MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 484: BARON SIVA

(Big 3 004, 1941)

Baron Siva is a regular-style science-type villain who attempts to conquer the US via a campaign of fear and espionage before being captured by Samson and David. Perhaps the most interesting thing about him are the things about him that go completely unaddressed:

-the fact that his head is enormous

-the fact that he has no ears

-his weird transparent blouse

-the fact that he possesses advanced technology like paralysis rays

-is his surname just Siva or is this a reference to the Hindu god?

-are those walnuts in his hand in the second panel above or is he crushing some model testicles?

The fact that he has weird tech is admittedly not that weird in a super-hero comic but given the first three factors I spent the entire comic expecting him to be revealed as an alien, time traveller or mutant. It seems like he might just be an earless bighead with avant garde fashion tastes.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 483: THE WEB

(Big 3 004, 1941)

As a Blue Beetle villain, the Web of course wants nothing more than to take over NYC York City and is particularly ruthless in his pursuit of that goal. He attacks essential services like power and water in order to sow confusion, while also attacking targets such as orphanages to spread terror.

The Web also has an... intense relationship with his underlings. They seem to be some sort of BDSM cult? For lack of better terminology?

The Web is definitely getting off on this. I dunno about the rest of these guys - they might be brainwashed? They reflexively chant "I obey, Web!" and "the Web is great!" at every opportunity and have no substantive reaction to being beaten and abused - at the very least it constitutes henchman abuse.

But having a crack team of submissives will only take you so far and in a final pitched battle with the Blue Beetle the Web does a header onto a bomb and subsequently explodes to death. Presumably his henchmen needed a lot of therapy afterward. Unless it was consensual, of course.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 482: DR KRAKO

(Big 3 Comics 003, 1941)

Dr Krako is a 1940s Blue Beetle villain, so he's a (gang boss/ criminal scientist) attempting to (kill Blue Beetle and then take over the city/ take over the city if he has to kill Blue Beetle to do it). He also has the optional Dr Dodo Memorial Sidequest of trying to kill Joan Mason because she is somehow the only person to know what he looks like even though he is going by his own name and, in fact, skywriting it above the city as part of some nebulous ransom notes.

But though the broad strokes of Dr Krako's scheme may be a bit formulaic the specifics are anything but. Skeletons! He has a way to control skeletons with electricity! Skeletons driving cars and shooting bullets out of their heads!

Skeletons walking around and kidnapping people!

This skeleton is about to explode! In fact, that's implicitly the foundation of Dr Krako's entire scheme - he's going to march a bunch of skeletons into NYC York City and explode them, then profit somehow. Sadly we never actually see it as he commits the cardinal super-villain sin of having the hero at his mercy and then messing around with deathtraps and such rather than just bumping him off. Obviously I care nothing for Dr Krako himself but his skeleton tech should be BRUNG BACK at the earliest convenience.

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 006

It's time for more mad and criminal scientists! Round 'em up!

The fantastically-named Doctor Evecloud has a plan: shrink everyone else on the planet so that he, the only big person, will be in charge. As so often happens, one of his first guinea pigs is a super-hero, in this case the Shark. Things end poorly for Doctor Evecloud. (Amazing-Man Comics 016, 1940)

This fellow is Dr Scowl and so far we're sitting at 2/2 great scientist names. Dr Scowl is attempting to dissect Minimidget and Ritty to figure out how his late colleague got them so dang small and he's not afraid to deploy a highly unsettling chimeric man to do so. (Amazing-Man Comics 025, 1941)

Professor Zarr breaks the good name streak and it's entirely in character, as he's a guy who can't catch a break: Samson and David bust up his radium-stealing gang, bust up his fortress lair and destroy his Z-Ray machine before he has a chance to even fire the thing. And to add insult to injury, he sets himself on fire while he's trying to get his revenge. (Big 3 003, 1941)

Later in the same issue, Samson and David head to Central America and spoil the plans of Dr Kalt, who seems to be Professor Zarr's non-union equivalent, down to not getting to fire his solar disintegrator and blowing himself up with a grenade he was trying to throw at the heroes. (Big 3 003, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 481: DE STRUCTO

(Big 3 002, 1940)

De Structo (properly "Master-Mind" de Structo, but he's only referred to in that way the once in-story) is a man with a dream, and that dream is to kill everyone in the US in a position of authority so that he can step in and take over society. To that end, he has his gang (grandiosely referred to as "Troopers") distribute an "oxygen destroying ray" in vials (and here we're going to have to assume that this is a "ray" in the sense of a radiation rather than a beam or that these are some amazing vials) near his targets in order to release them all simultaneously for maximum impact.

