MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 830: ROBERT W MARSH

(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940)

Fifth column activities are wreaking havoc on the US! Why, it's so bad that the new National Defense Building has been bombed! Doc Strange is called in along with a crack team of industrialists to help solve the problem, and is pointed toward fellow committee member Henry Dallas by yet another member, Robert W Marsh. Could this be so easy a problem to solve?

Henry Dallas kills himself rather than own up to working with the Nazis against American interests, but Doc Strange is able to trace his business dealings to the defunct Mammoth Automobile factory in the South, where he discovers a fascist tank-manufacturing setup. He also takes an explosive anti-tank shell to the back of the head, which is immaterial to the story, but it is fun to occasionally highlight just how powerful a super-hero is.

Strange finally comes face to face with the leader of this operation (conveniently called the Leader) after both he and Virginia Thompson are captured by them, and unmasks him within minutes, revealing him to be... Robert W Marsh, who is coincidentally also the only other named character in the comic. I gotta say, I wish that the Leader facade had been maintained for longer, both because I always prefer referring to a guy by a codename rather than by what's on his birth certificate, but also because that mask is a pretty sweet little number and I wish that Marsh had a reason to keep wearing it.

Doc and Virginia of course escape from Marsh and prevent his bid to take over the US by bombing Washington DC into dust, but the former Leader is pretty conspicuously not among the casualties of that battle. And well he shouldn't be, because he is also the antagonist of the next Doc Strange story:

In Thrilling Comics 011, Marsh takes over the... Central?... American nation of Panamela to use as a staging area for another attempt to take over the US.

(side note: it is pretty remarkable that Marsh is just a straight-up Nazi in 1940, albeit one with a reversed swastika. I suppose it's possible that this is a small-n nazi, as a stand-in for fascist) 

Marsh's plan revolves around attacking the US using the Panamelan fleet and some new super-explosive artillery shells, but he is foiled when Doc Strange sabotages the explosive at the production stage. Pop! Plink!

Though his fleet is blasted into oblivion by the US Navy, Marsh lives to fight another day. 

I'll be honest, I'm tired of the guy and I almost included his third appearance here to get him out of the way, even though it takes place in 1941. But when I started reading it to do just that I was startled to find out that it's fun! There isn't even any naval combat! Thus, I'm going to leave it as a treat for myself in the future.

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 024

None of these guys are ever going to be in a movie. 

It's been a while since we've seen any masked cowboys, so here's a particularly well-dressed bunch about to have a scrap with the Rio Kid. He doesn't get the upper hand in this particular encounter, but by gum he eventually brings rancher John Wendel and his whole gang of rustlers to justice. (Thrilling Comics 002, 1940)

Likewise, it's been a while since we've seen a masked Nazi spy, and even though we only get one panel of X-5 aka Captain Clarke here, he fits the bill as he arranges to frame Tom Niles, the Undersea Raider, for espionage. (Thrilling Comics 006, 1940) 

This completely unnamed masked killer is actually Violet Parsons, who has an especially poor reaction to being cut out of her father's will: she murders her brothers Frank and Henry and tries to pin the killings on her insane brother Robert. She is ultimately undone by the fact that a person, even one who has had a nervous breakdown, won't automatically turn into a ravening beast man if you lock them in a room until they grow a long beard. The Woman in Red triumphs once more. (Thrilling Comics 008, 1940)

Someone has been murdering everyone who stays in the De Luxe Suite of the Hotel Metropolis, and the Woman in Red is on the case. The murderer turns out to be Mr Bascom, the hotel manager who used to be the hotel's owner, who couldn't stand to see the hotel's new owner make a success out of a business he failed at. He only shows up in this mask for a few panels, but I would like to point out it's unusual length, required so as to cover up Bascom's mustache. (Thrilling Comics 009, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 529: RATZER

(Blue Ribbon Comics 018, 1941)

Ratzer is a Nazi agent who tangles with American-serving-in-the British-Army Corporal Collins a couple of times. There's not a lot to say about him, honestly: the first time he meets Collins he's trying to spring a load of Nazi prisoners and destroy a lot of British gun cotton in then-Bombay, while the second time he's stealing oil in Iraq. He is not notably villainous, particularly in the ranks of Nazi super-villains.

