MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 944: PROFESSOR MARKUSYI

(Silver Streak Comics 016, 1941)

Professor Markusyi, the music teacher in question, is a man who is never seen at night and who *refuses* to go out at night, much to the amusement and consternation of those around him.

There are plenty of reasons why one might not want to go out at night (nyctophobia, love of an early bedtime, a jealous spouse, etc) but only a few of them are worthy of being the focus of a comic book plot, at least in the Golden Age. Markusyi's secret reason for being diurnal is that he is a werewolf, and specifically the kind of werewolf who transforms every night? And maybe can do it at will during the day? The mythology is murky at best. As is the anatomy: just look at the legs on that thing.

I gues we must give Markusyi some credit for containing the beast within for long enough to get a reputation as a night-hating crank, but there wouldn't be a plot if he didn't lose control, would there, so he murders one of his students for being "too beautiful to live" like a real creep.

Also please note the free rein that a literal wolf had to roam the streets in the 1940s. Are modern social and legal conventions about not allowing your dog to roam free secretly part of an anti-werewolf agenda?

We must now step back to the title page of this story for a look at a different messed-up drawing of a wolf (man), and while my initial instinct was to make fun of the anatomy on display (see above) I do kind of love the concept of a werewolf as a messed-up uncanny valley dog-thing, like the human part is trying to create the wolf part from memory and doing a bad job.

I also want to showcase the fact that the only thing that Markusyi is called other than his own name is here in the title and it's the Music Teacher, which is a good name for a villain but frustratingly not applicable here. I just love when villains have cool names, you guys. Calling them by their government name is a bummer.

Bart "the Daredevil" Hill is alerted to the case thanks to a police inspector pal with what I would call an unprofessional approach to law enforcement. Thanks to some research in one of those extremely comprehensive books on folklore that you get in horror movies, Bart is soon aware of just how exactly Markusyi's version of werewolfism works. Specifically, that he has to kill four... women? in order to be cured, and he's already killed three!

Markusyi's fourth target is the Daredevil's fiance Tonia Saunders, who he met and fixated upon thanks to an ill-conceived plan to gather information by signing her up for violin lessons with him. While this was a very dumb idea, it does allow Daredevil to find Markusyi before he commits his final murder (and becomes human just in time to have to get away from a crime scene) and seemingly beat him to death, which I guess that this kind of werewolf is unacceptable to. All's well that ends well, I suppose? For a certain value of "well"?

Categorized in: Doctors & Professors, Murder (Magical Reason), Origin (Lycanthrope)

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 013

Another batch of dumb-dumbs for the fire.

the Green Shirts:

Though only mentioned by crooked political boss and aspiring fascist bigwig Pete Rosky, these Green Shirts are the same kind of palate-swap allusion to the Nazi Brownshirts and/or the Italian Blackshirts that we've seen so many times before. Their Rosky-led attempt to take over the US-government is nipped in the bud by the Human Meteor. (Champ Comics 012, 1941)

Categorized in: Colours (Green), Ideology (Crypto-Fascists), Objects (Shirts)

the Black Legion:

Led by a melted candle named Hans Schmutzdoff, the Black Legion are a group of fifth columnists who are infiltrating US war production with an eye to disrupting it, and who are ultimately undone because Chuck and Skip, aka the Liberty Lads, just kind of stumble upon them doing Nazi cosplay in the woods. (Champ Comics 016, 1941)

Categorized in: Colours (Black), Espionage (Fascist Groups), Generica (Legions)

the Ghost Ship:

It's one last hurrah for Cloud Curtis as yet another gang of fascists attempts to disrupt the development of the US air forces by deploying a gimmicked-up airplane. This one has projector mounted on it, allowing it to distract US pilots with visions of a phantom plane while the real one sneak attacks them from the rear. Like several other Cloud Curtis foes, this is a group operating under the singular name of the vehicle they pilot. (Silver Streak Comics 016, 1941)

Categorized in: Fraud (Fake Undead - Ghost Planes), Objects (Planes), Supranormal Beings (Ghosts) 

the Hooded League: 

The Hooded League are as far as I can tell a home-grown fascist group dedicated to weakening America in advance of a Nazi invasion, and to that end they launch a coordinated attack on Chicago that includes blowing up both the El Train and every bridge over the Chicago River (this is the inspiration for my modern Captain Battle revival in which the rebuilt bridges have slightly taller guardrails thus preventing the Dave Matthews Band bus incident, which in turn causes aliens to invade or something. It's a rich seam of potential that I will be strip mining). 

