FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 001

There are various groups of fascist goons in comics and doing an individual entry for each bunch would be a slog, so it's time for another grouping of jerks!

The Yellowshirts here put in a better showing than most and almost manage to take over NYC before they get beaten down by the Patriot. (Human Torch v1 004, 1941)

Do the Brown Hoods sound kind of like how the Mafia was described in the 30s? Yes. Is that going to stop me from including them here? No. (More Fun Comics 036, 1938)

The Yellow Battalion are most notable for their fancy hats, as they end up getting the tar beat out of them in roughly three panels by Red, White and Blue... (All American 005, 1939)

... who also obliterate the slightly-more-organized Black Cross a couple of issues later (All American 008, 1939)

MINOR SUPER-HERO 005: RED, WHITE AND BLUE AND DORIS WEST

(All American Comics 001-071 plus appearances in All-Star, World's Finest, New York World's Fair Comics and Comics Cavalcade, 1939-1946)

They keep coming up, so I might as well spare a word for Red, White and Blue. The concept is simple: three childhood friends, each of whom went into a different branch of the armed forces (and each of whom has a convenient nickname) work for G-2/ US military intelligence to root out enemy plots, most often in partnership with G-2 operative Doris West. Red Dugan (Marine) is their leader, while Whitefield "Whitey" Smith (Army) provides muscle and Heermance B. "Blooey" Blue (Navy) is mainly comic relief.

Their stories are great looking and generally pretty entertaining but if they have one great flaw it's in the character personalities: Whitey and Blooey are both complete comic relief dum-dums, which leaves Red and Doris to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of moving the actual plot forward, which theoretically works great because they're both portrayed as quite competent, particularly Doris. What really drags a lot of the stories down, though, is Red's constant macho assertions that Doris shouldn't go into danger and his pooh-poohing of her hunches etc as mere womanly fabulation. So many Red, White and Blue stories have an interminable middle portion in which Doris has basically figured everything out and Red refuses to listen to her.

I'm less familiar with the RWB stories that take place after the US enters the war and the boys are deployed. The few I've read from that era take the form of letters home to Doris or one of their parents telling of their war exploits. I'll check back in if there's anything worth writing about there (especially if we eventually learn Red's real first name - secret knowledge).

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 079: THE WASP

(All American Comics 016, 1940)

What makes them a super-villain? He's a master spy called the Wasp who engages in submarine espionage while wearing a tuxedo - basically a checklist of qualifying traits. Unfortunately, that's also the answer to the second question - he's only interesting because of his checklist, just a fleeting antagonist for a throwaway story.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 078: MR GLIB

(All American Comics 011 & 013, 1940)

What makes them a super-villain? He's a guy who kind of looks like Satan (named I.M. Glib, natch) who uses such as invisibility fields and food spoiling chemicals to ransom cities and US Senators. A slam dunk, definitional villain.

What about them is interesting? He's a Golden Age scientific villain who made two appearances and used the same technology in both of them. This is almost unprecedented, I assure you - ordinarily someone who made their first foray into crime with invisibility tech would be sporting a time machine or an army of robots in their second.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 077: THE MASTER

(All American Comics 010, 1940)

The Master, in one of those escapades that causes a lot of trouble for folks who feel compelled to work out what's in continuity and what isn't, briefly took over NYC using an electricity projector, killed hundreds if not thousands of people, and mobilized a full fascist organization before being stopped by G-2 operatives Red, White and Blue and Doris West.

Which, to be fair, is the answer. You have to explain whether or not Namor actually sank the Italian fleet or Batman killed Carl Kruger but there are legions of Golden Age characters whose troublesome exploits can be excised willy-nilly and Red, White and Blue are some of the most thoroughly forgotten of the bunch for all that they appeared in four or five different books at various times during the early 40s.

NOTES: JUNE 2022

Names: Green Lantern encounters a villainous pharmacist named Mortimer Pestle (All American 029, 1941)

Secret Knowledge: I checked all of the wikis and the blogs and this is the only place you'll find this info: Whitey Smith and Blooey Blue of Golden Age quartet Red, White and Blue have the real names Whitefield and Heermance, respectively. (All American 033, 1941)