MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 531: THE EVIL EYE

(Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941) 

I wonder if high schools in comic book universes hold some sort of assembly to teach kids not to yell about selling their souls to the Devil when life has them down? Because as far as I can tell it's got a pretty high chance of working, like it does for weird little scientist Ribo here.

Ribo does indeed get to see again but he also gets a demonic makeover - he's even more of a little creep than before! This is because the devil who he made a deal with is the same guy as the Dictator and Ribo/ the Evil Eye is being set up to take out Mr Justice.

This is probably why the Evil Eye sets out to bet on a boxing match and fix the outcome rather than stay at home and work on his "great invention" with his new power of sight, right? Or was he a degenerate gambler to begin with and the Devil knew that he couldn't resist using his new power this way - his invention is never defined, so perhaps it was just some sort of odds-calculator or a device for hypnotizing athletes over the phone.

The Evil Eye gives Mr Justice a run for his money when they do eventually meet up but too bad for him that he has eye-based powers and that the counter to eye-based powers has been a mirror since Ancient Greece.

In one of the harsher punishments in comic books (particularly when the only crime has been a bit of crooked sports betting) Mr Justice immediately drags the Evil Eye down to Hell, where we get some more of that sweet sweet LORE: not only are minor demons powerless to affect an immortal such as Mr Justice but the souls of what I can only assume are the creme de la creme of the evil dead are chained up next to their own bodies. It's a fun visual if a slightly underwhelming punishment, but it's where we must leave Ribo AKA the Evil Eye.

THE FATE OF ATLANTIS

(Super Comics 002, 1938)

This is just a regular account of some survivors of Atlantis (and their wives) setting up a colony somewhere - in this case the South Seas. The development of a priestly class obsessed with covering up their murder of one guy (to the extent that he is eventually made their god of Justice!) is pretty fun.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 530: THE MAD BOTANIST

(Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941)

The Mad Botanist is an assassin "in the employment of a foreign power" which in 1941 as good as means that he was working for the Axis. His nom de guerre comes from the fact that his preferred method of murder is via deadly plant life, including the African Tentacle Vine, the Mediterranean Poison Cornflower and of course the insidious Man-Eating Clam-Plant. The Botanist's somewhat bizarre physical appearance is never commented upon in the comic so it's a real toss up whether they'd have gone with "he works with deadly plants after being rejected for his appearance" or "working with deadly plants has really messed up his body".

Helping the Mad Botanist in his work are the rock stupid cops of whatever city he works out of, who not only adopt an "arrest the first person we see upon arriving at the crime scene" attitude but also seemingly facilitate this man's death by arresting Captain Flag while he is actively trying to save him from strangling vines.

This is a shorter story so the Mad Botanist doesn't actually get to do that much: he kills one guy with vines, almost kills another by dressing up as an old lady and selling him a poison flower and then ends up in his own Man-Eating Clam-Plant after a final confrontation with Captain Flag. Is the percentage of villains who employ carnivorous plants and then die to them higher than that of similar villains who employ robots or trained animals? I suspect that it is, if only because artists don't want to draw a giant flytrap without the satisfaction of drawing it chomping someone.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 529: RATZER

(Blue Ribbon Comics 018, 1941)

Ratzer is a Nazi agent who tangles with American-serving-in-the British-Army Corporal Collins a couple of times. There's not a lot to say about him, honestly: the first time he meets Collins he's trying to spring a load of Nazi prisoners and destroy a lot of British gun cotton in then-Bombay, while the second time he's stealing oil in Iraq. He is not notably villainous, particularly in the ranks of Nazi super-villains.

He does, however, have a certain style, so I'll speak on that. Starting with his plane! I really like the question mark! Custom planes are absolutely the on the list of things that make aviator characters at least a bit interesting.

I wouldn't call Ratzer's costume one of the greatest of all time but it does have some flair, particularly with the little scarf dangling off the top of his head. And as a bonus it doesn't have any swastikas on it, which I appreciate a lot more than I did before I started posting pictures of super-villains online regularly.

Ratzer's second appearance doesn't really involve flying and so he's dressed in what I guess is his Desert Combat Costume - perhaps he has a whole closet full of slight variations on the theme, like a 1990s action figure line. Look out for Ocean Exploration Ratzer!

In any case, I like this costume best - he looks a bit like a pro wrestler.

