MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 470: THE FIEND

(Amazing-Man Comics 014, 1940)

Before we get into the Fiend I just want to highlight this guy. He is about to have a world-record bad day at work.

The reason that his day is so terrible is that he has just introduced guest speaker Professor Zuraw who, it turns out, is completely insane. Zuraw turns the radio station's antenna into a death ray broadcaster, killing millions, and not only does our friend the announcer end up dead but any account of this event will inevitably link him with Zurow. Terrible note to go out on.

It's very bad! This is when Zurow becomes the Fiend, and you can't really argue with it.

The Fiend makes some noise about ruling the world but he's effectively trapped inside Radio Station WEEE with a handful of goons. He's got a radio death ray field around the place but you can't rule the world with a weapon that people have to tune in to to be effective.

Most of the adventure is concerned with the Iron Skull bashing his way into the station to get the fiend out rather than the logistics of how the Fiend is going to do anything beyond squatting in a radio station until he starves to death or someone realizes that they can probably just cut the station's power and with good reason! It's a terrible plan! The Fiend should be happy that he gets thrown off a roof by the Iron Skull and not brought to trial and roasted for his poor planning.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 424: THE FIEND

(Keen Detective Funnies v2 011, 1939)

The Fiend is a mad scientist/ musician who has developed a supercharged organ capable of destroying structures such as the Brooklyn Bridge. And he does so, ostensibly as a showcase of his power in aid of his conquest of the world but possibly just as a whim - he's your classic erratic comic book madman. G-Man Dan Dennis tracks him down with relative ease and the threat of the Fiend is ended forever.

OR IS IT? No, it isn't, because the next issue features something that is missing from a lot of Golden and Silver Age comic books: geopolitical ramifications. Specifically, all the nations of the world prick up their ears at the potential acquisition of a powerful new weapon of mass destruction and start mobilizing spies and secret agents to get after the Fiend's technology. Including the US, whose attempt to negotiate with the Fiend for his schematics is foiled when some crooks make off with him.

What everyone forgot, of course, is that the Fiend is a raving megalomaniac who turns on all of them at the first possible moment. Dan Dennis has to catch him all over again! Sadly for me, this is the end of the tale - I know that I would love to discover a long serial comic about the FBI managing negotiations with an erratic organist over his WMD but it seems like the good people at Centar Publications weren't writing comics with me in mind.