MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 854: THE BEAST

(Weird Comics 009, 1940)

The Beast is the Eagle's first and perhaps only recurring foe, and it's unfortunate that he makes his first appearance at the very end of the 1940 run of Weird Comics because I really want to highlight the similarities between the Beast and his fellow Luis Cazaneuve creation the Rook, but danged if I have enough material for a real compare-and contrast on them yet. For now, we'll just hit the obvious, such as the fact that they look very similar, right down to their staring eyes. Not the hair, though.

The Beast's focus in this story is on stealing a treasure map that just happens to be concealed in an ornamental box owned by Bill "the Eagle" Powers, which is as easy a way to involve the hero in the story as comics has come up with. His criminal tools of choice in this endeavour are a fairly gnarly clawed prosthetic hand from which he presumably derives his name and a poisoned blowgun which I am very interested to see if he keeps on using.

The second point of comparison between the Rook and the Beast is the fact that they both have a criminal antagonist, in this case a gang boss known as the Gimp, who the Beast hires to retrieve the box initially and then double crosses once it's time to pay for his services. The Gimp really comes into his own in 1941, when he starts using his signature weapon, an artificial leg with a knife on the end. For now we must simply assume that he's kicking the Beast with a wooden foot.

I'm calling this one based on very little evidence, but I reckon that the third commonality between the Rook and the Beast is going to be Seemingly Dying at the End of Each Adventure, based on the fact that the Beast does just that at the end of this one. See you next year, Beast!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 804: THE MAD SCIENTIST OF HELL'S KITCHEN

(The Flame 003, 1940)

The Mad Scientist of Hell's Kitchen is a, you guessed it, mad scientist who has developed one of the classic serums, giving him the option to turn into a huge and super strong ape-man with a simple injection. Of note is the fact that this is not a Jekyll and Hyde situation, as the Mad Scientist and his alter ego the Beast appear to be merely physically and not mentally distinct. Also of note: though the Beast is described as "shaggy" at least once, he appears to in fact be completely hairless.

After the Beast murders the eminent surgeon Doctor Brown, the Flame takes the time to check in on Brown's only known enemy, the Mad Scientist of Hell's Kitchen, and spots the Beast emerging from his warehouse/laboratory.

Though the Beast hands the Flame's ass to him and then goes out and kidnaps a young woman while Our Hero lies senseless in the gutter, he picks himself up, dusts himself off and continues the investigation. The Mad Scientist of Hell's Kitchen does a really phenomenal job of deflecting the Flame's immediate suspicion with his "I'm the only one here and I'm certainly no beast" routine, but then goes and spoils it all by injecting Beast Serum and transforming into the creature directly in front of a window.

(just a little demonstration of both the Beast's level of super strength and the Reverse C panel structure, popular in the early Golden age and always infuriating)

Ultimately, though the Beast proves tough enough to shrug off the Flame's fists, and walks away from a collapsing building, he isn't quite invulnerable enough to resist the force of an extremely tall bit of public art. Once caged, the Beast quickly reverts to the form of the Mad Scientist of Hell's Kitchen and the city is once again safe for its doctors.