DEMONIC ROUND-UP 003

Two shorts and two longs.

Bajah:

Minor Golden Age Marvel magician Dakor has to travel all the way to the fictional Indian kingdom of Nordu to rescue his friend's daughter from one of those cults where they worship a random blonde white lady (one of the more embarrassing stupid pulp fiction concepts to make the jump to comics, in my opinion). All that is to set up the fact that the devil figure in this cult is the oft-invoked, never-seen Bajah, as seen above. (Mystic Comics v1 003, 1940)

the Goat-Men: 

The Goat-Men are a class of demon who serve Lucifer, and specifically the Lucifer seen in the last Demonic round-up, because this particular one is summoned by the Voodoo Man, just as his boss had been.

The Goat-Men are fire demons, who can both breathe fire and create a ring of fire by walking in a circle around something or someone. Plus: the ring of fire gives you malaria. This is a pretty good collection of demonic powers, and while the part of me that writes about super-villains wants to say that they are insufficiently related to goats for my liking, anyone familiar with Medieval demonology will tell you that having a suite of abilities that are completely disconnected from both the demon's physical appearance and one another is very accurate.

Just like his boss, the Goat-Man proves to be intensely vulnerable to the sight of a cross, to the point of explosion. Just why hero Bob Warren had to light the cross he used on fire is perhaps best left unexplored. (Weird Comics 007, 1940)

Kor Deno: 

Kor Deno, a demon of some might, has been haunting the same family in... the rural United States? I'm pretty sure that's where Warlock the Wizard hangs out... for generations. Any female member of the family who marries will be widowed by the demon soon after and for the latest and perhaps last scion, Valya, the curse has grown in scope to the point that Kor Deno has carried off all of her friends and family. 

Warlock the Wizard is if nothing else a romantic, and so he challenges Kor Deno's might in order that Valya might wed or at least kiss her love, Jim. He scores an early victory by using the the Golden Hand of Abraxas to crush the demon's cool shadow form, but finds himself to have been overconfident, as both Jim and Valya are carried off to Kor Deno's Black Kingdom immediately after he leaves them to finally make out.

Kor Deno adopts the form of Simon the Hermit to lull Warlock into a false sense of security, but is unable to destroy him while he wields the Hand, and thus the Hand is what Kor Deno demands in exchange for Warlock's freedom.

Now armed with what he believes to be his enemy's greatest weapon, Kor Deno attempts to slay Warlock, only to himself be destroyed by the still-greater might of the Lamp of the Gods. Bad luck, Kor Deno. (Nickel Comics 002, 1940) 

Korieg the Sea Devil: 

Like Bajah, Korieg the Sea Devil is invoked as a force of evilby the practitioner of a made-up Mysterious Asian Religion, in this case that practised by the inhabitants of a lost kingdom somewhere near Malaysia. No word on any of Korieg's particulars, beyond the fact that they evidently float in water. (Action Comics v1 010, 1939) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 852: THE SUPER-SCIENTIST

(Weird Comics 008, 1940)

The Sorceress of Zoom is up to her usual tricks: attempting to steal some random guy from his lady friend, getting mad that he won't fall in love with her, attacking the city he lives in and turning their tank patrol (!) into a series of ornamental trees, and finally abducting people willy-nilly in order to turn them into furniture. Regular stuff.

In the city council's hour of need it is approached by an eccentrically dressed character who calls himself the Super-Scientist and who claims that he can save the city from the Sorceress' depredations. This of course turns out to have a pretty big caveat: the Super-Scientist will indeed save the city, but only so that he can rule it himself.

After an initial exchange of fire (1. SoZ attempts to flood the city, 2. S-S transforms water to gas, 3. SoZ launches flaming humans in attempt to ignite gas, 4. flaming humans shot down by city militia (!)) the Sorceress of Zoom and the Super-Scientist agree to have an old-fashioned magic vs science duel for ownership of the city.

As the duel comprises almost four pages of back-and-forth attack, defense and counter-attack, I won't go into the whole thing, save to note that the Super-Scientist trucks in the kind of science that is indistinguishable from magic, that the highlight of the event is when the Super-Scientist's radium ray briefly turns the Sorceress into a skeleton, and that the whole thing ends with the Super-Scientist transformed into a gross rat.

