MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 323: GORE

(Daring Mystery Comics 008, 1942)

Like he says in his dying moments above, Gore is a weird-looking guy who lashes out at society via a series of radio-themed deathtraps, always preceded by a broadcast of the letter D in Morse Code. As a villain he's all right - he gives the Thunderer a run for his money at least. My major gripe with him is that there was ample opportunity for him to be called the D Killer or the Radio Killer or just D but no, he has to go by his stupid actual name. Bah.

This radio skeleton is partial compensation, at least.

MINOR SUPER-HERO 038: THE THUNDERER

(Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

Lot to like about the Thunderer: great name, trend-based origin (ham radio enthusiast who finds crime on the airwaves/ rigs up a microphone to enhance his presence with a booming voice), nice-looking costume that was ultimately his downfall (because Marvel Comics 1000 established that virtually every Marvel character who wore a full-face black mask were wearing the same mask, and some of them retroactively had to have died for the chain of mask-wearers to continue). Lot to like.

Perhaps my favourite thing about him, however, is the fact that he turns down his amplifier in the 4th panel above, which heavily implies that he has been talking to himself at top volume while bounding over the rooftops. Just great stuff.

NOTES: AUGUST 2023

Pets:

Jerry "the Thunderer" Carstairs has a pet dog named Mike. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

Cops Attempting to Murder Fleeing Suspects:

A really concerted attempt to murder the Challenger by the cops in this issue. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

Legitimately surprised to see a reference to drinking a Zombie cocktail in 1941 but it seems that it dates from 1934 (Human Torch v1 005b, 1941)