Saturday, April 13, 2024

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 495: STENTOR

(Big Shot Comics 011, 1941)

Stentor is named after a character from the Iliad who was known to have an amazingly loud voice and from whom we derive the word "Stentorian". This is a real slap in the face to me, a mythology-obsessed kid who got a minor in Classics at university essentially by accident because I kept signing up for classes I found interesting. I have opinions on Greek heroes! I know who Philoctetes is! And yet Stentor, a guy who died in a shouting contest with Hermes, was unknown to me until today.

This Stentor has figured out some way of broadcasting his voice without use of obvious receiving equipment and is using it to harass FDR in hopes that he can get ahold of the entire USA.

By amazing coincidence, Skyman has been messing around with Rochelle salts in his lab, leading to the discovery that they are the secret to Stentor's technology (tl;dr on the Wikipedia article: they're crystals used in WWII-era A/V gear).

Skyman fully figures out Stentor's tech and starts razzing him, leading to our first view of the man. I must say I appreciate a super-villain who arranges to spend his entire scheme sitting down.

Don't worry about Stentor being a one-trick pony: he is in fact a two-trick pony, as he also has the capacity to cause Rochelle salts to explode, a capacity he employs in an attempt on the life of the President using a cunningly-placed Rochelle salt fish castle, surely one of the most ignoble ways for a world leader to be assassinated.

Stentor is at heart the kind of little weenie nerd who would pull an obscure mythological character to name himself after rather than calling himself the Voice like all of his peers, so once Skyman tracks him down he's swiftly wedgied into custody. Note also that Skyman has the same "ick no, girl cooties" reaction to being smooched as Golden Age Superman.

In conclusion: I like him! His technology is weird and niche and he manages to use it anyway. Plus I got to learn about a mythological guy I didn't know about! (EDIT: Looks like he was in an Assassin's Creed game a couple-three years ago. I am late to the Knowing About Stentor party)

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