiz Comics 022, when their leader Kurt Bund is finally run to ground in his base underneath a local cemetery and properly walloped.

Categorized in: Crime as Theme (Naziism), Objects (Shirts)

the Ring:

A gang of airplane saboteurs with so little assigned motivation that they might as well be in it for the love of the game, the Ring is undone by FBI agent Dick Star and his aide, the unusually-named Pinky Dink. (Bang-Up Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Rings), Ideologies (Crypto-Fascists)

Unnamed Giant Robot Unit: 

Eventually the comic timeline that I'm working on is going to get to the point that the US is World War II, and the flow of vague Nazi-adjacent antagonist groups is going to dry up and be replaced mainly with overt Nazi and Japanese super-villains. Does this mean the end of the Fascict Goon Round-Up? surely not, because there needs to be a place to document the weird over-the-top schemes that the comic book version of the Axis powers get up to.

Take this one: two enormous robots rise out of the depth of New York Harbor and destroy a patrol boat before stomping into the city proper. 

Then, after making their way downtown, they disgorge a bunch of Nazi soldiers to... do something. Honestly it's unclear what these guys are up to and more to the point just what havoc they could raise that a giant Robot couldn't. In any case they don't have long on the ground before they are beaten up by the Flag-Man and Rusty. 

All this action in the city is especially baffling as the actual plan is to blow up a chunk of the US fleet with a minefield. Maaaybe the idea is to draw them in with the giant robot attack? In any case, the Flag-Man steers one of the robots into the minefield and takes care of the entire problem with one huge explosion. (Captain Aero Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Mecha)

the Swastika Council:

It's not entirely clear just what kind of fascist group the Swastika Council is, thanks to the fact that their sole appearance concerns the fact that David Merrywether, aka the Cat-Man, is about to expose their membership to the papers and their efforts to prevent him from doing that. My money's on them being some sort of fifth columnists. (Cat-Man Comics 004, 1941)

Categorized in: Crime as Theme (Naziism), Generica (Councils)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 919: THE WEREWOLF

(Cat-Man Comics 005, 1941)

There are three remarkable things about the story of the Werewolf. The first is that it finally establishes that the city that the Pied Piper operates out of has a name and that it is Central City - this both a nice thing to have cleared up and a fun coincidence, given that the other comic book Pied Piper, the Flash villain, also lives in a place with that name. 

The second thing is just how clearly and concisely the Werewolf's motivation is: he was bitten by a werewolf while in Tibet some ten years earlier and he blames his colleagues, Doctors Martin and Smith, for not treating him properly and thus not preventing his eventual transformation. Specifically, Arno becomes filled with murderous vengeance when he realizes that his gnarled werewolf hands are no longer capable of performing brain surgery.

Thirdly is this story's treatment of lycanthropy. Among the points of interest:

- Arno is bitten c. 1931 but does not transform until ten years later. 

- Just what the "werewolf" that bit him in Tibet is is unclear. It's probably meant to be a man-beast of the type that Arno himself has turned into, but 1940s comics also commonly refer to vampire bats as vampires and this has made me gunshy. 

- Speaking of man-beasts: like the other Werewolf we have encountered, Arno is much more man than wolf. I'm sure that over time we will be able to identify trends in the morphology of comic book lycanthropes.

- Arno treats his condition as if it is permanent, but the action of the story takes place over the course of two days, meaning that the full moon (implied to be the trigger for the initial transformation) has not yet passed. Presumably Arno did not turn back during the day or he might have been a bit less murderous about the whole thing.

- On that note, it's a bit unclear how much of Arno's homicidal inclination is revenge and how much is werewolf insanity. 

Though the Pied Piper is unable to prevent the Werewolf from murdering Dr Martin, he is able to track him to the abandoned lighthouse that he has holed up in and learn Arno's motivation. The Piper's magical instrument proves not only able to subdue a crazed wolfman but also to exert enough sheer musical force to bring the building down on his head to end his reign of terror.

In the end, the Pied Piper and Dr Smith decide that the Werewolf was not wholly to blame for his crimes and conceal Arno's involvement in them, meaning that Dr Ralph Arno is just kind of Famously Missing.

REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/2

Categorized in: Accessories (Lighthouse), Day Jobs (Brain Surgeons), Supranormal Beings (Lycanthropes)

NOTES: FEBRUARY 2026

Costume Materials: 

The Daredevil's mask is made out of rubber. (Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941) 

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 023

Perhaps we should make ethics a mandatory subject for the sciences again.

Kruger: 

While tooling around in the desert one day, Diamond Jack encounters a young woman named Ruth West, whose physician brother has been captured by the diabolical scientist Kruger and taken to Terror Valley in order to help in Kruger's work turning men into hybrid creatures called Vulture Men, with the ultimate goal of using them to take over the world. If that plot sounds at all familiar, it's because it is almost exactly the same as the one in Wonderworld Comics 015, featuring the Flame and Dr Belos, right down to the name of the valley, the colour of the Vulture men and the fact that the scientist has his own private hydroelectric dam.

