MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 077

Please enjoy about half of the Great Comics stable of characters.  

Kangaroo Man:

The Kangaroo Man is Jack Brian, who gets his name thanks to his animal companion: Bingo, an astonishingly well-trained kangaroo. 

Jack might be a pretty standard comic book adventurer, but Bingo, though his vocabulary is limited to a "rsp, rsp" sound, is of seemingly near-human intelligence and able to act essentially as another human character in the strip. Here's Bingo parachuting out of an airplane, for example.

Bingo also has a respectable body count for an animal hero - he does a lot of whacking explosives at people and people at explosives. (Choice Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Animals (Marsupials), Generica (Mans), Origins (Nonhuman)

Atlas the Mighty:

Atlas the Mighty has exactly one recorded adventure, in which he foils a band of fifth columnists who are stealing war materials in Oregon and then smuggling them to Canada. Or possibly the other way around. Though his name and his powers (super strength, invulnerability) evoke the Titan Atlas, Atlas the Mighty gets not one whiff of an origin and so any connection between the two is speculative at best. (Choice Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Famous Figures (Mythological), Language (Superlatives), Origins (Unknown)

the Secret Circle:

The Secret Circle are actually brothers Jim (heavyweight boxing champion), Larry (pole vault record holder) and Mac (track star) Storm. Does it bother me that there are three of them and they went with a circle rather than a triangle? Heck yes it does.

Though there's some indication that the Secret Circle are already established vigilantes, they really get going when gang boss Lou Pacone murders their father, Police Commissioner Storm (incidentally, this happens while all three brothers are out setting records in their chosen fields, and while I won't go so far as to say that Commissioner Storm deserved to be murdered for being a bad father I will note that he would still be alive if he had taken the day off to support his sons instead of doing work that could have been delegated).

Though Larry and Mac's specialties do occasionally come in handy, all three Storm brothers spend most of their adventures punching out crooks, which kind of devalues Jim's contributions. (Choice Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Circles), Origins (Crime Orphans)

Fire-Eater: 

Fire-Eater, aka Mike O'Malley, is a stage performer whose act consists of the same fire-eating and -exhaling that he employs in his crimefighting. This is very important for those of us who are interested in the in-universe origins of super-hero (and super-villain) costumes, because it means that Fire-Eater's is in fact his stage outfit, and that he looks like that for professional reasons rather than as an expression of his secret inner self.

Despite his name, Fire-Eater does not actually eat any fire in his two recorded adventures. Instead, he eats "sodium capsules" (yikes) that allow him to breath streams of flame hot enough to melt lead and iron, and with enough force to travel at least a few dozen feet. He also seems to be at least somewhat invulnerable to heat and flame, which is handy not just because he deals in the stuff but because like a lot of fire guys he mostly fights arsonists, together with his girlfriend, nurse Louise Peters (Choice Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Activities (Eating), Elements (Fire)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 922: GENGHIS KHAN

(Champ Comics 015, 1941)

Okay, Genghis Khan. A lot of guys in comics like to call themselves Genghis Khan or claim to be his successor etc, and importantly they all seem to be into all the old Genghis Khan stuff like horse archers. Absolutely 100% stuff that Genghis was into at the time he was around of course, but I personally think that he would enjoy a machine gun if he had the chance. 

Duke "the Human Meteor" O'Dowd is getting up to his usual day of driving cabs and palling around with his shoeshine boy pal Toby when suddenly the city is attacked by a mass of cavalry led by a shirtless giant wielding a flaming sword. This is Genghis Khan (a Genghis Khan, at least), and he is probably the Human Meteor's only recurring foe, appearing in 3 (possibly 4, but Champ Comics 018 is currently AWOL) whole issues.

A conquering giant cuts an intriguing figure, but the unfortunate thing about Genghis Khan is that the stories he appears in are pretty incoherent. There's a plot, but everything other than the plot is just shiny bits glued on like sparkles. That said, here are the most interesting and intriguing things about him:

1. Size and Origins

Genghis Khan's size remains fairly consistently enormous during his first two appearances - if anything, he might just be a bit bigger in the second one. His third appearance, however, shows him at a considerably reduced stature, from the third set of panel above in which he's maybe ten feet tall to perhaps fifteen feet at maximum. Is this an indication that he can control his size or just a general disregard for continuity?

The unanswered question of just what is up with this guy's size is a symptom of the fact that he has no real origin. He just shows up one day, stomping around Manhattan. Is he even Mongolian? Not to put too fine a point on it, but I've read a lot of 1940s comics and I think that they would have drawn him differently if he was. 

2. Technology

The other major unanswered question about Genghis Khan is: just where did he get those wonderful toys? Such as... 

His giant flaming sword that can also change its atomic structure on the fly, seemingly specifically so that the Human Meteor can't pick it up.

His cool dirigible base and its defensive screen of flamethrowers.

The "sky road," a transparent walkway that both men and horses can travel to and from the dirigible on, which need no support and must have some sort of crazy friction going on considering the angles that people are climbing it at.

3. Goals

Unsurprisingly, the self-declared successor of Genghis Khan, this fellow's main goal is conquest. The attack on New York in his initial appearance is the first part of an attempted takeover of the US, for example.

In Genghis Khan's second appearance (Champ Comics 016, 1941), he is laying siege to the hidden, high-tech city of Bayakura, the place that Duke O'Dowd became the Human Meteor. 

