MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 025

Just a great bunch of guys.

David:

I read the Samson stories in Big 3 before those in his home comic Fantastic, so while I knew about his sidekick David I didn't really know what his whole deal was. I had read that Samson just found him sitting around somewhere and assumed that that was hyperbole but no, it's not: Samson is investigating some mysterious plane crashes in the Rockies when he just finds a kid, who turns out to be the only survivor of the latest crash, and just... brings him along. There's no real attempt to address the fact that he must be an orphan now (or if not and he was travelling alone for some reason, that his family now thinks he is dead) or to find him a familial guardian - heck, his name isn't even David. It's low-key one of the weirdest sidekick origins in comics and that's before he gets his own pair of fur briefs. (Fantastic Comics 010, 1940)

UPDATES: Even in the updated Samson origin, David is still a hanger-on (Samson 001, 1940)

UPDATE - the Fantom of the Fair:

The Fantom of the Fair gets his own short-lived book that sees him spending more and more time fighting crime outside the New York World's Fair, if you can believe it. To that end he adopts the more generic name of the Fantoman. The costume changes (blue instead of black, uncovered lower face) happened at the end of 1939 and technically I've read more Fantom stories in which he had the new one than the old but it never feels right to me. At least you can still see his hair through the cowl.

Though he has a new name and a not-so-new look, Fantoman retains one of his most iconic properties: every time you start thinking of him as just another masked adventurer he busts out another heretofore-unseen superpower or bit of lore suggesting he is a thousand year old demigod or something. See above as he either teleports or passes through matter for the first and last time. (Fantoman 003, 1940)

the Spy Fighter:

It kind of says something about the mood of America in 1940 that there are multiple comic book series that take place in the 1990s after what we know as World War II has stretched on for fifty years (Marvel's Breeze Barton is the other one that I can recall off the top of my head, while MLJ's Doc Strong is from a future ravaged by a whole century of WWII). In this version of that, the war has resulted in an amalgamation of the world into three rival nations: Russmany (Europe and Africa), Mongo (Asia) and Greater America (the Americas), and in this world of super nations, a super spy is required to ensure the sanctity of the Greater American way of life.

That man is Saber, the Spy Fighter! Who does eventually put on a shirt. Saber starts out as physically gifted telepath who roots out enemy agents by reading their ill intent in their own minds and then beats them up for it. Over time, the challenges he faces get larger and less specifically espionage related, and he develops new abilities to meet them, including that of changing his own size at will, to the point that he is eventually able to travel through space on his own power to fight planet-sized enemies. And what can Mongo do to challenge that? (Fight Comics 001, 1940)

the Skull Squadron:

Chip Collins' Skull Squadron is extremely unremarkable but at this point I have to make note of every skull-adjacent comic book thing. They operate somewhere in between a commando group and the Suicide Squad and barely even have skulls painted on their planes. SKULL SCORE: 1/2 and only for the name. (Fight Comics 001, 1940)

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

Science class was never like this.

Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough "noxio gas" to flood the NYC of the I-think-it's-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940)

This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he's introduced while sitting in a tennis judge's chair for no stated reason. He lives in an inactive volcano, probably in Africa, and is developing a horrible poison dust that he has used to destroy the neighbouring village - it's probably a good thing that Captain Kidd melts him. (Fantastic Comics 008, 1940)

Dr Loy here has created an army of chemical androids that he controls and aims to take over the world with. Two problems: the Fantom of the Fair is on the case and Dr Loy's androids dissolve in water. Loy is quickly arrested. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 002, 1940)

Chung Hang has a simple dream: wait until the world is exhausted by WWII and then take over using his mind control ray. And he might just get there some day, because Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron just punches him out and leaves once he and his pals have escaped Chung Hang's science dungeons. (Fight Comics 002, 1940)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 013

Here come the also-rans.

We've got another Leader, and this time he's not a generically-fascist spy but the head of a gang looking to extort the New York World's Fair via a series of bombings. Of course the Fantom of the Fair cannot let this stand and quickly tracks them down to a small island base.

