PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 006

Every time I relax, another one emerges from the shrubbery. And what's depressing is the fact that they will continue emerging at a more or less steady rate for the entire history of comics. Here's the latest batch of Problematic Characters.

the Voodoo Man: 

When Dr Bob Warren heads to Haiti to practice medicine and "investigate voodoo", he comes into conflict with the Voodoo Man, a zombie-raising, curse-spouting, doll-pinning collection of every voodoo trope and stereotype. As compared to other headlining super-villains, the Voodoo Man's exploits are pretty one-note: he's trying to exert control over part or all of Haiti using zombies and other magics, while Warren foils him at every turn.

The Voodoo Man's finest moment is probably the time he turns an old woman into a pig to vex his enemies, but as always serving a super-villain is a dicey prospect, OSHA-wise, and the pig-woman gets a knife in the back for her efforts. (Weird Comics 001, 1940) 

For a couple of issues (Weird Comics 004 and 005, specifically), Bob Warren seems to be pilling a Thin Man and becoming the Voodoo Man, as in a man who battles voodoo practitioners. Rather than the original titular Voodoo Man, Warren takes on a very similar fellow named Boanga (above) and the Grand Zombie (below), but after that the one and only original returns for the rest of the feature's annoyingly long run.

the Grand Zombie: 

The Grand Zombie's appearance coincides with a change in the "Voodoo Man" creative team, as evidenced by Bob Warren suddenly becoming a clean-shaven blonde instead of a mustachioed brunette. There is a chance that he is meant to in fact *be* the Voodoo Man, as his modus operandi - turn people into zombies for his own enrichment - is the same, but given that he looks completely different, operates at a site on the other side of the island and is called something else I'm willing to call the Grand Zombie a different character. 

The Grand Zombie name, in addition to being a far better one than the Voodoo Man, reflects a linguistic quirk that might have been widespread but which I have only encountered in old comics, in which both the unquiet dead and their creators are referred to as zombies. Better name or not, the Grand Zombies is unceremoniously shot at the end of the story and the feature then reverts back to the Voodoo Man.

This issue also feature perhaps the least empathetic missionary character in Golden Age comics. (Weird Comics 004, 1940)

the Magic Mandarin: 

The Magic Mandarin, aka Lee Ching, importer, is an extremely typical Yellow Peril villain. Perhaps the only moment of joy I found in his entire first appearance was when he met up with his fellows in the Brothers of the Bloody Blade (above) and they kept screaming "Allegiance!" at one another.

The thing that puts the magic in the Magic Mandarin is an artifact called the Stone or Lodestone of the Dragon which is capable of such feats as paralyzing others, creating a force field, changing someone's clothing and telekinesis, but which is unable to function if swaddled in silk or affect someone who is wearing silk, which comes in very handy for the Mandarin's foes Smash Dawson and his team.

The Magic Mandarin is one of your classic "seems to die at the end of every adventure but turns out to have survived in the next" villains, and like so many of those his final appearance must be assumed to be the one that finally killed him, as he was sucked into a dam in Whirlwind Comics 003 and there was no Whirlwind Comics 004. (Whirlwind Comics 001, 1940) 

Fu Chu: 

Fu Chu is a recurring villain of Yarko the Great, and while he is so patently a Fu Manchu knockoff that he even has most of his name, his major offence is in how boring he is. Like, I don't find Yellow Peril comic book plots particularly fun to read, but at least they are usually rich with incident. Fu Chu's debut involves him kidnapping the inventor of a death ray and then completely failing to prevent Yarko from waltzing in and taking him back.

Fu Chu's second appearance, in Wonderworld Comics 016, features him as the head of a cult of the Mayan Plumed Serpent Kukulkan, for reasons that are never quite explained, as the main thrust of the episode involves Fu Chu attempting to kill explorer Doctor Mayo and his daughter and Yarko the Great intervening to save them. The whole farce ends with an earthquake destroying all or part of Chichen Itza, which is wild.

Fu Chu goes on to return at least a couple of times in 1941 but don't hold your breath - he'll have to really up his game to get an update, (Wonderworld Comics 013, 1940) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 868: THE HOOD

(Wonderworld Comics 019, 1940)

The Hood, a mysterious figure (who leaves a note with an unfortunately cut-off symbol that I can only assume/hope is a hood-and-crossbones) is terrorizing an unnamed city with a series of murders - eight in one week! 

