FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 012

I know we're all tired of fascist, but these are fake, historical fascists who get beat up, so it's cathartic at least. 

the Blitzys:

The Blitzys, aka the Yellowshirts, have a never-clearly-articulated plan to divide American society by beating people up for not joining the Army. I assume that there must be more to it than that but the focus of the adventure is not on Spy Smasher beating up these particular fascists (though beat them he does) but in avoiding them long enough to get to Washington and warn the President about this fifth column activity. (Whiz Comics 020, 1941)

The Blitzys, armed with a completely silent bomber plane, continue to vex Spy Smasher and America on behalf of their boss the War Lord through to Whiz Comics 022, when their leader Kurt Bund is finally run to ground in his base underneath a local cemetery and properly walloped.

Categorized in: Crime as Theme (Naziism), Objects (Shirts)

the Ring:

A gang of airplane saboteurs with so little assigned motivation that they might as well be in it for the love of the game, the Ring is undone by FBI agent Dick Star and his aide, the unusually-named Pinky Dink. (Bang-Up Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Generica (Rings), Ideologies (Crypto-Fascists)

Unnamed Giant Robot Unit: 

Eventually the comic timeline that I'm working on is going to get to the point that the US is World War II, and the flow of vague Nazi-adjacent antagonist groups is going to dry up and be replaced mainly with overt Nazi and Japanese super-villains. Does this mean the end of the Fascict Goon Round-Up? surely not, because there needs to be a place to document the weird over-the-top schemes that the comic book version of the Axis powers get up to.

Take this one: two enormous robots rise out of the depth of New York Harbor and destroy a patrol boat before stomping into the city proper. 

Then, after making their way downtown, they disgorge a bunch of Nazi soldiers to... do something. Honestly it's unclear what these guys are up to and more to the point just what havoc they could raise that a giant Robot couldn't. In any case they don't have long on the ground before they are beaten up by the Flag-Man and Rusty. 

All this action in the city is especially baffling as the actual plan is to blow up a chunk of the US fleet with a minefield. Maaaybe the idea is to draw them in with the giant robot attack? In any case, the Flag-Man steers one of the robots into the minefield and takes care of the entire problem with one huge explosion. (Captain Aero Comics 001, 1941)

Categorized in: Accessories (Mecha)

the Swastika Council:

It's not entirely clear just what kind of fascist group the Swastika Council is, thanks to the fact that their sole appearance concerns the fact that David Merrywether, aka the Cat-Man, is about to expose their membership to the papers and their efforts to prevent him from doing that. My money's on them being some sort of fifth columnists. (Cat-Man Comics 004, 1941)

Categorized in: Crime as Theme (Naziism), Generica (Councils)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 034

Since we're currently reading Whiz Comics for 1941, it's time yet again for another load of unscrupulous people to get their hands on the Ibistick and then kill themselves with it. And here they are:

the Widow Zorn:

Ibis lends the Ibistick to old Professor Grubb  for scientific study after Grubb finds it outside of an exploded building and uses its magic to restore the building and everyone inside - which included both Ibis and Taia, along with their their young ward Tommy - to wholeness and life. This isn't a bad idea per se, as Grubb is an honest man, but he is also in love with the scheming Widow Zorn, who vamps it away from him in about two seconds flat.

Zorn's main interest is in conjuring up hunks to fight for her attention, so the damage potential in her having the Ibistick is a bit lower than some (although she does vaporize poor old Prof Grubb when he kicks off about it). She does of course try to kill Ibis with his own wand and ends up on the Moon for her trouble, but fortunately for her the reconstituted Grubb advocates for not letting her explode or whatever and she ends up falling for him after all. (Whiz Comics 012, 1941)

Trug: 

Trug gets his own super-villain entry, the jerk. 

the Chief: 

The Chief isn't a villainous figure per se, but his role in the comic is close enough that I'll say that he counts. The leader of an Inuit group subjugated by Trug, the Chief recovers the Ibistick after Trug loses it in a magical air raid and turns the tables on the villain by imprisoning him in his own palace.

