PROBLEMATIC ROUND-UP 005

Some day we will hit Peak Problematic and I can't decide if it will be soon or in a decade or so. 

the White Leader: 

Our last Problematic Round-Up featured a lot of white guys dressing up like Yellow Peril villains in order to lead Chinese gangs, something that we will unfortunately be seeing plenty more of. This here fellow follows a different path: not putting on yellowface in order to lead a Chinese gang and in fact leaning hard the other way by having them call him "the Great White Leader" or just "the White Leader" the whole time. Is this technically better? I suppose it is. Is it not by much? Certainly!

Anyway, the White Leader is really wealthy playboy Anthony Clare, who turns out to be wealthy because he is a drug kingpin. Until he gets pinched by Detective Sergeant Burke, of course. (Startling Comics 001, 1940) 

the Voa:

Roger Barrow and his nephew Phillip Acton have just returned from a diamond-buying trip to Africa, and they must have been on their best behaviour because the local inhabitants of wherever they were doing their business sent them home with what is essentially a curse on their heads: the promise that the death-god Voa will follow them back.

This is of course a classic setup for a Woman in Red whodunnit mystery, with one of the six possible suspects bumping off the rest for those sweet, sweet diamonds. It's a classic solution to such a problem!

To give this comic the tiniest amount of benefit of the doubt I think that the false Voa that shows up to start killing people (aka Phillip Acton, the nephew) is dressed up like some sort of mahogany idol, but what that all adds up to is that while he is not technically doing blackface, he certainly appears to be doing blackface. It's not better, I'll say that right now.

Anyway, he was going to murder his whole family in order to get his hands on some stupid diamonds, so it's not like we were under the impression that he was a good person. About the only fun thing about this one is that Acton's chosen weapon is a blowgun that shoots poisoned crystal shards. (Thrilling Comics 005, 1940)

Princess Ah-Ku:

Princess Ah-Ku is a recurring villain of Bob Phantom's and she's just kind of generic: generically villainous, generically Yellow Peril... she even adopts an extremely generic alter ego called the Master in her first appearance. Most of her schemes involve smuggling. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)

Princess Ah-Ku returns in Top-Notch Comics 005 under yet another identity, as the Doctor, leader of a gang of kidnappers. As always, the surgical outfit-as-costume is a very strong look, though something about the reveal of Ah-Ku as the real identity of the Doctor makes me think that this was a last-minute change to spice up the adventure a bit.

Top-Notch Comics 006 involves Ah-Ku doing some opium smuggling, with a sideline in trying to figure out who Bob Phantom is so that she can kill him off. This allows for the hilarious old bit where she captures Walt Whitney in order to grill him for information on his own alter ego.

In her final appearance in Top-Notch Comics 009, Princess Ah-Ku attempts to take over Chinatown by killing off the Council of Seven who apparently have been running it. She manages to get it down to a Council of Four before Bob Phantom catches wise and steps in.

Princess Ah-Ku is finally brought to justice thanks to Bob Phantom's unexpected skill with the throwing axe. Perhaps it's for the best - at the rate her Yellow Peril levels were rising, the next time we saw Ah-Ku she might have sported a fu manchu.

the Brahmins: 

Kardak the Mystic and his gal-pal Lorna are just kind of wandering around the Louisiana bayous when they stumble across a Siva-worshipping cult of fanatics in a weird mystical pocket dimension. They foil the Brahmins' initial attempts to destroy human civilization (and acquire a new companion named Balthar in the process) and then spend the remainder of 1940 on a voyage through various other magical lands on the way to confront the Brahmins' masters, conveniently named the Master Brahmins. Look out for them in a 1941 edition of this very Round-Up. (Top-Notch Comics 006, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 831: THE BLACK DEATH

(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940)

Perry Knight has a problem: instead of starring as the titular costumed antagonist of stage production "The Black Death" he has been jailed for murder. He can't remember doing it, but evidently he gunned down his costar Tinker in cold blood during the dress rehearsal.

