ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 011

What ho! Aliens!

Martians: 

These Martians attack Earth for reasons that will remain unclear forever, because the story they appear in never actually gets an ending. In fact, they never even show their faces, instead attacking from their very cool-looking ships and sending their very cool-looking robots to act as ground troops. The initial invasion is driven off by superhuman scientist Greg Gilday and his associate Joan and then the Martians just never bother to return for another shot. (War Comics 002, 1940)

Barrangees: 

After their initial encounter with the giant insect life of Planet Barrang, Captain Tornado and his companions end up falling in with the Barrangees, a humanoid species who were forced underground when the insects began to increase in size and intelligence, and despite the common cause that they had made with the purple ant faction, the trio are far more comfortable around an non-insectoid race.

(wildly, this extends to not even questioning the Barrangee caste system in which servants are surgically rendered mute as a symbol of their subservience and children are raised in total darkness to give them enhanced night vision)

The Earth-people quickly resolve to help the Barrangees return to surface life using their knowledge of firearms and insecticides. Their main obstacle to this, other than the insects themselves, is the Barrangee High Priest, leader of a religion that worships the Sacred Centipede and by extension all of Barrang's insect life. Captain Tornado eventually resolves this by shooting both the High Priest and the Sacred Centipede dead. (Popular Comics 048, 1940) 

the Batmen:

The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds seem to run into another hostile humanoid species every time they leave the walls of the hidden Diamond Empire, and the Batmen are yet another of these, which they end up in the clutches of after crashing the Rocket's ship into an underground cavern. The king of the Batmen is of course a creep who lusts after the Queen and attempts to dispose of the Rocket via gladiatorial combat vs a giant turtle, but once the Rocket learns that the Batmen are mortally afraid of fire it's all over. Quite literally, because he accidentally burns down their city. (Pep Comics 003, 1940)

the Batmen of Kordano: 

It's been a while since I read "Air-Sub DX" and the world-building was never its main focus, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but as I recall it was set in an undefined future on a planet that I have written down as "Tago-Lor" but could have just as easily been a far-future Earth. The crew of the titular Air-Sub contend with the machinations of various bald guys, including Klawger here, who has assumed the identity of the administrator of some sort of mining colony. 

All this is to say that I have no idea what the deal is with the Batmen of Kordano, aka the Living Dead Men, aside from the facts that a. they look cool, b. they have two great names, and c. they ride around in squat cylindrical vehicles called "mobile pillboxes," which is fun. Aside from that, no idea. Why so aggro? Where or who or what is Kordano? No idea. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 005, 1939)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 005

We got your aliens, plus some so forth. 

Moon Men: 

The Moon Men of 2050 CE seem to be just another part of the future Solar System society until they enter an alliance with magic super-crook Sarku so that their Moon King Tan Tan can meet his historical crush Elena. This of course brings them into conflict with Mr Mystic, as Elena is his fiance and he's just not that into her being kidnapped into the future. 

The Moon Men also have very upsetting feet. (The Spirit Section, 1 September, 1940)

the Alligator-Men: 

A lot of the Earth-based entries on the big list of aliens and such that I refer back to to while make these could best be described as "human offshoots," little pockets of humanity that have developed in isolation until they are something other than regular. I had a little debate about whether to include the Alligator-Men because they didn't seem other enough, but then I came to my senses. A whole society of guys who live in a cave somewhere in Brazil and dress in what must be wildly smelly lizard man costumes 24/7? Even if in-story they turned out to be a bunch of cosplaying accountants (spoiler: they didn't) that's worthy of comment. (Amazing-Man Comics 017, 1940)

Ape Men: 

And speaking of isolated populations of weirdos, ape men/ape-men/apemen and other missing link-style hominids are some of the most common. This particular group are from Malaysia and seem to be reasonably chill until Dr Fung and his pal Dan show up while following rumours pointing to the location of a lost heiress. Things get a bit too macho (and the old question of just what "white" means in 40s comics rears its ugly head once more) and Dr Fung and Dan have to shoot their way out. It's all very rude, frankly. (Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939)

Ape-Men & Lizard-Men: 

The Diamond Empire is a hidden civilization probably somewhere in Asia, located in an improbably large inaccessible region hemmed in by mountains - there's a reason that so many hidden kingdoms are underground, after all. It's a bit more plausible to have an implausibly large area underground and hidden than as a conspicuous blank spot on a map.

In any case, the lands around the Diamond Empire are like most other terrae incognitae in genre fiction, in that they are populated with a variety of humanoid civilizations, including Hawkmen, Batmen, and today's focus, warring nations of Lizard-Men and Ape-Men. The Lizard-Men sadly get the short end of the stick characterization-wise, being sneaking, cowardly ambushers with a uncomfortably horny king, but at least they have very cool faces - just love a black eye with a white pupil. 

The Lizard-Men get beaten up and pushed in a river by their ancient foes the much less cool Ape-Men who then themselves capture the the Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds. These Ape-Men are just what they are billed as: apelike humans, though the yellow heads and weird dents on top of their skulls set them apart slightly, even if they look dumb. 

