MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 895: THE GHOST OF THE DEEP

(America's Greatest Comics 001, 1941)

The Ghost of the Deep, a dastardly fellow indeed. As the comic opens, a captive scientist named Hugo has just completed a mysterious formula for him, only to be rewarded with murder.

In the following days, the Ghost attacks US West Coast shipping, each time leaving behind a calling card in the form of a message in a bottle.

The Ghost even tries to silence Billy Batson's fairly routine reporting on the attacks (but why leave a calling card if you don't want everyone to know you're responsible?) by taking Billy and his boss Sterling Morris for a proverbial ride. When this is predictably foiled by Captain Marvel, the Ghost of the Deep shows up long enough to demonstrate that he is also a classic comic book Bad Boss by drowning his hapless Teutonic minions.

There is a bit of radio-based taunting, since Billy is a radio guy. Again, this kind of thing brings into question just why the Ghost of the Deep wants to shut Billy up.

So just what is the Ghost of the Deep's plan? And what is this mysterious formula that poor Hugo died for? Why, it's the recipe for making a transparent, invulnerable alloy called Z-Metal, and using a fleet of tank-submarines composed of the stuff, the Ghost intends on conquering the United States. First stop: blowing up the Panama Canal.

As for the Ghost's real identity, well, it's not revealed until later, but any cagey comics reader will immediately peg this smarmy rival radio man named Spriggins as the top suspect the instant that he walks on-panel. Presumably his cover serves the same purpose as Billy Batson's: as a way of gathering information and justifying a lot of globetrotting as being in pursuit of a story.

Ultimately, Spriggins' plan has one fatal flaw: it fails to account for the presence of a magically super-strong fellow like Captain Marvel, who succeeds where the might of the US Navy cannot and smashes the Z-Metal fleet to smithereens. And then does the same to the Ghost of the Deep's cool Z-Metal chainmail.

The captured Spriggins makes one last attempt at striking out at the US by stealing an MP's gun and taking out a nearby General, only to be intercepted by Captain Marvel and suffer the oft-joked-about but seldom-seen fate of the person who fires a bullet into an invulnerable super-hero's chest only to have it bounce back and kill them instead. 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 894: BLUEBEARD

(Wow Comics 004, 1941) 

The piratical Bluebeard and his gang of fake sea dogs crash the costume ball of the wealthy van Hoffs and make off with Mrs van Hoff, demanding a ransom of one hundred thousand dollars for her return.

Since Bluebeard had already tried to do extortion on the van Hoffs by sending them threatening notes, Mr Scarlet and Pinky were already on hand to swiftly track down the kidnappers and beat them senseless. 

The post-beating unmasking reveals that Bluebeard is in fact Tom, possibly van Hoff, cousin to one or the other of the couple (or... both? Are the van Hoffs that kind of rich?), who has fallen on hard times and turned to costumed kidnapping as a means to scare up some quick cash. Some notes for Cousin Tom:

- It is a bold choice to choose a false chinstrap beard when you have a real mustache.

- Running around going "THEY'RE PROBABLY NOT IN THE CASTLE" when they are, in fact, in the castle is a really good way to draw suspicion down on yourself. Better to not mention the castle at all.

- It is very annoying to call yourself Bluebeard and hang out in a castle while sticking to a strict pirate theme when there is in fact a character called Bluebeard, famously castle-based, who is a direct threat to women, and who I personally think would make for a better theme.

In other words: make better choices next time. 

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 022

Today we journey into the far future! 

Cave-Dwellers: 

The hunt for Atom Blake's father takes him from Earth to Mercury, to Mercury but millions of years in the future, where he encounters these little fellows. Driven out of their surface city by invaders, the Cave-Dwellers are understandably hostile to outsiders, but Atom manages to win them over eventually, free his father (the hunt, though long in distance and time, was short in terms of steps) and retake the city.

What I really appreciate about these guys his how much they resemble a version of the sensory homunculus. (Wow Comics 003, 1941)

Peoples of the Year 2 000 000 000: 

Not to be outdone by some kid, in Detective Comics v1 023, Slam Bradley and Shorty Morgan travel two billion years into the future after meeting scientist Professor Kenton, fresh off of completing his time machine and not interested in any sort of half measures like trying to go to next week.

Please note the "city rises and falls outside the window to mark the passage of time" bit, later used to much effect in Futurama. 

Slam and Shorty are almost immediately separated from Kenton and captured by a big bird that flies them into a fantastic futuristic metropolis nearby. There. they are confronted and captured by three beings: a human, a bird-man and a plant-man, and this is our first inkling that this isn't the lame kind of future where everything is just a reskin of the present, not only because Earth is populated by three distinct intelligent species but completely alien technology, such as the weaponized recorders used to paralyze our heroes.. 

More alien weirdness follows, as it is revealed that these three fellows have been condemned to death for gambling on a holy day (the anniversary of their leader's tonsillectomy, which is silly, yes, but culturally very interesting. They have a god-emperor of some kind!). They also do not speak English but communicate via a thought transmission device. 

