Tuesday, October 7, 2025

DIVINE ROUND-UP 014

Once again I present to you some deities. 

Pelenona


South Pacific adventurer Lance O'Casey almost gets sacrificed to the volcano goddess Pelenona on the of the same name because a different, more evil adventurer had made off with the island's sacred temple jewels.

The people of the same island also worship a shipwrecked circus gorilla as god-monster the Eepa, 

God Style: Animist (Whiz Comics 008, 1940)

the Creeping Death:



The Jungle Twins were a pair of brothers who were separated as infants when their parents' jungle expedition was attacked by raiders. William Dale was taken back to New York by a loyal nursemaid to grow up in the lap of luxury, while his brother Steve was left behind in the jungle to - you guessed it - become the toughest, baddest dude and rule over all he surveyed.

Years later, William made his way back to the jungle to find Steve, and along the way he and his servant Dagoo were captured by apemen and left as sacrifices for their god, the Creeping Death, which turns out to be a whole river full of giant crocodiles! Dagoo gets them out of this scrape using some magic pipes to put the crocs to sleep, despite William being a total asshole to him. 

God Style: Animist (Nickel Comics 001, 1940)

Dagan the Only




Cotton Carver is your classic Golden Age comics adventurer, and in one of his first outings he stumbles into a classic Golden Age adventure setting: a vast network of temperate, well-lit caverns beneath Antarctica. From then on, his adventuring career involves getting into scrapes in underground nation after underground nation as he looks for a way back to the surface world. After making a particularly perilous transition from the Land of the White Witch to the kingdom of Thule (pre-WWII, so not a red flag), Carver and his companions encounter a group of archers who are making their yearly pilgrimage to the shrine of Dagan the Only. 

The actual worship of Dagan the Only is a bit of a mystery - he requires travellers of the Path of Peril between the LotWW and Thule to delivered living unto him, which suggests human sacrifice and triggers a bloody battle between the archers and Carver's people, but that turns out to be a ruse by the princess of Thule to acquire their help in defeating an enemy. Later on, however, Cotton and his pals make the transition to the next underground land by being tossed into Dagan's sacrificial pit. All we can say for sure is that he has a great name.

God Style: Idol (Adventure Comics 039, 1939)

the Devil God


A cool-ass idol that Zero the Ghost Detective smashes up in order to banish a ghost in the Guatemalan jungle. Though Zero asserts that the ghost is operating under the Devil God's will, I would say that it's equally likely that the idol is his anchor to the material world. Also, we only have Zero's word for it that this guy is named the Devil God.

God Style: Idol (Real?) (Feature Comics 049, 1941) 

Monday, October 6, 2025

HONOURS - CAPTAIN MARVEL

Lots of college hijinks for our lad: 




Less than one year into Captain Marvel's career, the local college has an elite football squad named Captain Marvel's Men who dress in replicas of his uniform. As part of an investigation into illegal sports betting, Marvel infiltrates the team and ends up winning a game single-handed. Plus, this all takes place at Marvel College, which has to be a coincidence.




Billy Batson also uses the Wisdom of Solomon get into Marvel College at what... fifteen? And then after that he gets jumped into the Skull Club fraternity, which is certainly a wholesome place for comics' most innocent boy to hang out.  (Whiz Comics 011, 1940)

Sunday, October 5, 2025

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 020

You won't believe the aliens and alien-adjacent societies we got in here. 

Scorpians and Subterrines




When crack reporter Scoop Smith and his photographer pal Blimp Black fly to Mexico to investigate reports of an "invisible revolutionary army" they get the story in a very direct way when they are shot down and taken captive by the Scorpians, who dwell in the underground kingdom of Scorpia and are extremely on-theme about the scorpion thing at all times, as can be seen in in the throne room of Scorpian King Cortes and its five distinct bits of scorpion decor.

 

Scoop and Blimp are escorted to the Horror Chamber to be eaten by giant scorpions, because even the Scorpian methods of execution are on brand. They escape thanks to a thrown rock and a handy earthquake and discover the Subterrines, a second underground civilization that is also seeking to overthrow the Mexican government.  


