MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 957: THE PROFESSOR

(Dynamic Comics v1 001, 1941)

Unlike most Professors in comics, this fellow is seemingly not named that because he is a scientist but rather because he is a clever criminal. He and his powerful companion Hugo are hired by the evocatively-named Hell Gang to intercept and destroy some key evidence while it is en route from the District Attorney's office to the courthouse where Hell Gang leadership is on trial.

It's not fair to blame the Professor for this because there's no way that he could know, but Jim Hornsby, aka the Black Cobra, works at the very district attorney's office that the records are coming from and so is in a perfect position to stick his nose in and foil the whole plan. The records are delivered just in time to convict the Hell Gang, and though the Professor and Hugo get away I am pretty concerned about the Professor's spine after the punch he takes in that final panel above.

Categorized in: Generica (Professors), Misc (Mercenaries)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 039

Those who also ran, we salute you. 

Karl the Hermit:

Karl, as his name implies, is a mean ol' hermit who lives atop a mountain. He has has got himself a critter called the Thing that Walks Like a Man that he uses to act out his misanthropic impulses, such as when he sends it to kill his cousin Rushman. What is his motivation for doing all this? Don't worry about it - he's a crazy old hermit!

Karl's actions attract the attention of the Silver Streak and Meteor, and both he and the Thing end up doing a header off of a cliff. (Silver Streak Comics 015, 1941)

Lord Garnett:

Lord Garnett, English MP, engages in a little pigeon-based espionage on behalf of the Nazis and gets socked by the Silver Streak for his efforts. As can be deduced by his trademark braying laugh, this is the guy who later pivots into propaganda broadcasting as a Lord Haw-Haw analog, but here we are only concerned with his foray into masked spymanship. (Daredevil Comics 001, 1941)

Anders:

When a masked arsonist starts burning down all of a company's buildings in a comic it's equal odds on whether it's corporate sabotage, extortion or insurance fraud. I guess those are the main choices in real life as well, now that I think about it. In this case it's some pretty solvable insurance fraud, as the Anders Warehouse Company is being burned down by Mr Anders for the money. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)

Mr Black:

Mr Black, Art Supervisor of the Municipal Museum in the undefined city that Lucky Coyne calls home, has happened upon a foolproof scheme: kidnap a painter and force him to create forgeries, then sell those forgeries for beaucoup bucks. There are only two problems with this scheme: 1) Black loses his job immediately for spending museum funds on one of his own forged paintings and 2) both the museum and the painter's daughter come to Lucky Coyne for help, leading on a severe blow to the head for Mr Black. (Dynamic Comics 002, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 956: THE EVIL EYE

(Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)

Lucky Coyne, private detective and man with the most complicated publishing history in comics* is hired by heiress Helen Jordan to solve a ghost problem in the mansion she has just inherited. The ghost in question, called the Evil Eye, obligingly makes an appearance just as she mentions him, with his signature "Weeeee... ha ha ha!" laugh.

*Lucky Coyne appeared in comics by half a dozen publishers over the years, and operated as a police sergeant, a reporter and, as here, a private eye. And some of his adventures, including this one, were reprinted with differently-named lead characters such as Kensington Slade and Jinx Jordan.

Lucky and his associate Terry make their way to the mansion and have a second encounter with the Evil Eye in which he locks them in an attic and then sets the place on fire in an attempt to kill them. While attempting to get out of the former trap, Terry knocks down a bit of wall and discovers a cask of precious jewels, which is what the ghost was after the entire time.

There is a final confrontation between Lucky and the Evil Eye on the Jordan Mansion lawns, in which the ghost is hampered by being outside of his favoured terrains of "crumbling old manor" or "urban rooftop" and is pretty quickly laid out. The Evil Eye is unmasked, and it's a classic Scooby-Doo situation: Harms, the mansion's caretaker, was dressing up and haunting the place in an attempt to drive Helen Jordan away and claim the jewels for himself. Like so many of his fellow fake ghosts, his actions only served to make his targets aware of the valuables that he was trying to steal, alas.

The Evil Eye also employs the services of the Black Demon, a creature described as a "giant black bat" but actually clearly some sort of vulture. Is this a case of nobody in the comic knowing what a bat is, or the comic's artist (unidentified, per the Grand Comics Database) not knowing what a bat is? In either case, it's a doozy.

Categorized in: Body (Eyes), Fraud (Fake Undead - Ghosts), Language (Expressions)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 955: THE YELLOW SPOT

(Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)

Scientists across the US are going missing, kidnapped by  the magical madman known as the Yellow Spot!

This brain-draining crime spree inspires the magical scholar Professor Moore to create the super-hero Dynamic Man, which in turn inspires the Yellow Spot to murder Professor Moore. He is just a wee bit too late, however, and instead of preventing the creation of Dynamic Man he merely provides him with a bit of extra motivation in the form of a dying father figure.

