MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 559: THE COUNCIL OF VAMPIRES

(Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939)

Firstly: re the first panel, I really struggled with whether to call these guys the Deadly Council of Vampires or just the Council of Vampires. Still doubting myself.

Secondly: I am going to lay out these guys' whole deal up front in order to properly critique them in the manner I am compelled to: they are not, despite the name, vampires. Instead, they are what seems to be a cult devoted to a vampire named Anya and they are looking for an artifact called the Vampire Ruby that will allow her to live in "our world," which contextually seems to mean that she will be able to remain awake and alive during the daytime.

The Vampire Ruby turns out to be in the possession of an agent of the London Museum and here's where my critique comes in: the Singapore branch of the Council captures that agent and tortures him to death in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to give up the Ruby's location (he had it between his toes! Very sloppy searching on the Council's part). BUT!

THE CURATOR OF THE LONDON MUSEUM IS MARRIED TO ANYA! If they had just left the agent alone he would have taken it directly to their Queen! And then once protagonist Dr Fung and his pal Dan Barrister show up at the museum late on a Friday to say that they have Vampire Ruby, the curator invites them to his country estate for the weekend rather than (presumably) waiting until Monday office hours for them to come back with it!

If the curator (Luigi Bishop, btw) was just able to be cool for two and a half days he would have had the thing! Instead, he brings a famous detective to his mirror-filled home to meet his vampire bride.

But maybe I'm being unfair to the mortals in this story. After all, they're all in thrall to a vampire who is dumb enough to tip off Fung and his pal Dan before doing a clumsy room invasion on them when, again, just waiting a couple of days would have delivered them the ruby on a silver platter. Presumably some of that dumb impulsiveness rubbed off on the ordinary cult members.

It all ends in a huge fire, like maybe a third of all vampire stories. Anya and her husband perish and the Singapore branch of the cult has to find something else to do on weekends.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 558: DOXOL

(Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939)

We (and the Flame) start in media res, as a young woman unsuccessfully attempts to flee a car full of hooded goons, is captured and brought back to an ominous manor in the woods. The Flame cottons on to this and follows them.

Inside we find Doxol! Doxol is a wizened green fellow who is using mind control drugs (mystic ones!) to create his own little crime cult. This is where the slice-of-life nature of the story gets a bit frustrating from an analytical perspective: is Doxol still setting up or has this cult been a going concern for a while? Were the new recruits all kidnapped or recruited regular cult-style? Even Doxol's appearance - magic mutation or dramatic disguise? It's a mystery!

The Flame has even less information about Doxol than we do because he was dropped into a pit with crushy walls as soon as he stepped through the door. Lucky for him/ unlucky for Doxol his induction ceremony involves a flaming brazier for the Flame to appear in like he does (also lucky for that lady because she doesn't get shot full of grody mind control drugs).

Doxol makes his escape while the hooded riffraff deal with the Flame, or so he thinks. Turns out that the Flame was fortuitously flying his plane when he stumbled into this mess. 

You'd think that engaging a guy like the Flame in a dogfight would level the playing field for a fellow like Doxol but no, he just leans out the window and lights Doxol's plane on fire.

NOTES - JULY 2024

Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects: 

The cops send a "shower of bullets" after the Fantom of the Fair as he swings over the densely-populated New York World's Fair. (Amazing Adventure Funnies 001, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 557: DEATH

(Wonderworld Comics 003, 1939)

Like I said in the Devil's entry yesterday: Death and the Devil have teamed up as a sort of Yarko the Great Revenge Squad because Yarko saves so many live and souls, respectively. I also mentioned that Death did all of the legwork toward getting Yarko just where they wanted him, and here that is: Death kills a seemingly random London man then delivers him to the police, leaving only a calling card behind.

The discovery that the calling card's address was that of a cemetery is enough to convince Inspector Drake of Scotland Yard that this is a case for Yarko the Great, and... obviously Drake is right because even the most well-trained officer is going to have a hard time dealing with Death himself, but have some gumption, man. Try to track down where the card was printed or something before abdicating all responsibility.

Yarko makes his way to Death and the Devil's Limehouse lair, where he is promptly captured, put in a deathtrap, escapes and banishes the Devil back to the netherworld. Death takes more of a background role in this latter part of the adventure, but that's okay because he looks great - mostly quite cool but a bit sleazy too, because this ain't your regular Death, this is Bad Boy Death.

In the end, the Devil having been vanquished, Death just leaves. Yarko can't actually affect him, and there's even some hinting that the man in the car was not killed so much as dies naturally and was just used as bait, which implies that Death has no way of affecting someone who isn't about to die anyway. He does kill a reluctant henchman who refuses to go up against Yarko, but maybe he was about to die too - working for the Devil has to be a dangerous profession, right?

Death returns in Wonderworld Comics 008 after a Madame Punjai finds the creatively-named Golden Amulet, which compels his service. Punjai is obsessed with her lost youth and beauty and because of this commands Death to kill the young and beautiful Carla Dennis, a former passing acquaintance. This is done seemingly on a whim? There's no real exploration of Madame Punjai's plans, whether toward regaining her lost youth or revenging herself on the beautiful women of the world.

Yarko the Great of course becomes involved in these shenanigans and the more-hapless-than-evil Madame Punjai is tricked into trading her life for that of Carla's. Death is again cheesed off about this. BUT WHY IS HE? He's going to get basically everyone eventually, even in a comic book world with immortals and so forth. Why care? Is this a Discworld style Death who gets into human roles like hobbies? Maybe.