(Speed Comics 006, 1940)
The Devilfish is a pseudo-Nazi mastermind who vexes Lieutenant Jim Cannon of the Royal British Navy for the first 2 or 3 of his handful of appearances in Speed Comics and I won't lie: it's all about that great name for me, although that same name is annoying the part of me that loves to put things into categories due to the fact that "devilfish" is such a loose term. People - especially in the first half of the 20th Century when we were really starting to poke around under water but didn't really know anything about what was going on down there - love call any scary ocean being a devilfish, including rays, octopus, squid, some whales, all kinds of deep-sea monstrosities... it's impossible to know just which devilfish this fellow was named for.
So what is notable about the Devilfish aside from his wonderful and vexing name? In his debut, he's directing attacks on British shipping and if I'm going to highlight anything it's his wide range of vehicular transport, from ship to plane to submarine, all in one six-page adventure. This issue also establishes a bit where the Devilfish will send Cannon a taunting radio message after getting away, which is a fun bit of business.
The Devilfish returns to plague shipping in Speed Comics 007, and regional pride compels me to point out that this issue begins in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Go, Windjammers!
The Devilfish's actual plan this issue is pretty incoherent: set a bunch of icebergs loose in the shipping lanes and also cover those same icebergs with nautical mines. But... what does this accomplish? Does the Devilfish think that ships just bump innocently and harmlessly into icebergs all the time and the mines are meant to spice things up? Is this a plot to distribute the mines into whichever random stretch of ocean the bergs pass through as they melt? Why not at least paint the mines white so that they aren't so visible that someone (i.e., Lt Cannon) can't just easily spot them and blow them up from a distance? It's maddening to contemplate!
As in his first appearance, this one ends with the Devilfish seemingly being killed but actually scuttling away in a submarine (this actually completes a second ship > plane > submarine sequence) only to taunt Lt Cannon via radio. While it's entirely probable that the Devilfish returned again in Speed Comics 008, the only extant scan of that comic does not include the relevant story and I personally am not willing to pay $100+ for a physical copy to find out. Did the Devilfish return again? Did he die? Does he remain at large? We may never know.
No comments:
Post a Comment