TROPHY ROOM - FLASH

(All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

Not terribly fantastic as trophies go - a run-of-the-mill political boss tries to kill a newspaper publisher - but if the Flash wants a filthy old bullet, he can have it.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 060: THE MASK

(Action Comics 022, 1940)

The Mask is your garden-variety master of disguise, con artist subtype: he assumes the identities of others in order to acquire monies from their banks and businesses. He is distinguished from the rest of his ilk in two ways: firstly in that he is our second villain to employ the aid of the Tigress and secondly in that he actually has his face surgically altered to make his impersonations.

His downfall comes when he assumes the identity of Zatara in order to claim some reward money that the magician had turned down, leading to this:

It's sometimes unclear whether Zatara ever reverses this kind of transformation, so I just go by what's said and done on-panel. If he turns a crook to stone and says he's going to come back for them later then he does. Otherwise, there's a petrified wrongdoer in a field somewhere to this day. All this is to say: Zatara never gives any indication that he's going to change the Mask back, so I imagine that he served his sentence for fraud and had to reintegrate to society looking like that.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 059: THE MASTER OF THE MOOR

(Action Comics 021, 1940)

The Master of the Moor is part of the kind of comic story that starts out overly complex - the corrupt sheriff and coroner of a small town in Sussex, England plot to replace local aristocrat Lord Ralway with a double in order to steal his lands - and with the addition of a few comic book elements becomes just completely untenable. To whit:

-the man who they have recruited to be the double, the Master of the Moor himself, seems to be Way Too Into his role, as witnessed in the above panel. If any crime required a cool and measured hand it would be the impersonation of a public figure. Costumes and code names and oh, let's say trained giant condors used to assassinate witnesses are a bit too flashy for such a sneaky task.

-they decide to proceed with the replacement despite the fact that the famed magician and super-hero Zatara is visiting. Now, it's sometimes hard to judge just how famous Zatara is supposed to be in these comics, despite his fairly well-publicized world-saving exploits, but any visitor is surely an undue risk in such an operation, right?

Anyway, they get well and truly magicked up.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 058: DR VREEKILL

(New York World's Fair Comics 002, 1940)

Dr Vreekill had a steel-melting ray and a dream (engage in the surprisingly common crime activity of extorting the attractions of the New York World's Fair as a prelude to world domination) until Batman and Robin stuck their big noses into his business.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 057: THE MASTERMIND

(More Fun Comics 049-050, 1939)

Masked spy chief. After his first appearance is foiled by adventurer Biff Bronson he pulls one of the more major pivots in supercrime by opening one of those wax museums that doubles as a murder palace, where he himself is killed in a second encounter with Biff.

MINOR SUPER-HERO 003: THE FLYING FOX

(More Fun Comics 037-051, 1938-1940)

Rex Darrell! The Flying Fox! One of the most dull Golden Age aviator heroes, but as with so many of them, he has a cool name so here he is.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 056: MR A-X

(More Fun Comics 046, 1939)

Air pirate who bedeviled minor aviation hero the Flying Fox on multiple occasions.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 055: MR BIG

(Feature Comics 022, 1939)

Just a regular counterfeiter, but he's our first Canadian crook who squeaks over the line into the realm of the super-villain, so here you go.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 054: SLAUGHTER SLADE

(Special Edition Comics, 1940)

Here is a list of pertinent details about Slaughter Slade:

-He talks like Swamp Thing for no discernable reason

-He is stronger and more intelligent than the human norm. Together with the prior point and some general odd behavior throughout the story this kind of leads one to think he might be revealed as a robot or alien or something. He is not.

-He has three henchmen: a regular gangster named Butch, a weird little freak named Spider and an intelligent gorilla named Doctor Allirog. Oh, and a giant spider:

-Doctor Allirog is not an intelligent gorilla at the beginning of the story, but his name is Doctor Allirog at the beginning of the story.

-Slaughter Slade's plan is to destroy the entire US government and install himself and Doctor Allirog as President and Vice-President, respectively.