Before things can get much more out of control, Captain Battle gets ahold of their leader, newspaper editor Thompson, and forces him to order the Hooded League to stand down. (Captain Battle Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Leagues), Objects (Hoods), Supercrime (Attempted Conquest)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 943: HERR DEATH

(Silver Streak Comics 016, 1941)

This issue continues the trend of Captain Battle foes being fascist spies who are weaponizing fear by dressing up as the undead. In this case Herr Death is, as the name implies, a desiccated corpse version of Death, accompanied by a horde of the walking dead (not, I must stress, zombies. This is more "the dead have come out of their graves" kind of thing which, yes, would be classified as zombie behaviour now but which used to be its own spooky thing).

Herr Death has improved on the formula employed by Herr Skull and the Mummy Master before him in a couple of ways. Firstly, his men are not just spooky looking but fitted with bulletproof vests in order to showcase their supernatural fortitude (lucky for them the "destroy the brain" aspect of fighting the undead doesn't enter the public consciousness for a little while yet). Secondly, Herr Death is far more proactive than his contemporaries and he is very willing to mix it up with his scythe.

Herr Death also has a very thematic cemetery lair featuring a sick-ass corpse whirlpool for disposing of interlopers such as Captain and Hale Battle. I can't imagine that it's too much fun to hang around in between missions but oooh, the atmosphere!

On the negative side, Herr Death and his men are particularly bad at concealing the fact that they are Nazis, from the fact that his name includes the telltale Herr to his minions yelling "himmel!" and so forth the whole time. This really gives the game away to anyone who is paying attention, such as Captain Battle for instance.

Once they're no longer actively drowning in a skeleton whirlpool, Captain Battle and Hale are able to round up Herr Death with little difficulty. Bulletproof vests aren't too effective against four good ol' American fists.

Hale Battle must of course grab his souvenir, and he of course chooses Herr Death's scythe as the coolest possible option. I don't think that it's applicable here since Herr Death did so very many crimes, but this may just be the first time that we've seen someone take a murder weapon as a trophy, which makes me wonder just how many super-villain trials have been ruined because a key piece of evidence is sitting in a cave somewhere?

CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 006

Why of why do they keep on hurting our boys?

Meteor:

Silver Streak's partner Meteor is shot in the back by a Nazi, but it's okay: the bullet only "nicked" his back. (Silver Streak Comics 016, 1941)

Electro:

Professor Zog, the brains behind Electro, is shot in the left arm. (Marvel Mystery Comics 016, 1941)

the Sandman:

The Sandman has a very rough 1940, starting with a shot to the right shoulder... (Adventure Comics 047, 1940)

... then a shot to the left shoulder... (Adventure Comics 050, 1940) 

... a second shot to the right shoulder... (Adventure Comics 055, 1940)

... and the for symmetry's sake, a second wound to the left shoulder (All-Star Comics 001, 1940)

To add insult to injury, he has to have gotten at least a little radiation poisoning during his repeated encounters with the Yellow-Faced Terror and his killer radium ball. (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

Sargon the Sorcerer:

Sargon the Sorcerer, shot in the left shoulder while trying to do his damn job. (All-American Comics 032, 1941) 

Zatara:

Zatara is shot in the right arm while hanging around a lost city of ape-men. (Action Comics 027, 1940) 

Then he is shot in the left shoulder by an uncommonly fast-on-the-draw crook. (Action Comics 038, 1941)

Zatara shot in the left shoulder again thanks to the fact that he overlooks a crook when making himself hypnotically invisible. (Action Comics 040, 1941)