At the end of his second appearance Ratzer gets away again and just... never returns. This is probably down to the end of Blue Ribbon Comics when Corporal Collins moved over to being a supporting character to MLJ's other military hero Sergeant Boyle. No room for the secondary characters to have their own villains, after all.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 528: THE BLACK HAND

(Blue Ribbon Comics 016, 1941) 

There's a quality that some comic book characters have and some do not and I never knew about it until I started writing this blog. That quality is called Standing in Clear View So That I Can Get a Screengrab of Them, and buddy, the Black Hand does not have it. This is about as good of a full look as you get of the guy in his first appearance.

Enough complaining! The Black Hand is a spy of the Unaffiliated Freelancer subtype, which since he operates out of the US means that he steals US secrets for sale to the Nazis. Is a character who does business with Nazis better than one who is a Nazi? Marginally. The Black Hand is also the recurring villain of Captain Flag, who he is also responsible for becoming a super-hero due to his murder of Flag's father and failure to proof his lair against narratively significant eagles.

The Black Hand is called the Black Hand because of his black hand, which he usually conceals beneath a black glove and which is riddled with a deadly disease that the Black hand can transfer to a victim via a simple scratch of his horrible fingernails. It's definitely a useful power (affliction?) for a villain to have but not one that has a chance of coming up in anyone's super-power wishlist.

Throughout his five appearances the Black Hand sports three distinct looks: the initial iteration (either afflicted with a deathly pallor or just overenthusiastic when applying foundation), a sort of suave mustachioed cat-burglar getup with no hint of the grave and then back to the deathly complexion with an added skull-like quality to the face. Realistically this can be put down to Captain Flag being a secondary character without a dedicated artist, but if that was the point of this blog then it would swiftly cease to be much fun.

Notably, the suave version of the Black Hand wears his glove on the opposite side - could this indicate that he and the corpselike Black Hand are different characters? Perhaps the disease that gives them their name is also slowly killing them, which could account for the more ghoulish appearance of the original Hand over time?

These questions will never be answered, sadly, as in-universe the Black Hand made a transition from spy the thief to pirate and Captain Flag was quick to invoke the Law of the Sea to hang him from the nearest yardarm. Out of universe, Captain Flag's feature didn't survive the cancellation of Blue Ribbon Comics and so the Black Hand had nobody to come back from the dead to torment.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 527: THE GREEN GHOUL

(Blue Ribbon Comics 016, 1941)

The Green Ghoul is a demonic creature either summoned or created by the demon known as the Dictator as a very successful method of getting Mr Justice to leave him alone. He appears on a US beach and lays waste to an unfortunate couple before heading to the unnamed New York City-alike that Mr Justice calls home.

Like I said, the Green Ghoul is a distraction, so it's understandable that its plans lack nuance. To whit, his initial plan is just indiscriminate slaughter.

Having lured Mr Justice back from Europe, the Green Ghoul now needs to occupy his attention, and having murdered and possessed Assistant Mayor Tracey Keen he sets his sights on conquering Unnamed City.

Also, he LOOKS GREAT. There could e a conversation about how nobody noticed that Keen was obviously a possessed corpse but he is a previously unseen character created expressly for the purpose of being killed off in this story, so maybe he was just Like That already and the Green Ghoul got lucky.

For a being of great if undefined infernal power, the Ghoul's plans for municipal domination are surprisingly conventional: he wants to become the mayor. Granted, he wants to do so by killing and possessing the incumbent but it's still fairly mundane as far as demonic power plays go. Fortunately for Mayor Clark he is unlike his assistant a member in good standing of Mr Justice's supporting cast and so the various attempts on his life are foiled.

There's a bit of story padding in which Mr Justice and the Green Ghoul (plus Mr Justice love interest Pat Clark) duke it out in a dinosaur-infested subatomic world but things eventually come to a head in the space between the mundane world and the spiritual one, one of the few places that an immortal being can be killed, where the Ghoul hopes to do just that to Mr Justice. Unfortunately for the Ghoul, the immortal killing golden knife cuts two ways and he ends up as a cloud of green ocean pollutants.

killed because he challenges mr justice to a battle to the death in the void between - cuts both ways

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 526: THE DICTATOR

(Blue Ribbon Comics 013, 1941)

I had two surprises coming to me when I read the first appearance of this fellow: 1) though there are a fair few Golden and Silver Age comics that posit some sort of supernatural element to the evils of the Axis power - deals with the Devil, influence by one or another god of war, etc - but this is the earliest example I've seen of one of their leaders actually being a supernatural evil.

If I had previously said that the Dictator's Shadow was about as close as you could get to someone being a Nazi without actually dipping over the line and just saying it, this comic has somehow elasticized the line and dragged it way over to the other side. The Dictator is Hitler in all but name, and they don't even go to the trouble of replacing the swastika with another symbol or making up new names for the countries he invades. There are such a small number of changes, in fact, that I will list them now: Germany is referred to as Mitteleuropa (which is a term for Central Europe fairly closely associated with the German imperialism of both World Wars), the Bavarian Alps are instead the Vabarian Alps, and Goebbels is instead called Deenbee (a maddening name because it feels like I should be able to work out a meaning behind it).