The Chief lives through the process of confronting Ibis by simply being a fair fighter and not deigning to use magic where fists will suffice. Fair-ish, at least - he is nine or ten feet tall at the time. Still, Ibis manages to win their fight and reclaims his wand. The Chief and his people are returned to their original sizes (as the latter had been shrunk by Trug to ensure obedience) and get to keep Trug's palace to boot. (Whiz Comics 014, 1941)

A Spider: 

When Ibis and Taia leave the Chief and his people they are given a stone as a gift, and after having it appraised and finding out that it is an enormous and valuable ruby Ibis decides to give it back. Rimson, the appraiser, objects to this and attempts to claim the ruby for himself, and to that end he shoots out the couple's car tire, causing them to crash into a gorge.

Ibis and Taia survive thanks to the magic of the Ibistick, but the wand is dropped in the shuffle and chanced upon by a colourful and anatomically dubious spider that manages to envision its desires well enough to become both enormous and intelligent. 

The arch-cad Rimson soon falls to the spider's fangs, and Ibis is forced to battle it lest he and Taia likewise be eaten. He manages to mortally wound it with an improvised spear and then it finishes itself off by wishing for Ibis to fade to nothingness. It's a sad end for what I reckon might be our very first animal villain. (Whiz Comics 015, 1941)

Mudge: 

Mudge was already wanted for murder, minus a soul thanks to a deal with Satan (actually the villain Trug in disguise - not sure if that affects the validity of the soul sale) and afflicted with a donkeys ears thanks to Ibis when he acquires the Ibistick after it has been dropped in a a struggle. If any villain could use a break like this it's him, but he immediately screws up his chance by trying to afflict Ibis with chains. (Whiz Comics 020, 1941)

Unnamed Fascist:

This unnamed officer in the army of the War Lord not only speed-runs the process of reckless Ibistick use leading to disaster but manages to take down an entire invasion force with him thanks to his grandstanding, as he tries to wipe out Ibis and the entire army he's with all in one go.

Please also note Ibis foe Half-Man in the above panels, who is remarkable for being the only villain to date to avoid this kind of thing by not using the Ibistick at all. Presumably he is wise enough to keep tabs on how other villains have met their downfalls. (Whiz Comics 024, 1941) 

DIVINE ROUND-UP 026

I've finally caught up on my god backlog so these are all piping fresh deities for you to peruse.

Itzalotahui:

On an expedition to Guatemala to locate their missing friend John Malcolm, Billy Batson and Whitey Murphy make camp in the lost temple of the monkey god Itzalotahui and are awoken from their slumber by the god himself, flaming and steaming and flailing about.

After an initial panic and an in-retrospect-embarassing fistfight, Captain Marvel discovers the truth: Itzalotahui is not alive but is in fact a cunningly-designed ball and socket arrangement in which the lower torso/socket is connected to a natural gas source and periodically ignites and wiggles around thanks to gas pressure.

This issue is real study in contrasts: though the name of the fictional god is literally It's a Lot of Hooey (in keeping with 1940s contempt for non-Christian or Classical religion), Captain Marvel actually seems to respect the cultural value of the site rather than just smashing it up like so many characters might. Meanwhile, the presence of natural gas means the probability of oil as well, but both Malcolm and Marvel advocate for leaving the area free from the hell of oil extraction, even if they do so in the most patronizing/patriarchal language possible.

God Style: Idol (Whiz Comics 022, 1941) 

the Angry God: 

The Angry God, aka the Dark Spirit, is a near-forgotten entity whose last remaining priest has thrown in with the villain Half-Man and his Hitler stand-in boss the War Lord to lend mystical power to the armies of the Axis forces. The Angry God requires not just human sacrifice but the sacrifice of "great men," which might go some way toward explaining his low levels of worshipper-retention. Please also note the fun imp-swarm that seems to accompany the worship of this particular god - they must be very distracting. 

The Angry God's status as a real entity and current diminished circumstances are both illustrated in the fact that it animates its idol in an attempt Ibis the Invincible from killing its priest and then itself falls dead once it is deprived of that one last worshipper.

God Style: Real (Whiz Comics 023, 1941)

Balka: 

Balka is the guardian tiger spirit of the ruling line of the Asian country of Balkania, and whether the country was named after the tiger or vice versa is left unexplored in-text. What is made clear is that the old legends about the statue of Balka coming to life to avenge the death of murdered Balkanian monarch are absolutely true, as experienced by regicidal dictator and fashion maven Carnov after he kills good King Banok.