And this is a thorough coup d'etat: not only is de Structo attempting to wipe out the government, state and local police, the intelligence services and the military but also publishers, bankers, industrialists, and doctors. I've heard of power vacuums but this is ridiculous. Fortunately for society, Stardust the Super Wizard shows up in time to save... most people.

We've seen the cartoonish evil that is the hallmark of any good Fletcher Hanks comic and now it's time for the over-the-top ironic punishment! First, de Structo is mutated until he is just an enormous head.

As the giant spaceman says: this is because he attempted to destroy the heads of society.

De Structo is then flung into the Space Pocket of Living Death, where the Headless Headhunter, the "hugest giant in the Universe" - who appears to be maybe 25 feet tall at most - eagerly absorbs him. It's not quite an ironic punishment but it is gruesome - just what we expect from a Fletcher Hanks comic.

As a bonus, all of de Structo's henchmen are rounded up and compressed into a single being (presumably to save time) who is subsequently fired into space. Do Not Sin When Stardust Is Near, Mortals.

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 004

the Lone Warrior (and Dicky): 

The Lone Warrior and Dicky are Stan and Dicky Carter, son of the now-deceased "world's greatest scientist" and recipients of his Power Elixir injections, leaving them generically physically enhanced and well-equipped to battle pseudo-Nazi forces seeking to wreck America's military. Plus he made them a land/ air/ sea plane/tank called the Wonder Ship which is very useful.

There is of course a knee-jerk impulse to snidely point out that a guy called the Lone Warrior is never seen without his sidekick, but... I think it's on purpose? They don't explore it well but I reckon that it's meant to be a joke: big tough dude calls himself the Lone Warrior and can't avoid being tailed everywhere by his little brother? It's not a bad joke! Too bad they only had 4 or so appearances and never really explored it. (Banner Comics 003, 1941)

Samson:

Samson from the comics is, unsurprisingly, based off of Samson from the Bible. In fact, he's a descendant of the Biblical Samson, which seems hard to prove. Like his supposed ancestor, Samson possesses superhuman strength as long as his hair remains uncut, which in his case means that he must maintain a sort of shoulder-length mullet. His hair of course frequently gets cut for dramatic effect but luckily for Samson his other super power is that it will grow back preternaturally fast and always into the same style, like Wolverine's.

At some point in a comic I have not yet read Samson finds and adopts a boy named David. David has no super-powers and is in constant peril. He also has a scientist pal named Professor Brun who acts as a sort of Samson dispatcher using advanced surveillance tech to find trouble and a teleporter with the fun nmae of the "demoleculing ray" to send Samson and David to the scene.

Finally, Samson is a stone cold killer. He wipes out crooks by the dozen with a frankly concerning lack of care for the legal process. (Fantastic Comics 001, 1939)

Late in 1941, Samson got a bit of sprucing up. I don't know if this was a deliberate attempt on the part of Fox Features to rectify the formulaic nature of Samson comics or it was a simple case of a new artist/ writer shaking things up but suddenly Samson had a supporting cast beyond David: namely a gal pal with the incredibly on-the-nose name of Lila Dee and a comic relief artist named J. Rembrandt Speedball. 

The best addition, however, was... not exactly a secret identity for Samson but an Incognito Mode in which he dressed in street clothes, but since he was an enormous, long-haired guy what this entails is his wearing a huge overcoat buttoned to the neck with the collar flipped up over his mullet. Truly great. Sadly, this revamped Samson only appeared in a handful of issues before Fox Features had the troubles that lead to them halting production for a few years. Like most of their characters, he was never seen again.

the Flame:

Found by Tibetan lamas as a baby and taught their mystic secrets, the Flame has a lot of the standard flame powers - immunity to fire and heat (and explosions), control over flame, a high enough body temperature that bullets melt on contact with him - a few more unusual ones - the ability to walk and climb on sheets of flame as if they were solid, the weirdly common Golden Age super power of appearing suddenly in the element that they embody, in this case any size flame down to a match - and surprisingly no actual ability to produce flame. Instead, he carries a pistol-sized flamethrower (over time, the amount of heat and flame produced by his body does increase, but he's never at Human Torch level). The Flame's enemies of course frequently attempt to set fire to him.

While I appreciate the Flame's classic costume stylings, he is ultimately a pretty generic guy. Plus he's at least as bloodthirsty as his fellow Fox Features alum Samson. (Wonderworld Comics 003, 1939)

(the Flame also has a very cool car, as seen in Big 3 002, 1940)

Like Samson, the Flame eventually gets a more fleshed out world just in time for Fox Features to go to heck for a few years and then fail to bring him back. In the Flame's case he does adopt a secret identity: as Gary Preston, private investigator. He is joined by former boxer and general goofball Pug and future Flame Girl (watch for future round-ups, I guess) Linda Dale.