(later there are look-alike analogs of a lot of top Nazis, seen here)

Mr Justice demonstrates the even-handed political neutrality that comics of the past were always known for and bursts into a staff meeting to give Hitler the Dictator "the most vicious beating a man ever experienced", as you do.

Again, this is all politically neutral stuff.

This conflict continues for a few issues: first, the Dictator arms his nameless Himmler-analog with an anti-ghost potion and sets him the task of killing Mr Justice. This ends in not-Himmler's  death but also in an important realization for Mr Justice: that the Dictator wields only temporal power in the world, that he can only act through agents. Accordingly, the net two Mr Justice stories concern him killing off analogs of Goering, Goebbels and von Ribbentrop t erode the Dictator's power base.

And that's where it ends, kind of. After Mr Justice strikes, the Dictator returns fire by sending future entry the Green Ghoul to attack America. It take three issues to deal with that guy, and by the next time he shows up the Dictator is just the Devil again - whether or not he is still cosplaying as Hitler is not addressed. I guess that this is going to continue to be a thing when the villain in question is a cosmically evil being, right? They just pack up and go home at the end? A bit unsatisfying from a narrative perspective.

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 002

How did these real people come to be trapped in the 2D realm? We may never know

Adolf Hitler:

This one is more tenuous but Blitz Krieg here is Fuehrer of the pseudo-Nazi Bundonian forces in America. He's not not a Hitler analog. (Blue Ribbon Comics 006, 1940)

This is Boris Thorax, first foe of Rex Dexter of Mars, who collaborates with the Moon People in order to take over the Earth of 2000 AD. Look at that hair: that's a Hitler analog. (Mystery Men Comics 001, 1939)

Alexander the Great:

Time traveller Stuart Taylor and pals visit Ancient Macedonia for a larf and get mixed up with Alexander and for some reason the Amazons in an adventure that will inspire much eye-rolling in the modern reader. (Jumbo Comics 017, 1940)

Charlie Chaplin:

A "Harly Shaplyn", attacked by "Bundonians" for making a version of the Great Dictator. (Blue Ribbon Comics 006, 1940)

Samuel Goldwyn: 

The bald guy in the Harly Shaplyn panels above is named Sam Wyngold and it took me a concerningly long time to realize that he was an analog of Samuel Goldwyn, the G in MGM.

Count Zaroff:

Aristocrat Baron von Krasner wants a little of that "Most Dangerous Game" action, so he wrecks a ship and hunts adventurer Gypsy Johnson and his companions on his be-castled island (Blue Ribbon Comics 006, 1940)

Heinrich Himmler:

Unnamed head of secret police for Mr Justice foe and Hitler analog the Dictator. Ends up skewered by his own men. (Blue Ribbon Comics 014, 1941)

Hermann Goering:

As "Field Marshall Boreing" is manipulated into killing/ being killed by other Nazi analogs by Mr Justice. Boreing is the only survivor but Mr Justice gets him in the next issue. (Blue Ribbon 015, 1941)

Kit Carson:

It's one of those "why did they bother obfuscating this" moments: "Kit Karston" here is probably meant to Kit Carson, formerly widely regraded as a hero of the Old West and now as a mass murderer. "Gravestone" is obviously Tombstone, Arizona. (Blue Ribbon Comics 007, 1940)

Joachim von Ribbentrop:

Nazi foreign minister. As "von Fibbenfop" is manipulated into killing/ being killed by other Nazi analogs by Mr Justice. (Blue Ribbon 015, 1941)

Joseph Goebbels:

The confusingly-named Deenbee serves as Minister of Propaganda for Mr Justice foe the Dictator (Blue Ribbon Comics 013, 1941) 

Two issues later, Deenbee is out and "Gobbels" is manipulated into killing/ being killed by other Nazi analogs by Mr Justice. (Blue Ribbon 015, 1941)

Mahatma Gandhi:

Cast as "Mahatmama", leader of a group of Italian-allied North African Arabs, a choice as baffling as it was racist (though it does fit with the sort of broad confusion between the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent I have noticed in other comics of the period) (Blue Ribbon Comics 013, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 011

Lotsa lil guys.

