ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 009

When deep-sea diving off of the Marquesas Islands, explorers/lovers Chuck Hardy and Jerry Peterson are caught in a volcanic upheaval and sucked through a rift in the ocean floor. They find themselves in one of the many underground lands that dot any comic book version of the Earth - this one being lit and heated by an enormous volcano called Roara.

Chuck and Jerry's time in the underground land (never actually named as a whole, so I have been calling it Aquatania even though properly that refers to the one named kingdom in the underground area) is made easier by the fact that something in the atmosphere has given them both enormous strength. Which is good, because Aquatania is a rough-and-tumble place full of reptilian monsters and hostile humanoids. And speaking of those:

the Frog-Men:

Though the first Frog-Man that Cuck and Jerry meet, Mogba here, is a friendly guy, the Frog-Men as a whole are pretty aggro. They fill the role of the general antagonist for a couple of the other intelligent species in Aquatania and thus spend a lot of time getting beat up (and worse) by Chuck Hardy.

Please note also the long lobster antennae sprouting from between Mogba's eyebrows. These are features shared by several of Aquatania's different humanoid species and frankly I love this kind of thing. Suggesting a common ancestry between your multiple intelligent species that all live within walking distance of one another? Yes please. (Amazing-Man Comics 005, 1939)

The Frog-Men return to vex Chuck and Jerry in Amazing-Man Comics 011, and in issue 012, Chuck meets the Frog-Man leader, the two-headed Toga (who I can only assume is not green because the colourist forgot about the 'frog' part), in battle and kills him by heaving him off of a cliff. Hopefully the absence of Toga's influence will usher in a new era of peace for the Frog-Men. 

Aquatanians: 

The Aquatanians are the default white-guy species that you get in a lot of these many-lands-full-of-many-peoples adventures, thought the fact that they too have little lobster antennae suggests that they're descended from the same kind of ocean bugs as the Frog-Men, which is fun.

The Aquatanians have a sort of generically advanced and peaceful society mixed with a certain amount of medieval ignorance - they have high-speed air vehicles, for example, but no means of making fire other than sending Chuck to that big volcano I mentioned earlier to get some. They're also the ones who take the time to teach Cuck and Jerry the local language so that they don't have to spend most of their adventures doing charades. (Amazing-Man Comics 006, 1939)

the Quadropel Men: 

The Quadropel Men are our first Aquatanian race not to have antennae, suggesting that they may have evolved from an entirely different kind of ocean bug. They live in a hole in the ground (making them an under-underground race, yes) and do human intelligent being sacrifice to their deity, the Sacred Steam God. (Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940)

the Swamp-Men:

Chuck and Jerry encounter the Swamp-Men after an unexpected flood washes them, along with their Aquatanian companion Oxan and Aquatanian antagonist Princess Irina out to sea on a raft improvised from a palace door. As can be seen above, the best thing about the Swamp-Men is the fact that they have domesticated these amazing giant turtles and insist on standing like they're zooming around on them even though the turtles are consistently described as being very slow. It's great!

Otherwise, the Swamp-Men are kind of jerks. They capture Chuck, Jerry and Irina (Oxan sneaks away in order to effect a dramatic turtleback rescue later) and intend to use them as food for their mounts - I mean, say what you will about human sacrifice, but at least the Quadropel Men had a reason for being murderous assholes. Princess Irina successfully ransoms herself with some spare gold, but even then her two escorts decide to rob and murder her rather than take her all the way home. Definitely the worst bunch in the entire underground world, even with the turtles taken into account. (Amazing-Man Comics 010, 1940)

the Lobstermen:

The final species encountered by Chuck, Jerry and Oxan before their series is phased out are the Lobstermen (aka the Pigmy Lobstermen) a bunch of friendly little pink guys ruled by Queen Irena. The Lobstermen are another antennaed species, and their lobster claw hands might just be a hint as to the ancestry of the various related races.

