Monday, March 31, 2025

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 756: THE MOLE

(Smash Comics 017, 1940) 



The Mole is an eccentric inventor who has developed one of the all-time greatest examples of technology that would net more safe profit if marketed for industrial purposes than if used for crime: the drilling machine. Rather than approaching the mining or construction industreis, the Mole opts for the rush inherent in stealing high-value, hard-to-fence objects like the unspecified crown jewels on display in New York's Maiden Lane.

In addition to the sheer digging power of his boring machine, the Mole's plan involved showing up at the crown jewels exhibition in disguise and casting a lot of suspicion on himself, thus leading to the police wasting their time in searching for a nonexistent bearded man. I was going to spend some time roasting him for going to all this trouble to establish a false identity while wearing a very distinctive red suit and bow tie, but a) it totally works and b) the far more roastable offense is including this ruse in the first place, as it's the only thing that ties him to the actual crime.



Even so, the Mole is on track to get away with his crimes, until  he compounds them by littering. Crack reporter Chic Carter gets the break that he's looking for when he is reminded that false beards exist by literally stepping on one, and once that happens it's all over: all Chic has to do is beat up a single nerd and he's solved the case and netted a free drilling machine in the process.

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