Just how did this happen? Three distinct possibilities spring to mind:

1. The Diamond Jack writer (Gus Ricca? He's got the generally accepted art credit) just plain old cribbed the story off of the Flame adventure, which came out about six months earlier

2. Gus Ricca and the Flame writer (unidentified) knew one another and came up with the idea for the story together in the reasonable expectation that nobody would notice. Alternately, the same person might have written both stories for two different artists.

3. The biggest coincidence in the history of mankind.

Whatever the reason for it, we are left with two very similar stories to compare:

Kruger's Vulture Men are much more appealing to me than Belos' - particularly their weird pawlike hands. While Belos' version does look a bit more like something you could do to a person via surgery (except for the part where they have functional dragon wings coming out of their backs of course), the lack of humanity in the bird heads of Kruger's really drives home the horror of their being transformed against their wills. I also appreciate their seemingly organic feather kilts.

Kruger also has a better look than Belos - his having a bit of the vulture to his look makes a lot of aesthetic sense! I do miss Belos' one long tooth, though.

The one place where Kruger loses out to Belos is in means of destruction. Being drowned by your own bursting dam doesn't hold a candle to getting fatally beaned with the skull of one of your own failed experiments (though "I'm drowning - AAAGH!" are pretty good last words). (Wow Comics 001, 1940)

Categorized in: Animals (Birds) 

Professor Stargaze: 

Professor Stargaze is a mad astronomer (nominative determinism) who discovers that the wandering and flaming planet Inferno will soon pass near Earth and wipe all life from its surface. Not only does Stargaze decide not to share this information with the world (possibly a morally neutral act) but he is so convinced that it is the right thing to happen that he tags along with Zambini the Miracle Man and tries to prevent him from stopping it (actively evil).

Stargaze is ultimately fried to a crisp when he attempts to assassinate Zambini with a flaming spear, then reincarnated as a rat by magic, then restored to his human form back on Earth once it is saved. Has he learned a lesson from all this? Unclear. (Zip Comics 002, 1940)

Categorized in: Day Jobs (Astronomers), Doctors and Professors

Doctor Igor:

Doctor Igor is a scientist with a vision: to develop a method of creating giant men via electrical stimulation of the pituitary gland, and to use an army of these men to take over the world. To that end, he has taken over a remote island (probably because it already has a castle on it) and used its inhabitants as guinea pigs.

Igor probably saw the fact that the island had a copra plantation on it as a plus, since it provided a supply experimental subjects for him, but what he failed to anticipate was that an interruption of commercial product is likely to draw the attention of an adventurer such as Lance Rand to investigate just what the heck was going on. Igor is ultimately undone when his own creation trips over some equipment and blows up the castle. (Cat-Man Comics 002, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Castles), Doctors and Professors 

Borcia:

Borcia (also called "Garcia" one time which is probably an editorial oversight but possibly means that his name is either Garcia Borcia or Borcia Garcia) is a formerly-famous scientist whose mind cracked due to overwork and who now dreams of world conquest. And how better to achieve that dream than by stealing the magic gem owned by small-time super-hero Dr Diamond?

Once both the gem and Dr Diamond are in his clutches, Borcia reveals his world domination plot: let loose a moderately cool-looking giant robot called Najar to just kind of indiscriminately rampage through the nearby town of Verez, Mexico. Presumably there will be more robots later on. As for the magic diamond: it seems to play no real role in the plan. Borcia just wanted it, I guess.

As so often happens, Borcia is betrayed by his own step-daughter Elena, who just wants a normal, non-evil life and resents being part of a super-villainous household. Dr Diamond proves more than a match for Najar, and despite some typical super-villain bluster as he is lead off to jail, Borcia is never seen again. (Cat-Man Comics 003, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Gems (Magic), Giant Robots), Location (Mexico)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 918: THE BLACK PANTHER

(Cat-Man Comics 004, 1941)

The district attorney of Central City, the NYC clone that the Pied Piper inhabits, has been murdered by what the authorities can only conceive of as a beast! The city is in a real tizzy, especially once Police Commissioner Gurry receives a note informing him that he will be the next victim (and the cute little signature on this note is why I am calling this villain the Black Panther when it is not used elsewhere in the story - if we can't go by what he calls himself then what's the point?).

True to his word, the Black Panther shows up at the Commissioner's office at 10:30, and sics his small-b, small-p black panther on him (I know it looks white in the above panel but trust me). It is only the timely intervention of the Pied Piper that saves the day.

Though the initial attempt failed, the Black Panther is nothing if not persistent and tries again once the commissioner gets home - I guess the police assumed that the scheduled 10:30 murder was some sort of hard and fast rule that the villain was going to stick to and so they all knocked off for the day once it didn't happen. It's all groovy though, because the Pied Piper is still on the case and his magic flute has a "panther-killing" setting. And his fist has a "villain-punching" setting that comes in handy when the Black Panther makes a third attempt on the Commissioner's life sans pet.

Once unmasked, the Black Panther turns out to be newspaper editor Purt Mason, and Purt Mason is revealed in turn to be gangster Razor Harris, who spent some time in South Africa while establishing his new identity (and acquiring a panther pal) and came back for revenge on the men who put him away. The Black Panther was a revenge killer the whole time!

REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/2

Categorized in: Animals (Panthers), Colours (Black), Murder (Revenge Killers)