He does, however, have a certain style, so I'll speak on that. Starting with his plane! I really like the question mark! Custom planes are absolutely the on the list of things that make aviator characters at least a bit interesting.

I wouldn't call Ratzer's costume one of the greatest of all time but it does have some flair, particularly with the little scarf dangling off the top of his head. And as a bonus it doesn't have any swastikas on it, which I appreciate a lot more than I did before I started posting pictures of super-villains online regularly.

Ratzer's second appearance doesn't really involve flying and so he's dressed in what I guess is his Desert Combat Costume - perhaps he has a whole closet full of slight variations on the theme, like a 1990s action figure line. Look out for Ocean Exploration Ratzer!

In any case, I like this costume best - he looks a bit like a pro wrestler.

At the end of his second appearance Ratzer gets away again and just... never returns. This is probably down to the end of Blue Ribbon Comics when Corporal Collins moved over to being a supporting character to MLJ's other military hero Sergeant Boyle. No room for the secondary characters to have their own villains, after all.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 524: THE KING OF THE VAMPIRES

(Blue Ribbon Comics 011, 1941) 

We open not on the King of the Vampires but on a different vampire, one with a monocle. This is Carlos Hubbello, a diplomatic envoy from South America who has been sent to discuss a trade deal with the US that would leave the Nazis in the cold. The two gentlemen with him are no gentlemen at all but rather Nazi spies who are controlling Hubbello by the simple expedient of having turned him into a vampire, which is certainly harder to get out of than say kidnapping his loved ones but comes with a whole lot of extra risk for his handlers.

This story is rife with lore. To whit:

LORE: Vampires are easily cowed with a cross, even when wielded by evil men.

Hubbello comes very close to vampiring Mr Justice's love interest Pat Clark while they watch a performance of the very weird and cool "Waltz of the Vampire". A ghost/ vampire brawl ensues.

LORE: A vampire can lose control when exposed to great art.

LORE: vampires can transform into wolves and bats and retain their special vampire haircut in both forms (you can just make out a teeny tiny widow's peak on the bat if you squint).

Hubbello, defeated, spills the beans. The Nazis imported the King of the Vampires from Transylvania as part of their scheme to control the trade negotiations. Is the King of the Vampires a Nazi or merely using them to his own ends? This is not explored. Is the King of the Vampires supposed to be Dracula or is Transylvania just a good place for a vampire to come from? We can never know.

LORE: Kill the head vampire in time and its under-vampires can be saved. What is "in time"? Not sure but it isn't "before the under-vampire takes a life/ drinks human blood" as in a lot of vampire media, because Hubbello has already done both.

Enter the King of the Vampires, freshly gorged on the blood of the innocent and battle commences. And I sure hope that Mr Justice knew the LORE that vampire cannot fight vampire because it means that he is on his own.

LORE: this is the kind of vampire that seemingly isn't harmed by light so much as by not physically being in his coffin at dawn. And he isn't, so he dies.

Hubbello is saved! The trade deal can go forward! And back in the US we are reacquainted with the Nazi vampire-handlers, who come with one last piece of LORE: that knives fashioned of pure gold taken from the tomb of the Egyptian King Ankhaman II are capable - possibly the only things capable - of killing a ghost. A potent weapon against Mr Justice, if only they were any good at knifing. But they aren't so they get captured immediately and the knives are presumably never seen again.

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 011

Some say they're not generic enough but I think they're trying their best.

