MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 973: THE MASTER MIND

(Fight Comics 011, 1941)

Just when the futuristic (i.e., early 2000s) nation of Greater America thinks that it can relax, it is simultaneously attacked from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans! Acting quickly, Saber, aka the Spy Fighter, super-powered Head of Greater American Espionage, sets out to discover who is behind this dastardly deed. 

Saber uses his telepathic abilities to trace the impulses that are directing the armies to an isolated outpost where he finds a fellow variously referred to as the Hermit, the Hermit Militarist and the Lonely Genius but most frequently and most accurately the Master Mind. Saber finds that not only is the Master Mind a fellow telepath but that he has discovered the secret to transferring his mind to the mental plane, meaning that merely killing him will not stop the invasion as he will continue directing it as a disembodied intelligence.

Undaunted, Saber acquires an experimental disintegrator ray and uses it to wipe out the Atlantic force (wild that he feels the need to do so after demonstrating the ability to grow to the size of a small moon not one issue earlier). Returning to confront the Master Mind, he ends up blasting him in self-defense, and true to his word, his (master) mind lives on to direct his remaining forces (and no, I do not know why the disintegrator isn't used on them as well).

In a bit of a sad anticlimax, Saber and the disintegrator's inventor Professor Lerno just buckle down and tinker for a week before snuffing out the Master Mind's mind with a short-wave radio signal.

Categorized in: Body (Minds), Power (Mental Communication, Mental Projection), Supercrime (Attempted Conquest) 

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 095

There really are a lot of these guys, aren't there?

Hurricane:

As presented, Hurricane is a real mythological mash-em-up: "son of Thor" but also "last descendant of the Ancient Greek immortals," and arch-enemy to the Roman god Pluto. Pantheism, baybee!

Hurricane's whole deal is in being super fast, like mythically fast. The fact that he has a divine opponent is quite nice, in that it offsets some of the tendency of speedster characters to walk all over their opponents as can be seen above.

As befits a divine being with such a diverse background, Hurricane also has a Swiss Army Knife of as-needed powers, including weather control, flight, invisibility and changing into his super-suit in a flash of radiance. His signature (non-speed-related) power is the ability to stick a couple of little wings onto an object or person to give them the power of super-fast flight while looking cute.

Hurricane is one of several older characters to eventually be retconned as former identities of Makkari of the Eternals, but we will deal with that if we ever get to the mid-70s. (Captain America Comics 001, 1940)

Categorized in: Origin (Deities), Powers (Super Speed, Various), Weather (Hurricanes)

Tuk:

Speaking of retcons, here we have Tuk, Caveboy, hero of the year 50 000 BCE! Orphaned as a baby and raised by Ak, last of the Shaggy Ones, Tuk (referred to throughout as one of the Hairless Ones, natch) is the child of two mysterious figures who Ak believed to be some sort of divine being, but who refer to themselves as exiles from a place called "Attilan." 

The real-world explanation for this is surely that Jack Kirby liked the idea of an ancient and mysterious super-kingdom with a name that could have eventually mutated into "Atlantis" over time and used it more than once. The rise of continuity perverts and the fact that Kirby also used Attilan as the name of the Inhumans' home city means that Tuk has now been given the status of first generation Inhuman offspring, and his eventual interbreeding with early humanity is part of the reason that they are so genetically flexible and keep developing super powers all over the place.

Tuk is joined on his travels by Tanir, a Cro-Magnon man and the very first archery-based super-adventurer, at least chronologically. While Tuk has been minorly enshrined in Marvel Comics history, Tanir has largely been ignored, and that's a shame. (Captain America Comics 001, 1940)

Categorized in: Origin (Heroes of the Past, Human Offshoots), Power (Weapons Masters (Bow))

Father Time:

It's Father Time! Possibly my favourite under-used Golden Age Marvel super-hero!

Father Time is really Larry Scott, a man whose father John is found guilty of murder and fast-tracked for execution, quite possibly because he keeps saying that he is innocent. In a series of events that hopefully ends up haunting that judge for the rest of his days, Larry manages to acquire the evidence to prove that his father is innocent, only to arrive mere moments too late to save him.

Larry's takeaway from all this is that time is always on the side of crooks rather than the law, and so he sets out to re-balance things by adopting the costumed persona of Father Time and beating criminal ass. It's a simple but effective origin, if much more pro-legal system than one might otherwise expect. 

