Wednesday, May 31, 2023

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 292: ARMLESS TIGER MAN

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 026, 1941)


Armless Tiger Man! A minor classic in the Characters With Goofy Names category and almost certainly a Wizard Magazine Mort of the Month some time in the late 90s. Also: he wears stirrup pants.


Unfortunately there's not a lot going on in the story: Armless Tiger Man is a Nazi saboteur who murders a man in order to save a few bucks on bribes, which leads the Angel to get involved. He ends up getting tracked down due to his taste for hard-to-find Chateau Quim wine (I checked and yes, it absolutely meant the same thing in the 40s as it does now, so this is very cheeky). As seen above he manages to escape only to be apprehended mid-sabotage.


His origin is a bitt more interesting: after losing his arms in an industrial accident he obsessively trains to use his arms and legs as replacements and develops an unsettling appearance due to his massive jaw muscles. He also develops a hatred of industrial machinery which is the reason that the Gestapo mobilizes him to the US.

You can't keep a weird fella like this down forever - Armless Tiger Man is our first properly brung back Marvel Villain, appearing in a Captain America WWII-era comic in 2010, in which he died, then gets to show up in hell! I mean, it's not illustrious but it's better than the Vampire Killer got.

No comments:

Post a Comment

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 559: THE COUNCIL OF VAMPIRES

(Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939) Firstly: re the first panel, I really struggled with whether to call these guys the Deadly Council of Vampire...