FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 015

If there's one thing I know it's that the world has a seemingly-inexhaustible supply of odious little fascist worms.

the All-American League:

The All-American League is nothing so exciting as your Nazi spies trying to poison the reservoir or prevent and/or encourage the US entrance into WWII. Instead, they are the more banal type of fascism that is popular nowadays, in which patriotism is weaponized as a way to enrich and empower a few petty men (yes, yes that's what the Axis was too but they killed a lot of people while doing it so we hold them in higher esteem). The Flame is more than a match for a collection of small-minded opportunists.

Please note that this is the one and only adventure in which the Flame is said to live in a place called Metropolis before someone presumably thought better of it, and that it features an ethnic neighbourhood with the hilariously on-the-nose name of "Foreign Town." (The Flame 007, 1941)

the Nazi Bund:

This is our second instance of a group called the Nazi Bund and as the other one occurred in Fantastic Comics I would be tempted to posit that it represents a rare connection between two Fox Features titles. Not a strong connection, as this particular branch is completely annihilated by the Green Mask, just as that other was by Samson. (Green Mask v1 005, 1941)

the Yellow-Jackets:

Though the Yellow-Jackets, the recurring foes of America's Air Ace Bill Barnes, are described as a kind of freelance band of international bandit spies, in practice they are just another bunch of Nazis-by-another-name. It's a good name, though. Menacing. (Shadow Comics v1 002, 1940)

Unnamed Saboteurs:

This band of Nazi saboteurs are not the most distinguished but also not the least. Their big plan involves starting a forest fire outside of the war production centre of Brownstown and then burning down the town itself while everyone is out fighting the first blaze. Not a bad plan, if doomed to failure because of the presence of human fire extinguisher Fire-Man, but what really sets these guys apart is their weird cloth masks that sport one big central lens to see out of. These are not given any sort of narrative justification, so one must presume that they are worn solely to look cool. (Man of War Comics 001, 1941)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 044

Bored? Unemployed? Why not explore a career in low-tier supercrime? 

the ABC Gang:

I must regretfully inform you that the ABC Gang that is described here does not appear in this issue, as Spencer Steel and his pal Doakes instead get sidetracked by a different gang that is looking to rob the bank that they pegged as the logical next target in the ABCs' pattern. This is a real shame, because "gang who robs banks in alphabetical order by name, but only if the town also conforms to alphabetical order" is a 1950s Batman villain-level of crime-as-compulsive puzzle and I would love to see a 1940s interpretation of that.

Logically, Steel and Doakes would pick up the hunt for the ABC Gang in the next issue but no, they are completely forgotten by then. Golden Age comics, baybee! (Fight Comics 011, 1941)

the Vultures:

The Vultures, an elite Nazi air squadron, owe their success to the fact that they get all hopped up on "dope" (weed? heroin? are either of those going to help you do a dogfight? My lack of familiarity with both hard drugs and aerial combat is showing) before taking to the air.

The Vultures show up to defend the German military assets that Chip Collins and what I will charitably still call the Skull Squadron are busy blowing up. Disappointingly, the fact that the Vulture leader is high as hell throughout the ensuing dogfight and parachute duel does not come up at all.  (Fight Comics 014, 1941)

the Dust Bandits:

When Professor Fraser's incendiary dust gas bullets are rejected by the US Government for being a horrible war crime, he is determined to destroy the formula rather than, say, selling it to the Nazi Baron lurking in his home. Objecting to this lack of initiative, Fraser's lab assistant and step-daughter conspire to kill him, then hook up with a crooked banker to organize the Dust Bandits, aka the Dust-Gas Gang, for a quick crime spree before taking the Baron up on his offer. As is so often the case with fire-based super-villains they find themselves opposed by a fire-based super-hero, in this case the Flame. (The Flame 007, 1941)

the Leopard Men:

To my shame, this instance of the Leopard Man trope marks the first time that I thought to look into whether there was a reason that it was so common in jungle fiction other than that leopards are cool. It turns out that as has so often been the case a cultural practice among a colonized people was vilified and outlawed as a part of the process of cultural subjugation. Leopard Societies appear to have filled a pretty diverse set of roles across West and Central Africa, ranging from pro-trade fraternal orders to vigilante groups, but thanks to sensationalist reporting and pulp writing we are going to keep on encountering them as generic jungle villains. 

This particular bunch is after explorer Buck Johnson for some bullshit reason. (Great Comics 002, 1941)

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 014

Surely fascists will stop being such a problem eventually, right?

the German Help Club:

Probably the most straightforwardly cynical version of the German American Bund that we've seen so far, the German Help Club is simply a mass extortion scheme in which the German-American residents of NYC are forced to give up 15% of their earnings or see their relatives back in Germany be persecuted and jailed. Pat Patriot breaks them up with extreme prejudice. (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

Gorilla-Suited Saboteurs: 

This bunch of Nazis dress up in bulletproof gorilla suits in order to sabotage British operations in Uganda, but they are unable to contend with jungle adventurer ed Crane. (Exciting Comics 008, 1941)

the Nazi Bund:

The Nazi Bund is yet another riff on the German-American Bund as an actually impactful spy organization. Is Bund leader Fanz Mann a version of the real-life Bund leader Fritz Kuhn or just a Nazi with a generic German name? Hard to say, but in either case he gets smashed up by Samson. (Fantastic Comics 020, 1941)

Herr Arson:

Herr Arson runs one of those Fifth Column cells that gave 1940s comic book heroes so much trouble. He has three major claims to fame: 1) Herr Arson is a fantastic name for a Nazi saboteur, 2) Given that, the fact that, of four acts of sabotage he commits this issue, only one is arson is very funny.

