MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 978: THE BLACK LEGION

(The Flame 007, 1941)

The Black Legion is a mysterious cult who recruit members by sending them a sternly-worded letter through the mail. Presumably they have some way of researching their potential inductees to screen for susceptibility to peer pressure and so forth, because the initiation process involves carving a large letter D into your own chest while swearing fealty to the cult's leader, the skull-masked Master of Death.

The Black Legion takes its vows seriously, as member Graves finds when he tries to leave and is brutally murdered. Even Linda Dale, the niece of Black Legion co-leader Emma Dale, is almost killed when she asks a few too many questions about the secret ceremonies taking place in her basement on a regular basis. Lucky for her, then, that she has just become a member of the Flame's supporting cast, as has Pug, the newest prospective member of the cult.

So just what is the deal with the Black Legion? What ethos they espouse or dark deity they serve? What, in short, is the point of all this? As the Flame learns after busting the place up, it's all a huge scam. Emma Dale and the Master of Death have been recruiting gullible fools to the organization and then pocketing the mandatory membership fees, and making even more money off of sales of the mandatory green velour robes. It's a shocking indictment of the state of comic book cults.

Categorized in: Colours (Black), Fraud (Con Artists), Misc (Cults)

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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)

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Will they ever mend their evil ways?

Like the Purple Shirts before them, the Black Legion exists mainly to represent the Forces of Unamericanism that Uncle Sam stands against, as they seek to win the hearts and minds of in this case the small Midwest community of Glen Valley (by shooting anyone who resists). The only real bit of innovation that they bring to the table are these rad machine gun motorcycles they go into battle on.

They also have a nose cutout on their masks, which indicates that they prioritize comfort over style. (National Comics 005, 1940)

The unnamed group that Uncle Sam fights in the next issue has a similar uniform in warm brown tones, and makes the interesting choice to wear it even while operating their submersible aircraft carrier base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That's some real dedication to secrecy. (National Comics 006, 1940)

The European-American Band, yet another take on the German-American Bund, is deceived and then dismantled in fairly short order by vacationing cartoonist-detective Pen Miller. (National Comics 006, 1940)

No comic book analog of the German-American Bund is particularly kind in its depiction but the Moronia Bund might just be the most insulting. I'm not sure why all the Moronian Americans are bald - it doesn't seem to be a requirement for entry as Perry "the Press Guardian" Chase is able to join up as a junior member to spy on them despite his luscious black locks. (Pep Comics 002, 1940)

(surprisingly, the Moronia Bund - under the slightly more sleek name "the Moroniabund" manages to scrape up another bunch of bald fascists to make a second appearance in Pep Comics 003, but gets its ass just as thoroughly kicked by the Press Guardian as the first time)