MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 856: THE PANTHER

(Famous Funnies 067, 1940)

The Panther is a no-nonsense Western gang boss who actually avoids a lot of the common missteps of the average super-villain by running an extremely tight ship in her munitions-smuggling gang. Is maintaining workplace discipline with a bullwhip the best idea? No, but it is better than workplace explosions.

The Panther's downfall starts when she puts a little two much trust in her lieutenants, Luis and Ramon, and they immediately go out and do some unsanctioned train robbing. Trouble is, the robbery was somehow pinned on Lone Rider, who ends up escaping the law and stumbling around in the desert until he passes out on the Panther's front door. It's hardly the most efficient way to infiltrate a gang, but it works.

The Lone Rider (going by the name Lightnin', which is his horse's name) proves his worthiness to join the gang by beating all of the Panther's specialists: he out-shoots Tex the gunhawk and out-fights Santos the strong man and then as a bonus because Santos is a poor loser the Panther gets to show off the fact that she can pick a knife out of the air with her whip.

Luis and Ramon eventually decide that they could do a better job at running the gang than the Panther (despite all evidence to the contrary) and rally the rest of the men to join them. The Panther proves them all wrong of course, when she deploys the knockout gas system that she had put in place outside of her fortified chambers for this very reason. The only unexpected variable turns out to be Lightnin', who reveals himself to be the Lone Rider and turns her over to the authorities.

Ultimately the Panther doesn't really get enough room to shine - she has sick whip skills, a pet panther, special lieutenants, a secret mountain base and good (criminal) business acumen - the conflict with Luis and Ramon is over expanding their purview to include kidnapping, and she is right to tell them no! They're running a clandestine smuggling operation, while kidnapping is by its very nature a very attention-getting crime! It's a hard life out there for a competent villain.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 737: THE SPOOK

(Silver Streak Comics 006, 1940) 

Continuing from the story of the Panther, Ace Powers ventures into the hole he had left the villain and his Panther Men in, seeking to discover the location of the former and presumably the reason for the deaths of the latter. Making his way through a concealed door, Powers finds the Panther about to be executed by a third villain called the Spook, who states that he is doing so because the Panther failed him, presumably by being foiled by Ace Powers in the previous issue. And let me tell you: I almost always love the revelation that a super-villain is in fact merely an agent of an even more evil villain but I especially love the fact that this means that the Panther Men were essentially subcontracting villainy.

The Spook captures Powers with the help of his rad Skeleton Men and of course offers him the chance to join up with an organization where failure will get you gruesomely killed (it's an understandable no from Our Hero). He also lays out his deal, kind of, and this is where we get into the very frustrating thing about the Spook: he's clearly a vampire, but this comic won't just come out and say it. Check it out: sharp canines, lives underground, "my body cannot stand sunlight." Even that mantled robe he's wearing is pretty reasonable comic book vampire fashion for the early 1940s.

Plus, there's the Skeleton Men, who are again rad as hell and are described as being animated by the Spook's will alone (yes, he says "hypnotic" there but really that's about the same as describing your power as "quantum" in a comic from 2010 only for magic). That's some vampire shit right there.

Ace Powers manages to knock the Spook out with a solid right to the jaw, which disables the Skeleton Men as well - this raises some questions about how security works while the Spook is enjoying a nap, or it would do if he weren't clearly a vampire.

To cap off the frustration, Powers decides to rid the world of the Spook with a simple bundle of dynamite rather than for instance dragging him out into the sun to shrivel up, a clear violation of my right to see vampires shrivel up in the sun from time to time. It's a good thing that this is your final appearance, Ace Powers, because I now have a grudge against you and I would hate to have that taint my reading experience going forward.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 733: THE PANTHER

(Silver Streak Comics 004, 1940)

The Panther! A murderous thief with a very cool look and a vicious set of claws! Well, okay, he does compliment his cool panther mask, panther paw gloves and shoes and pantherskin shirt with a pair of brown slacks so I'll amend that to a mostly cool look. 

Moderately cool looking or not, the Panther has been doing his crimes in the nonspecific New York-esque city that Ace Powers calls home and so Ace is on the case!

And Ace Powers turns out to be the guy for the job, because he immediately figures out the Panther is in fact an unnamed asylum escapee who went mad after his face was mangled in a car accident. What he fails to intuit, to his detriment, is that the panther mask isn't just for show but is armour plated - in his surprised state after his best haymaker fails to make an impact, Powers is nearly slashed to death by the Panther's also-functional claws. 

The Panther's reign of terror comes to an end when, after a rooftop chase across a flaming building, he proves that armour plating is not a good protection against fall damage by landing square on his armoured face and instantly dying.

What's this? Could it be that all of that "armour can't protect you from a fall" talk was mere propaganda courtesy of Big Parachute? Evidently so, because in the next issue of Silver Streak Comics the Panther turns out to be Just Fine. Better, even, because he demonstrates some pretty advanced super-villain thinking by setting out to avoid the mistakes of the past by recruiting some manpower (fellow inmates at the same asylum he had previously escaped from) for backup the next time he had to face Ace Powers.

The Panther Men (as they are called) are a terrific addition to the Panther's operation. First of all, I love any group of henchmen who are dressed in a junior version of their boss' outfit, though the colourist has obfuscated the fact that that is the case here by rendering what is pretty clearly still their inmates' uniforms as a golden brown. More importantly, the Panther's somewhat-goofy open-mouthed mask looks fantastic when quadrupled - just look at that panel where they're all sneaking up on Ace Powers yet perfectly farmed in a mirror for proof.

The Panther Men prove to be effective backup for the Panther (aka the Panther Man at this point) - they capture Ace Powers and take him back to their weird little shed HQ to dispose of him, and he only manages to escape being buried alive by surprising the lot of them and knocking them into his would-be grave.

But the saga of the Panther is not quite over yet! When the police dig up the crooks (did I mention that the shed had collapsed on top of the hole after the various Panther Men had fallen in it? be cause it had) in Silver Streak Comics 006, they find only the bodies of the three Panther Men, with no sign of the Panther himself.

Examining the hole, Powers discovers a secret door that leads to the underground lair of future subject the Spook, who turns out to be the Panther's boss, which I suppose makes the Panther Men some sort of subcontractors? This is very fun! While having the villain turn out to be working for an even greater villain isn't a guaranteed win as far as plot twists go, it works here, even if it was clearly 100% made up when *checks credits* Harry Anderson sat down to draw this comic. 

This is, alas, the end for the poor Panther, as the Spook is one of those terrible super-villain bosses who murder their employees for failing them, in this case for not managing to kill Ace Powers. The Panther meets his end at the blades of a triple swinging pendulum deathtrap, and although that's not a particularly rare style of comic book murder machine this might just be the first time I've seen one take someone out, so that's a final achievement for out boy.