Friday, October 4, 2024

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 632: THE BOSS

(Fantastic Comics 012, 1940)

The Boss is actually Roulf, editor of the Daily Standard newspaper in NYC. He pulls the classic villain mistake of acting as a concerned citizen recruiting the protagonists - in this case Samson and David - to investigate his own villainous alter ego. It's the kind of error that you can emphasize with to a certain extent: how better to ensure that a super-powered busybody doesn't unexpectedly show up and wreck your plans then by controlling the flow of information and steering him away? The problem is that the Boss, like most villains who try this gambit, fails on the second part of the plan. Rather than guide Samson and David away from, say, his plot to blow up the Panama Canal he has instead alerted them to look out for such plans. Heck, before getting word to visit him at the Daily Standard Building, Our Heroes were spending their day pulling pranks on ice cream vendors. Truly the Boss has executed an epic self-own.

The Boss has a secret city hidden in a secret valley in the Western US and in that secret city he has a a little fort and in that little fort he has a littler pyramid. It's not very effective at keeping Samson out but I think it's neat that he nested up like that.

I think I've mentioned that Samson is one of your more bloodthirsty Golden Age super-heroes before and I've even said to myself "that's a murder," when reading a Samson adventure but... he just kind of admits it here, doesn't he. He captured Roulf and then murdered him while taking him back to civilization. Wild stuff.

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 632: THE BOSS

(Fantastic Comics 012, 1940) The Boss is actually Roulf, editor of the Daily Standard newspaper in NYC. He pulls the classic villain mistake...