Going by the old wisdom that the murderer always returns to the scene of the crime, the Flame waits at the site of the latest murder and is rewarded when the Hood does just that. He is however unsuccessful in capturing the fiend due to the twin facts that a) the Hood thought to bring some guys along with him and b) an unfortunate woman happens by just in time to be taken hostage. 

The Flame and the never-named woman are taken prisoner and spend some time escaping while the Hood lines up his next victim, a store owner who lives near the Sea Clock mentioned in his taunting note. This is when we finally get some inkling of the Hood's motivations: far from being an ordinary homicidal maniac, he is instead forcing his victims to sign over their property to him before murdering them.

(I would just like to take a second here to roast the Unnamed City authorities for the sheer amount of consternation they evince at the notion of a "sea clock" when they live in a town that has such a large clock tower located on its waterfront)

The Hood is finally unmasked and turns out to be the Unnamed City Mayor's personal secretary, Jenkins, who the Flame had held in deep suspicion for the entire issue for using the word "extraordinary" to describe the killer. This sort of thing is always highlighted when it pays off, but how many times does a crime go unsolved because of such unwarranted suspicion of a person with a weird vocabulary or a tendency for malapropisms, hmm?

DIVINE ROUND-UP 018

Idols, idols, idols! 

the Great God Khwass: 

Khwass, Great God of Vengeance, is a comparatively rare villain's god who actually follows through on his promises. He is invoked vs Dr Fung by the daughter of a former foe and not only replies to her prayers but deploys sleeping gas and a weird monster to aid her in her quest for vengeance. 

God Style: Real (Wonderworld Comics 016, 1940)

Ice God Emul:

Captain Venture and the Planet Princess Zyra's great enemy, King Leon of Asteroid Djung, loves to subcontract out his villainy, and to that end he has engaged the services of Frigo, King of the Ice Planet. Frigo is to kill Captain Venture and deliver Zyra to King Leon for marriage but of course betrays him and slates all three for sacrifice to the Ice God Emul.

The idol of Emul is destroyed in the subsequent battle and escape, and what's interesting here is that Emul is explicitly just the idol. As Frigo states, "the god Emul is no more." Wild.

God Style: Idol (Master Comics 015, 1941)

Bubastis & Isis:

In an early adventure in Egypt, Zatara comes across a member of a lost archaeological expedition who is on the verge of death, and who is magically revealed to have found a lost temple to Bubastis. Travelling there in hopes of finding the rest of the expedition, Zatara encounters the ancient priest Amen-Hotep, who is part of one of those weird remnant Ancient Egyptian populations that exist under the sands of Egypt in adventure fiction, and whose priestly magics are comparable to Zatara's own.

The temple of Bubastis also turns out to be a temple to Isis, as Zatara discovers when he meets a less-powerful but still magically potent priestess of Isis and is almost sacrificed by her. Amen-Hotep seems to be an Isis worshipper as well, as he animates a statue of the goddess to smite Zatara with - it's possible that the two goddesses are being conflated here.

Zatara ends up melting the statue of Isis and disintegrating Amen-Hotep. The priestess is "sent away," presumably with the rest of her people in tow, and the temple is turned over to the archaeologists to plunder.

God Style: Real (Action Comics 005, 1938) 

Khor: 

Khor is known as the Blind God because the magical diamond that was the eye of his idol was stolen long ago, and since that diamond subsequently became the source of super-heroic adventurer Diamond Jack's power, the priesthood of Khor is out for his blood.

The high priest animates the idol of Khor and sends it to destroy Diamond Jack and recover the eye. This is impressive but not innovative - we just saw the Amen-Hotep do the same with a statue of Isis, after all - but what is is the custom roadster-cum-juggernaut that the thing rides around in. Was ever aan evil god so sporty?

The whole thing ends back at the temple, as Diamond Jack disrupts the ritual that keeps Khor animated and the high priest ends up being crushed under the falling idol. So long, Khor. 

God Style: Idol (Real?) (Slam-Bang Comics 004, 1940) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 867: THE MASKED MAN

(Wonderworld Comics 017, 1940) 

Our story opens as a man named John Daniels approaches Yarko the Great after a show and requests his aid in preventing whatever fate befell his mysteriously missing brother James from also happening to him, as threatened by an ominous note. Yarko of course accepts.