While the Scorpians under King Cortes kind of vaguely evoke the conquistadors of old, the Subterrines are pretty explicitly the descendants of native Mexican peoples who fled underground and now seek to reclaim their lands (and may I say that "everyone has long white beards now" is about the most benign version of becoming troglodytic cave-dwellers). The two groups of course hate one another and set to battling to the death for the honour of conquering Mexico, only to be annihilated together by the Mexican army. (Whiz Comics 005, 1940)

Ape Men:


If you've ever wondered if there was a version of the Paul Bunyan story in which he had an ape man for a companion, well wonder no more, because it happened in National Comics, when King, the ape man in question, wanders out of the woods and starts attacking lumberjacks, only to find himself on the receiving end of a beatdown from Paul Bunyan himself. After this, the impressionable King adopts the lumberjack way of life and joins Paul's supporting cast. (National Comics 006, 1940)

Joins Paul's supporting cast for one issue, that is, because in National Comics 007 a scientist shows up at camp with a lead on where King might hail from, prompting Paul and the lads to set out to return him to his people, and if you've ever wondered if there was a version of the Paul Bunyan story in which he traveled through India to the Himalayas, well, you are in luck. Paul and the lads find King's tribe and for the second time in as many issues, Paul Bunyan has to fist fight a Himalayan Ape Man in order to make peace.

Bat-Men:



Though the Bat-Men are very, very vampire-like - bat-winged humanoids who capture humans and drink their blood and can make humans into Bat-Men and are destroyed by sunlight - the keen senses of jungle-man Samar tell him that they are not, though he never really clarifies what they actually are. 

The Bat-Men and their underground city are destroyed when they force Samar to battle a tyrannosaur in their gladiatorial arena and he inadvertently collapses the cave roof while killing the beast with a catapult. (Feature Comics 038, 1940)

the Bat-Men of Mephis


One of the many intelligent races to inhabit the planet Mephistos in the year 2500 CE, the Bat-Men of Mephis as their name suggests live in the tunnels beneath the city of Mephis, posing as statuary until it is time to attack. It's a very urban adaptation, which is fun. I also appreciate their little ears. (Flash Comics v1 002, 1940)

Saturday, October 4, 2025

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 027

Rascals the lot of 'em. 


L-17 is a spy from an extremely unspecified foreign power who vexes pilot Wings Bordon throughout his three appearances. He is remarkable both for his longevity - three whole appearances for a simple letters-and-numbers spy is astonishing - and for the fact that he managed to get a promotion between his first appearance and his last, from field agent reporting to a shadowy Chief to being the shadowy figure whom other report to. It's possible that someone just misremembered L-17's position, but that doesn't take away from the achievement. (Whirlwind Comics 001, 1940)


Sir Neville Towse, "England's most famous explorer" has been threatened with death by a mysterious character known only as the Avenger, and it's up to Inspector Blake of Scotland Yard to solve the mystery and prevent the murder from happening.


The Avenger turns out to be Sir Neville's butler Owens, who just wants to get ahold of the money left to him in the explorer's will without all that tedious waiting around first. He does employ a pretty sweet booby-trapped phone to do the deed, but that doesn't make up for the disappointingly callow motivation for the crime. (Whirlwind Comics 001, 1940) 


Clarence the Maniac Man is a circus sideshow wild man, one of a number of groups of people who are just a crime or two away from super-villainy (or a selfless act or two away from super-heroism, I suppose) on any given day. In Clarence's case, simple jealousy over the affection shown to Captain Marvel by Lovelia, the jerk Queen of the High Wire, drives him to release alien circus animals as revenge on society. That's toxic, Clarence. (Whiz Comics 006, 1940)