Stardust the Super Wizard:

Stardust the Super Wizard is an enormous, nigh-omnipotent fellow who lives in a star and deals out bizarre and ironic punishments to a cartoonishly evil rogues gallery with incredible ease - the only real obstacle that he faces in an average adventure is the travel time between him and his villains. The second-greatest creation of outsider comics artist Fletcher Hanks (after Fantomah, of course), Stardust is well-known enough that I don't really need to go into much detail on him here but it seemed weird to leave him out. (Fantastic Comics 001, 1939)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 480: PORKY HOGG

(Big 3 002, 1940)

Obviously the most remarkable thing about Porky Hogg is that he looks like a pig-man but more than that he is a pig-man who has a real gift for motivation and teambuilding.

These gangsters are worked into a dang frenzy over the prospect of killing the Blue Beetle - I'm pretty sure they killed that guy in the third panel! - if Porky Hogg had the real Beetle on hand during this little rally they might have taken him out with sheer enthusiasm.

So, having correctly identified the Blue Beetle as the only thing standing between him and complete domination of New York City and having mentally conditioned an entire gang into some sort of Blue Beetle-hating cult, just what is the plan?

Here's where we start to get into Porky Hogg's failings, because the plan is a bad one: kill a guy and frame the Blue Beetle for it by leaving a sticker on the body. I mean, it works, because the cops in Blue Beetle comics are dumb as hell, but it doesn't actually do anything to remove the Blue Beetle from the city, because the cops are dumb as hell and the Blue Beetle can easily avoid them. In fact, the cops are always after the Blue Beetle. That's the kind of super-hero he is, the kind that the cops are after!

The rest of the story involves a lot of running around and attempted murder. Blue Beetle gal pal Joan Mason gets kidnapped as per usual and taken to Porky Hogg's incredibly inconvenient mountaintop lair and then Porky Hogg gets knocked off of that same lair to his death. You know what they say: don't live on a mountain if you're not prepared to fall off of a mountain.

Weirdly, Blue Beetle faces off against another guy named Porky Hog (with one g and not as piggy) the next year in Blue Beetle v1 008, and he also framed the Blue Beetle for murder because, as mentioned, the cops in Blue Beetle comics are dumb as hell.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 479: DR BLOOD

(Big 3 001, 1940)

There are a couple of interesting things about Dr Blood but I'll be honest: it's mostly the name. Great, over the top villain moniker, Dr Blood. Furthermore, Dr Blood runs a costumed gang called the Inner Crime Ring, which is not nearly as good a name as Dr Blood but still better than an unnamed collection of gangsters.

What Dr Blood is a doctor of is hard to say. The Inner Crime Ring has access to paralysis ray technology so I suppose we must assume that he invented that rather than stealing it from a lesser scientist with an unimpressive name. Or he could be a Doctor of Larceny.

The other thing about Dr Blood and the Inner Crime Ring is that they make the mistake of tangling with the super-hero Samson and his pal David and Samson absolutely destroys them. Like, straight-up murders them. This is my first Samson story so I'm unsure if this is his usual MO or if it's because Dr Blood almost killed David earlier in the episode but what I can say for certain is that those cops should not be as okay with this level of vigilante justice/ mass destruction as they are.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 478: BORGO

(Big 3 001, 1940)

Here's the thing about Borgo: they call him the Mirror Murderer in the opening blurb and then never do so again, even though he kills several people using mirrors. It's a good name and I'm sad that I can't justify using it so I'll keep this short.

Borgo's got one goal in life and that's to kill the five scientific James Brothers, seemingly because one of them fired him for stealing radium. Is it rational to kill five men for the entirely justified actions of one? No, but that's where super-villains come from, isn't it. 

He also has one of the better deathtraps of all time: a big drum that he straps Blue Beetle gal pal Joan Mason to the top of, with the goal of vibrating her to death.

And that's a wrap on Borgo.

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 006

Who will rid me of these fascist goons?

The Nordland Bund is another German-American Bund analog but operates as more of a traditional spy operation on behalf of Nazi Germany stand-in Prussland. Their moderately complicated plan to get explosive coal onto US ships leaving Bermuda is foiled by Secret Agent D-13 and his Canadian counterpart/ love interest Lorraine MacAlinn (Mystery Men Comics 019, 1941)

Like the man's feet say, the Hoops are a bunch of Nazis (proper Nazis - Fox Features seems to have stopped pussyfooting around with oblique references and backwards words in the last few months of 1941) who had a signature move of leaving a hoop around the neck of their victims. And the word the Blue Beetle is searching for is explode the hoops explode. And fittingly enough the Blue Beetle later uses one of those hoops to explode Baron Gell, leader of the big-h Hoops. (Mystery Men Comics 025, 1941)

