(Flash Comics v1 013, 1941)
I almost didn't include these guys because Johnny Thunder lives in a heightened cartoon reality that only exists within the same world as the Spectre or Hawkman because of the technicality of them all being in the same club and hanging out together. But then, is the fact that New York is full of goofy-ass cartoon people in Johnny's reality any more implausible than Alexander the Great blowing up a portion of the city without apparent consequence in Hawkman's? I say thee nay. Besides, Johnny's adventures almost never verge into super-villain territory... we gotta strike while we can!
So: we find Johnny and his best gal Daisy Darling attending a production of "the Creep", starring actor Jan Marrimore (!) as the titular Creep (a stand-in for a real person playing a fictional villain in a super-hero universe: all my very specific interests are colliding!).
At the end of the play, Marrimore reveals that the show is a stunt designed to publicize the existence and uniform of a crime syndicate operating in the city. Johnny of course immediately encounters one of these men, does not recognize him and is pickpocketed by him. After some back and forth involving ridiculous magic powers, the pickpocket swears to reform and all is well. OR IS IT?
It's not! The remaining members of the gang (which we only now learn the name of - thanks for nothing, Marrimore) swear bloody vengeance and set out to murder Johnny. It's only the fact that he's juiced up on Badhnisian thunderbolt magic that saves the poor oaf.
And that's that, really. Just a gang of costumed crooks, but they're Johnny's gang and he almost never gets to fight proper villains. Since they're comedy characters they end up as paper-thin props for Johnny to bounce around, so there's not much to say about them beyond what I will always say about the suit/cape combo: that I love it.