3) Herr Arson might just get the most killed that I have ever seen in a comic, as the Flame uses his flame gun to utterly vaporize him in the middle of the street. (The Flame 006, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 947: CAPTAIN SKULL-FACE

(Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941)

Nazi U-Boat commander Captain Skull-Face has two major claims to fame: firstly there is his eponymous skull face. Even without that, however, he is absolutely loaded down with Nazi superweapons, any one of which would have been enough to carry a comic book story. 

Starting off, Skull-Face has a submarine "the size of a big battleship." Big enough to be mistaken for a small island

Secondly, the u-boat is equipped with a vibration machine capable of disabling ships' engines and rendering humans unconscious, which enables Captain Skull-Face and his crew to capture and loot Allied ships with impunity

Way up in the first set of panels, Captain Skull-Face mentions sending captured ships back to shore to be reused so that he can loot them again. What he actually does is essentially fire them at the East coast of the US like so many enormous torpedoes - the reason that he meets Dickie Dean in the first place is that he and Zip Todd are on the hunt for whoever was blasting ships at them. 

Finally, Skull-Face's u-boat is home to a squadron of manned torpedoes piloted by insane men. A pretty rare resource to be expending all at once, might I add.

Despite all of this advanced armament, Captain Skull-Face is outmatched by boy inventor Dickie Dean. Their encounter culminates in the Captain setting off the volcano at the centre of his own island base and almost getting roasted before being rescued by Dean and his pal Zip Todd and subdued using a Home Alone trap.

SKULL SCORE: 2/5 It's a good look but there's still a lot of flesh on that head. 

Categorized in: Body (Face, Skull), Generica (Captains), Murder (U-Boat Commanders) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 945: DR DRACULA

(Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941) 

With Dr Dracula, Captain Battle has now faced four Nazi or Nazi-adjacent villains in a row whose plans involve gathering up a bunch of guys and pretending to be monsters, in this case vampires. Was there a meeting about this at the regional Nazi spy headquarters or is this one of those things like when Hollywood makes two volcano movies at the same time? Maybe one guy had a good idea and the other three stole it. 

I'd have to say that Dr Dracula has the best name and possibly the best look out of the four, but the Mummy Master's Mummy Gang might take the gold in terms of best henchmen. 

As a supplement to the power of fake vampirism, Dr Dracula steals a new death ray from the hapless Professor Fosdick, who then serves as the first (human) target of its instant skeletonization effect. Horrifying! And visually striking!

(please note the fourth panel above, when Fosdick exclaims "Vampires! Vampires as large as men!" I believe him to be referring to vampire bats, which doesn't make a huge amount of sense given what he is looking at at the time but which is the only interpretation to make much sense. It is the kind of thing that comic book people shout when vampire bats are about, after all)

This is about the time that Captain Battle shows up to put a stop to Dr Dracula's plans, which gives he and his men the opportunity to demonstrate that they can all fly as they engage in thrilling aerial combat vs Captain Battle and his luceflyer (Hale Battle is lagging behind and can't be there for this fight). 

These wing suits are very cool and more importantly... way more strategically valuable than the death ray that they just stole? Like, yes: the death ray can instantly kill any target, but so can a good sniper, and you certainly could deploy more good snipers easily if you had flying infantry, right?

Having made his getaway, Dr Dracula gets down to the serious business of sabotaging American war production by turning people into goofy skeletons. Prof Fosdick must have had a sense of humour, because while the ray dissolves clothing it selectively leaves props such as cigarettes or blankets behind so that every tragic ray-gun death looks just a little bit funny.

Dr Dracula meets his end when Captain Battle throws a steel net over him and the death ray explodes. This is what happens when you steal an experimental piece of technology and kill the inventor, folks. 

Hale Battle must of course have his souvenir, and what better or more striking object is there than one of the false vampires' wing suits?

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 943: HERR DEATH

(Silver Streak Comics 016, 1941)

This issue continues the trend of Captain Battle foes being fascist spies who are weaponizing fear by dressing up as the undead. In this case Herr Death is, as the name implies, a desiccated corpse version of Death, accompanied by a horde of the walking dead (not, I must stress, zombies. This is more "the dead have come out of their graves" kind of thing which, yes, would be classified as zombie behaviour now but which used to be its own spooky thing).

Herr Death has improved on the formula employed by Herr Skull and the Mummy Master before him in a couple of ways. Firstly, his men are not just spooky looking but fitted with bulletproof vests in order to showcase their supernatural fortitude (lucky for them the "destroy the brain" aspect of fighting the undead doesn't enter the public consciousness for a little while yet). Secondly, Herr Death is far more proactive than his contemporaries and he is very willing to mix it up with his scythe.

Herr Death also has a very thematic cemetery lair featuring a sick-ass corpse whirlpool for disposing of interlopers such as Captain and Hale Battle. I can't imagine that it's too much fun to hang around in between missions but oooh, the atmosphere!

On the negative side, Herr Death and his men are particularly bad at concealing the fact that they are Nazis, from the fact that his name includes the telltale Herr to his minions yelling "himmel!" and so forth the whole time. This really gives the game away to anyone who is paying attention, such as Captain Battle for instance.

Once they're no longer actively drowning in a skeleton whirlpool, Captain Battle and Hale are able to round up Herr Death with little difficulty. Bulletproof vests aren't too effective against four good ol' American fists.

Hale Battle must of course grab his souvenir, and he of course chooses Herr Death's scythe as the coolest possible option. I don't think that it's applicable here since Herr Death did so very many crimes, but this may just be the first time that we've seen someone take a murder weapon as a trophy, which makes me wonder just how many super-villain trials have been ruined because a key piece of evidence is sitting in a cave somewhere?