All this has alleviated the boredom that seemingly inspires the Sorceress to start causing trouble in the mortal world, and she packs up Zoom and flies off. Ironically, in providing the Sorceress of Zoom with a diverting afternoon, the Super-Scientist has in fact saved the city, though any degree of ratty satisfaction he might feel about this is probably spoiled by the hungry cat that the Sorceress summons just before taking off.

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 017

A panoply of wonders awaits.

Karnak's Slaves: 

This otherwise-unnamed race from an unnamed planet get a pretty raw deal: conquered and mind-controlled into servitude by scientist Karnak, they all seemingly die when he does. It's a real shame. (Weird Comics 007, 1940) 

the Deadly Plants: 

It's hard to say much about the so-called "Deadly Plants" of planet Vegeto, aside from the fact that they work together to capture a handful of prospective human colonists and dump them in a pit, and that for this act of moderate aggression the Red Comet dumps the entire termite population of Earth on them, seemingly wiping out their entire species. This is what we call "disproportionate response" but is in perfect keeping with the 1940s (and beyond!) view of the relative value of human life vs all other life. (Planet Comics 004, 1940)

Dhakka Snail-Men: 

Every undersea race in comics needs a selection of other undersea races to have conflict with, and Neptina's Fish-Men are no exception. They are menaced by the Dhakkas, aka the Snail-Men, led by Prince Petor, who attempts to invade the territories of Amloza for no stated reason - I guess that's just what you do when you have an army and an abyssal plain to march across. Unfortunately for Petor and his ambitions, Neptina and the Fish-Men are backed up by Brad Fletcher and his Super-Sub, which are enough to decisively turn the tide. 

The Snail-Men also might be some of the least like their namesake of any of the [animal]-Men we have yet encountered. They ride snails, sure, but about the only thing that they themselves have in common with snails are some pretty modest eyestalks. (Champion Comics 009, 1940)

Dragon-Lizard Men: 

Encountered by detective Fu Chang as he searches for treasure on fabled Money Pit Island, the Dragon-Lizard Men are not so much guardians as obstacles on the way to wealth. The most remarkable thing about them is that if they are as Fu Chang asserts descended from the "lizard and dragons" left on the island by the treasure-burying pirates they managed to not only evolve into fully humanoid forms but also enough of a sense of shame to wear briefs over their mysterious lizard and/or dragon genitals. Nature is really amazing. (Pep Comics 009, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 851: MORGANA LE FAY

(Weird Comics 007, 1940)

Here we are again with another Morgan(a) le Fay entry, our third in about a month and a half. Was there something in the water? This is also going to double as a micro Real Folk Round-Up, as all of the Arthurian characters who appear in the story are plot-relevant enough that I might as well detail them here as duplicate my effort.

Our Real Folk start off with Sir Gareth, Knight of the Round Table, brother to Gawaine, not quite the sort of household name knight as his brother or a Lancelot or a Galahad but held in pretty high esteem by the fans of such things. Gareth is rescued from a group of murderous knights by the Sorceress of Zoom after she travels back in time to avoid the burgeoning World War II, and is pining after his lady Elaine*, held captive by Morgana le Fay and destined to be married to the odious Mordred.

The Sorceress of Zoom, horny for Gareth, decides to aid him on his quest in hopes of finding a way to eliminate Elaine along the way. Approaching le Fay's castle, the duo find themselves imprisoned and facing death by the sword. 

The Sorceress' shirtless men prove a match for Morgana le Fay's knights; her flying dragons make short work of le Fay's flightless ones, and her magic is easily able to save Sir Gareth from being changed into a pig. Morgana le Fay is seemingly beaten!

The Sorceress of Zoom does not press her advantage, but instead encourages a joust for Elaine's freedom between Sir Gareth and Sir Mordred (not much of a character beyond being a generic evil knight here. He is portrayed as the son of Morgana le Fay rather than of her sister Margawse, but whether that is because that is so common a literary elision that it has entered the public consciousness or because Gareth is also the son of Margawse and having them be half brothers would be a complication that the story did not need, is hard to say). Her plan is to influence the joust so that Sir Gareth loses and thus is single, but is foiled in this by Merlin the Magician (also barely a character and just there to deus ex machina the Sorceress back to her own time), who tells her she is not wanted in Arthurian England. Morgana, while technically defeated and foiled, is left to go about her business.

