MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 113: RAYMOND RALL

(More Fun 062, 1940)

Look at this damn nerd. He's got a lightning cannon and a robot army and he bothered Dr Fate for a whole afternoon. Good riddance to him, I say. Raymond Rall. Ridiculous.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 112: THE CRIME LORD/ THE BRAIN

(More Fun Comics 062, 1940) 

An early iteration of the classic tale of a brain that is freed of its cranium and becomes both powerful and EVIL, originally just a man named Dexter with a skeletal system and all the organs, he then became a mysterious shadowy figure named the Crime Lord as he directed his minions toward an eventual takeover of the US.

Upon being freed from his bell jar, the Crime Lord became the rapidly-expanding Brain, who similarly grew his ambitions: no longer interested in conquest on a national level, he was now going to expand to fill the entire universe. And he might have gotten away with it if the Spectre hadn't shown up to shrivel him away to nothingness.

Bonus: the Spectre eating a bullet to save FDR.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 111: THE SPECTRE

(More Fun 061,1940)

Impersonating and framing a super-hero is not an uncommon thing to do, but Gustav Gilroy took the added step of adopting his target's identity as his own in his campaign of turning his enemies to gold via chemical-laced free gum samples.

Gilroy also faced the Spectre in the first year of his career and so didn't really comprehend just how bad his choice of scapegoat was - the only surprising thing about his end is that he was ultimately turned to gold by his own hand rather than that of the earth-bound ghost himself.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 110: THE NORNS

(More Fun Comics 060, 1940)

Here's the thing about these guys: they probably aren't the Norns and they probably don't call themselves the Norns. They're three giant purple guys who hang out in a cave in the Catskills and send a flying saucer full of little green guys to attack NYC, ostensibly to conquer it. But! Earlier in the story:

... Dr Fate is reading a book about the Fates when Inza comes to tell him about the saucer attack, and then jumps to the conclusion that they are the same as the purple guys when he sees three people together. It's weird!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 109: XNON

(More Fun Comics 060, 1940)

Xnon is a guy I like. He lives an an extradimensional orb/city and seems to spend his time traveling from world to world looting and conquering, if his behavior on Earth is taken as an example. Then again, he seems to have recruited all of his henchmen from the Cliffland, New Jersey underworld so maybe this was his first outing as a transdimensional overlord.

What can be said for certain is that Xnon (no idea if it's pronounced "Znon" or "X-non", though I prefer the latter) uses his advanced technology to perform a series of daring thefts including an entire train, then briefly mind controls the Spectre into doing his bidding. He almost gets away with it, but the Spectre manages to call for help from what would later be semi-explicitly defined as the Christian God. Xnon is swiftly stuck in a meteor and blasted into interdimensional space.

I love Xnon. He looks great, has a great orb, is an arrogant jerk which I love in a villain... he has it all. Plus the manner of his defeat makes him someone who could conceivably be BRUNG BACK without any need for a new origin or anything. Just say that throughout all of the retcons and crises and every other dumb thing that DC has done in the last ~30 years, Xnon has been floating around in his meteor and then BAM it lands back in Cliffland (or wherever the Spectre hangs out nowadays) for some reason, and he's ready to scrap with a Spectre who has absolutely no idea who he is.

Also, this is what happens when you try to make the Spectre do a crime: pride flag explosion.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 108: UNNAMED MAGE

(More Fun Comics 058, 1940)

I love this guy, for all that he's unnamed. He kills an immortal snake that lives in the Nile in order to steal the magic book that it guards. The first spell he tries summons all of the wealthy men in a wide radius and compels them to give up their cash to him. The second spell he tries starts to tear the world apart, though it's unclear whether that was his goal or if he was trying to punch above his weight. Either way, Dr Fate is forced to take him out to restore order.

