(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941)
This here is the Masked Chief, at least according to the caption boxes (welcome to the unofficial name club, fella), a fairly standard masked gang boss enhanced by several factors of variable wildness. First and least: he is yet another in the long line of Human Torch foes who choose to use arson as their modus operandi. Sure he's not specifically challenging the Torch, but he must know that he's employed by the city, right? The Jim Hammond identity is basically unused - even his partner on the police force calls him Torch for heaven's sake.
Secondly, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, though unnamed, is a major secondary character in this story. Fun in and of itself, but La Guardia is convinced (with some encouragement from the Masked Chief) that the attempt to ransom the city via arson is the work of recently eliminated corrupt NY politicians. Which means, unless this was a very specific reference that I couldn't find, that Tammany Hall is the suspect? Whee!
Thirdly, and more perplexing than fun, the Human Torch is insanely mean to Toro throughout this story. Just a complete asshole. I'm not the world's foremost Golden Age Human Torch expert but it seems wildly out of character for him - I guess we'll see if I'm right about that going forward.
And finally: the Masked Chief is not, in fact, the 1941-era successor to Boss Tweed but rather the escaped convict that the Human Torch and Toro were hunting when the story began, a man with the fairly excellent name of Hawk Rivers.
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