Tuesday, May 21, 2024

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 011

Some say they're not generic enough but I think they're trying their best.

This fellow is part of a gang looking to hijack a shipment of railway guns from train engineer Runaway Ronson. I really enjoy the look of the padded suit they use to help survive crashing a car into a high-speed train but I really really enjoy the fact that they immediately scramble off into the woods and are never seen again, as if they were completely unrelated to the criminal plot. (Blue Bolt v1 007, 1940)

This fellow's a pseudo-Nazi spy named Ketler who goes up against Sub-Zero in an attempt to influence the very specific Torpedo Workers Union into striking and hindering part of the US defense program. I feel like he overestimates the usefulness of the mask as he doesn't change anything else about his appearance when not murdering people but that's not what gets him caught so I guess I'm the fool here.(Blue Bolt v2 002, 1941)

Colourful enemy aces are the best/ only tolerable part of the absurd number of Golden Age comics about pilot-adventurers, so my little ears pricked up when American-flying-for-the-French Loop Logan was challenged to a dogfight by a Nazi called the Blue Duke but... there's nothing to him. He's just a guy with a name who's been sabotaging French planes and shooting them down. Waste of a good name, if you ask me. (several days later note: it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this guy's name was a play on the Red Baron) (Blue Ribbon Comics 004, 1940)

These guys briefly terrorize New York (possibly - we have another instance of a city that is Clearly New York City But the Mayor is Wrong) with a futuristic tank mounted with a death ray. If they a) had a name and b) weren't completely demolished by Mr Justice in about three panels they might have made the leap to full Minor Super-Villain status but as it stands they're an object lesson in why ultra-powerful ghosts need a tougher class of enemy to be really entertaining. (Blue Ribbon Comics 010, 1941)

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