Enter Peggy Allen, the Woman in Red, who quickly discovers that there is a second Black Death running around when they have a confrontation in the wings. Is this a foolish move on the part of the second Black Death, who presumably wants Perry Knight to be the sole suspect in the murder? Absolutely it is.

Peggy manages to get Knight bailed out to continue the role of the Black Death as bait for the real killer, and indeed the false Black Death attempts to murder Tinker's replacement at the same point in the show as before. The Woman in Red of course manages to prevent this second murder, and after some running around etc the Black Death is unmasked to reveal... Weber, the theatre owner!

It turns out that Weber is in love with lead actress Linda Lytell and that this murder/framing/attempted murder/kidnapping (he kidnaps Lytell before the second murder attempt) is all part of an effort to get him out of the way so that Weber can woo her. A foolish plan, and not just because Weber does not appear to have shared his feelings with Lytell at any point, but because literally the first thing that happens in the story is Lytell rejecting Knight, something that Weber might have learned if he had engaged in some conventional human conversation and courtship before jumping straight to adopting a costumed persona.

Also, the critics hate the play.

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 024

None of these guys are ever going to be in a movie. 

It's been a while since we've seen any masked cowboys, so here's a particularly well-dressed bunch about to have a scrap with the Rio Kid. He doesn't get the upper hand in this particular encounter, but by gum he eventually brings rancher John Wendel and his whole gang of rustlers to justice. (Thrilling Comics 002, 1940)

Likewise, it's been a while since we've seen a masked Nazi spy, and even though we only get one panel of X-5 aka Captain Clarke here, he fits the bill as he arranges to frame Tom Niles, the Undersea Raider, for espionage. (Thrilling Comics 006, 1940) 

This completely unnamed masked killer is actually Violet Parsons, who has an especially poor reaction to being cut out of her father's will: she murders her brothers Frank and Henry and tries to pin the killings on her insane brother Robert. She is ultimately undone by the fact that a person, even one who has had a nervous breakdown, won't automatically turn into a ravening beast man if you lock them in a room until they grow a long beard. The Woman in Red triumphs once more. (Thrilling Comics 008, 1940)

Someone has been murdering everyone who stays in the De Luxe Suite of the Hotel Metropolis, and the Woman in Red is on the case. The murderer turns out to be Mr Bascom, the hotel manager who used to be the hotel's owner, who couldn't stand to see the hotel's new owner make a success out of a business he failed at. He only shows up in this mask for a few panels, but I would like to point out it's unusual length, required so as to cover up Bascom's mustache. (Thrilling Comics 009, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 828: THE BLACK TERROR

(Thrilling Comics 006, 1940)

The Central Art Museum has a problem: a cloaked figure who creeps through the halls at night, murdering the guards and making off with their bodies. To make things worse, the investigation is being led by the boorish Inspector Cavanaugh, the Woman in Red's new and very annoying comic foil, who I regret to inform you is a permanent addition to her cast.

But speaking of the Woman in Red, she is also on the case. As Peggy Allen, she works as secretary to the museum director Dr Grier while patrolling the museum at night in her costumed identity... while Cavanaugh gets in the way to the extent that he prevents her from saving the Black Terror's second victim. 

It's not a particular surprise when the Black Terror turns out to be the assistant museum director, Mr Tyler, as the story has only two real suspects, him and Dr Grier. Tyler turns out to have adopted the Black Terror persona in order to cover for some jewel thefts that nobody had actually cottoned on to yet - I can only conclude that he had the (fairly elaborate) costume ready to go and was just looking for an excuse, because this is definitely the kind of crime that isn't helped by a series of high-profile murders.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 824: THE SPIRIT KILLER

(Thrilling Comics 004, 1940) 

Things get hairy when businessman Ogden Phillips invites a selection of acquaintances to his country home for a seance, only to immediately be kidnapped by a terrifyingly earless phantasm once the lights go out. Bad news for Phillips (victim) and his guests (suspects) and even Police Inspector Dougherty (keeps getting bonked on the head), but great for me because these early Woman in Red comics are structured like whodunnit mysteries (which I love) but the first couple were a bit shy on suspects and thus fell a bit short of the mark.

