Thursday, May 11, 2023

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 275: THE HAG

(Marvel  Mystery Comics v1 019, 1941)


I don't have to go into how wild it is that this woman is called a Hag, right? The wild misogyny of it all? Great, thanks.

Aside from her name, the Hag is a gang boss, and one who dreams big. Her plan involves causing a citywide power outage in NYC so that her men could  tamper with the Stock Exchange and then clean up the next day while everyone panics about a nonexistent stock crash that she engineered. And also for some reason she takes over a radio station to get access to incoming news? The motivation behind that one is weird to me.

The real flaw in the Hag's plan is that while she accounts for the presence of the Human Torch and Toro, she doesn't really deal with them. Her men are equipped with flame-resistant clothing and fire-suppressing chemicals, but they just serve to help in avoiding the Torch. Ultimately, he catches up, there is an explosion (inevitable), and the Hag is no more.


This adventure also features the concept of Toro needing a "flame transfusion" after being severely hurt, which is very terrific, and which seems to be a convoluted way for Carl Burgos to canonically establish that Toro's powers are a little weaker than the Torch's? For some reason? It'll be interesting to see if this is ever referenced again, frankly.

ADDENDUM: forgot to mention the Hag's sweet calling card:


ADDENDUM II: Toro's reduced fire-power actually came up in the subsequent issue, so I'm going to go ahead and try to note every issue it came up in right here:

Marvel Mystery Comics v1 019
Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020
Human Torch v1 004

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