Alas, Carnov is not torn asunder by Balka but spared by rightful heir Kelo (aka the Jungle Prince) so that he can face more conventional justice. Balka then returns to statue form to await the next threat to Balkania. (The Arrow 003, 1941) 

Quetzalcoatl: 

Jungleman and his lover Louise Carson stumble upon a hidden Aztec city while searching for Louise's father. Jungleman is briefly worshipped as Quetzalcoatl as per the legend about Hernán Cortés, while Louise is slated for sacrifice by a jealous high priestess. They manage to extract themselves from this situation with minimal fuss, for a 1940s adventure comic, and even find Louise's father just kind of hanging around the temple on their way out. (Champion Comics 012, 1941)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 033

Just another buncha jerks.

John Elton: 

This fellow brings us right back to the roots of the Generic Costumed Villain Round-Up, being a businessman who puts on a mask to run a gang and kill off the other officers of his company so that he can buy up all their shares and make a fortune. Plus, his name is John Elton, which doesn't mean anything but is still a fun coincidence. Dan Dare gets 'im. (Whiz Comics 016, 1941)

the War Lord:

Like the War Maniac before him, the War Lord is a generic and unseen stand-in for Adolf Hitler with a good enough villain name that I had to highlight it. A whole passel of his agents feature in the story in which Smasher Spy goes back to being Spy Smasher and get beaten up by Spy Smasher, Smasher Spy and Captain Marvel. 

It's not particularly germane to anything but this panel of Spy Smasher flying out a window into the arms of the War Lord's agents after almost being blown up looks very nice and I had nowhere else to use it. (Whiz Comics 018, 1941)

The War Lord returns to vex Spy Smasher in Whiz Comics 019, in a rare return appearance for a generic Axis dictator. In fact, he is also the power behind the fascist group the Blitzys and Ibis the Invincible foe Half-Man as well - he's one of the most prolific Hitler stand-ins of the Golden Age!

The War Lord finally shows up in person in Whiz Comics 024 and while he is clearly just a straight-up stand-in for Hitler his main character trait seems to be in expressing himself like a disappointed father. He sticks around just long enough to instill a deep sense of despair in the Half-Man, leaving him vulnerable to being turned to the side of good by a bit of kindness from Ibis the Invincible. Once again being a bad boss fails to pay off!

Puni, God of Fire: 

The above text box precedes the Lance O'Casey story in Whiz Comics 018 and let me tell you: none of that stuff happened in the prior issue. We are very much dropped in media res on the tropical Antarctic island populated by cannibals and also lost explorer Hiram T. Wallis - I don't know if this is some remnant of a never-published story or just an attempt to shake things up again (EDIT: it happens, in fact, in Whiz Comics 019. The two-part story was just published in the wrong order).

Lance and his ever-expanding supporting cast (including Hiram T. Wells, old-timey pirate Dan'l Doom and not one but two monkey sidekicks) are venturing into a volcano to get some gold that Wells had found there when they are confronted and menaced by the self-proclaimed Puni, God of Fire, who is in actuality Marino, a sailor shipwrecked at the same time as Wells and presumably driven insane by ten years of living in a volcanic cave. Puni/Marino never manages to get very close to killing the party but he does try in his way, and by gar can he belt out a villainous pronouncement.

Everything ends up okay, as Marino has the kind of insanity that can be cured via a solid smack to the jaw and a dunk in the ocean. 

This adventure also features a giant treasure-guarding parrot, just one of the many cool creatures that do their best to convince me to add the truly life-ending task of chronicling all comic book monsters to my already overloaded to-do pile. (Whiz Comics 018, 1941)

Herculo Svenson: 

This is Herculo Svenson, pirate, Doctor Voodoo antagonist for several issues and man in the running for best name in comics certainly for 1941 and possibly for all time. He kills a whole valley full of giants, kidnaps their regular-sized queen and makes off with magical McGuffin the Golden Flask before eventually getting killed by bigger villain Black Marco. (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)