Mr Justice: 

Like the Spectre or the Wraith (or Sergeant Spook or the Gay Ghost or the Ghost Patrol...), Mr Justice is your classic restless spirit who remains on Earth to mete out justice to the wicked. Specifically, Mr Justice is the 200 year old ghost of the fictional English Prince James, cruelly slain by followers of Prince Richard during the Rogers Rebellion of the 1740s. Astute readers and students of history might have noticed a few things about the preceding sentence that all boil down to the fact that the 1740s were actually recent enough that we know a whole lot about what was going on then, including that people weren't running around in Medieval armour even if they were sometimes still using swords and shields during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. Also, this is what the crown prince of England looked like in 1741. (they change it to the 11th Century later on, because that makes a lot more sense).

Prince James' ghost is tethered to the place of his death per the usual ghost rules but he manages to get around that in a fairly unprecedented way: due the the war, the British government decides to move the castle to America and it is sunk by the Nazis on the way there. And since a pile of stone on the bottom of the Atlantic is not a castle, James is free to go become Mr Justice, the ghost super-hero frequently compared to the Spectre but who doesn't really get up to the sames sort of divine judgment stuff. He does fight the Devil/Satan a lot, though.

Possibly my favourite thing about Mr Justice is the fact that his secret identity is a fellow named Mr Justice and nobody really calls any attention to that fact. Mr Justice (secret identity of Mr Justice) is attached to the office of Mayor Clark (city unnamed but very NYC-esque) as a sort of troubleshooter. He kind of has a love interest in mayor's daughter Pat Clark and a rival in District Attorney Roy Winkler, above, but neither is explored very thoroughly. (Blue Ribbon Comics 009, 1941)

Inferno:

Above is an abridged account of Inferno's time as a super-villain, which we will treat separately because... well, because when you're reading a lot of old comics in a somewhat systematic manner you have to have some sort of organizational method and I chose alphabetical by year, and Inferno's time on the lists of crime happened in Zip Comics. I simply haven't gotten there yet. Suffice to say that he was a crook who changed his ways due to the influence of Steel Sterling and opted to do his time.

Despite his best efforts, Inferno is compelled to break jail to stop a group of prison escapees from murdering a judge and then is encouraged by that same judge to go on the lam because the authorities are going to try to murder Inferno. It's a real reciprocal life-saving situation! Although I am tempted to think that that judge could possibly have just called someone and arranged for a stay of summary execution for Inferno.

The rest of Inferno's career as a Golden Age super-hero is kind of a fun twist on the old trope of the super-hero that everyone thinks is a crook, in that he doesn't really have a secret identity per se so just travels around doing itinerant labour until he sees a crime go and changes outfits. The idea of this hobo existence kind of goes by the wayside after a couple of issues when Secret Service Agent Virginia Ames enters the picture, as Inferno's stories were on the shorter side and just didn't have the real estate for both a love interest and workplace drama.

Inferno only managed seven adventures before trotting off to limbo to wait for Archie's 1960s super-hero revival but don't worry! He got a full pardon in his last adventure so the other heroes won't be hassling him. (Blue Ribbon Comics 013, 1941)

Captain Flag:

On the one hand, Captain Flag is a regular-style patriotic hero but on a different, more entertaining hand he is a patriotic hero with a very fun origin. To whit: one day super-villain the Black Hand is attempting to wrest scientific secrets from inventor John Townsend when his playboy son Tom stumbles in half lit. The Black Hand is about to dispose of Tom using his horrible hand when a huge eagle just kind of... flaps into the room and ends up leaving with Tom Townsend in its talons.

Thus saved, Tom just kind of lives with the eagle for a while and transforms from a dissipated youth to a lean, athletic man full of fish protein. And then the eagle comes back one day with an American flag! It's a veritable sign from the heavens it what it is!

And so, Tom Townsend becomes Captain Flag, who mostly fights the Black Hand. Which makes sense. Something else that would make a lot of sense: adding a belt to that costume. (Blue Ribbon Comics 016, 1941)

The Red Mask:

The Red Mask is very minor indeed! He appeared in four issues of Best Comics from Better Publications, of which only issue 2 appears to be available, which in turn was reprinting newspaper strips, of which only a handful are available. 

What we have on the guy is this: he leads a tribe on the island of Kaukura, which is probably but not definitely in Oceania somewhere. Kaukura is chockablock with things like sacred grottoes, immortal monsters and hostile tribes and the Red Mask has assigned himself the task of protecting a bunch of clueless outsiders like Nina and Danny here who have blundered in looking for their friend and found themselves up to their neck in trouble.

The most interesting thing about the Red Mask is that he is by a fair margin the first nonwhite super-hero, though thanks to colouring limitations and some inexact geography it's a bit difficult to get more exact than that. (Best Comics 002, 1939)