If Queen Irena's skin tone is anything to go by, the Lobstermen also seem to be another one of those races with the kind of sexual dimorphism whereby the males are all wizened little weirdos of some description and the females are essentially conventionally attractive human women, right down to not having lobster claws. It amazing how often that happens! (Amazing-Man Comics 011, 1940)

DIVINE ROUND-UP 010

Pad out your pantheon with some of these:

Death:

This version of Death may lack the social graces necessary to welcome Kardak the Mystic and his pal Lorna rather than attempt to murder them for entering his domain, but he does have a very good version of the classic "robed skeleton" look. And his house is charmingly coffin-themed, to boot! 

God Style: Anthropomorphic Personification (Top-Notch Comics 008, 1940)

Ramu, God of Fire: 

Ramu, God of Fire is another one of your deities created so that a group of "primitive savages" will have a reason to menace some "noble explorers" with the threat of being human sacrificed. Ramu at least is kind of fun because while he might have started out looking like the figure depicted on those red sacrificial poles, by the end of the comic this image has been supplanted by that of the miniature rocket ship that Minimidget and Ritty accidentally pilot into the middle of the ceremony.

God Style: Idol  (Amazing-Man Comics 010, 1940)

the Sacred Steam God:

The Sacred Steam God is worshipped by the Quadropel Men, who themselves are notable for living beneath the land of Aquatania, which itself lies below the Marquesas Islands. Worship of the Sacred Steam God of course involves human sacrifice, but erstwhile victim Terry is saved when Chuck Hardy topples the inexplicably-full-of-scalding-water idol onto the crows of spectators. 

God Style: Idol (Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940)

Sakka: 

Sakka is, yes, another figure to whom some Noble White Explorers are almost sacrificed while making their way through the jungles of Matto Grosso in Brazil. Here's the difference, though: Sakka isn't just some idol, he's an ancestor spirit, and his name and his ancient sword are all that the big-eyed Earth-Men need to keep their faith strong and bloodthirsty, at least until adventurer Rocky Ryan picks up the sword and is acclaimed the second coming of Sakka, that is. 

God Style: Invoked (Big-Shot Comics 014, 1941) 

MINOR SUPER-HEROES 007-014: AMAZING-MAN COMICS ROUNDUP 1939

(Amazing-Man Comics 005-026, 1939-1942)

All the ephemeral Golden Age heroes who stalked the pages of Amazing-Man Comics:

The Iron Skull! I love him. His origin and so forth is doled out after a few issues so initially you don't know that he is a cyborg war casualty in the far future world of 1970. The most important things are there from the start, though: his huge anime eyes and the fact that every bullet or attack made against him unerringly hit him in his invulnerable head.

SKULL SCORE: 2/5 Not very skully but he gets a point for the lack of nose.

Minimidget: Just a super-small guy with a problematic name. He and his galpal Ritty were shrunk and employed as henchmen by a pervert scientist before redeeming themselves via acts of public service. 

Chuck Hardy: Chuck and Jerry, a couple of deep sea divers, end up in the subterranean land of Aquatania, beneath the Marquesas Islands. They turn out to be super-strong there for murkily-explained reasons and have adventures with the monstrous flora and fauna and the various near-human races. The best part is absolutely the little lobster antennae that all of the various types of Aquatanians have.

Mighty Man is a huge dude who is the last descendant of folk who settled in a valley where everything is huge. After murdering a bunch of evil cowboys, he emerges from his valley to fight crime. Eventually he gets the power to change size.

UPDATE 1940

The Shark! A water-based hero who can talk to sea life and must hit the water regularly, which is about standard for water guys!

ADDENDUM: Later on he meets his father Neptune and his adventures turn into father/son outings, which rules.

UPDATE 1940

Magician from Mars: Not only is Jane 6em35 an Earthian/Martian hybrid from an unspecified future, and not only was she accidentally irradiated as a baby in a way that activated a lot of vague superpowers (including flight, super-strength and a seemingly complete control over matter) but she is a practical and morally flexible hero who takes advantage of the chaos surrounding a rocket crash to make off with $3 million in gold before saving the day. Very fun. Plus: jodhpurs!

The Cat Man: a very marginal entry on this list. In his first appearance, he develops his signature technique of dressing like an old lady and having his trained cat scratch people with poisoned claws to murder three former criminal confederates, which isn't particularly heroic? His second appearance is in more of a vigilante role as he murders a gang of wanted men. How could I not include this loveable murderous scamp, really?