There's a lot of malarkey involving the Rocket taking on an Ape-Man named Ungar for the role of tribal chief, and we get a glimpse of the Ape-Men's idea of how a trial by ordeal should work as the Rocket is made to enter the Cave of Horrors to prove his mettle, but eventually the majority of the Ape-Men just end up dumped into a chasm to their dooms. I assume that the Lizard-Men, merely damp, were very smug about this. (Pep Comics 004-005, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 033

Minor super-heroes, we got 'em.

Little Giant: 

Professor Rednow has some inventions to test and he has secured an orphan boy named Rusty for that purpose. Rusty is first given a serum that is supposed to turn him into a big hunk of beefcake but instead he becomes a kid with super strength. He then gets an outfit with anti-gravity properties that allow him to leap around like a small Hulk and finally is coated in "impurvogen," a high-tech chemical that renders him invulnerable.

In case you were having some doubts about Professor Rednow's devotion to scientific ethics: I don't think that he has any. It's just lucky for young Rusty that all of this stuff works or he might end up buried in the Professor's back yard alongside half a dozen other orphan boys.

Rusty and the Professor end up moving to NYC and becoming special deputies in the NYPD but, as with the Phantom Knight before him, the Little Giant only really had a couple of adventures and the second one continues to be out of my price range. (OK Comics 001, 1940)

the Shield:

The Shield is Joe Higgins, "G-Man Extraordinary," an FBI agent who battles threats to the US using a super-suit of his own design (a design that supposedly was the reason for Captain America switching from his original shield to the round one so as not to look too much like his patriotic counterpart, by the way). 

Over the years the Shield's status is subject to the usual comic drift: his powers go from being solely derived from his suit to involving some sort of super serum or ray or two of those, or all three. We're talking about the 1940 version of the character, though, and he was all suit, baby. The suit itself did slim down considerably from the first issue to the second, but we can chalk that up to a refinement of the technology (and to the more form-fitting top being a bit more flattering than the big chunky breastplate look).

One thing about the Shield that I had never known prior to reading his first appearance was that his motivation for becoming a costumed crimefighter was that his father died in the Black Tom Explosion as a result of German sabotage during WWI. Thus, the Shield has the Batman origin but for espionage!  (Pep Comics 001, 1940)

UPDATE (Shield-Wizard Comics 001, 1940)

the Comet:

John Dickering is a scientist who invents a gas that when injected gives him super jumping abilities. Too late he learns the reason that so many scientists do extensive testing before trying out serums etc on themselves, as the gas also gives him disintegrating ray vision that can only be held in check by a glass visor, Cyclops-style. Thus, he becomes the Comet.

There are a number of remarkable things about the Comet over the years but the only ones relevant to the 1940 version of the character are 1. the fact that he has one of the truly great Golden Age costumes and 2. just how very willing he is to kill his foes. I guess when all you have is a disintegrating ray every problem looks like a disintegratable nail. (Pep Comics 001, 1940)

the Rocket:

The Rocket is your classic example of an explorer coming to a lost/hidden/alien world and becoming its greatest champion. The most common example of this is your garden-variety jungle adventurer, with "modern man transported into an effete future" and "guy falls through hole into underground world" being other common examples.

The Rocket's adventures, on the other hand, happen... somewhere. He arrives via his namesake rocket ship - is the Diamond Empire located in the future? on an alien world? on a lost mesa or in a hidden valley? No idea, never addressed. He just shows up because he heard there was a hot queen running the joint and that's all we get.

After a rocky start, the Rocket manages to win over the titular Queen of Diamonds, going from her slave to her bodyguard to eventually becoming her lover/ adventuring companion. And if you read the above panels you might have noticed how very racist the Queen's origin story is, another thing that is extremely in keeping with this man-in-a-strange-land style comic: white guy exceptionalism. (Pep Comics 001, 1940)

NOTES - DECEMBER 2024

Drawn Without Reference: 

The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds find themselves facing a very off-model spider in the lad of the Batmen. (Pep Comics 003, 1940)

Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:

I was briefly tempted to give the cops of the MLJ universe a pass on shooting at the Comet because he did after all kill a bunch of them while mind controlled but then I remembered that a) that's still no excuse to gun someone down in the street, and b) it's still bad that they're just blazing away at a flying man in the middle of a large city full of other people. (Pep Comics 004, 1940)

 And they do it again... (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

 And again... (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

... and again (in a crowded state legislature building!) (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

Louisiana cops try to blow away Naval Academy Midshipman Lee Samson for escaping jail and stealing a police car. (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

Crossovers:

Oft touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics, the Shield shares a total of four panels with the Wizard as they both set out to foil some dastardly Mosconian spies. (Pep Comics 004, 1940)

Less frequently mentioned are the brief encounters between the Wizard and Lee Samson, aka the Midshipman and the Shield and Keith Kornell, aka the West Pointer, two very similar and very dull military academy students from different branches of the military-industrial complex. And they are less interesting, so that makes sense.

The next issue features another appearance by the Wizard, this one less highly touted as it's the second time it happened plus he just shows up to loan the Shield a plane. I personally think that that's remarkable, as Golden Age crossovers tended more toward the one-off. (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

Minutia: 

The Shield briefly pitches pro baseball under the name the Masked Marvel, as part of an investigation into a protection racket targeting players. (Pep Comics 007, 1940)