Thursday, April 27, 2023

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 267: THE SHARK

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 012)


The Shark is a submarine pirate, a thing that is fairly common in comic books and as far as I can tell has never actually happened in real life. He's a bit more ambitious than most such guys, and at the beginning of this particular story is trying parlay a successful streak of piracy into a general toll on shipping. He's also a pretty snappy dresser.


The US, of course, does not take an extortion attempt at such scale lightly, and Professor Zog is brought in to send Electro after the scoundrels, leading to the Shark learning the second rule of having a hard-to-access undersea dome HQ (the first rule being that it rules): if a giant super-robot gets into your dome, there's nowhere to run.


The third rule of having a hard-to-access undersea dome HQ is that YOU NEED TO EVACUATE AT THE FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE. Don't try to capture the giant robot and put it in the atom-smasher. Do make a run for the submarine while your more expendable minions distract it. Otherwise you could end up like the Shark: smushed into jelly by the pressure of the ocean depths.


BONUS HONOURS: Professor Zog gets a Congressional medal of some sort from FDR! They're not just telegram pals anymore!

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