(Smash Comics 009, 1940)
Proxoff is an example of a Kind of Guy that you see in Golden Age Comics: he came through the chaos of the Great War and said to himself "if this ever happens again then I'm going to come out on top." Together with his aides van Damm and Count Trini, Proxoff has established secret airfields and fortresses in Siberia and presumably elsewhere and is waiting for his moment to swoop in and conquer the weakened nations of the world once they've fought one another for a while.
Proxoff's scheme hinges on his army of men who do not fear death, as exemplified by this would-be assassin who, having failed to kill Black X, bumps himself off using a cool skeletonizing drug (in-universe, the skeleton thing is not really for any reason, but on a meta level it points the Black X to its point of origin in Siberia).
The "no fear of death" thing eventually proves to be Proxoff's downfall. Firstly, they've been so heavily conditioned that Black X's aide Batu is able to mesmerize an entire submarine without even trying, and secondly, the impulse to die rather than submit to capture overtakes them when Batu drops his concentration during some depth charge action and they all kill themselves rather than, say attempting to take back the ship.
Things get even worse once Proxoff's men see actual combat, as they don't even see the point of returning enemy fire and prolonging their own existences. Truly this is an indictment of the trope of the henchman loyal unto death.
Proxoff himself meets an ironic end: as Black X closes in on him he must resort to his own skeleton drug rather than being captured, and the caption makes sure to emphasize that he, unlike his men, does not particularly want to die.
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