PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 005

Some day we will hit Peak Problematic and I can't decide if it will be soon or in a decade or so. 

the White Leader: 

Our last Problematic Round-Up featured a lot of white guys dressing up like Yellow Peril villains in order to lead Chinese gangs, something that we will unfortunately be seeing plenty more of. This here fellow follows a different path: not putting on yellowface in order to lead a Chinese gang and in fact leaning hard the other way by having them call him "the Great White Leader" or just "the White Leader" the whole time. Is this technically better? I suppose it is. Is it not by much? Certainly!

Anyway, the White Leader is really wealthy playboy Anthony Clare, who turns out to be wealthy because he is a drug kingpin. Until he gets pinched by Detective Sergeant Burke, of course. (Startling Comics 001, 1940) 

the Voa:

Roger Barrow and his nephew Phillip Acton have just returned from a diamond-buying trip to Africa, and they must have been on their best behaviour because the local inhabitants of wherever they were doing their business sent them home with what is essentially a curse on their heads: the promise that the death-god Voa will follow them back.

This is of course a classic setup for a Woman in Red whodunnit mystery, with one of the six possible suspects bumping off the rest for those sweet, sweet diamonds. It's a classic solution to such a problem!

To give this comic the tiniest amount of benefit of the doubt I think that the false Voa that shows up to start killing people (aka Phillip Acton, the nephew) is dressed up like some sort of mahogany idol, but what that all adds up to is that while he is not technically doing blackface, he certainly appears to be doing blackface. It's not better, I'll say that right now.

Anyway, he was going to murder his whole family in order to get his hands on some stupid diamonds, so it's not like we were under the impression that he was a good person. About the only fun thing about this one is that Acton's chosen weapon is a blowgun that shoots poisoned crystal shards. (Thrilling Comics 005, 1940)

Princess Ah-Ku:

Princess Ah-Ku is a recurring villain of Bob Phantom's and she's just kind of generic: generically villainous, generically Yellow Peril... she even adopts an extremely generic alter ego called the Master in her first appearance. Most of her schemes involve smuggling. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)

Princess Ah-Ku returns in Top-Notch Comics 005 under yet another identity, as the Doctor, leader of a gang of kidnappers. As always, the surgical outfit-as-costume is a very strong look, though something about the reveal of Ah-Ku as the real identity of the Doctor makes me think that this was a last-minute change to spice up the adventure a bit.

Top-Notch Comics 006 involves Ah-Ku doing some opium smuggling, with a sideline in trying to figure out who Bob Phantom is so that she can kill him off. This allows for the hilarious old bit where she captures Walt Whitney in order to grill him for information on his own alter ego.

In her final appearance in Top-Notch Comics 009, Princess Ah-Ku attempts to take over Chinatown by killing off the Council of Seven who apparently have been running it. She manages to get it down to a Council of Four before Bob Phantom catches wise and steps in.

Princess Ah-Ku is finally brought to justice thanks to Bob Phantom's unexpected skill with the throwing axe. Perhaps it's for the best - at the rate her Yellow Peril levels were rising, the next time we saw Ah-Ku she might have sported a fu manchu.

the Brahmins: 

Kardak the Mystic and his gal-pal Lorna are just kind of wandering around the Louisiana bayous when they stumble across a Siva-worshipping cult of fanatics in a weird mystical pocket dimension. They foil the Brahmins' initial attempts to destroy human civilization (and acquire a new companion named Balthar in the process) and then spend the remainder of 1940 on a voyage through various other magical lands on the way to confront the Brahmins' masters, conveniently named the Master Brahmins. Look out for them in a 1941 edition of this very Round-Up. (Top-Notch Comics 006, 1940)