MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 778: THE SKYWAYMEN

(Super-Mystery Comics v1 004, 1940)

Over the course of the last few years I've really beefed up the amount of images and words I use to describe the minor super-villains I so love, but sometimes you gotta hearken back to the old ways:

When aviator Sky Smith heads to Alaska to help out his friend Tom Harris with a mysterious problem, he finds that a band of air pirates called the Skywaymen (fantastic name) led by a man named Rolf Calgar (better-than-average name) are trying to drive him off of his land so that they can use it as an air base. Smith proceeds to blow most of the Skywaymen to smithereens using their own deathtrap and delivers Calgar to the authorities before flying off to seek further adventure.

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 017

Buncha mooks this time.

The ship that picked up scientist-adventurer Dean Denton and his pals from the island of Baron Blood just so happened to have a pseudo-Nazi spy (fake name Lieutenant James, code name K-192, real name unknown) committing murders on it for unclear reasons. Despite composing a crime scene to contain nothing but clues pointing to other members of the crew Denton rounds him up pretty quickly. (Masked Marvel 003, 1940)

Pilot Prop Powers has to defend his ship and his cargo of gold bullion from this air pirate and his scurvy crew, and the story ends up glossing over his huge flying aerodrome a bit. Well, I think it's cool, unnamed air pirate captain. I'm sorry they blew it up. (National Comics 001, 1940)

Klotz, aka the Master Spy, has the distinction of being the first foe to battle the Shield. His greatest moment is pictured above, as the Shield is so absorbed in reading spy files that he doesn't notice approximately fifty boxes of TNT being piled up behind him. Klotz also returns in the 1984 series The Original Shield because there's nothing like battling an extremely old man to make for an exciting comic experience. (Pep Comics 001, 1940)

This bunch of clowns work for a mysterious figure who has been murdering Hollywood stars in connection with a jewel-smuggling ring. They're not in the story for very long before their employer murders them all with mustard gas - the henchman's greatest occupational hazard is, as always, the boss. Why do all these murders over some simple smuggled jewelry? Because the mastermind is Biff Crossley, himself a famous actor, and he wants nobody who can possibly tie him to the crime left alive, that's why. (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

THE SUPER-VILLAINS OF HOLLYWOOD PODCAST: The super-villainy might be a bit generic but this story is fodder for a whole season of tSVoHpod: Crossley murders two other stars (one of them inside Grauman's Chinese Theatre, using a bullet-firing compact) and tries to frame a third by pretending to be a target himself, he bumps off his own men, the Shield is there, and the whole thing ends with Crossley's defiant suicide. Sensational! This is podcasting, baby!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 651: THE RAIDERS

(Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)

The Raiders are a piratical group with a two-pronged approach to acquiring gold on the briny deep: 

1. learn of  gold shipments via a spy network operated by a member known only as "the Spy Chief"

2. employ the super-scientific creations of submarine captain Dirck to wreak havoc on gold bearing ships and then escape.

The whole thing is going swimmingly and even Rex Norton, the Black Arrow, is making very little headway against them until they make the mistake of trying to eliminate him using some of the Spy Chief's spies. Here's where the Raiders' fatal flaw comes in: no two of them can stand one another. In the course of their operation, spies Borgu and X-13 bicker hard enough to spill every vital secret that their organization has to Norton's hot little ears, and are distracted enough by infighting that he escapes and captures them without difficulty.

(X-13 seems to be coded as the Black Arrow's femme fatale/ friendly enemy and probably would have been a recurring antagonist if Rex Norton had ever reappeared)

The bickering extends all the way to the top, as the Spy Chief and Dirck the Inventor basically do Rex Norton's job for him in a mutual betrayal that he barely has to intervene in to take down the entire organization.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 468: THE GHOST

(Amazing-Man Comics 013, 1940)

In Amazing-Man Comics 010 Minimidget and Ritty accidentally get shot to the Belgian Congo on a guy's homemade rocket (as you do) and the subsequent issues have been a series of trials and tribulations as they make their way back home. The Ghost is another one of those, but a fun one - not racist at all, for one thing!

I may not have much regard for pilot-heroes but air pirates are another matter, and that's just what the Ghost is, complete with all the good good accessories: custom planes with little ghosts painted on them, a hidden airfield, costumed henchmen dressed in a less-cool version of his own costume, a bombastic attitude... he's the complete package for a one-off villain. The only sour note is his name - the Ghost is a perfectly fine name on its own but several people refer to him as a "sky way robber" and the Skyway Robber is a much better name for an air pirate.

(it's hard to tell with the state of search engines nowadays but it seems like "the Skyway Robber" has only been used as a name for a card in Magic: the Gathering. A shame!)

The Ghost dies somewhat ignominiously when his plane is tripped. That's life as a comic book villain, I guess.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 076: THE BLUE RAIDER

(Action Comics 027, 1940)

What makes them a super-villain? It's 100% the name plus the fact that "air pirate" along with "submarine pirate" and for that matter "regular pirate" are styles of crime that just reek of super-villainy for me.

What about them is interesting? Aside from the inherent romantic nature of the air pirate, the only real thing of note about the Blue Raider is that his plane is named Hank.