ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 037

Every once in a while I hit a particularly dense seam of aliens and so forth and this week is one of those times. 

Neptunii: 

The Neptunii (and that name is a guess based on the fact that one guy uses "Neptunus" as a singular version of the noun) live in Neptunia, an underground kingdom that could be described as "a big cave" at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. There, they seem to just kind of fly around shouting, though this short comic book story might not give a full picture of their society.

There are a few points of interest about the Neptunii: they are both finned and winged, they all wear little horned circlets, they call their leader the "Sub-Ruler"... but the thing I am always struck by is just how much Prince Ikor and his pal in the above panel look like quirky characters from a late-90s webcomic. 

Though Peter "the Fin" Noble becomes the ruler of Neptunia via a bit of impulsive regicide and remains so in his infrequent appearances to this day, to my knowledge the Neptunii themselves have not showed their faces since their first appearance in 1941. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

Inus-Men:

The Inus-Men take their name from the fact that they are the inhabitants of the planet Inus. They are pretty regular-style cavemen, only more red, and are one of the many dangers faced by Dr X's niece Cynthia when her astral form is blasted willy-nilly through space by her most unethical uncle. (Startling Comics 001, 1940)

Jovians:

The Jovians of the year 3964 AC (sic) are an oppressed underclass who work in the radium mines of the human colony on Jupiter. They are unable to own weapons by law, are possibly disallowed from large gatherings or approaching humans (see the first two panels above where the "boldness" of the Jovians is discussed) and generally mirror the conditions of colonized peoples on our world. This all clearly sucks and is unjust, which is especially interesting because the comic it all appears in clearly considers it to be the natural order of things.

The Jovians are ripe for (and right to) revolt, and do so under the leadership of the evil Space Emperor. Once he is captured and revealed to be an opportunist by Major Mars they are returned to their place under the collective human thumb. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

Jovians:

Our second set of Jovians are also radium focused, but rather than mining it for their human overlords they use it to generate power, and having run out they are now demanding that both Earth and Mars hand over their radium supply or face annihilation. This draws the ire of space adventurer and Earth-Mars envoy Mitey Powers and he sets out with his entourage to resolve the situation.

The title of this story is "The Super-Giants of Jupiter," and I really appreciate that it lives up to the name. These Jovians are big, man. They're also pleasingly alien, with their fish heads and tendril hands.

I can only assume that it is the fact that the Jovians and their warships are so big contributes to Mitey's decision to commit a war crime against their populace by unleashing a swarm of Martian Poison Gnats that will breed uncontrollably and "[kill] off most of the people." It's a horrible crime, Mitey! Particularly as radium is one of the less-used radioactive elements today! (Superworld Comics 003, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 087

If the last group of minor Marvel super-heroes had a tiny chance of appearing in a modern comic book I would say that this group's chances are tiny-plus. Like a further 5% chance. Except for Dynaman.

Dynaman:

Dynaman, aka Lagaro, which means "Dynaman", was born in the ancient super-advanced Kingdom of Korug, located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Endowed with super strength, a photographic memory and enhanced intelligence, the ability to fly and a general superiority to even his peers in the ancient Korugan super society, Dynaman had it all.

Korug eventually suffers the fate of all ancient island super-societies and sinks into the sea, leaving Lagaro as the only survivor. He makes his way to Ancient Egypt (and the presence of the Sphinx when he does so gives us a more accurate guess than usual as to when in the past this adventure takes place, if only by telling us that it was some time after 2500 BCE) where he helps the heretofore unknown Pharaoh Khufor with a couple of problems (i.e., a giant caveman invasion). His further adventures go unrecorded.

Dynaman, like Breeze Barton before him, is a simple concept (super guy) wrapped up in a lot of extra layers (last survivor of a super-race, in the past, somehow still looks like a 20th Century super-hero). This is one of two things that they have in common, with the other being that they were both brought back in the same Marvel Zombies sequel, only to be gruesomely killed off. (Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940) 

the Fin:

The Fin is in reality Lieutenant Peter Noble, engineer in the US Naval Reserve, whose submarine is wrecked while on manoeuvres in the Atlantic. Noble, the only survivor, finds that for never-explained reasons he is able to breathe underwater and makes his way to the underground kingdom of Neptunia (a big cave). He then becomes the new Sub-Ruler of Neptunia via the traditional methods of attaining nobility: being a colossal jerk, picking a fight with the reigning Prince Ikor and shooting him in the head, then shooting anyone who disagrees with his rule.

This would be the origin of a villain, if the Neptunii didn't immediately declare him to be the reincarnation of their ancient hero the Fin, making him a bit less likely to blow them away. Over time he grows into the role and becomes the true champion of Neptunia, and hey, perhaps he is the real Fin after all, which might explain his water-breathing ability an innate ability to speak Neptunian.

As with so many great super-hero costumes, the Fin's is just thrown together out of some old crap that Peter Noble had lying around. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941) 

Blue Diamond:

GOOD NEWS: Professor Elton Morrow's Antarctic expedition was a success! He found a huge blue diamond!

BAD NEWS: Morrow's ship was sunk by Nazis on the way home.

GOOD NEWS: He escaped the sinking ship and managed to bring the diamond with him!

BAD NEWS: The Nazis shelled the bit of wreckage he was clinging to, causing the diamond to explode and riddle his body with shards. 

The final bit of good news is that despite the loss of the diamond, the shards in Morrow's body have somehow made him"super hard," which is an inelegant way of saying resistant to pain, invulnerable to harm and extra dense or simply unable to be moved by something like a truck hitting him, and though he's not precisely super strong, these features add up to produce something like super strength.

After foiling a pretty low-stakes museum robbery, Morrow decides to adopt a costumed persona to continue fighting crime. Every time I see his costume I am surprised by a) just how much yellow is on it and b) just how big that diamond on the chest it. It's also a wild move to have a completely exposed face and call yourself the Blue Diamond when you are the one guy who is prominently associated with a blue diamond. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941) 

the Silver Scorpion:

Betty Barstow, secretary for private detective and huge asshole Dan Hurley, is secretly vigilante the Silver Scorpion. I want to say that Golden Age Marvel has very few female super-heroes compared to its contemporaries, but my reckoning is probably being biased by the fact that DC's stable includes all of Quality and Fawcett's female characters. I reckon that the percentage is pretty much the same on a per-publication basis.

Betty's origin as the Silver Scorpion is in fact identical to that of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, in that she is on her way to a costume party when she stumbles upon the scene of a crime (in this case a bunch of counterfeiters operating out of a cemetery rather than whatever the Killer Moth was doing) and intervenes, armed with a pre-concealed identity and some martial arts knowledge. She only has three Golden Age appearances but they're all pretty fun.

Finally the obvious question when discussing the Silver Scorpion: what's with the name? Why silver when her costume is mostly yellow and red? The answer: the silver scorpion in question is this little fellow on the back of her cape, though just what the significance of it is is left unsaid. It is a masquerade costume, after all - since when do they have to make total sense? (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 322: THE BARRACUDA

(Daring Mystery Comics 008, 1942)

A certain number of uboat captains are going to be written villainously enough to meet all of my criteria and Captain Erich von Wolff, AKA the Barracuda, is one such.

Like seriously a real stinker of the highest order. It's a good thing that the Fin is on the case to beat the tar out of him and deliver him to the British. I was going to say that hopefully he was tried and executed after the war but some cursory research suggests that u-boat commanders who weren't killed in battle largely weren't. I'm sure he had a long career as an investment banker or something.