MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 359: THE UNHOLY THREE

(Master Comics 017-019, 1941)

The Unholy Three! A little guy (Nosey), a huge guy (Brutus) and a gorilla (Herbert)!

Oh and of course we must not forget the fourth member of the Unholy Three, their boss "Doctor" J. Twiddley Fairchild (quotation marks his). Details in the actual story are sketchy but it seems as if Fairchild was jailed for larceny, escaped, assembled the other three as his minions and set out to get revenge on those who were responsible for his imprisonment - in other words an old fashioned Judge and Jury Revenge Killing scheme.

This is where things get a bit annoying for me personally. JaJRK schemes are quantifiable based on the number of attempted slayings divided by the number of successful ones. The problem is that while we know that the Unholy Three end up killing all but one of their targets we do not in fact have any idea of how many targets there were - it's more than three but up to something like twenty+ if the defense team and witnesses are included.

Sadly then, JUDGE AND JURY REVENGE KILLING SCORE: n-1/n

The Unholy Three (all four of them) end up getting caught by Bulletman and Bulletgirl before managing to finish off the last of their targets, but someone at Master Comics must have liked them because they returned for a two-issue story. Too bad for J. Twiddley Fairchild: he didn't make it out of the initial jailbreak alive. Leadership of the group passed to Nosey and Bulletman became the new target for revenge.

The actual action is whatever - the Unholy Three kidnap Bulletgirl and try to kill them both with a deathtrap and the second part opens with Bulletman thinking that Bulletgirl has died while the Unholy Three think that Bulletman has. This doesn't really go anywhere interesting.

Ultimately the Three attempt to flee the country and Bulletman kicks them off a cliff to their demise.

OR DOES HE? Because the Unholy Three are collectively our second villain to be resurrected off-panel in time to sign the Crime Exchange petition. Like Mr Murder they never appear again but just knowing that two guys and a gorilla are out there somewhere is enough for me.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 355: MR MURDER

(Master Comics 015, 1941) 

Mr Murder is your "pay or die" style of extortionist and a) has a pretty great name and b) is presumably in an early stage of his career as there is a lot more "die" going on than "pay".

Mr Murder also has a great understated costume: tunic, hat, cape, scarf, gloves. Just a bit off of what you might see someone actually wearing - nice and menacing in a Shadow sort of way.

And of course Mr Murder turns out to be Reilly, the loudmouthed lawyer from the beginning of the story, presumably using his position to determine opportune targets for extortion and employing my fave the rubberoid mask to disguise his identity. It's a fine outing over all but nothing special. The interesting stuff comes with Mr Murders further appearances:

Mr Murder reappears in Master Comics 027, 1942 and there are several weird things going on. The least of these is his decision to incorporate the rubberoid mask into his costume despite his identity no longer being a secret, but I guess that's no weirder than villains who continue to wear regular style masks in such circumstances.

More interesting is the fact that there seems to have been a Mr Murder/ Bulletman clash some time in between, during which a) Mr Murder found out Bulletman's secret identity and b) Bulletman was thought to have killed Mr Murder. As far as I can tell, this story was never published (I reckon that it's equally likely that a story was produced but never published or someone misremembered Mr Murder being in a story he wasn't), but the upshot of it is that Mr Murder is out for revenge and armed with the knowledge to do the deed. He kidnaps Jim Barr and almost succeds in bumping him off but has seemingly forgotten about the existence of Bulletgirl, leading to him getting his but kicked and dying for real.

OR DID HE? This marks our first encounter with the CRIME EXCHANGE, an organization run by future Minor Super-Villain the Crime Broker, the details of which are not germane other than the fact that at one point the Exchange members petition the Crime Broker to bump off Bulletman, a petition consisting mostly of deceased Bulletman villains. It's madness! A huge (dead) portion of Bulletman and Bulletgirl's rogues gallery, returned to life (or, less incredibly, sprung from prison) in a single panel! Madness!

Okay, maybe this is more exciting to me than anyone else but it is neat. And as someone whose official stance is that super-villains are more interesting when they're still alive I heartily approve.