Technically this group is nameless and the Anti-Foreigners Committee is a supposedly patriotic group run by their leader as a cover, but if there's a name that underlines the simmering fascism that underlies ultra-patriotism better than that one then I can't recall it. (Amazing-Man Comics 022, 1941)

These guys are called the Thorns for no particular reason. Just a buncha Nazi goons with a more poetic name than usual. They go up against ultrapatriotic teen Paul Revere, Jr and also his dad. (Banner Comics 003, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 003

King of Darkness: 

Radio engineer Bruce King develops the amazingly-named Black Zero Transmitter that selectively allows him to negate light and/or heat in its range of operation, plus an insulated costume and night-vision goggles so that he is immune to its effects. He ends up dealing with nosy reporters and spies inadvertently egged on by said nosy reporters and so adopts the alias of the King of Darkness. Probably the best thing about him is the fact that he will just drive around with the Black Zero Transmitter in his car (or boat! or plane!), with a column of darkness travelling at highway speeds and presumably giving people religious experiences. (Amazing-Man Comics 024, 1941)

The Blue Lady:

The Blue Lady is Lucille Martin, who gets mixed up in an attempt to smuggle gold out of China to aid the war effort and ends up gaining super strength from a weird gas released from inside an ancient ring. And since the ring had a bird on it, she has a bird on her hat! Delightful! Unfortunately, this comic came out in 1941 and involved Chinese people, so while it doesn't indulge in every racist Yellow Peril storytelling trope it does hit a lot of them, including multiple instances of yellowface by the Blue Lady herself. Far less delightful! (Amazing-Man Comics 024, 1941)

Nightshade:

Howard Hall is Nightshade, who has the power to control, see, speak etc via his own shadow, with his strength increasing proportional to the shadow's size. This is, frankly, much cooler than most shadow powers in comics. He's got little ankle-mounted spotlights to throw shadows with! (Amazing-Man Comics 024, 1941)

Captain Courageous:

It's not especially clear from the couple of appearances I have access to but Captain Courageous seems to be the Uncle Sam kind of patriotic hero - a guy made up of free-floating patriotism. He has the standard array of superpowers - flight, enhanced strength, invulnerability to small arms fire - and I would classify him as a medium-level annoying patriot. He also has a mask that looks very annoying to wear. (Banner Comics 003, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 477: THE DICTATOR'S SHADOW

(Banner Comics 003, 1941)

The Dictator's Shadow is the "head of the fifth column in America" and the major villain of patriotic hero the Lone Warrior and his kid brother Dicky, in the vein of the Red Skull. A notable thing about him is that he is not explicitly a Nazi, which is both unusual for someone whose name is so evocative of Hitler as the capital-D Dictator of the day but also for a character appearing in Banner Comics, where the writers were a little more willing to have Nazi villains than in your DC or your Quality mags.

The Dictator's Shadow's (what an odd thing to type) major trick is his so-called "shadow projecting ring," the function of which is a bit opaque but which allows him to appear to be in one place while actually being in another and with which he was able to escape the Lone Warrior and Dicky in 2/3 of their encounters.

In their final encounter, the Dictator's Shadow employed one of the greatest deathtraps in comics: he essentially had a door with an active volcano behind it and when things got too real he opened that door. This inevitably backfired on him and he ended up dead. He probably would have kept on returning if the Lone Warrior and Dicky weren't second-tier characters at an also-ran company, but them's the breaks in the high-stakes game on intercontinental fascism.

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 002

Still lotsa super-heroes to add.

the Marksman: 

Single appearance hero trained by his father to be completely accurate with thrown or projectile weapons. Uses the alias John Courage. Throws a spear through a guy's head one time. (Amazing-Man Comics 023, 1941)

Miraco the Great:

Circus magician with real powers. His one adventure involved running a sex pest gorilla trainer out of the circus. (Amazing-Man Comics 023, 1941)

Super Ann:

A young woman who was given super strength by a weird old cave-dwelling alien man as a child. She's very charming! I particularly like how straightforward her crimefighting is - most of the time she just walks up and punches a fool, as someone who grew up with super strength might. This does leave her vulnerable to sneaky attacks, but lucky for her her fellow hero Mighty Man has decided to follow her around and keep her out of trouble. (Amazing-Man Comics 024, 1941)

And speaking of Mighty Man...

Mighty Man Update:

When Mighty Man debuted he was just a 12 foot tall guy, then in Amazing-Man Comics 012 a scientist performed an operation on him that allowed him to change his size at will (and then promptly got himself murdered, natch). At first he could merely grow and shrink but pretty quickly he developed more refined shapechanging abilities, including changing his appearance and, most upsettingly, changing the size of individual parts of his body. By the time he began shadowing Super Ann, Mighty Man was just as likely to be a weird little gremlin with one huge arm, or, as in the panel above, a big ear in order to freak out a goon or Nazi. Unpleasant!