-Part of Slaughter Slade's plan involves buying a book of knowledge from this man:

Professor Universe is possibly the single-appearance character whose failure to make a return has hurt me personally the most. Just the idea of this mercenary genius living somewhere near Fawcett City is so delightful to me. Obviously I want them to BRING BACK everyone involved in this story, down to Butch and the two Spiders.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 053: PIANG THE TERRIBLE

(Whiz Comics 009, 1940)

A rival magician seeking to steal Ibis the Invincible's mystic Ibistick, Piang dies at the end of their first encounter, is resurrected via careless use of magic by Ibis and then dies again in their second encounter.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 052: DR DURGAN

(Whiz Comics 009, 1940)

Dr Durgan, a respected scientist, develops shrinking tech and of course uses it to force tiny men to steal for him on pain of remaining tiny. All is well until he makes the common mistake of messing with Billy "Captain Marvel" Batson, boy reporter.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 051: CAPTAIN DEATH

(Whiz Comics 008, 1940)

Fairly generic pirate captain distinguished by the fact that he manages at least two appearances. Maybe three, actually:

It's equally possible that this guy - a henchman of Dr Sivana in Whiz 021 - is intended to be the same person with a whole different aesthetic or an unrelated guy with a similar taste in names. What is certain is that he was seemingly kilt stone daid by Captain Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 050: RODNEY STARK

(Whiz Comics 007, 1940)

Rodney Stark is a rich asshole who unfreezes some prehistoric men and uses them as a private military force in a bid to take over the world, until Captain Marvel shows up to murder them all.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 049: HOBO-MILLIONAIRE

(Whiz Comics 006, 1940)

Like many Ibis the Invincible villains, the Hobo-Millionaire found the mystic Ibistick when it was lost for a time and who eventually attempted to kill Ibis with it, leading to is own death via magic feedback. Unlike most Ibis the Invincible villains, Hobo-Millionaire is great.

I would love for them to BRING BACK this great man. It wouldn't be hard, either! Imagine a scenario in which the Ibristick is passed down to a legacy character (this is always the best way to handle bringing back magic item-based characters, BTW) and they try to get advice on how to use their new possession by summoning its previous owners. SURPRISE: most of them were dicks, and Hobo-Millionaire rules them all.

THE WORST TEST

Just an astonishing way to test a gun:

(early issue of Superman or Action or World's Finest)

(All American 033, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 048: THE EMPEROR

(Whiz Comics 006, 1940)

A smuggler who founds an island haven for fugitive criminals, the Emperor makes a key mistake: he forgets that the citizens of his island empire are all murderers and acts like a tyrant. Predictably, he gets murdered.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 047: DR ALOYSIUS LAKE

(Whiz Comics 005, 1940)

Dr Lake has a hypnotism machine which he uses to found a nation-wide network of child thieves. He doesn't reckon, though, with the fact that Captain Marvel is secretly a child.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 046: THE BOMB

(Whiz Comics 003a, 1940)

Explosives expert who blowed himself up and lived to tell the tale, only to go back into explosives-based crime, go up against Dan Dare (the Fawcett Comics detective, not the UK comics space guy) and get caught.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 045: DOCTOR DEATH

(Whiz Comics 002, 1940)

Kind of a generic evil scientist type - he invents a ray that can restore the dead to life but must kill folk in order to test it - but his name is James Kirk, so that's fun!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 044: THE MASK

(Whiz Comics 002-015, 1940-1941)

This fellow right here is the spy that Spy Smasher was trying to smash for the first year and a half or so that he was in action. I tend to think of him as a bigger deal than he actually is because of my tendencies re: thinking too much about comics, but certainly if Spy Smasher himself had managed to remain a going concern after the 40s then the Mask would have eventually been brought back, like the Ultra Humanite.

Due to the fact that he was operating before the US entered the war he was a kind of general all-purpose spy, though I'm sure he'd have been revealed as a Nazi if he'd made it to 1942. He was more successful than most in his endeavors, in that although he was consistently foiled, he always managed to get away with his hide intact. Until his penultimate appearance, that is, when an enraged mind-control victim threw him off of a skyscraper.

But the Mask survived and not only that he thrived! Despite having to get around on crutches, he rebuilt his mind control device, captured Spy Smasher and turned him evil! The evil Spy Smasher then ruined the moment of triumph by killing him.

The evil Spy Smasher would persist, battling Captain Marvel for the next four issues before being cured, so in death the Mask had managed to prompt some of the earliest examples in comics of heroic crossovers and longer-term storytelling!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 043: THE PHANTOM OF THE PYRAMIDS

(More Fun 049, 1939)

An archaeological dabbler who loots digs in the Valley of the Kings until he is put paid by short-lived detective character Bulldog Martin. Really really enjoy his gold mask/ pharaonic headpiece/ dark red robe combo.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 042: THE GORILLA

(More Fun 048, 1939)

A man has a mental health crisis and starts living in a swamp, emerging only to mug strangers. That's a sad story! Put a gorilla costume on him though... a compelling villain!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 041: THE SPEAKING FROG

(More Fun 045, 1939)

The Speaking Frog is possibly the most obscure villain in the DC Universe, and that's including Fawcett, Quality and Charlton characters in the mix. This is a shame because simply based on their name and appearance they are the strongest BRING THEM BACK candidate I have ever encountered. 

