(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.
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