This fellow is part of a gang looking to hijack a shipment of railway guns from train engineer Runaway Ronson. I really enjoy the look of the padded suit they use to help survive crashing a car into a high-speed train but I really really enjoy the fact that they immediately scramble off into the woods and are never seen again, as if they were completely unrelated to the criminal plot. (Blue Bolt v1 007, 1940)

This fellow's a pseudo-Nazi spy named Ketler who goes up against Sub-Zero in an attempt to influence the very specific Torpedo Workers Union into striking and hindering part of the US defense program. I feel like he overestimates the usefulness of the mask as he doesn't change anything else about his appearance when not murdering people but that's not what gets him caught so I guess I'm the fool here.(Blue Bolt v2 002, 1941)

Colourful enemy aces are the best/ only tolerable part of the absurd number of Golden Age comics about pilot-adventurers, so my little ears pricked up when American-flying-for-the-French Loop Logan was challenged to a dogfight by a Nazi called the Blue Duke but... there's nothing to him. He's just a guy with a name who's been sabotaging French planes and shooting them down. Waste of a good name, if you ask me. (several days later note: it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this guy's name was a play on the Red Baron) (Blue Ribbon Comics 004, 1940)

These guys briefly terrorize New York (possibly - we have another instance of a city that is Clearly New York City But the Mayor is Wrong) with a futuristic tank mounted with a death ray. If they a) had a name and b) weren't completely demolished by Mr Justice in about three panels they might have made the leap to full Minor Super-Villain status but as it stands they're an object lesson in why ultra-powerful ghosts need a tougher class of enemy to be really entertaining. (Blue Ribbon Comics 010, 1941)

NOTES - APRIL 2024

Nazi Superweapon:

There's nothing terribly special about this giant dirigible that the Phantom Sub encounters after it starts to fly as well as submerge, but I do appreciate a dirigible that can not only camouflage itself as a stormcloud but has a proper old-school lightning cannon mounted underneath. And is filled with hydrogen, nuch to its later detriment. (Blue Bolt v2 007, 1941)

Honours:

Corporal Collins, Infantryman earns the French Croix de Guerre. (Blue Ribbon Comics 002, 1939)

Rang-a-Tang the Wonder Dog is made a full-fledged policeman in the NYPD (Blue Ribbon Comics 001, 1939)

Assuming that this guy knows what he's talking about, Rang-a-Tang the Wonder Dog probably gets the Congressional Medal (maybe of Honor, maybe another one) (Blue Ribbon Comics 004, 1940)

Rang-a-Tang the WOnder Dog gets place of honour in a circus parade. (Blue Ribbon Comics 013, 1941)

Place Names:

Hercules travels to Missiansas, only our second fake state after the Whip's "New Texirona" (Blue Ribbon Comics 005, 1940)

Costumes:

Speaking of Hercules, this version of Zeus from his adventures might just be the greatest outlier in general dress and design I have ever seen (Blue Ribbon Comics 005, 1940)

Aliens:

Really enjoy the vibe of these Martian invaders. Screw cold rationalist aliens; bring on the party aliens! (Blue Ribbon Comics 008, 1941)

Cops Shoot:

The police of whatever town Mr Justice lives in attempt to summarily execute him for fleeing a third degree interrogation about him supposedly being bribed by a fake medium. (Blue Ribbon Comics 012, 1941)

And over in whatever town Captain Flag calls home the cops attempt to gun him down as he breaks jail to stop the Black Hand from carrying out the scheme that he is in jail for due to those same cops being credulous morons. (Blue Ribbon Comics 018, 1941)

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 006

Who will rid me of these fascist goons?

The Nordland Bund is another German-American Bund analog but operates as more of a traditional spy operation on behalf of Nazi Germany stand-in Prussland. Their moderately complicated plan to get explosive coal onto US ships leaving Bermuda is foiled by Secret Agent D-13 and his Canadian counterpart/ love interest Lorraine MacAlinn (Mystery Men Comics 019, 1941)

Like the man's feet say, the Hoops are a bunch of Nazis (proper Nazis - Fox Features seems to have stopped pussyfooting around with oblique references and backwards words in the last few months of 1941) who had a signature move of leaving a hoop around the neck of their victims. And the word the Blue Beetle is searching for is explode the hoops explode. And fittingly enough the Blue Beetle later uses one of those hoops to explode Baron Gell, leader of the big-h Hoops. (Mystery Men Comics 025, 1941)