But just why is the Yellow Spot after these men of science? Why, to push back against the death of superstition (very funny in retrospect, as in out world the avowed hyper-rationalism of the 40s and 50s gave way to the mystic syncretism of the 60s and ultimately to the proud anti-science of today). He's got a machine that shrinks a man's head and renders him like unto a child, and presumably he plans to keep on shrinking heads until it has an effect on the global scientific consensus.

Dynamic Man shows up just in time to witness a head shrinking, and while it looks to be a pretty uneven contest at first, he is captured in a net made of woven black magic (very cool) that can only be cut using a knife "forged from the bones of a dying murderer" (even cooler, if hard to imagine).

The thing about a net that can only be cut by a special knife is that it's only as effective as your ability to keep that knife away from your prisoner, and I would argue that leaving it unattended on a table in the same room as the prisoner while a bunch of easily suggestible man-children wander around is tantamount to just handing it over. Which is a long-winded way of saying that Dynamic Man gets free with the help of a headshrunken scientist and starts beating up the Yellow Spot's men.

The Yellow Spot makes a break for it, but in an eleventh hour bit of plot contrivance it turns out that his bat form (i.e., the main way he gets around) is also the only form in which he can be harmed, and as it flies slower than Dynamic Man, he ends up as a flat bat. Personally, I would sacrifice a bit of convenience to avoid being squashed on the wing like this, but then again I am not an insane magic man.

Finally, I would like to highlight the Yellow Spot's minions, a bunch of low-grade monster men who he calls the Hideous Ones at least once. Particularly that last fellow, who I swear has half a mustache. A bold choice!

Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Shapes), Colours (Yellow), Origins (Henchmen)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 089

Just when you think that there couldn't be any more super-heroes, another batch appears.

Major Victory:

After an unnamed soldier stationed at US Army Camp Courage dies in an attempt to prevent the camp's arsenal from being bombed, his body is hauled away by angelic figures and ushered into the presence of a star-spangled old man.

This, it turns out, is Father Patriot, a new and legally distinct anthropomorphic personification of the spirit of the United States. Were the folks at Chesler concerned about using Uncle Sam due to the fact that Quality Comics was already doing so? Perhaps! Regardless of his origin, Father Patriot revives the soldier as an exemplar of the self-sacrificing military hero. Unusually for a character who has been restored to life by a mystical force, Major Victory (as he is dubbed) does not come back with any powers but is instead gifted with a costume, an airfield base complete with high-powered radio receiver and an airplane and just told to have at it.

Major Victory is not entirely without supernatural enhancement, however: if he's ever in a big enough jam then Father Patriot can ring the Liberty Bell to give him a rush of strength sufficient to snap a steel chain.  (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Majors), Origin (Patriotic Heroes), Origin (Resurrected)

Dynamic Man:

I'm really kicking myself here. Back when I started this blog I was focusing on super-villains and only really talking about the weirder super-heroes, and while I eventually realized my error and started talking about every super-hero at least a little (hence the round-up framework - if I only have a small amount to say about any one hero there are three more to bulk out the post) I'm still playing catch-up. This is all to say that if I'd done things right to start with I'd already have an entry on the Marvel Comics Dynamic Man to point to instead of an assertion that one is coming up in a few month when Mystic Comics comes back around in my reading list.

This is especially galling because both the Marvel and the Chesler Dynamic Mans are androids who emerge from their birthing tubes as their creators are dying in front of them. This is a fun coincidence, probably! There are of course plenty of differences between the two: the Chesler Dynamic Man is created specifically to combat the villainous Yellow Spot, while the Marvel one is more of an exercise in creation for its own sake. Chesler Dynamic Man is also possibly a magical construct rather than a humanoid robot. My evidence for this amounts to the fact that he was created by "authority on ancient black magic" Dr Moore, who talks about giving him "the power of steel, the speed of an eagle and the wisdom of the sages," which is pretty poetic if you're talking about an android and might be literal if you're growing some sort of super-homunculus.

Dynamic Man is a hero of the Superman variety, with the powers of flight, super strength and a general invulnerability to harm. He also wears these gloves that I find very distracting - sure, that long point that extends up the forearm is an interesting addition to the costume, but how does it stay in place? Does Dynamic Man have to apply a little spirit gum to his arm every time he gets dressed?

Finally, Dynamic Man flies with every limb maximally akimbo, and continues to do so throughout his super-heroic career. It's honestly kind of charming. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Mans), Language (Superlatives - Dynamic), Origins (Magical Constructs)

Hale the Magician:

It's 1541 and the young Englishman Hale (no first name given) and his father are the only two good - though still fairly racist - Europeans in South America and thus object to the brutal treatment of the indigenous peoples by the Spanish. They head up into the mountains to pledge their support to Chief Xingu of the Maoni Indians and soon find themselves locked in battle with a group of angry conquistadors. It's a short-lived battle, as Xingu reveals himself to be a master of science and magic by producing a lightning storm from his spear. The Spanish sensibly flee, but not before killing Hale Sr.