If the first reason I included the Leader aka Relmar here is because I enjoy a monocled man with a high opinion of himself then the second is the fact that the Fantom, without ever actually saying a word, lays such complete waste to Relmar, his men and his entire island. Don't mess with the World's Fair, is the message I'm getting. (Amazing Adventure Funnies 001, 1940)

A masked saboteur of no clear allegiance, Biff Durgo aka the Masked Man is the poorly-disguised sole foe faced by Pack Morgan, Super Detective. (Detective Eye 002, 1940)

Lead by the mysterious "One", gangsters Face Greer and Shiv Scarpino are bleeding the city of Midtown dry. That's why Mayor Kurt Piersole calls in trigger-happy detective Gunner Thompson, only it's not, because when it all shakes out it turns out that Mayor Piersole was indulging in the old trick of establishing his innocence by being the one to call in the forces of order. It was a cliche in 1940 and continues to be to this day and then as now it ends one way: the One wasn't quite as clever as he thought he was and ends up on the wrong side of his own hired gun. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

John Blodgett kills his partner Samuel Forbes in order to make off with his claim on a lucrative gold mine but fails to reckon with the fact that Forbes' daughter Caroline might just wonder what happened to her father and so has to don a mask and engage in some truly half-assed attempts to bump both her and private eye Dan Williams off before they uncover his dumb secret. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

NOTES - JULY 2024

Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects: 

The cops send a "shower of bullets" after the Fantom of the Fair as he swings over the densely-populated New York World's Fair. (Amazing Adventure Funnies 001, 1940)

Spider Drawn Without Reference:

Tarantula: a perfect black sphere covered in root structures. (Champion Comics 006, 1940)

Memes of Yore: COWARD!:

The "cowardly and superstitious lot" line that Batman is quoted as saying was not a one-off thing but it was in fact a widely-promoted idea of the time, that criminals were inherent cowards (there was also a frequent emphasis on criminals' gun use being a very cowardly attribute but that fell by the wayside at some point). Crime Does Not Pay was a message hammered into the public consciousness via the Hayes Code and later the Comics Code, and making criminals non-aspirational figures in every way possible was a part of that.

The extrapolation of this into "the more criminal you are the more cowardly you are" in this story is extremely funny, as is the fact that a criminal supposedly meeting his death by electrocution with some stoicism made front page news. Don't worry, it was the old "escape prison by using a death-simulating drug prior to your execution and then have people on the outside wake you up later" gag. Dr Miracle recaptures Nickie Norton in short order and his actual death was without dignity. (Champ Comics 011, 1940)

Honours:

The Flying Trio receive the Sylvanian Order of the Cross and Palms (Crash Comics Adventures 003, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 410: THE BRAIN OF THE ROBOT

(Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 011, 1939) 

I've started reading Mystery Men Comics, as seen at the top of the Sphinx entry, and the thing about Mystery Men Comics is that although it features the Blue Beetle, who by a circuitous chain of publication rights changing hands is now a DC Comics character, it also has a lot of other characters that aren't currently owned by a media conglomerate! And although I mostly write about DC and Marvel characters because I have a fixation on continuity and its implications, I love all oddball comics characters! So I'm taking advantage of the holiday season to revisit some minor super-villains who got overlooked back when this blog was just a baby Twitter thread.

The Brain of the Robot is a so-so villain - he takes control of a robot exhibition at the New York World's Fair and causes a moderate amount of havoc before being brought to justice - made interesting by two things: 1. he is given absolutely no motive and 2. he is the only super-villain faced by early comics hero the Fantom of the Fair (the only one in my notes, at least).

The Fantom of the Fair, now there's an interesting guy! Some facts:

- Almost exclusively operates out of and protects the New York World's Fair

- His haircut is fully discernible through his mask

- In one adventure it is heavily implied that he is mentioned in an ancient Icelandic texts

- In another, an escaped ancient snow beasts recalls battling him on the tundra a thousand years earlier

They cram a lot of weird lore into the Fantom's handful of adventures, which makes it all the harder to take how dirty he got done by DC Comics when Roy Thomas brought him back as "the Phantom of the Fair", a villain whose exploits might just have been inspired by the Brain of the Robot. He inspires a Crimson Avenger/ Sandman teamup while using a World's Fair robot exhibit to, among other things, attempt to assassinate the King and Queen of England before escaping. He was then brought back and done even dirtier in Sandman Mystery Theatre, as a self-loathing serial murderer of gay men.Sad sad stuff.