Monday, February 5, 2024

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 444: FRAU IZAN

(Mystery Men Comics 023, 1941)


Our story begins in media res as Lieutenant Drake of Naval Intelligence cleans up the goons of Nazi crypto-fascist (they get real close to calling her a Nazi in this one but she works for the Opatseg instead of the Gestapo, so I guess she's just another Izan) femme fatale spy named Frau Izan.

Izan gets away and is subsequently given an injection by sinister Nazi Izan scientist Doktere von Shnyder that turns her into my favourite kind of shrunken person: one with the proportional strength of a regular person. BONUS: they go to the trouble to establish that she made a little teeny dress for herself ahead of time. 

The shrinking treatment, by the way, is supposed to last for two hours but in a surprise power play von Shnyder reveals that it's permanent and that he's taking over as head of the regional Opatseg. Just goes to show: you can't truust a Nazi, even when they have a thin film of plausible deniability.

(von Shnyder does get his, never fear)

In a surprising turn, Frau Izan is forgiven her espionage activities due to being too small. I suppose it's a hard-to-replicate defence but there's going to be hell to pay if this establishes precedent and a lot of people start taking advantage of it using bootleg shrink rays and so forth.

They tease Frau Izan becoming a regular part of the team (called Miss America for some reason) but she in fact never reappears again - probably they made Miss X take care of her and that's where she is now.

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