Though the Human Meteor drops a mountain on him at the end of that second appearance, Genghis Khan survives somehow (perhaps by shedding mass to allow himself to escape his mountain tomb? That'd be an interesting aspect of the character if it ever came up) and allies with the Japanese to harry the US fleet off China. The Human Meteor sinks the Khan's entire fleet, and since he (probably) never appears again, drowning does what being crushed under a mountain failed to.

Categorized in: Famous Figures (Genghis Khan), Real Folk (Genghis Khan), Supercrime (Attempted Conquest)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 037

For the first time in a very long time: the generic costumed villains all have costumes! 

Unnamed Costumed Gang: 

This unnamed gang has gone to a heckuva lot of trouble to steal the Kalaka Emerald from millionaire Byron Nelson: they've dug out a secret lair under his weird mesa-top home, murdered several of his guests in order to create terror and of course dressed up like the background characters in a costume party scene, presumably also in order to create terror.

Sadly for them, they have failed to reckon with two important facts: 1) that Nelson has already stolen his own gem in order to do a little insurance fraud and 2) that he has hired adventurer Lance Rand to protect the emerald and throw a bit of suspicion off of himself. Rand cleans up the costumed crew with ease, and bags Nelson to boot. (Cat-Man Comics 003, 1941)

Puggsy Sloane: 

When famed gorilla Monstro escapes from the Jenks Bros. Circus, the unnamed city is gripped with terror. And the terror is seemingly justified, as citizen after citizen is murdered by an ape and the police are unable to prevent it despite expending all of their manpower in order to do so. Lance Rand is once again on the case, however, and thanks to a tip-off that Monstro is in fact harmless from the circus owner is able to piece together the fact that it is not the gorilla doing the murders but gorilla-suited gang boss Puggsy Sloane. Why is he doing so? Why, to stretch the police force to the limit and distract them from all of the robbing that his gang was getting up to, of course. (Cat-Man Comics 004, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Style (Gorilla Costume)) 

Dr Carl Resdale: 

Dr Resdale, a famous plastic surgeon, has been operating a face-changing service for criminals out of the old disused family manor for the last twenty years and NOW the rest of the family is looking to use the manor and he has to scare them off by sneaking around in a mask and getting up to spookiness. And not only does he have to keep his young relatives from living in his place of work but he must conceal the fact that he killed his own brother in the manor twenty years before (this is why it's disused). 

Fear not for the younger Resdales, because Dr Miracle is on the case, the villain is soon deprived of his low-effort mask.  (Champion Comics 012, 1941)

Brady: 

A masked killer working for a gambling syndicate active in the Florida horse tracks, Brady's signature weapon is a club with a horse shoe nailed to it to simulate a deadly horse kick to his victims' heads. While a neat little murder weapon, this isn't quite enough to help him when he comes up against Johnny Fox. (Champ Comics 015, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Weapons (Clubs)) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 921: THE SCALY DRAGON

(Champ Comics 014, 1941)

The Scaly Dragon is what I would consider to be a very by-the-book fascist saboteur with a better-than-average name. He does have a couple of noteworthy things about him though, including 1. the fact that he is a pseudo-Imperial Japanese spy rather than the much more common pseudo-Nazis that we usually see.

2. Though the Scaly Dragon's first couple of efforts were aimed at sabotaging the water supply of New York City (which is where the Human Meteor gets on his tail), his home base appears to be in Cincinnati, an oft-ignored city in comics.  

3. After he is rounded up by the Human Meteor, we get a rare scene of the Scaly Dragon getting booked. Most of the time these guys end up dead or just dropped off directly at a prison courtyard, so this is a real treat - I suppose the next milestone we must look forward to is a super-villain mug shot.

Categorized in: Animals (Dragons), Espionage (Saboteurs), Locations (Cincinnati)

CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 003

It's a dangerous ol' job, heroing. Thus, the Catalogue of Wounds!

Green Lantern:

While tied up in a burning house, Green Lantern must thrust his hands into the flames to escape. (All American Comics 031, 1941)

Hawkgirl: 

Hawkgirl is shot in the back by an agent of Mister X while acting as a Hawkman decoy on her very first outing in costume (All-Star Comics 005, 1941)

Hawkman:

Shot in the left shoulder by Alexander the Great. (Flash Comics 002, 1940)

Shot in - I think - the left shoulder again while working on the case of the Hand. (Flash Comics 015, 1941) 

Shot in the right shoulder for a change, as Carter Hall. (Flash Comics 019, 1941) 

Perhaps Hawkman preferentially takes bullets to the left shoulder because he took an arrow there during his original incarnation as Prince Khufu. (Flash Comics 001, 1940)  

Speaking of Prince Khufu, he (along Princess Shiera, off-panel) is famously stabbed by the evil Hath-Set. Hey, a fatal wound is still a wound. (Flash Comics 001, 1940)

the Human Torch:

During one of the periods in which the Human Torch is being hunted by the law, he takes a police slug to his right arm. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 011, 1940)

the King: 

Gets his scalp creased by a bullet. (Flash Comics 003, 1940)

And again a year later. (Flash Comics 016, 1941)

Aquatic toughie the Scarlet Mermaid gives the King a fashionable bullet wound in the left shoulder while making her escape. (Flash Comics 019, 1941)

the Pied Piper: 

Shot in the right arm while wrasslin' with the Black Panther's panther. (Cat-Man Comics 004, 1941)

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)