Friday, March 1, 2024

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 464: THE ELEMENTAL

(Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940)


The Elemental! An extradimensional intruder who insinuates itself into the unspecified future world of hero the Magician from Mars via the music of unwitting dupe Bill Wend. Is this a future with wildly relaxed standards for professional music performance or has the musical director of Concert Hall also being influenced by the Elemental? This question will go unanswered, alas.

Having achieved its goal of entering our reality, the Elemental feeds not only on the crowd's fear but the crowd itself - I think. Though the extremely florid writing of this panel is wonderful, it's not too clear if "feeding on human energy" is meant to be literal or not. It does literally eat large portions of the crowd, so either way it is feeding on them.

Earth's  armies prove useless against the Elemental, so the Magician from Mars is forced to step in in a kicky new costume.

This fight between a giant lady and a giant green guy is absolutely the highlight of the story. Both are so powerful that they almost pull a Superman/ Doomsday and battle to the death, but though they are both still alive at the end they are severely weakened. The Elemental disappears while the Magician from Mars is lauded as a hero.

Eventually, the Magician follows a string of mass kidnappings and discovers a man identified only as the Mad Professor has been capturing people and feeding them to the Elemental in exchange for future consideration when further elementals are summoned to conquer the planet. Seemingly following a hunch, the Magician sings "one of the most beautiful songs in the world" and discovers that, yes, what was summoned via music can be banished in the same way. The Mad Professor she merely collapses a wall on.

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