Some backstory: in 1938 a strip called "Marg'ry Daw" began in More Fun Comics, running for just a few issues. A Little Orphan Annie knockoff, it featured the titular little girl and her dog having adventures with evil scientists and the like while being left alone by her wealthy but distracted father. Or it would have, but someone wasn't feeling it and it was wrapped up in about four issues.

Flash forward a year and "Marg'ry Daw" is back. This time it involves a more attentive Luther Daw taking his daughter on a train trip across the country. Over the course of five installments the following happens:

-They befriend a Hindu mystic on the train. He has a vision of impending calamity and convinces them to disembark with him in Idaho. The train subsequently crashes.

-They accompany Ahm, the mystic, to his friend's secluded mansion. There they meet Stephen Dean, a wealthy vegetarian technophile who collects mummies and Indian artifacts, wears a robe and chortles constantly. A wide array of other eccentric servants and houseguests are alluded to.

-Dean shows off his various gadgets to his new guests, including a voice-activated vault door and the Speaking Frog, a metal statue that talks if a specific object is placed in its mouth.

-A guest is shot in the gardens. Ahm goes for help. Dean disappears. Someone wearing the Frog as a headpiece threatens Luther Daw's life. He knocks them out and looks under the mask but the person's identity is not revealed on-panel. Subsequently Dean's adopted daughter indicates that there may be multiple people in Speaking Frog outfits and tells Daw to kill the real one. (his easy willingness to do so, plus some talk of the Frog not being a man plus Dean being a tech nerd leads to my private theory that the Speaking Frog is meant to be a robot) 

AND THAT'S IT. The feature ends with Daw firing at a Speaking Frog and could have been intended either to wrap up immediately or go on for a dozen more episodes - if there's a person alive who has any idea what was intended then I for one will be as shocked as any person has ever been.

That's about it: all setup, no payoff. The perfect candidate for revival, as they could be anyone! The greatest costume of all time! The most obscure villain of the DCU is ready to walk again! 

NOTES: JUNE 2022

Names: Green Lantern encounters a villainous pharmacist named Mortimer Pestle (All American 029, 1941)

Secret Knowledge: I checked all of the wikis and the blogs and this is the only place you'll find this info: Whitey Smith and Blooey Blue of Golden Age quartet Red, White and Blue have the real names Whitefield and Heermance, respectively. (All American 033, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 040: THE INVISIBLE TERROR

(More Fun 044, 1939)

Not much to this fellow, just a scientist who turns himself invisible and immediately starts criming it up. He is our first invisible guy though, and he's yet another collar by the Radio Squad. Well, almost - he hurls himself out a window rather than go to jail.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 039: THE SLUGGER

(More Fun 043, 1939)

A common or garden-variety mugger, the Slugger's technique (sneak up and bash 'em on the head) and the frequency of his attacks lead to a lot of press coverage, starting a city-wide panic (as in our previous entry). In response, the Slugger leans into it, up to and including sending taunting messages to the police, a favourite villainous move of mine. Crime can't be seen to pay in a comic book, though, so he is eventually hauled in by the Radio Squad.

The Slugger represents my absolute lowest level baseline version of the super-villain by dint of scale of crime. While I'm sure that there are other super-muggers out there to be discovered, I will be very surprised if I encounter another uncostumed, non-powered one.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 038: THE MONSTER

(More Fun 039, 1939)

A man who trained a pair of great danes to steal, leading to a city-wide panic after glimpses of the dogs caused people to assume that some sort of creature was involved, which then lead to newspaper front pages. The Radio Squad eventually got their man, though sadly the dogs did not survive.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 037: THE GORILLA KING

(Action v1 019, 1939)

Classic mad scientist stuff here: work out a revolutionary technique to transplant human brains into gorillas and then aim no higher than sending your gorilla-men out on horseback to plunder Mexico. Blows himself up, as per the above image.