Despite their seeming reverence for their leader, these three fellows want to take advantage of the time machine to get out of town and avoid their fate. They eventually try to steal the device outright and are killed in a firefight with Slam, Shorty and Kenton but before that the plant-man gets to show off this cool and very thematic flower weapon.

He's not really an alien, but as long as I'm talking about this adventure I would like to mention Iron-Fingers, a giant cyborg pitted against Slam Bradley in gladiatorial combat as a form of execution after Slam refuses to grant the petulant god-king access to the time machine. Specifically, Slam is sentenced to be "plucked to pieces" by Iron-Fingers, which is an image that really sticks with you. (Detective Comics v1 023, 1939) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 893: THE HUMMER

(Wow Comics 004, 1941)

The Hummer, "the deadliest killer on Earth" has just gotten out of jail and is out for revenge on those responsible for sending him away in the first place, starting with Taylor, the prosecutor.

Like so many of his peers in the murder community, the Hummer has an affectation: he hums while he kills, and also while preparing to kill and after he kills. He hums all the time. It's a bit of a liability, to be honest, as anyone who knows about him is able to keep an ear out for trouble. He's also a classic super-villain Bad Boss who kills his henchmen when they fail him.

Where many revenge killers are obsessive enough to stick to their predetermined list come hell or high water, the Hummer is of a more adaptive breed and dynamically expands it as he goes along, which is why Mr Scarlet and Pinky are marked for death. While this is evidence of a more flexible view of the world, I can't help but assume that it will lead to a never-ending vengeance quest as everyone who impedes the Hummer in any way is themselves marked for death.

One of the original targets on the list is Brian "Mr Scarlet" Butler's secretary Miss Wade, who was working for previous victim Taylor at the time that the Hummer was put away, This is an astonishingly petty grudge to hold, and also provides Mr Scarlet and Pinky with just that much more motivation to take the Hummer down. 

Revenge Killer Score: 1/10+

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 892: MR HYDE

(Wow Comics 004, 1941)

Mr Hyde is introduced to the reader as a homicidal maniac who murders future Mr Scarlet sidekick Pinky's mother one night for unclear reasons. He just bursts in and kills her and there is not even attempt to justify it. In fact... I'm not 100% certain that Pinky actually knows that Mr Hyde is the killer.

Pinky is relocated to Oaklawn Orphanage, under the care of director Dr Jelke, who we as savvy readers immediately recognize is going to turn out to be Mr Hyde. I must admit that upon first reading this story I thought that Jelke/Hyde might have been out murdering parents in order to keep his orphanage well-stocked with kids but alas, it seems that Pinky ends up crossing his path purely by chance.

Mr Hyde's next crime is to make the city safer for crime and criminals by murdering the mayor, and since Mr Scarlet has been pretty firmly established as operating out of NYC we must add the Honorable James T. Flynn to the list of alternate, non-Fiorello La Guardia mayors of New York in comic books. Perhaps La Guardia claims the mayoral role after Flynn's death - we'll have to watch the pages of Wow Comics to find out.

Mr Scarlet intercepts Mr Hyde (a rare battle between a super-hero and -villain with the same prefix!) but loses him just inside the orphanage walls. This of course again points straight at Dr Jelke as the fiend's alter ego but more importantly leads us to our main line of inquiry about this villain: Just What Kind of Jekyll/Hyde Situation is This?

We all know the basics of the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in which Dr Henry Jekyll attempts to purge all evil from his body using a chemical concoction and instead creates a secondary, wholly evil identity that controls his body with ever-increasing frequency and power. The question is, which elements, and in what form, are being used in this particular story?

1. Does Dr Jelke know what Mr Hyde is up to? It appears that he does! Hyde turns back into Jelke to avoid Mr Scarlet and though Jelke's brush-off of Scarlet could be chalked up to his being a stuffed shirt, the fact that he then tries to locate Hyde's lost monocle indicates that he is wise to the situation.

2. How is the change effected? Though Mr Hyde has a small laboratory and loves to hurl flasks of acid around, the Jekyll/Hyde transformation in this story is not chemical but seemingly purely mental and brought on by Jelke reading the original novel. But there is something else going on! Namely...

3. Just how much of a transformation are we talking about? Jelke's switch to Hyde involves more than a robe, a monocle and a mussing of the hair - Hyde has claws and fangs and lacks a stupid little mustache! Clearly Jelke is onto something and is not just a homicidal maniac with a literary fixation.

All of these questions lead up to the big one:

4. Are these two personalities sharing one body or not? I gotta say no to this one. While the Mr Hyde persona appears to be more violent and less inhibited, all indications are that this is something that Jelke did on purpose, though his aims are never elaborated on beyond "personal gain." In a classic Jekyll/Hyde situation such as the Wolf's the good personality is oblivious to the actions of the evil one, and Jelke shows no signs of that.

Jelke does eventually follow in Jekyll's footsteps in one final way: once his experiments in identity are proven to be a bust he kills himself.