*Lady Elaine is not a reference to a specific Arthurian character to my knowledge. There are a half dozen or so Elaines running around Camelot and its environs, and the only one connected to Sir Gareth is his aunt/ Morgana le Fay's sister, who she hopefully wouldn't be trying to marry to her son.

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 020

If I've learned one thing from comics it's to never turn your back on a scientist. 

Henry Falcon is one of a trio of scientists, along with John Robin and John Sparrow, who have been made the beneficiaries of the whimsical will of millionaire Mortimer Bird. This is of course one of those special murder mystery wills in which the payout increases for any survivors as fellow inheritors are killed off, and Henry Falcon is all about getting that money through murder. He even goes the extra mile to make all of the deaths bird themed in an attempt to throw suspicion on Mortimer Bird, thanks to some special powder he has discovered that makes birds go crazy and peck people to death.

You can't just have something like that bird-madness powder around without some stringent safety protocols, however, and Falcon manages to get some on himself while pretending to be Mortimer Bird's private nurse. So long Henry. (Top-Notch Comics 010, 1940)

Dr Exton, inventor of the super explosive Tekite, almost sells his creation to a fascist dictator but reforms after he is left on an island for a half hour by the Bird Man. (Weird Comics 004, 1940)

Menar, a big-eared scientist of the unspecified future time occupied by Typhon, has invented a device called the Tidal Wave Annihilator which he unsurprisingly uses to create tidal waves. The tidal waves in turn sink ships which Menar and his men then loot. It's a pretty foolproof plan, and Menar even manages to capture Typhon when he comes to investigate, but like many a mad scientist before and after him, Menar has underestimated just how evil he can be before his own daughter turns against him. Typhon escapes with Ina Menar and brings the whole operation crashing down around her father's pointy ears. (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

Karnak is a scientist of the year 5940 CE who has already had some measure of success, having conquered and mind-controlled an entire planet of beefy scaly guys, and I must assume is now at a loss as to what to do with himself. Why else would he send a heavily armed spaceship to Earth to extort them into giving him a lady to be his bride? I mean, there have to be at least a few women who would be into him if he just put himself out there on Space Tinder - everyone likes a bad boy, after all. 

Karnak seems to take it weirdly personally when his kidnapped bride-to-be cooperates with Blast Bennett to take down his whole operation, and tris to feed the two of them to his pet tiger. They'd be doomed if Blast wasn't so good at cat-wrestling, but as it stands they escape handily.

Karnak also commits the cardinal sin of not checking his captive spaceman for any ray guns he might have on his person, and catches an explosion bullet to the gut for it. Alas for the inhabitants of the unnamed planet he was in charge of, Karnak dealt in the kind of mind control that kills its subjects when the controller dies. Alas for the beefy scaly guys. (Weird Comics 007, 1940) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 850: DR MORTAL

(Weird Comics 001, 1940)

Dr Mortal, in contrast to his fellow Weird Comics character the Sorceress of Zoom, is your typical comic-headlining super-villain, in that he is a mad scientist with an obsession with making monsters. Like most of his ilk, Mortal is opposed by a heterosexual couple of upstanding moral character, and in his specific case they are his niece Marlene Mortal and her lover Gary Brent (as Marlene's surname is never actually given in print, I'm just making an assumption that it is also a Mortal, because I want it to be). Dr Mortal's main distinguishing characteristic is that thanks to his eyebrow/mustache/skin droopiness he kind of looks like he's melting.

Some 1940 Dr Mortal highlights:

In his first appearance, Dr Mortal is up to some basic mad scientist stuff: he is kidnapping and mutating people into big gobliny guys called the Monster Men. He is of course mind controlling these Monster Men to serve him, but it's not very good mind control, as can be seen above as it is broken by Gary Brent. Dr Mortal seemingly dies in a fire but actually just scuttles out the back door.