Technically this group is nameless and the Anti-Foreigners Committee is a supposedly patriotic group run by their leader as a cover, but if there's a name that underlines the simmering fascism that underlies ultra-patriotism better than that one then I can't recall it. (Amazing-Man Comics 022, 1941)

These guys are called the Thorns for no particular reason. Just a buncha Nazi goons with a more poetic name than usual. They go up against ultrapatriotic teen Paul Revere, Jr and also his dad. (Banner Comics 003, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 472: THE GREAT QUESTION

(Amazing-Man Comics 005, 1939)

The Great Question is a member of the Council of Seven, the mysterious body of scientists and mystics who trained and orphan boy into John Aman aka the Amazing-Man. The inner dynamics of the Council of Seven can be a bit hard to parse but early on it seems like the Great Question is if not in charge at least an unofficial leader. Later, as he has more and more conflict with Amazing-Man that role is filled by Aman's mentor Nika.

From issue 5 to 11, the first year of Aman's adventures, the dynamic is such: Amazing-Man travels around helping people and inadvertently foiling the Great Question's various schemes while the Question attempts to bend Aman to his will - above is a picture of the one time he managed to actually do it, turning Amazing-Man into some sort of terrifying crime genie.

Then, in Amazing-Man Comics 012, Aman answers a summons to return to the Council and is rewarded with a harness that both makes his "green mist" power permanent and renders him immune to the Question's mental control. Suddenly, everything changes - sure, Amazing-Man is still travelling around foiling the Great Question's various schemes, but without the mind control aspect to their dynamic it becomes a much more satisfying hero/villain pairing.

(This seems like a good place for an aside: it's never explicitly stated but implicitly it seems like the Council of Seven must know that their most prominent member is a super-villain. Did they recruit him because he was one or was it incidental to the other things he brought to the role? Impossible to say. The gift of the anti-mind control harness makes it clear that they preferred Aman in a heroic role but that's about all that can be determined)

From this point the Great Question really comes into his own as an international super-villain. No matter where Amazing-Man goes, the Question has a group of generic goons working on a scheme of some sort. This all comes to a head in Amazing-Man Comics 021, in which Amazing-Man and the Great Question face off on an island base crawling with uniformed henchmen armed with forcefield projectors to bottle up Aman's gas form.

There's even an extremely radical giant robot!

Things really come crashing down in the next issue, as the Great Question not only joins up with the Nazis but rebrands himself as Mister Que, a much worse name. Now obviously there are a lot of classic Nazi villains - they're very easy to cast in the role because they suck - and it's clear that the Great Question Mister Que is using them to further his own goals, but it really does diminish the fun of a classic megalomaniac to see him working to further the goals of the Nazis rather than his own.

There are some interesting developments during the Mister Que era: he demonstrates more super-powers, for one, including a sort of whirlwind form used for rapid escape. He also manages to rob Fort Knox (well, Fort Fox), a classic villain cheevo. And even though I don't particularly like the Nazi uniform look he does have the right smirk to be wearing that mask.

Then, in Amazing-Man Comics 024, Amazing-Man and Tommy the Amazing Kid face off against the Vulture, a Nazi agent with convoluted plan to destroy NYC using US soldiers under the thrall of psychoactive temporary tattoos. In the antepenultimate panel, the Vulture pulls off a rubberoid mask to reveal that he was in fact Mister Que! His reasoning for doing this (to keep Amazing-Man from attempting to kill him) is a bit suspect, but he does manage to get away in the end. Ignominious!

And that's it for the Great Question/ Mister Que/ the Vulture. Odds are that he would have returned to vex Amazing-Man yet again but Centaur stopped publishing comics in early 1942. Both he and Amazing-Man have been brought back a handful of times over the years, of course, but mostly the Great Question languishes, unanswered.