Some notable Father Time innovations: the use of a scythe as both a throwing weapon and urban traversal aid, an extremely unique mask design (eyebrow to upper lip with a full nose cutout!) complimenting a decent over-all look, and the use of a calling card in the form of a clock face with an attached skull and crossbones. (Captain America Comics 006, 1941)

Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Time), Famous Figures (Father Time), Origin (Motivated by Loss)

Spy Fighter **UPDATE**:

Despite the fact that I am a spreadsheet-keeping, blog-writing, categorization fan, I do in fact think that a slavish dedication to continuity can stifle creativity. So what if the details of a character's backstory are inconsistent across appearances as long as it's all fun, right? That said... this "Spy Fighter" episode is set in 2041 CE, while the first one is set in 1997 CE, meaning that poor Saber here has been battling the enemies of Greater America for 44 long years. He still looks great, though. (Fight Comics 012, 1941)

While Fight Comics 013 continues this trend with a story set in 2042 (45 years!), the final three Spy Fighter stories abandon the science fiction and super-hero aspects of the character altogether. The Spy Fighter in Fight Comics 014 through 016 is effectively a separate character who is a non-powered espionage agent supporting the Allied forces in Egypt and the surrounding region - a true fall from grace for an interestingly weird character.

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 048

Gosh! How alien they are!

Frog-Men:

These two Frog-Men cause trouble for Sub Saunders when they steal his ship for a little joyriding/ piracy session. They are undone by the fact that neither of them know how to drive, and are ultimately head-konked into submission after crash landing. What this tells us about Frog-Man society is unclear - if this were a Star Wars then the Frog-Men would end up being a race of car thieves, of course, but most societies don't work like that. (Fantastic Comics 021, 1941)

Martians:

Today's selection of Martians is going to include some classic design elements! First we have this species represented by the very helpful Darek. Darek is based on the old Speculative Evolution version of a Martian, with spindly limbs due to the lower gravity and huge ears and lungs to aid in hearing and breathing in a thin atmosphere. As a bonus, he's also from a Mars that is covered in some classic canals, and has a hint of an interesting culture and mythology thanks to some early Jack Kirby writing. And of course he is green. A true classic Martian in many ways. (Crash Comics Adventures 003, 1940)

Martians:

These Martians aren't quite as cool as the previous ones, but the ruddy tint to their skin is a real classic design element for aliens from the Red Planet. I also appreciate that they look a bit like Space Elves wearing little green hats. If "Space Smith" was still being created by Fletcher Hanks when they appeared I might speculate that they were of the same species as the Brain, but I can't in good conscience do so now. Besides, even Hanks' version of Mars supports multiple humanoid species.

As a bonus, these Martians help Space Smith and Dianna defeat an attempted invasion of the Solar System by an extrasolar group called the Generals of Capella. We never actually learn much about these guys due to the fact that they attack with the aid of remote controlled meteors called "sandblasts," but when has that ever mattered: they're going on the list. (Fantastic Comics 009, 1940) 

Martians:

For our final Classic Martian Design Element, we have these warlike Martians dressed in futuristic Roman gear! The connection between the planet Mars and the god Mars has dramatically extended the reach of the brush-topped helmet in fiction over the years, and given us countless Martian aggressors to boot.

These particular Martians are hell-bent on claiming the interior of one of the Living Planet Monsters as their own, for some reason, and the fact that they attack the human colonists who are already there is especially egregious because they don't actually want to be there, they just got eaten. This unreasonable aggression is enough to make Saber, the Spy Fighter (there to rescue the Earth colonists) use his mega-powers to grow enormous and turf the entire Mars contingent out into the void of space. (Fight Comics 010, 1940)

CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE LIVING PLANET MONSTERS

(Fight Comics 010, 1940)

I wanted to do a fun title goof where "World" was crossed out in favour of "Space" but it seems that I don't have that ability. But yes, it's true! These Creeps of the World are not in fact on the world! Any world! They are in fact one of my favourite sci-fi tropes: living beings so large that they are mistaken for planets!

These particular creeps show up in the solar system early in the 21st Century and after an expedition to explore them goes missing they are visited by Saber, the Spy Fighter, who at this point is pivoting a bit from exclusively fighting spies to general super-hero pursuits. He also gets a massive power boost in this issue, gaining the ability to fly through space unprotected and under his own power as well as to grow to planetary sizes in his own right.

This sequence, in which Saber discovers that the missing expedition is building a colony inside of the monster using its own bones as building materials, is 100% the reason for this post. What an image! Even before the horde of Martian warriors came charging up the rib cage this was one of the weirdest sci-fi locales I had ever seen.