THE FATE OF ATLANTIS

Lost cities get a lot of play in comic books, especially Atlantis. Sometimes it seems like enough little fragments and offshoots managed to survive the place that it would be surprising to hear of anyone dying. Here are a selection of fates of Earth-Two Atlantis:

-Earth's second moon collides with the planet, causing the sinking of Atlantis. the colony city of Ophir in Africa and an underwater remnant survive (Action v1 017-018, 1939)

(this is the Atlantis that Zatara encounters with Setap. Doubles as a Fate of Ophir entry: the pseudo-historical Biblical city is a remnant of Atlantis until Zatara blows it up)

-Some portion of the people of sunken Atlantis move to the underground regions of the Arctic, founding the nation of Ugar (Adventure 052, 1940)

(Earth-Two is riddled with underground kingdoms such that it would be surprising if no Atlanteans ended up down there)

-A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to a vast cavern under the Azores (Action v1 037-038, 1941)

-A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to the interior of Brazil (Action v1 043, 1941)

(Both of the latter two involve aviator-heroes the Three Aces, yet they fail to even mention the Azorean Atlanteans to the Brazilian Atlanteans)

More updates as I encounter 'em!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP

(Action v1 017, 1939)

Setap is fun because she's one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She's also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara's pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.

Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara's help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 035: THE CULT OF THE TIGER

(Action v1 017-018, 1939)

There's a lot of ancient murder-cults in comics, and a lot of them are orientalist nonsense about primitive superstitions and such. I present this one (duped into doing the bidding of a couple of no-good brothers) solely because of the magnificent crotch-throne.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 034: THE ICE MENACE

(Action v1 015, 1939)

Just a regular sort of science villain with a regular sort of plan: create a heat ray cannon and use it to ransom the world by melting the ice caps. Derailed and frozen solid by Zatara after a mere few flooded cities. Actually, that would be a neat way for him to come back: thawed out by global warming.

Occasionally a clear super-villain is unnamed in the course of a story and I have to go by something they are referred to in captions. The Ice Menace always feels like one of those to me but I think they actually call him that during the story? Wild.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 033: THE ACE OF SPADES

(Action v1 013, 1939)

An early example of the principle that if you are friends with a comic book hero you have a high chance of either being the victim of a super-crook or being one yourself, the Ace of Spades is just some guy Tex Thomson made friends with on a ship and mooched houseguest status off of.

He's also a very local super-villain, being a guy with an English country estate who seems to spend his time shaking down his neighbours. Dig the accessorizing of the standard Mysterious Hooded Villain outfit with the pith helmet, though.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 032: MADAME KELLY

(Action v1 011, 1939)

There are basically three levels of Zatara enemy: unpowered crooks such as the Tigress (MSV 019) or the Ghost (MSV 021) or a million gangsters over the years who are wildly outclassed and only have a chance if they manage to get the jump on him; villains of roughly equal or even greater power to him such as the Mad Lama (MSV 031) and finally folks like the Mad Lama's minions: armed with one really good trick that can give them a situational edge against him. The latter are generally the most entertaining, as rather than toying with them like a mouse or bringing all he resources to bear on a genuine threat, he is often forced to take some time to figure out what's going on. Which brings us to Madame Kelly.

Madame Kelly is a magic-using spy who wears cute outfits while trying to steal some defense plans that are being transported by cruise ship. Her only demonstrated power is to summon an illusory ghost, which she uses as a distraction while she hunts for her target below decks. Zatara spends a fair bit of the story stumped because he can't banish what isn't actually a ghost. It's fun stuff! They should BRING HER BACK

ADDENDUM: Gentle reader, I present to you the sea-ghost of Madame Kelly:

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 031: THE MAD LAMA

(Action v1 009, 1939)

In a fairly typical display of respect for the Tibetan peoples and their religion, the Mad Lama is a ruthless villain bent on world domination. Presumably he achieved his powers through rigid dedication to the popular "evil" style of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Lama himself doesn't get to do much other than bloviate for a while before being incinerated in a magic duel with Zatara, so the most interesting thing about him is the fact that he gathered up a cadre of other villains to help him out, a move that I dearly love as it supplies me with more weird little guys to know about.

Pictured from left to right (after the Mad Lama, of course) above are:

-Monsieur Henri, a Frenchman able to conjure illusory mists

-Lalla Gor, probably meant to be Indian but they just kind of spammed syllables to make foreign names back in the day, able to summon an army of phantom warriors

-the Tigress, our very own MSV 019 in her first turn as another villain's henchman (she abandons the Lama to team up with Zatara pretty quickly)

-Zatara, posing as Major Lee, an Englishman of unknown abilities

-some bald guy

The Mad Lama gets mentioned every time someone talks about Zatara's early career in a comic - he came up a couple of times when Zatanna was on her Dad-quest in the 60s, for example - but I don't reckon he ever recovered from his incineration to actually come back again.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 030: DR KICHUNG

(Action v1 008-009, 1939)