Our suspect list is shortened slightly by the murder of Phillips' former fiance Gladys Arnold, followed by the kidnapping of guest Myra Loomis. At this point the only party guests left walking around are Messrs. Breen and Caswell.

The Woman in Red is also present, of course, having been sent in under cover as Peggy Allen. And for a change of pace, this time she's not a nurse but a maid! 

The Woman in Red of course ultimately triumphs, despite briefly being captured and held in the secret tunnels that run throughout the estate, and reveals that the Spirit Killer is actually... Ogden Phillips! It turns out that he had fallen in love with Myra Loomis and that they had planned to take the ransom money and run away together. This is a wild plan, but even assuming that it is the only way for them to get the money (house already mortgaged, bank account near empty, etc) the fact that Phillips is so quick to murder and attempt to murder is such an unnecessary escalation - Gladys Arnold is killed because she knows about the romance between Phillips and Loomis and thus might put two and two together, but a simpler solution would have been to not invite her to the kidnapping - really cratered his chances of getting away with it.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 822: THE TERROR

(Thrilling Comics 003, 1940) 

The Valery family have a problem: they are set to inherit a fortune from their deceased relative John Valery, but on the condition that they all live in the family estate, Valery Grange, for a full year, and danged if a mysterious character called the Terror hasn't started bumping them off just as they were about to complete the terms of John's will. Enter undercover police officer Peggy Allen, aka the Woman in Red, once again posing as a nurse. 

Please note the final panel above in which the Terror appears on-panel with almost every remaining Valery, thus removing them from the suspect list. It's a dirty thing to do to me, a person who like to try to solve a whodunnit.

One of the few viable suspects, assuming that the Terror isn't in cahoots with one of the Valerys, is the disappeared Horace Valery, but the Woman in Red finds his skeleton after chasing the Terror from the scene of the murder of Elton Valery into the unexplored depths of Valery Grange.

The Woman in Red reveals her identity to Eleanor Valery (terrible infosec) and sets a trap that nets her one (1) the Terror, and wouldn't you know it, he turns out to be Greeley Butler the family lawyer, who has been fiddling the Valery books to his own benefit and was killing off the family (extremely major crime) to cover for his embezzlement (not that bad, crime-wise). But where would mystery stories be if people didn't see murder as a handy solution for their problems all the time, hey?

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 820: THE MYSTERY MAN

(Thrilling Comics 002, 1940) 

Metropolitan Hospital* is in trouble! A mysterious masked figure dubbed the Mystery Man** has been conducting a campaign of terror against the august institution that includes both seemingly random and seemingly targeted murders, the installation of a gang boss and his henchmen in one of the wards, and the theft of $100 000 worth of radium! It's the perfect case for the Woman in Red to make her debut, as undercover police officer Peggy Allen is sent to the hospital as a nurse.

* I was prepared to do my usual song and dance about how this comic was probably set in NYC but that there was no way to really be sure, but danged if I didn't check and to my surprise there seems to be exactly one Metropolitan Hospital in the world. 

** And speaking of rare names, I was certain that we already had a Mystery Man on the books and that there would be all kinds of one shot Mystery Men in comics, like how there are dozens of guys named the Mask and the Masked Man and the Hood, but all we have now is Zoro the Mystery Man and all I can find otherwise is the time that Commissioner Gordon dressed up like a super-hero and called himself Mysteryman. Colour me surprised.

The Mystery Man is ultimately undone by his radium-thieving ways, as the Woman in Red is able to track it down with a radiation detector and pull the old "coat the loot in a florescent chemical gag" to expose the person who had been handling it (the fact that she was initially able to find it by feeling "an odd burning sensation" through both its container and a reasonably thick wall may be a bad sign for everyone involved, however).

The Mystery Man turns out to be Dr Billings, the Assistant Superintendent of the hospital, and all this murder and mayhem was just a very extreme attempt to get a promotion. This kind of works, because he kills Hospital Superintendent Thorndyke about halfway through the story, but he doesn't manage to stick the landing and dies in a fiery car wreck while fleeing the scene.