Also he dresses like Marvel's Sphinx, which is a neat coincidence.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 107: MANGO THE MIGHTY

(More Fun Comics 057, 1940)

Mango is a magician who fancies himself tough enough to go up against Dr Fate and quickly finds out that even though he can summon globes of flame and the undead legions of the Styx he is no match for the big man. This sort of thing happens to magical Golden Age characters pretty often - penny ante magical shitheels seem to have this urge to Peter Principle themselves against all comers, but whereas in an office setting rising to one's level of incompetence leaves you with poor job satisfaction doing so in the cutthroat world of magic crime gets you dead or sealed un a magic boulder.

But what's with the name? I checked and they definitely knew what mangoes were in 1940. Why is it a villain's name? Look: 

Look at this, USA Comics 003, 1941 - the Defender fights a beast-guy named Mango.

Adventure Comics 058, 1941 - villainous Pacific Islander named Mango,

Blood of Dracula's Castle, 1969 - evil hunchback... NAMED MANGO.

WHAT's WITH ALL THE MANGOS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 106: THE SOCIETY OF ASSASSINS

(More Fun Comics 053-057, 1940)

Comic books love the Order of Assassins - it's a ready-made group tough enough to tackle most heroes, plus they're all foreign and such. They crop up all over the place - it's like that thing where so many remnants of Atlantis exist that it's hard to imagine that anyone died, but instead when the power of the Assassins was shattered each individual member went off and founded their own new Order.

This bunch of Assassins operated out of Algiers (but also Bombay, because as noted previously the creative team behind Captain Desmo had a fairly shaky grasp on the geographical distinction between India and North Africa) and caused a lot of trouble for Captain Desmo and his pal Gabby until, in a moment of poor judgement, they captured them and took them to their HQ.

If I was the Grand Assassin of Algiers I simply would not rig my mountain fastness with explosives and leave the trigger in an easily accessible location.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 105: THE SKULL

(More Fun Comics 056, 1940)

It's somewhat weird, but this is the second guy named the Skull to operate out of the Belgian Congo in 1940. I say somewhat because it's one of a handful of places that name-checked in comics set in Africa at the time. Once you get past Belgian Congo, Egypt, Libya, Algeria or South Africa it's pretty much Jungle or Desert as locations, and half of those countries made the list because there were a bunch of comics about the French Foreign Legion early on.

Anyway, the Skull. He's the first foe of Congo Bill and he wears a little skullcap-cum-helmet, which I like. I also like the weird yellow pee-stain they keep putting around his mouth. I don't know why it's there but it makes him very distinctive.

SKULL SCORE: 2/5 The lipless mouth and barely-there nose evoke a skull, sure, but if I was in charge of giving him a nickname would I call him Skull? Or would it be Chompers?

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 104: THE WOLF MAN

(More Fun Comics 055, 1940) 

The Wolf Man:

- has a bunch of trained wolves

- wears a wolfskin outfit complete with wolf head cowl

- constantly refers to himself as the Wolf Man

- exclusively robs prospectors in the Canadian wilderness. The Wolf Man puts in too much effort, in other words.

MINOR SUPER -VILLAIN 103: THE BAT

(More Fun Comics 055, 1940)

An economics professor who dresses in a bat-winged robe and injects college students with experimental "artificial blood" while they sleep, the Bat is probably more the story of a man's mental breakdown than a super-villain.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 102: ZOR

(More Fun Comics 055, 1940)

Zor is from pretty early in the Spectre's run, back when his concept was "resurrected dead guy" rather than "literal embodiment of the Wrath of God". More specifically but also vaguely, he was an "earth-bound ghost" which was never really defined but was a pretty powerful thing to be.

Zor was also an earth-bound ghost, only he was older and thus more powerful than the Spectre, and also evil:

Zor makes a couple of Golden Age appearances to vex the Spectre before being set adrift in inter-cosmic space. Many years later, he was brought back in Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison, now serving as an evil equivalent of Zatara (and given the first name Zachary) and foe to Zatanna. Given the cosmic nature of the story, this works for me: Zor is whatever he needs to be to oppose his foe of the moment. Honestly, I can think of no better person to bring back a character like Zor. Not many creators would read a story in which a villain shoots bullets out of his eyes:

And make it canon:

10/10, top marks. I know Zor is technically Solomon Grundy now but bring him back again anyway.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 101: THE CLOAK