Dr Kichung menaced Tex Thomson for a couple of issues in a fairly standard scientist-who-puts-human-brains-into-apes kind of way until the local apes, sick of his malarky, killed him dead. I really liked his apes though. They had gravitas.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 029: THE PURPLE HOODS

 (Feature Funnies 016, 1939)

Not much to distinguish this spy organization foiled by Quality character Black X, other than the fact that their leader spends the entire adventure dressed for bed, complete with a little tasseled nightcap. I choose to ignore the in-text indications that he was in fact just about to go to sleep and instead believe that he dressed like that all the time. BRING BACK tasseled nightcaps! 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 028: CARL KRUGER

(Detective v1 033, 1939)

Carl here is a scientist who is obsessed with Napoleon, something that people used to be when there weren't so many fictional characters to be consumed with - heck, he appears only a few months before the Joker begins his slow crawl to being the one a weird loner would be pictured dressing up as while he makes his Important Plans.

Since Carl was a scientist he recruited a cabal of other scientists to help him make war machines and since he was a Napoleon Head he recruited an army of dudes and together these formed the backbone of his world domination scheme until he was unexpectedly Batmanned.

The real notable thing about Carl is that he was basically the last villain that Batman fought before he stopped killing people. In fact, Batman (by my count) kills the most people in this incident: at least 14, including Carl himself!

ADDENDUM: I was wrong about the "stopped killing people" part because I had a Fan Theory about how Batman stopped killing about the same time he adopted Robin. The major flaw in this Fan Theory was that Batman and Robin kept on killing people.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 027: SKULL-FACE

(Detective v1 032, 1939)

Skull-Face is a villain I love. He looks, predictably, like a guy with a skull-face, yet he runs a "beauty cult" which might just be a very intense spa? Whatever it is, he steals all of his clients'/ congregants' money and then kills them with a special drug that makes them drown themselves/ have heart attacks. And he's very proud of his villainy, which I love. Other salient Skull-Face features:

-caveman butler named Sam

-underground, partially-flooded castle in Maine

-leaves tiny ivory skull as a calling card at the scene of his victims' deaths, thus undermining his own careful planning of natural-seeming causes

-hunted by the swimsuit-clad sister of one of his victims

-despite living in a partially-flooded castle, cannot swim and thus drowns at the end of the story

Just a really good weirdo villain who they should BRING BACK.

EDIT TO ADD: Hadn't really thought about what role Skull-Face would fill in the modern DCU but upon 5 minutes reflection you could absolutely make him the head of a beauty product Multi-Level Marketing scheme and keep everything else the same. 

SECOND EDIT:

SKULL SCORE: 3/5 Pretty skully but also unsettlingly fleshy.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 026: THE MONK

(Detective v1 031-032, 1939)

The only reason this guy's minor is that Batman shoots him dead in 1939. I know he's made a few reappearances over the years but mostly they're retellings of that first story. Also I guess they're calling him the Mad Monk now? Weird.

My point is that Batman deserves a vampire nemesis so they should BRING HIM BACK.

ADDENDUM: it's very strange to me that in Batman: Red Rain it's Dracula who vampires Batman and not the Monk, an established vampiric Bat-villain.

MINOR SUPER-HERO 002: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL

(All American Comics 025-028, 1941)

On the list of Obscure Comic Book Characters, Hop Harrigan doesn't rate very high. Any discussion of Golden Age comic books will eventually mention the teen aviator whose feature was popular enough to support a fan club, radio serial and movie and also ephemeral enough to have completely disappeared from public consciousness around 1948 CE.

Most writeups of Hop will mention that he adopted a couple of costumed identities over the years, and while I have yet to read any comics featuring him as the Black Lamp, here's the lowdown on his brief time as the Guardian Angel: his pals Prop Wash and Ikky Tinker are recruited by the US Government to act as deniable assets/ air pirates in situations where direct action would cause diplomatic complications, such as a Nazi-coded ambassador fleeing the country with an attaché of documents that the CIA would like to look at, please. Hop is deliberately left out of this scheme because he is a minor.

Inevitably, they get in over their heads on these missions and are recued by the Guardian Angel, who is in reality Hop in disguise, flying an experimental VTOL seaplane that the other two... just forgot that they owned? In any case, the ruse only lasts for a few issues. 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 025: THE MASTER

(Detective v1 030, 1939)

I like the Master because he is simultaneously brilliant enough to invent a mind control device capable of enslaving a significant portion of the US Government and dumb enough to brag about his machine to a federal agent not ten feet away from it. Machine smashing ensues.