I wouldn't call this the most clearly-plotted comic story of all time, so instead of laying everything out in sequence I'll just introduce the cast of characters:

John Daniels: Receiver of threats and client to Yarko. Is almost immediately murdered by the Masked Man.

Philip Daniels: Hostile to Yarko's presence from the start. High-strung. Murdered about halfway through the story.

Miss West: Almost completely inconsequential. Seemingly there to pad out crowd scenes.

Countess Maureen: Mysterious femme fatale house guest.

James Daniels: The missing brother. His watch is found on a skeleton in a hidden room (please ignore that Yarko is calling him John - it's James), which must mean that it's his skeleton.

Cousin Daniels: Shows up at the very end after most of the suspects have been murdered, just to pad things out for a panel or two.

The Masked Man: Your basic murderous man in a suit and cowl. As always I appreciate the fact that he has a nose hole in his surprisingly rigid-looking mask. Yarko ends up going a couple rounds with him but does not actually manage to capture him. Considering that Yarko is functionally omnipotent and coupled with the fact that the Masked Man murders two guys right under his nose might just make him the most competent villain that we've seen in a while.

All good things must come to an end, however, and Yarko eventually figures out that a) the skeleton with the watch was actually a clever ruse and b) the Countess is in fact James Daniels in disguise! He makes a go of attempting to kill Yarko even after being exposed (and please note how much more masculine his face looks after the wig comes off - I would say that perhaps James had some magic of his own but that happens basically every time a situation like this is the crux of a comic book plot in the 40s) but it's a lost cause at that point. And just why did he do all those murders anyway? Why, for the inheritance, of course!

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 064

Oh my gosh! It's more minor super-heroes! 

the Phantom Rider: 

The Phantom Rider is Tex Maxon, who was already a wandering cowboy who meted out justice for a while before getting into the masked vigilante game. Where a lot of masked cowboy vigilantes are doing a classic secret identity or concealing their identity for more specific reasons like being wanted for a crime they didn't commit, the Phantom Rider thing honestly just seems like a fashion choice on Maxon's part, like he found a big black cloak one day and decided to roll with it.

The above speculation is undermined somewhat by the fact that the Phantom Rider outfit changes to this yellow cowboy shirt/jeans/mask combo pretty quickly, but maybe Maxon just found the cloak too cumbersome (or the artist found it too annoying to draw).

Far more annoying is the fact that this strip that was clearly set in the Old West from long before the Phantom Rider identity was established switches to a Modern West setting in Wonderworld 015. Have some consistency, people. (Wonderworld Comics 011, 1940)

**UPDATE** the Flame:

Once again we have the origin of the Flame, and as I suspected the previous version of this that we had encountered was cut down from this one. Notably, this is the first time that the Flame is given any sort of name, Charteris, and the lack of a first name is even kind of textually supported: he is washed away in the flood immediately after being born - his parents might not have had time to name him yet. He is made Grand High Lama as a baby in this one too, which is still weird to me. (Wonderworld Comics 011, 1940)

**UPDATE** Yarko the Great:

In a bit of Silver Age "give everything a significant origin" style storytelling, the jewel on the front of Yarko the Great's turban is revealed to be the Ada-La-Hoda, one of the Twin Jewels of Blood required for this one Chosen One to become ruler of all India, in a mystical sword-in-the-stone way. Unfortunately for him, his choice to wantonly murder anyone who might get in the way of his acquiring the gem leads Yarko to determine that he is unfit for the role and keep the dang thing in hopes that the next Seventh Son of the Seventh Son of the Order of Aribah might be more reasonable. (Wonderworld Comics 011, 1940)

the Secret Band of the Purple Hood: 

The Secret Band of the Purple Hood are a vigilante organization that operate in the city of Shanghai and who induct super-detective Dr Fung into their ranks mid-case as both he and they are attempting to battle the worshippers of Khwass, Great God of Vengeance. Sadly, as this adventure ends in a cliffhanger that is as far as I can tell never resolved, we don't get to see the Secret Band do much more than beat up a couple of priests, but I'm just so chuffed to find a vanishingly-rare example of non-title-character masked vigilantism that I simply had to include them. (Wonderworld Comics 016, 1940)