(Minute-Man 002, 1941)
AKA the Blitz Force AKA the Panzer Gang.
I almost started out by saying that the idea of a criminal gang operating along military lines was an old one but no, it isn't yet. It's not a new idea - there might be half a dozen examples in this list so far and I'm sure it cropped up more than once in the pulps - but it's not quite the mid-tier trope that it eventually will be.
This time, the idea for a criminal army is inspired by US pre-war military training program crime czar Boss Donker and his don't-say-he's-a-Nazi pal Baron Marz have hatched a scheme that takes advantage of the readily-available supply of Army-trained men: arm them and loot cities wholesale (with an optional attempt to conquer the US for "the Fatherland," wherever that is.
And of course it all goes swimmingly until Minute-man shows up.
The best part of the story by far is this bit here. Baron Marz has seemingly killed Minute-Man with a falling block of stone and Slippy, the only former gangster army recruit who doesn't want to return to a life of crime, is about to take up the mantle in his honour. It's actually kind of too bad that Minute-Man wasn't actually dead, because having the identity change hands this way might have given him an interesting hook at last - maybe it could have been a series about person after person taking on th role of Minute-Man as needed and as the previous one falls instead of about a third-rate Captain America knockoff.
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