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)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 076

Yet more super-heroes for your delectation.

the Black Widow:

There are a lot of Black Widows in comics, but Linda Masters is the first one who I have encountered who is actually a widow and not just a woman named after a spider as a way of emphasizing how creepy-deadly she is. And since her husband was Murdered by a Crime™, she expresses her grief by becoming a crimefighter.

We don't see a lot of the Black Widow's modus operandi during her single recorded adventure, but she is handy with a gun and a judo throw. She spends most of her time standing outside in an overcoat in the rain, so we don't even get much of a chance to observe her costume aside from the fact that it includes a black turtleneck with a particularly leggy spider logo on it. 

She is also at least a better detective than the police in whatever NYC-alike city she calls home, given that the entirety of her first adventure takes place while they are misreading the directions she gave them to the villain's hideout that she has already found. (Cat-Man Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Animals (Arachnids), Colours (Black), Family (Widows)

the Flying Legion: 

Headquartered out of a hollowed-out mesa, this combination air rescue/air vigilante corps is notable mainly for the fact that every single member seems to have a nickname, from leader Chute Harmon to his aides Wolf, Slip and Piston. Perhaps it's part of the onboarding process. (Cat-Man Comics 002, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Legions), Professions (Aviators)

the Pied Piper: 

The Pied Piper is a super-hero whose origin combines two popular tropes: that of the member of the legal system who discovers that the justice they seek can only be found outside of the normal bounds of the law and that of the framed person who must operate outside the law to clear their name (BONUS: he is also an example of a much less common trope, that of the super-hero who has a little mustache). Specifically, the Pied Piper is Stephen Prentice, a lawyer who finds himself framed twice in rapid succession and must turn to his mastery of the pipes to expose the corrupt judge and political boss behind the plot against him.

(the second framing is for a pretty standard murder, but the first one does demand some comment. Prentice is framed for defending a guilty man for murder, with the really damning aspect being that he supposedly set out to do so while knowing that he was guilty. While I am admittedly not a lawyer I cannot imagine that this would be enough to ruin someone's career, even in 1941. Which is probably why they doubled down and also framed him for murder, now that I think of it)

As his name implies, the Pied Piper employs flute and recorder type instruments in his crimefighting, and while his first adventure heavily implies that he is using the power of suggestion to make his foes believe that the music has the power to compel them, subsequent stories make it clear that he is armed with one or more magical instruments acquired as part of his flute-collecting hobby.

Some examples of just what a man can do when armed with a magical flute:

- knock a man unconscious

- compel a man to give a confession

- kill animals 

- collapse buildings 

It really is a very useful item. (Cat-Man Comics 003, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Musical Instruments), Famous Figures (Literary), Professions (Law)

the Hood: 

The Hood, in reality FBI agent Craig Williams, is a non-super-powered vigilante who had only one appearance in 1941, and while I'm sure that there is more to say about him, almost all of it will have to come in the due course of time.

Two things I can say about him are 1. his adventures are extremely dynamic and 2. he kind of looks like the Golden Age Atom. Chew on that for a while, I guess. (Cat-Man Comics 005, 1941)

Categorized in: Objects (Hoods), Professions (Law)