MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 405: THE VOICE

(More Fun Comics 074, 1941)

"The Voice" is such a cool and evocative name that I have a real bias in favour of it but I have to say that this guy leaves me cold. Basically, he's some sort of science man who has invented a "sound destroyer" capable of dampening all noise in an area the size of Manhattan. His crime-gambit involves employing this device and deploying sign language fluent gangsters to cause mayhem during the resultant confusion, then threatening to continue doing so until the city pays him ten million dollars. Not a bad plan but it does nothing for me.

(He does pull the requisite guy-called-the-Voice trick of only being present vocally by faking out Green Arrow using a radio and a sheet, so there's that)

Ultimately though, the Voice pushes his luck one too many times and is foiled by a simple application of visual signals - flare arrows, in this case. Good riddance to bland voices, I say.

BONUS TROPHY ROOM CONTENT: This is the second recorded adventure of Green Arrow and Speedy and the second time that they add to their trophy case, and this time it's the sound destroyer itself! Always a more satisfying move than destroying (ha ha) the villain's tech.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 401: THE MASKED MAN

(More Fun Comics 073, 1941)

This is not a new development but having Johnny Quick and Green Arrow's debuts so close together made me realize that a minor sea change had happened some time in 1941: whereas the earliest super-heroes would start out collaring regular crooks we're entering an era in which super-villains are the norm! (that said, Aquaman's debut is in this issue as well and he just blows up a few Nazis).

As for the Masked Man (our fifth! Even if more than half of them are unofficial), he's another themed deathtraps guy, killing members of the extremely tryhard History Club (members must have the same last name as a famous historical or mythological figure, but sometimes it's the figure's first name as their last name and also there's a member named Frank d'Arcy who is a member under the extremely slim pretext of sharing a name with Joan of Arc AKA Jean d'Arc. Maybe it's a club for guys too uninteresting to belong to any of the other weird themed organizations in comics). Needless to say my interest was piqued: themed deathtraps are a classic villain trope! These, however, are extremely perfunctory - shooting a guy named Lincoln but not in a theatre, stabbing a Caesar in his sleep... a little more theatricality would have gone a long way.

More halfassed deathtraps: Ezra Samson is tied up next to a bomb that will collapse a building on him, Frank d'Arcy is tied up in a burning building, Amos Socrates is forced to drink poison at gunpoint and Leonard Achilles (great name!) is warned about his heel being targeted so he wears metal boots and is then killed via electrified mat. It's all moderately thematic but feels perfunctory.

And it is, in fact, perfunctory! The Masked Man is not killing the members of the History Club out of hatred or because of a weird compulsion but as a distraction! He's actually club treasurer Ezra Samson attempting to cover up his long-term embezzlement of club funds by murdering everyone who would care, culminating in a fake attempt on his own life and a staging of Amos Socrates' poisoning so that he would look like a guilty suicide. And he might have gotten away with it if Green Arrow and Speedy hadn't been there to kill him with a car wreck at the end of the story.

BONUS TROPHY ROOM

Green Arrow and Speedy add the Masked Man's fake round bomb to their already overstuffed trophy case.

NOTES - DECEMBER 2023

Weaknesses: 

A very specific weakness for the Spectre: a once-in-a-hundred-million-year alignment of constellations that surely will never happen again. (More Fun Comics 071, 1941)

Misc:

This is my first encounter with Golden Age Johnny Quick so I'm not sure if the slow-down formula that he uses in the third panel above is a regular thing or a one-off but it sure has been left by the wayside. (More Fun Comics 071, 1941)

EDIT: He does it again in More Fun Comics 072! 

Memes of Yore - Keep 'em Flying!

Johnny Quick (More Fun Comics 073, 1941)

Green Arrow and Speedy (More Fun Comics 074, 1941)

Drawn without reference:

A wonderful 11-legged spider! (More Fun Comics 073, 1941)

Origins:

Poor ol' Earth-Two Aquaman. Nobody even remembers that he exists half the time, plus he got eliminated in the Crisis. Anyway, here's his origin: his dad found Atlantis and trained his son to breathe water (also a cheeky Fate of Atlantis - it sank and now Aquaman lives there). (More Fun Comics 073, 1941)

Great Folk:

I had completely forgotten about this story, but the old man who hoots and hollers and calls for detective Russell Granville until he's on the case is the spectacular character find of 1939. Really, really great way to build up the detective before his appearance and I'm a bit sad that this is the only Russell Granville story because that old man needs more panel time. (Keen Detective Funnies v2 011, 1939)