(The Funnies 057, 1941)
Ivan Shark is the arch-enemy of Captain Midnight, direct from the Captain Midnight radio show. He is the head of a nationwide network of spies and gangsters dedicated to overthrowing the US government.
The threat of Shark and his organization is so great, in fact, that it is the impetus for the formation of Captain Midnight's Secret Squadron, and so efficient that he is aware of the clandestine meeting between Midnight and a heavily-disguised FDR that marks the Squadron's beginning and is able to get there in time to attempt a presidential kidnapping.
Like Captain Midnight, Ivan Shark has an extensive supporting cast that has been sourced from the radio show and appear as shorthand versions of themselves in the comic, including henchmen Wolf, Fang and Gardo, the latter of whom finally appears in The Funnies 061 after being mentioned in every previous issue.
The greatest of Shark's minions is his daughter, the amazingly-named Fury Shark. In practice she is just a standard femme fatale espionage type, but she and her father make for a very entertaining evil scheming duo.
Like his foe Captain Midnight, this version of Ivan Shark is but a pale shadow of his radio counterpart, doomed to live out an incomplete story due to the brief duration of the Dell adaptation.
No comments:
Post a Comment