Thanks to his selfless heroism (and after passing a series of challenges), Hale the Younger is essentially adopted by Xingu, who teaches his new ward all the technomagical secrets of the Maoni. Together, they create the Magic Spearhead, an artifact that contains the sum of all those powers, but before they can test it out Hale is struck down by a jealous rival. Xingu places Hale's body in a special tomb with the promise that he will return to life one day

Cut to 1941, the prophesied time of Hale's revival, and scientist Henry Starrett and his daughter Lois are on-hand to witness the grand event. After waiting for months, they run out of food and Starrett makes the oafish decision to smash open the tomb with a big stick. This vandalism must have been part of the prophecy, because smashing the tomb kills Starrett and restores Hale to life in what is possibly some sort of inadvertent sacrifice.

Thanks to the Magic Spearhead, Hale has all of the limitless power of his fellows in the fraternity of comic book magicians and he returns to the States with Lois to use those powers for the good of mankind. In an extremely frustrating development, Hale never sees fit to attach the Magic Spearhead to a spear body, making it more like a weird magic knife, but maybe it's just me and nobody else is bothered by this. I mean, Xingu had his magic coming out of a full-sized spear, Hale. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Spears), Magical Professions (Magicians), Origins (Resurrected)

the Black Cobra:

The Black Cobra is a standard unit of costumed vigilante. In day-to-day life he is Jim Hornsby, son and office clerk of District Attorney Hornsby, but when danger looms he suits up and starts slinging fists. It's not a great costume, mind you, both because it's too busy and, importantly not black. Plus I checked out his other appearances and that is the best that that cowl is ever going to look.

The Black Cobra also has the one variation on the meek alter ego that is more grating than the disappointed love interest: the emotionally abusive disappointed parent. Hornsby Senior in contention for Worst Father in Comics. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Animals (Cobras), Colours (Black), Day Jobs (Clerks)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 038

Where are we going to put all of these aliens? 

Undergrounders: 

I want to call these guys mole men who invade the surface world in the year 3050 CE, but looking at the battle scene and the remainder of this adventure I reckon that Abovegrounders of that particular future also look all bald and gangly. It's a whole world of mole men! Science adventurer Captain Daring kills the Undergrounders' underground Fuehrer and installs his own ladyfriend as the new Queen of the Underground, which has to be an improvement. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

Juno Men:

These fellows hail from the planet Juno and are invading the Earth of the far future of the year 3000. We don't really learn any more than this because we are seeing these events play out from the persepctive of a time-travelling Minimidget and Ritty, and so not only are they without context but they are too small to ask a passerby to explain just what the heck is happening. They are driven off with what I would call embarrassing ease. (Amazing-Man Comics 014, 1940)

Followers of Elo: 

Underwater adventurer the Shark is possibly my favourite Centaur Comics character, because he spends a lot of his time palling around with his dad, Father Neptune. A little-explored aspect of this father-son relationship is that it is part of a Phantom-like generational super-hero legacy, with each Shark serving for 500 years before becoming Father Neptune and passing his legacy on to his son. One of the few times that this arrangement is explored is in Amazing-Man Comics 014, when Father Neptune tells the story of how he served on a pirate crew for a while back when he was the Shark, and how in 1664 his crewmates were all slaughtered in the name of the Great God Elo by some lumpy-headed green guys on an island off South America.

Cut to 1940, and the Shark and Father Neptune decide that a trip to that same island would be a perfect father-son outing. They find that the Great God Elo has only two followers left, and that one of them is a capable enough scientist that he has developed super-hero strength sleep gas grenades. Father and son are swiftly taken prisoner.

The unnamed scientist has also created an interplanetary teleportation device, which he employs to teleport in some...

Martians: 

Specifically, a pretty lucky first teleport brings him Prince Zog, son of Diggo, King of Mars. But just why bring Martians to Earth? We will never know, because Zog is a very rude warmonger and he has electric eyes. The tribe of Elo is down to its very last member and he has sensibly vacated the area.

No aliens are going to invade the Earth on the Shark's watch, and he KOs on after another as they pour out of the teleport beam, until a lucky punch sends one crashing into the equipment, wrecking it.

Though the teleporter is no longer spewing out Martians, there are still a pile of knocked-out ones lying around. How to tie up this loose end? Why, have Father Neptune, who missed the fight due to still being knocked out, throw a bucket of water on them so that they will wake up and engage him in the manly art of fisticuffs, of course! And then make it so that Martians are water soluble! Gruesome! (Amazing-Man Comics 015, 1940)