(More Fun Comics 054, 1940)

If a crooked importer named Crandall hatches a scheme to kill off his business rivals and then makes up a villain named the Cloak to blame the crimes on, is he in fact that villain? This correspondent says yes. 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 097: THE WIZARD

(More Fun Comics 052-054, 1940)

The Wizard is the kind of guy you get in comics who develops a robot army and a few different types of rays, destructive and otherwise, and immediately turns around and takes over (what I assume to be) his home town. I do appreciate that he looks like someone who has been sitting in a basement or a cave soldering robot faces for twenty years, but it's no excuse for incivility.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 057: THE MASTERMIND

(More Fun Comics 049-050, 1939)

Masked spy chief. After his first appearance is foiled by adventurer Biff Bronson he pulls one of the more major pivots in supercrime by opening one of those wax museums that doubles as a murder palace, where he himself is killed in a second encounter with Biff.

MINOR SUPER-HERO 003: THE FLYING FOX

(More Fun Comics 037-051, 1938-1940)

Rex Darrell! The Flying Fox! One of the most dull Golden Age aviator heroes, but as with so many of them, he has a cool name so here he is.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 056: MR A-X

(More Fun Comics 046, 1939)

Air pirate who bedeviled minor aviation hero the Flying Fox on multiple occasions.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 043: THE PHANTOM OF THE PYRAMIDS

(More Fun 049, 1939)

An archaeological dabbler who loots digs in the Valley of the Kings until he is put paid by short-lived detective character Bulldog Martin. Really really enjoy his gold mask/ pharaonic headpiece/ dark red robe combo.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 042: THE GORILLA

(More Fun 048, 1939)

A man has a mental health crisis and starts living in a swamp, emerging only to mug strangers. That's a sad story! Put a gorilla costume on him though... a compelling villain!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 041: THE SPEAKING FROG

(More Fun 045, 1939)

The Speaking Frog is possibly the most obscure villain in the DC Universe, and that's including Fawcett, Quality and Charlton characters in the mix. This is a shame because simply based on their name and appearance they are the strongest BRING THEM BACK candidate I have ever encountered. 

Some backstory: in 1938 a strip called "Marg'ry Daw" began in More Fun Comics, running for just a few issues. A Little Orphan Annie knockoff, it featured the titular little girl and her dog having adventures with evil scientists and the like while being left alone by her wealthy but distracted father. Or it would have, but someone wasn't feeling it and it was wrapped up in about four issues.

Flash forward a year and "Marg'ry Daw" is back. This time it involves a more attentive Luther Daw taking his daughter on a train trip across the country. Over the course of five installments the following happens:

-They befriend a Hindu mystic on the train. He has a vision of impending calamity and convinces them to disembark with him in Idaho. The train subsequently crashes.

-They accompany Ahm, the mystic, to his friend's secluded mansion. There they meet Stephen Dean, a wealthy vegetarian technophile who collects mummies and Indian artifacts, wears a robe and chortles constantly. A wide array of other eccentric servants and houseguests are alluded to.

-Dean shows off his various gadgets to his new guests, including a voice-activated vault door and the Speaking Frog, a metal statue that talks if a specific object is placed in its mouth.

-A guest is shot in the gardens. Ahm goes for help. Dean disappears. Someone wearing the Frog as a headpiece threatens Luther Daw's life. He knocks them out and looks under the mask but the person's identity is not revealed on-panel. Subsequently Dean's adopted daughter indicates that there may be multiple people in Speaking Frog outfits and tells Daw to kill the real one. (his easy willingness to do so, plus some talk of the Frog not being a man plus Dean being a tech nerd leads to my private theory that the Speaking Frog is meant to be a robot) 

AND THAT'S IT. The feature ends with Daw firing at a Speaking Frog and could have been intended either to wrap up immediately or go on for a dozen more episodes - if there's a person alive who has any idea what was intended then I for one will be as shocked as any person has ever been.

That's about it: all setup, no payoff. The perfect candidate for revival, as they could be anyone! The greatest costume of all time! The most obscure villain of the DCU is ready to walk again!