MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 919: THE WEREWOLF

(Cat-Man Comics 005, 1941)

There are three remarkable things about the story of the Werewolf. The first is that it finally establishes that the city that the Pied Piper operates out of has a name and that it is Central City - this both a nice thing to have cleared up and a fun coincidence, given that the other comic book Pied Piper, the Flash villain, also lives in a place with that name. 

The second thing is just how clearly and concisely the Werewolf's motivation is: he was bitten by a werewolf while in Tibet some ten years earlier and he blames his colleagues, Doctors Martin and Smith, for not treating him properly and thus not preventing his eventual transformation. Specifically, Arno becomes filled with murderous vengeance when he realizes that his gnarled werewolf hands are no longer capable of performing brain surgery.

Thirdly is this story's treatment of lycanthropy. Among the points of interest:

- Arno is bitten c. 1931 but does not transform until ten years later. 

- Just what the "werewolf" that bit him in Tibet is is unclear. It's probably meant to be a man-beast of the type that Arno himself has turned into, but 1940s comics also commonly refer to vampire bats as vampires and this has made me gunshy. 

- Speaking of man-beasts: like the other Werewolf we have encountered, Arno is much more man than wolf. I'm sure that over time we will be able to identify trends in the morphology of comic book lycanthropes.

- Arno treats his condition as if it is permanent, but the action of the story takes place over the course of two days, meaning that the full moon (implied to be the trigger for the initial transformation) has not yet passed. Presumably Arno did not turn back during the day or he might have been a bit less murderous about the whole thing.

- On that note, it's a bit unclear how much of Arno's homicidal inclination is revenge and how much is werewolf insanity. 

Though the Pied Piper is unable to prevent the Werewolf from murdering Dr Martin, he is able to track him to the abandoned lighthouse that he has holed up in and learn Arno's motivation. The Piper's magical instrument proves not only able to subdue a crazed wolfman but also to exert enough sheer musical force to bring the building down on his head to end his reign of terror.

In the end, the Pied Piper and Dr Smith decide that the Werewolf was not wholly to blame for his crimes and conceal Arno's involvement in them, meaning that Dr Ralph Arno is just kind of Famously Missing.

REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/2

Categorized in: Accessories (Lighthouse), Day Jobs (Brain Surgeons), Supranormal Beings (Lycanthropes)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 857: THE KING

(Wham Comics 001, 1940)

In what is sadly the final appearance of Speed Centaur, he and his pal "Reel" McCoy travel to the Arctic ruins of the City of Centaurs to explore Speed's birthplace. Almost immediately upon setting foot inside, they are ambushed and captured by wild-eyed men who escort them to their leader, a man called the King, who unusually has gone with an eccentric hair choice in every available part of his face but the mustache zone, and is also some sort of insane tyrant.

The King decrees that Speed Centaur must provide entertainment to the assembled inhabitants of the city via gladiatorial combat with three polar bears, a challenge that the super-powered centaur rises to with ease. The next trial that the King decrees is a kind of extended electrical torture that is designed to go on until it kills Speed, only he chooses to take the other way out: beating the daylights out of everyone within reach. 

It turns out that the King and his men were the survivors of a lost Arctic expedition who were in the grips of some kind of extended group blizzard madness and that getting their asses kicked by a centaur was just what they needed to break them out of it. The King turns out to be Professor Dillon, the leader of the expedition, and denies all knowledge of what has been happening in Centaur City for the last five years. I suppose you have to take him at his word, though I personally wouldn't put him in a position of authority again. It's like learning that someone is a mean drunk, you know? 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 663: THE JUNGLE DEMON

(Jungle Comics 006, 1940) 

The Jungle Demon starts out as an unnamed boy lost in the jungle and true to the old trope he is found and nurtured by a beast - we've seen it many times before. The beast in this case is a mind-bogglingly large constrictor snake, which is fun. Boy grows to man and he and the snake (charmingly named "Powerhouse") are at peace with the people and animals of the jungle until one day the still-unnamed young man chows down on what turns out to be some AD&D Alignment-flipping berries and Nice Boy becomes the Jungle Demon.

My memory had filled in some details and I was thinking of this fellow as one of the big Fantomah villains but in fact although he talks a big game about conquering the Jungle, mostly he just steals jewels and defrauds his workers.

Fantomah steps in a couple of times throughout the story to warn the Jungle Demon away from pursuing his darker impulses (pulling down a city to build a palace, enslaving people with dark majicks, etc) but he just can't help but be evil and eventually she is forced to feed him an antidote salad to reverse the effects of the berries (and she exiles him and his snake to an isolated plateau, which seems a bit mean). I hadn't really thought about it before but this tendency of Fantomah's to watch the unfolding action but not really step in until she does so decisively at the moment of crisis is the equivalent to Stardust the Super Wizard's very long commute: a way for there to be a story with an effectively omnipotent protagonist in which anything actually happens.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 081: THE WOLF

(Batman Comics 002, 1940)

Batman's first Jekyll/ Hyde style villain is Adam Lamb, a meek museum curator who gets bonked on the head while reading a murder mystery and thereafter heads out at night to cause mayhem as crimelord the Wolf. Batman eventually figures out that his crimes are following the sequence of those in the book and the Wolf's career ends with a second, fatal head bonking.