These guys use science for crime and evil, for which we excoriate them, but they also make entertaining villains, for which we celebrate them.
Dr Stone:
Dr Elijah Stone has a calling and it is in creating and disseminating deadly plagues upon mankind. This, however, is the kind of passion that society frowns upon and Stone is locked away in the State Mental Hospital. Unfortunately for mankind, the State Mental Hospital seems to be one of those places that contracts its security out to the lowest bidder, because Stone escapes in no time flat.
Sure enough, there is soon a hot new Dr Stone plague ravaging humanity. This quiet New England Town is absolutely screwed, and the rest of the world is soon to follow if someone doesn't do something soon.
Enter time/space explorer Whiz Wilson, who pops into the future to a time when there simply must be a cure and is referred to the Medical Center on Mars. His quest hits a small speedbump when the Martian doctor turns out to actually be Dr Stone in disguise - it seems that when not making plagues Stone has dabbled in chronal physics and has independently developed Futurescope technology. He has been using the future as a home base to culture up enough plague germs to wipe out 1941 humanity in one fell swoop, after which he will enjoy some alone time on an unpopulated planet.
Whiz Wilson smashes Stone's Futurescope and makes off with his personal supply of anti-plague serum but is forced to let the man himself escape. Both Stone and the text boxes set up Dr Stone as an upcoming recurring nemesis for Whiz to deal with, presumably in different time periods, but his evil plans are foiled by the fact that this is the final Whiz Wilson story. (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)
Professor Hanley:
Professor Hanley is one of the many comic book scientists whose development of a means of making artificial diamonds is seen as dangerous and/or criminal by a super-hero. Hanley is at least attempting to pass artificial diamonds off as natural ones so I guess this counts as selling counterfeit good, but I still think that this is not worth your time, the Angel. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 014, 1940)
Howland:
Howland, the second and final foe faced by Sky Wizard, has been causing mass chaos by sending out his army of humanoid robots to loot and kill. He also has a real "evil Vulcan" look that I appreciate.
In addition to the extremely nifty robots (called the Robot Terrors by one and all, though I suspect that Howland just adopted the very cool name after he heard Sky Wizard use it), Howland is notable for creating these deathtraps that kill their victims by dropping slats out from under their feet at a rate of one per five seconds and then leaving them to dangle and strangle thanks to the tight neck shackle. This is pretty gruesome, but it's also very quick, and Howland still manages to be out of the room when Sky Wizard and his aide Keeshan manage to escape.
Let's be clear: I was already worked up about this before I noticed that he says how many slats there are because even at, say, one hundred slats that's only eight and a half minutes, but no, it's six slats. That's thirty seconds, Howland. You're too busy to wait thirty seconds for a super-hero to die? I don't even feel sorry for you that you eventually die at the cold metal hands of your own robots, because I only feel contempt. (Miracle Comics 004, 1941)
Captain Kiddlaw:
Captain Kiddlaw, the Wizard-Pirate, is a scientific scoundrel who vexes the Super Police of the far-flung year 2023. His scheme involves dragging passing cruise ships to the bottom of the ocean for loot and slaves and is never technically foiled due to the cancellation of the "Super Police 2023" serial. They probably get him eventually, though. (New Fun Comics 002, 1935)
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