Monday, March 25, 2024

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.

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