ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 003

It's time for round three of all the various aliens encountered by Spacehawk in his crusade for justice in the year 1940!

Neptunian Dog-Men, Plutonians, Jovians, Lunarians: 

This gang of space pirates that Spacehawk and his pal Galar beat up are described as "screaming, bloodthirsty Neptunians, Plutonians and Jovians" and this is somewhat vexing because they are an extremely heterogeneous bunch who absolutely come in more than three distinct styles, but I reckon that we can do it. The Neptunians are described in a couple of places as "Neptunian Dog-Men" so let's say that they make up the bulk of the group, the light orange ones. With the exception of the camel-faced guys lugging hoses in the first panel above - they seem distinct and arbitrarily reading left to right I'm going to say that they are Plutonians, which means that all of the green lizardy guys are by default Jovians, even the one with tentacles.

The pirate captain is the Lunarian, and I have to say that I am a big fan of his segmented arms and big ears, but not so much of his attitude. (Target Comics v1 011, 1940)

Uranians: 

We only encounter the Uranians as represented by the evil denizens of a pirate city for jerks, so their horrible rat-man personas are really emphasized. It's entirely probable that there is a pleasant city full of nice rat men who do arts and crafts on the other side of the planet. (Target Comics v1 010, 1940)

Vulture Men:

Really enjoy the look of the Vulture Men, who come from a far distant star to skeletonize people and steal our planet. They've got bird legs for arms!

They also appear to not have an articulated jaw, as seen when they themselves are skeletonized as an ironic punishment by Spacehawk. How do they eat? Nobody knows! (Target Comics v1 008, 1940)

Spacehawk's Species: 

As revealed in the Galar entry of the recent Minor Super-Hero Round-Up, he and Spacehawk are both members of a human-appearing alien race from somewhere outside our solar system. Not much is known about this species: they have some degree of super strength as compared to humans, they can communicate telepathically and their lifespans are long enough that Galar and Spacehawk, having not seen one another for six hundred years, catch up like two old high school friends now in their thirties. (Target Comics v1 011, 1940)

Mentioned but Unseen: 

the Savage Snake Men of Planet Hogo (Target Comics v1 011, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 051

It's Day Three of Round-Up Week here at the Curse of Skeleton Munroe. 

**UPDATE** the White Streak:

Novelty Press is back at it again, exercising their compulsion to tone down the "fantastic" in their comic book stories. The White Streak has gotten a job as an FBI agent, and so he gets plastic surgery in order to make his inhuman face into that of a square-jawed white guy. Now instead of being the utterly fantastical ancient android in a bright costume running around blasting people with electron vision and zooming through the skies on an electric ladder, he's... the same thing but he looks like a normal guy. Plus he tries to limit his power usage so as to stay inconspicuous, so he sticks to x-ray vision and electrified punches. Very realistic stuff. 

If this move was in the cards for the White Streak, this might also be the explanation we were looking for for why Dr Simms went off the rails and blew up his entire life as Dr Death: it was a good old-fashioned slash-and-burn of a comic book's supporting cast before a change to the status quo. Feels like I'm in the Nineties again! (Target Comics v1 010, 1940)

Galar: 

A childhood friend of Spacehawk's from the same near-human species as him, Galar is turned from his six hundred year-long career as a space pirate by the intervention of his old friend and sent out into the galaxy to act as the protector of some random solar system, which it turns out is the reason that Spacehawk is protecting our solar system: he just arbitrarily chose it. (Target Comics v1 011, 1940)

the Stratosphere Patrol: 

Speaking of Spacehawk, here's "Spacehawks," a Basil Wolverton strip that didn't really get the room to shine before its home comic was given the axe. While "stratosphere" in the context of 1940s comics is often a flowery way to describe everything up to and including interplanetary space, the meaning here is quite literal: Steve Grover and Bart Bixby and their colleagues are charged with policing the vast array of air traffic that is constantly whizzing around in the near-future, and their greatest challenge occurs when they encounter an evil scientist who can go into the upper, upper atmosphere! Heady stuff. (Circus, the Comics Riot 001, 1938)

the Ghost Rider: 

There are a seemingly infinite number of masked cowboy vigilantes roaming the various Wests of assorted comic book universes, and the Ghost Rider is one of them. In his one recorded adventure he stops the wretched gambler and crime boss of the town of Last Chance, Poker Slade, from murdering miner Robert Burton and his daughter Rose and stealing their gold claim. Also, though it's not particularly visible in the image above, this particular Ghost Rider is the only one to have a mustache.

As always, there are no new super-hero names under the sun, and "Ghost Rider" might just be one of the ones to unexpectedly crop up the most times. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 004, 1939)