(Master Comics 001 (behind the scenes) or Master Comics 007 (first mentioned) or Master Comics 008 (first appearance on-panel)-Master Comics 020, 1940-1941)
Mr H, the mastermind behind all crime in the city of Carterville and its unnamed state, gets up to all kinds of schemes through his proxies. For example:
-running an illegal casino in a hard-to-catch gambling blimp
-robbing a munitions plant in order to outfit a small army of gangsters and enact a criminal takeover of Carterville
-stealing an experimental bomber from the US Army and attempting to sell it to crypto-Nazis
-having his gang murder random Carterville citizens in order to drive down confidence in the police
-stealing an experimental paralysis gas in order to disable and rob the entire population of Carterville
-attempting to destroy all public transit in Carterville for unclear reasons
-attempting to blow up the Carterville Dam for unclear reasons
-sundry murders and robberies
At first, Carterville's major crime figure and the inspiration for regional super-hero the Devil's Dagger is a guy by the name of Jeff Marlowe, but he falls off of a roof in Master Comics 007, necessitating the introduction of his boss, Mr H. Over the course of his 12-odd appearances Mr H has a variable amount of hair and a selection of different cloth masks. The consistent aspect of his adventures (aside from his orange suit) is his habit of getting away in some sort of motor vehicle at the last second.
Then, in Master Comics 018, Ken "Devil's Dagger" Wyman gets a new coworker, police reporter Holfax. I won't beat around the bush: Holfax is Mr H - introduced, I suspect, because the feature was coming to an end and they needed somebody to be the villain. The great thing about this is that Holfax/ Mr H thus becomes an evil equivalent to Wyman/ the Devil's Dagger, something that I'm always excited to see.
And the piece de resistance is of course the capture of Mr H and the subsequent retirement of the Devil's Dagger in Master Comics 020, a rare ending not just for a Golden Age super-hero but for any super-hero ever.
Mr H might not be terribly exciting in and of himself but I would still love to see a legacy Devil's Dagger BRUNG BACK and who better to act as his foil than an ancient Holfax, out of prison and running Carterville once again.
ADDENDUM: I almost forgot to highlight the fact that Mr H employs one of my favourite costume elements: the mask with attached bald cap.
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