Wednesday, November 29, 2023

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

(More Fun Comics 067, 1941)


Deeja Kathoon is an occultist and necromancer who has the ability to summon and bind ghosts to his service and uses this power to unleash a ghostly crimewave on Cliffland, NJ. He has what turns out to be an Indian surname but there's no indication in-story that he's supposed to be Indian and so I must assume that it's a coincidence and that my first guess was correct and his name was chosen by picking random syllables out of a hat.

Ordinarily this would be the point at which I say "unfortunately, he chose to do his crimes in the Spectre's home town," but not this time, for you see the Spectre is a ghost. Kathoon binds him just like any other ghost and almost forces him to destroy the Cliffland City Hospital before the Ring of Life manages to deus ex machina him out of that particular jam.

One thing that goes unexplored and unexplained in the story is the zippy little rocket ship that Kathoon tries to escape in once the Spectre is free. In the absence of any hint or eleventh hour reveal that he is an alien or magical time traveller I must assume that it is a magic rocket ship, which is great. More magic rocket ships are what we need, in my humble opinion.

It's just possible that being forced to do Kathoon's bidding rattled the Spectre, or at least convinced him that the guy was a legitimate threat, because not only does he kill him via rocket ship explosion, he then hunts down and kills his ghost. This is, yes, a step more extreme than 1939 Batman gunning down the odd monster, but then again this is the Spectre. He has a reputation for brutality for a reason.

In conclusion, this little cloud guy that Kathoon made to intimidate the Spectre is the sensational character find of 1941.

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