A good thing like an endless bone-filled plain inside of a moon-sized monster man can't last, however. After getting the expedition back to thir spacecraft (and tossing the Martians into interplanetary space), Saber beats up all three of the Living Planet Monsters and then throws the three of them so hard that they disintegrate.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 648: GARR STORM

(Fight Comics 008, 1940)

The geopolitics of the future as represented in Spy Fighter stories sure is complicated! At first, the far future world of 1997 contained only three megacountries: Mongo, Russmany and Greater America, but soon enough Greater America was menaced by aggressor nations such as Grotonia, Prussany and Antarctica. Simultaneously, the timeline advanced from 1998 to a more ambiguous "early in the Twenty-First Century." Is the unspoken background story the fracturing of these enormous countries back into something resembling the world today? If it is, then this adventure certainly ties into that as it is concerned with the succession of the Southwest US from the rest of what looks suspiciously like the United States. Whither Greater America? Has it too become fragmented?

The leader of what is only ever referred to as "the States" is the fantastically-named Garr Storm, who either has a tremendous gift for persuasion or is tapping into a legitimate rift between the States and the federal government. Don't start your succession with a war, you guys! It's a bad idea.

But Garr Storm doesn't stop there! He's not just a traitor but a double traitor, as his interests lie not with the people of (scrolls back up to squint at map) California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico but with an unnamed Asian power, possibly Mongo. Was this whole civil war solely for Garr Storm's benefit or was he forced to broker the deal to secure the arms he needed to take on the US Army?

Regardless of his motivations, the revelation that Storm had sold them out is surprisingly effective in cooling the revolutionary spirit of the Southwest and the nation is once again united in harmonious patriotism. What a fantastical future world!

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 025

Just a great bunch of guys.

David:

I read the Samson stories in Big 3 before those in his home comic Fantastic, so while I knew about his sidekick David I didn't really know what his whole deal was. I had read that Samson just found him sitting around somewhere and assumed that that was hyperbole but no, it's not: Samson is investigating some mysterious plane crashes in the Rockies when he just finds a kid, who turns out to be the only survivor of the latest crash, and just... brings him along. There's no real attempt to address the fact that he must be an orphan now (or if not and he was travelling alone for some reason, that his family now thinks he is dead) or to find him a familial guardian - heck, his name isn't even David. It's low-key one of the weirdest sidekick origins in comics and that's before he gets his own pair of fur briefs. (Fantastic Comics 010, 1940)

UPDATES: Even in the updated Samson origin, David is still a hanger-on (Samson 001, 1940)

UPDATE - the Fantom of the Fair:

The Fantom of the Fair gets his own short-lived book that sees him spending more and more time fighting crime outside the New York World's Fair, if you can believe it. To that end he adopts the more generic name of the Fantoman. The costume changes (blue instead of black, uncovered lower face) happened at the end of 1939 and technically I've read more Fantom stories in which he had the new one than the old but it never feels right to me. At least you can still see his hair through the cowl.

Though he has a new name and a not-so-new look, Fantoman retains one of his most iconic properties: every time you start thinking of him as just another masked adventurer he busts out another heretofore-unseen superpower or bit of lore suggesting he is a thousand year old demigod or something. See above as he either teleports or passes through matter for the first and last time. (Fantoman 003, 1940)

the Spy Fighter:

It kind of says something about the mood of America in 1940 that there are multiple comic book series that take place in the 1990s after what we know as World War II has stretched on for fifty years (Marvel's Breeze Barton is the other one that I can recall off the top of my head, while MLJ's Doc Strong is from a future ravaged by a whole century of WWII). In this version of that, the war has resulted in an amalgamation of the world into three rival nations: Russmany (Europe and Africa), Mongo (Asia) and Greater America (the Americas), and in this world of super nations, a super spy is required to ensure the sanctity of the Greater American way of life.

That man is Saber, the Spy Fighter! Who does eventually put on a shirt. Saber starts out as physically gifted telepath who roots out enemy agents by reading their ill intent in their own minds and then beats them up for it. Over time, the challenges he faces get larger and less specifically espionage related, and he develops new abilities to meet them, including that of changing his own size at will, to the point that he is eventually able to travel through space on his own power to fight planet-sized enemies. And what can Mongo do to challenge that? (Fight Comics 001, 1940)

Update 1941

the Skull Squadron:

Chip Collins' Skull Squadron is extremely unremarkable but at this point I have to make note of every skull-adjacent comic book thing. They operate somewhere in between a commando group and the Suicide Squad and barely even have skulls painted on their planes. SKULL SCORE: 1/2 and only for the name. (Fight Comics 001, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 646: THE LIZARD

(Fight Comics 006, 1940)

The Lizard was (will be?) the leader of a group of Grotonian spies working to sabotage the military of Greater America in the far-off future year of 1998 AD. He had (will have?) the pretty clever idea of being arrested as a petty thief and running his operation from inside a jail cell but unfortunately for his reputation as a smart guy he then fell for the most obvious trick in the world when Saber the Spy Fighter, head of Greater American Super Intelligence, was put in his cell for an unstated crime and in full super-power granting uniform and casually "allowed himself to be recruited to the Grotonian cause.".