(Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)
We join Rango, a science villain of some description, after he has failed to conquer Europe. His next move: total destruction.
After absolutely devastating a city in what is probably Slavonia, Rango heads for the United States by the simple expedient of swimming across the Atlantic.
And now we encounter the main attraction, Master Mystic! What a character! Master Mystic is very much ahead of his time, both in his art style and degree of superhuman omnipotence.
Master Mystic's entire battle with Rango feels like something out of a 60s underground comic, slightly unreal and rubbery and full of visual excess. Appropriately, Master Mystic was created by Victor E. Pazmino, whose other credits tended more toward the funny animal content that informed so much of the underground comix scene.
(see also Pazmino's other super-heroic creation, TNT Todd, for some fun costume compare-and-contrast)
It really is a shame that Pazmino didn't do more work along these lines, assuming that he wanted to. Stuff like this visualization of the Master Mystic's telekinesis stands out as innovative by any era's standards.
Master Mystic eventually melts Rango into horrible goo and then returns to his Arctic stronghold to resume his protective watch over humanity North America, and if the super-powered one-upsmanship of their battle felt like something out of 60s counterculture comics then this detached, omnipotent man routine feels very 1980s post-Watchmen, or at least one step away from that. Should some entrepeneur BRING BACK the Master Mystic the next time metatextual super-hero analysis characters like Miracleman come into vogue? It's worth a shot!
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