Saturday, February 17, 2024

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 453: PROFESSOR MALUSKI

(Mystic Comics v1 001, 1941)


Professor Maluski is the first foe faced by the Blue Blaze after his hibernative period and while he has a lot of cool stuff (huge underground base full of crazy machines, gangster henchmen, a weird gem that flies under its own power and drags its target along in a tractor beam, etc) the real reason that he is getting his own entry rather than being tossed in the next Mad Science Round-Up is the same reason that the Blue Blaze was woken up by a couple of grave robbers: Professor Maluski is making science zombies.

And not just any science zombies! This is the only full-length view we get of any of them but it appears that they are in fact the upper thirds of human corpses, floating around on columns of light. Probably. It's a wild and eerie visual and a real shame that it's not highlighted more.

Professor Maluski of course learns too late that you gotta build in a few more safeguards when constructing an army of the undead, as his control unit is smashed in a fight with the Blue Blaze and he is killed in the subsequent zombie rampage. I could take or leave the professor himself, but his science zombie tech is so neat that I demand that it be BRUNG BACK by some enterprising young villain - we're overdue for a take on urban exploration that involves old super-villain lairs.

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