Weird Comics 002 sees Dr Mortal rebuilding, with the aid of his faithful assistant Salvo, and includes the immortal line "Now, Salvo - get me the lion entrails!!"

Just what are the lion entrails for? Why, to create Lion-Men, of course! And what are the Lion-Men for? Why, to terrorize the countryside to no stated end, of course! They just kind of rampage around, smashing up local farms.

Whatever the reasoning behind this, it ends up backfiring on Dr Mortal, as when Gary Brent shows up to rescue Marlene (and here I must say that any time that Marlene Mortal is not explicitly mentioned one can safely assume that she has been captured by Dr Mortal and is about to have something terrible happen to her) he is able to round up an armed group of farmers with relative ease, and it turns out that the Lion-Men are less effective against pitchforks and shotguns than they are against isolated farmsteads. Dr Mortal supposedly dies in a fire for a second time, and for a second time he's just fine.

 

Weird Comics 003 is one of those off-model appearances that you get in longer Golden Age series and especially in Fox Features comics, that could either be a different artist taking over for one issue or a comic intended for another character with a few minor edits. My money's on the latter, but only because Marlene keeps calling Dr Mortal "father" instead of "uncle" throughout.

Whatever its provenance, this story features Dr Mortal in a pretty straightforward "I'll show 'em all!" revenge scheme in which he is creating a robot with a human brain and the terrific name "Jaque the Super Automaton." After an interruption by Gary and Marlene, Jaque goes rogue and beats up Dr Mortal before setting his sights on the world at large.

Poor Jaque meets his end at the barrel of a ray gun, while for the first time Dr Mortal is carted off to jail instead of seeming to perish.

Dr Mortal shows some flexibility in Weird Comics 004, as he plays on the tremendous 1940s obsession with class to lure Gary and Marlene into a trap. He convinces the two of them that he has turned over a new leaf by surrounding himself with beautiful, high-class people who he has made in his lab. Called "Pseudo-Socialites" at least once, these are in my opinion Dr Mortal's greatest creations.

Mortal invites Gary, Marlene and a few other people who he presumably has beef with to a dinner party liberally stocked with Pseudo-Socialites, then excuses himself and uses a beam to revert his creations to their true, monstrous forms. It's a great little plan, spoiled only by the fact that Gary Brent manages to electrocute all the monsters and capture Dr Mortal.

Weird Comics 005 sees Dr Mortal experimenting with mind transferral and is mostly concerned with a poor ape who has been injected with the memories of a dead man. Oh, that poor ape.

Any mad scientist worth their salt eventually gets into shrinking people and Weird Comics 006 is Dr Mortal's shrinking phase. He of course uses this technology in an attempt to get revenge on Gary and Marlene and is immediately betrayed and shrunk by his own butler Kalak, forcing the three tiny enemies to team up against him.

All of this revenge-based science must have drained Dr Mortal's cash reserves, because Weird Comics 007 features him charging rich middle-aged people big bucks in order to transfer their minds into young, attractive bodies. As per usual, Mortal shoots himself in the foot by attempting to get revenge on Gary and Marlene and the whole scheme falls apart, leading to the deaths of all the old rich body snatchers. 

Of particular note is the lady above, who just wants to have her mind placed in the body of Marlene Mortal and ends up in the body of a gorilla instead. And then Marlene shoots her dead. 

(important note - Gary and Marlene only know about this scheme beacuse he calls them and tells them to stay away. They didn't even know he was alive!)

Weird Comics 008 features another mad scientist classic: giant insects, which Dr Mortal releases after the police take their first-ever on-panel interest in him and attempt to raid his laboratory. Hearkening back to the old days, this one ends with Mortal seemingly dying as his lab explodes.

This is of course not the end, and Weird Comics 009 sees Dr Mortal in the South Pacific. He abducts men from nearby islands to test his devolution ray on, but is foiled when Gary and Marlene (who just happen to have been vacationing in Waikiki) rally the local police to raid his yacht.

That's it for Dr Mortal in 1940, but don't worry, he wasn't really eaten by sharks. We'll see this rascal again in 1941.