This gang boss, evocatively and simply named "Power" has taken a page out of Dr Sivana's book and is using a radio wave jamming setup to blackmail broadcasters in California. He didn't really think through the mechanics of concealing a huge compound full of guys and electrical equipment, even out in the desert, and is rounded up by private detective Dan Dare in short order.  (Whiz Comics 009, 1940)

NOTES - OCTOBER 2025

Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects in the Back

I'll grant these cops this: Steel Sterling did just steal one of their motorcycles. I still don't think that that warrants a  "SHOOT TO KILL!" and three bullets in the back. (Zip Comics 001, 1940)

Honours


Rambunctious pilots Tim and Tom Shane, aka the Devils Twins, are decorated for valour. (Zip Comics 001, 1940)

Friday, October 3, 2025

DIVINE ROUND-UP 013

Piping hot deities for you this mornining.

Sivu the Tiger God



The worshippers of Sivu the Tiger God come to New York City to recover the jewelled eyes of their great idol, which are known as the Death Ruby and the Doom Ruby and held in the New York Museum and the collection of Beverly van Pell, respectively. Detective Dan Dare gets involved when he is hired by Mrs van Pell and the rubies ultimately stay right where they are. A shame, but at least we get to see that six-armed, four-legged, chubby, tiger-headed representation of Sivu, right?

God Style: Idol. (Whiz Comics 003b, 1940) 

Zeus



The MLJ Hercules is the first super-hero of that name to actually be the demi-god in question, and he accordingly has a couple of meetings with his dad Zeus to discuss the state of the fight for truth and justice back on Earth. What I mostly want to point out about this version of the King of Olympus is that he's probably the most flamboyantly dressed Zeus in comics before Jack Kirby illustrates him in Thor

God style: Real (Blue Ribbon Comics 005, 1940)

Charon



A pretty by-the-numbers version of Charon who doesn't deserve to be bullied by Dr Fate just because he needs to cross the Styx. He didn't even try a bribe first!

God Style: Real (More Fun Comics 056, 1940) 

Wisdom


The reason that Dr Fate is visiting the underworld is to check on whether his enemy Wotan is in fact dead, and to that end he is consulting with "Wisdom, who rules the world," which I can only assume is another entry in the long tradition (that started four issues earlier with the origin of the Spectre) of alluding to the Abrahamic (or let's face it: Christian) god via a combination of vague wording, blinding light and dialogue from an unseen source.

God Style: Real (More Fun Comics 056, 1940) 

(annoyingly, I can't figure out where the bit about the seven gates to the underworld is from. It feels familiar and I wanted to see if it was from a non-Greek, non-Christian source because then this trip would be incorporating three whole mythologies, but there is simply too much "Gates of Hell" talk online to find it easily) 

Thursday, October 2, 2025

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 062

We're awash in minor super-heroes! 

Golden Arrow


Golden Arrow has a more convoluted origin than an Western hero has any right to, but I'll do my best to summarize it without one million images. He is Roger Parsons, whose father, Professor Paul Parsons, develops advanced ballooning technology just before WWI breaks out and determines to test it out before donating it to the US government. To that end, he bundles his wife and infant son into a balloon and sets out on a cross-country voyage that turns out to have been a bit too well-publicized, because he is shot down by the villainous Brand Braddock while passing over the Western deserts. While Brand squirrels away Parsons' technology until the day he can safely sell it on, the infant Roger is found by a prospector named Nugget Ned, who raises him as his own son.


Life in the West suits Roger, and he grows up to be a physical paragon, a crack shot with the bow and arrow (with which he uses impractical but iconic golden-headed arrows, and yes, I do believe there is a story in which a crook goes around committing minor crimes in order to profit from gathering them up afterward) and a superb horseman on his faithful steed White Wind. Nugget Ned eventually dies of being Old, but passes on the truth of Roger's parentage before he goes. Roger then takes back the ballooning technology from Brand (plus his twin sons Bronk and Brute) and donates it to the US Government. Along the way, he kind of falls into being a Western vigilante.

