DEMONIC ROUND-UP 003

Two shorts and two longs.

Bajah:

Minor Golden Age Marvel magician Dakor has to travel all the way to the fictional Indian kingdom of Nordu to rescue his friend's daughter from one of those cults where they worship a random blonde white lady (one of the more embarrassing stupid pulp fiction concepts to make the jump to comics, in my opinion). All that is to set up the fact that the devil figure in this cult is the oft-invoked, never-seen Bajah, as seen above. (Mystic Comics v1 003, 1940)

the Goat-Men: 

The Goat-Men are a class of demon who serve Lucifer, and specifically the Lucifer seen in the last Demonic round-up, because this particular one is summoned by the Voodoo Man, just as his boss had been.

The Goat-Men are fire demons, who can both breathe fire and create a ring of fire by walking in a circle around something or someone. Plus: the ring of fire gives you malaria. This is a pretty good collection of demonic powers, and while the part of me that writes about super-villains wants to say that they are insufficiently related to goats for my liking, anyone familiar with Medieval demonology will tell you that having a suite of abilities that are completely disconnected from both the demon's physical appearance and one another is very accurate.

Just like his boss, the Goat-Man proves to be intensely vulnerable to the sight of a cross, to the point of explosion. Just why hero Bob Warren had to light the cross he used on fire is perhaps best left unexplored. (Weird Comics 007, 1940)

Kor Deno: 

Kor Deno, a demon of some might, has been haunting the same family in... the rural United States? I'm pretty sure that's where Warlock the Wizard hangs out... for generations. Any female member of the family who marries will be widowed by the demon soon after and for the latest and perhaps last scion, Valya, the curse has grown in scope to the point that Kor Deno has carried off all of her friends and family. 

Warlock the Wizard is if nothing else a romantic, and so he challenges Kor Deno's might in order that Valya might wed or at least kiss her love, Jim. He scores an early victory by using the the Golden Hand of Abraxas to crush the demon's cool shadow form, but finds himself to have been overconfident, as both Jim and Valya are carried off to Kor Deno's Black Kingdom immediately after he leaves them to finally make out.

Kor Deno adopts the form of Simon the Hermit to lull Warlock into a false sense of security, but is unable to destroy him while he wields the Hand, and thus the Hand is what Kor Deno demands in exchange for Warlock's freedom.

Now armed with what he believes to be his enemy's greatest weapon, Kor Deno attempts to slay Warlock, only to himself be destroyed by the still-greater might of the Lamp of the Gods. Bad luck, Kor Deno. (Nickel Comics 002, 1940) 

Korieg the Sea Devil: 

Like Bajah, Korieg the Sea Devil is invoked as a force of evilby the practitioner of a made-up Mysterious Asian Religion, in this case that practised by the inhabitants of a lost kingdom somewhere near Malaysia. No word on any of Korieg's particulars, beyond the fact that they evidently float in water. (Action Comics v1 010, 1939) 

MINOR SUPER-HERO 017: WARLOCK THE WIZARD

(Nickel Comics 001-007, 1940)

Warlock the Wizard, in addition to having a name built to confuse someone familiar with modern D&D classes, is an interesting member of the Magic Guy type of Golden Age super-heroes, in that while he has some innate skill at magic he is much more of a magic item user than a lot of his contemporaries (and yes I am aware that this makes him closer to an Artificer than either a Warlock or a Wizard). This introduces a bit more uncertainty into a Warlock adventure as it is possible that he will be separated from his source of power, something that is quite a bit harder to do in a Zatara story, say

Warlock's tools of the trade (pictured above) are:

-Hugin the raven. Acts as a familiar, scout, fetcher-of-other-tools, messenger and occasional subject of transformation magic.

-the Hand of Abraxas. Speak the magic word (conveniently, it is Abraxas) and the hand detaches from the stick and grows huge. Acts as transport, muscle etc. Since we're already talking D&D, it's basically a wand of Bigby's Hand spells.

-the Lamp of the Gods. This is the big gun, which is why it only comes out occasionally and at the end of adventures. It seemingly offers consequence-free favours from the gods of assorted pantheons, including stuff like borrowing the Hammer of Thor to smite someone or petitioning Neptune for rain. 

One more thing that I appreciate about Warlock is the repeated insistence that most people fear and hate him - a somewhat unusual thing in 40s comics and so a refreshing one.

As always, my attitude about magic item-using characters is that they should be BROUGHT BACK, preferably as legacy characters. Picture this: some workaday schlub decides to befriend their neighbourhood crows ravens and it just so happens that one of them is Hugin and in return for a generous attitude toward sharing table scraps they get the Lamp of the Gods left on their front steps. Good stuff!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 119: THE TENAMENT FIREBUG

(Nickel Comics 003, 1940)

Spoilers for the end of this writeup: the Tenement Firebug is that most common of comic book villains, the property owner who burns down their own buildings for the insurance money and/or redevelopment. Ordinarily such a foe would be a regular guy with some hirelings and maybe a mask, but since he was set up as a foil to magic guy Warlock the Wizard the Tenament Firebug has been beefed up slightly.

First off is his pet lizard, which is a salamander. But! Not a real-world amphibian salamander, nor a modern fantasy style fire elemental - this one is the Medieval bestiary denizen that is immune to fire! A very exciting appearance of a discarded beast!

Secondly, the Firebug is both able to do comic book super-hypnotism and is adept enough at disguise that he manages to frame Warlock for the arsons. Again but!

He was wearing a rubberoid mask the whole time! Which means that he applied the Warlock disguise over his mask. Which is frankly much more responsible for my interest in and love of him as a villain than any old arson. Commitment to the bit is what I'd call it.