Golden Arrow is also one of my classic examples of a character egregiously transitioning from the Modern to the Old West, since he is so firmly established as being in the present from the start. As usual, it's not easy to pin down exactly when it happens, but it does. (Whiz Comics 002, 1940)

Spy Smasher:


Spy Smasher is Alan Armstrong, a wealthy Virginia playboy who battles espionage threats to American democracy. He uses both his geographic proximity to Washington DC (via his Virginia estate) and his engagement to Eve Corby (daughter of Naval intelligence officer and eventual Chief of the US Secret Service Admiral Corby) to keep abreast of just what those threats might be and then sally forth to punch them in the face - smashing them, if you will.

Though this setup might at first seem to be a recipe for a comic about a hero battling an endless series of nondescript men in suits, it is in fact the complete opposite, as Spy Smasher only smashes the most eccentric and flamboyant of spies, starting with the Mask, who does, yes, wear a suit most of the time, but trust me on this. He's nutty.

Something that I had forgotten about Spy Smasher is that they were extremely coy about his identity for the first year or so. It's not a particularly mysterious mystery, as Armstrong is literally the only suspect and there is some allusion to the reader being able to figure it out.. They do make an attempt to imply that Armstrong could be the Mask, but there's a period where Eve Corby knows the secret while the reader theoretically does not at I gotta assume that she would put 2 and 2 together if Spy Smasher was not Armstrong but Armstrong was still mysteriously sneaking off just before Spy Smasher and the Mask had a scrap. Basically what I'm saying is that this comic needed more white guys.

Spy Smasher's main bit of crime espionage-fighting technology is the Gyrosub (also Gyro-sub, Gyro Sub), a compact vehicle that combines the functions of a car, an airplane, a boat and a submarine and has a wide array of deployable weapons and technology as the story demands them. (Whiz Comics 002, 1940)

Doctor Voodoo



Jungle heroes are all kind of samey: they fall into a few broad archetypes and have variably racist adventures in an abstract Jungle that frequently feels simultaneously Asian, African and South American (and indeed one of Doctor Voodoo's own adventures involves Arab slavers raiding the Amazon from a very Sahara-like desert). What is remarkable about Hal "Doctor Voodoo" Carey here is how he is both a white child who grew up in the jungle and excelled at jungle skills beyond his native peers and also simultaneously a magic white man from far away who brings modern science and medicine to the wilderness. How is this? Why, it is because the comic treats being a white guy as a kind of magical property that Hal has, and so even though he has never left the Amazon and learned all of his medicine from observing his father and reading his old textbooks, Hal identifies as and acts as an American doctor throughout the series.

Hal practices his medicine among the Blanca, a tribe of "White Indians", which is a term that I think originated in the pulps and is basically meaningless except to signal to the reader that the Blancas can be viewed as fully human. They are also the ones who give him the name "Doctor Voodoo" after deciding that his medical knowledge is magical in nature. Which I guess that it kind of is, given my earlier assertions. Annoying! (Whiz Comics 007, 1940)

Maxinya the Heaven-Woman



Doctor Voodoo's companion/ love interest is Maxinya, the Heaven Woman, who is yet another kind of jungle hero in that she was abandoned when her explorer parents were seemingly killed in the collapse of an ancient temple and subsequently raised by jaguars. She can talk the language of jaguars and has jungle life down but ends up not having a lot to due because the focus is on Hal and he is the kind of misogynistic 40s hero who inists that adventure is no place for a lady.



Not enough time is spent on the fact that Maxinya's companion Jappa is a jaguar who is large enough to carry two adult humans on his back, who communicates with Maxinya and later Doctor Voodoo in an actual spoken language, with words. I feel like there's a story there. (Whiz Comics 007, 1940)




(it only comes up once, so I wouldn't necessarily call it an essential part of his character, but here's Doctor Voodoo engaging in Blanca Death Combat against his arch-foe Okoro)

DIVINE ROUND-UP 014

Once again I present to you some deities.  Pelenona :  South Pacific adventurer Lance O'Casey almost gets sacrificed to the volcano godd...