ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 014

We've hit a rich seam of aliums this month.

Mermaid/ Reptile-Men:

This city of Reptile-Men is ruled over by a Mermaid queen, and I am forced to contemplate, and not for the first time, whether this is an instance of a member or group of one species ruling over another or if it's one of extreme sexual dimorphism. Whichever one it is, I do appreciate that the Reptile-Men have that really goofy wide stance going on with their lizard legs. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)

Monkey Men: 

Also known as the Cannibalistic Monkey Men, these beefy lads vex one of those hidden Ancient Roman colonies that are all over Africa and the Middle East by demanding tribute of human flesh. They eventually meet their match and are seemingly wiped out entirely when they try to eat Kaänga and his new pal "Red" Longjohn. (Jungle Comics 007, 1940)

Capris-Men:

Earth is in need of radium, the only cure to a deadly plague that is ravaging the population, and so an expedition headed by Rex Dexter of Mars sets out to get some from the nearly 100% pitchblende planet Capris (okay, so it's called a planet throughout the story but it's got to be a dwarf planet or an asteroid or something based on travel timelines alone). The fantastic-looking native Capris-Men, aka the Capris Monsters, don't take to kindly to this and mount an attack on the expedition, which leads the expedition to leave early, meaning that they don't get enough radium to treat everyone.

The obvious solution to this problem is, of course, to tow the entire planet(oid) into orbit around Earth, so that the healing power of ionizing radiation can eternally shine down on its inhabitants and make them the healthiest people in the universe. No word on what the Capris-Men thought about this development. (Mystery-Men Comics 002, 1939)

the Cave Men and the Lizard Men:

The Cave Men are basically just some extra hairy guys who live in a cave system called the Underground Empire beneath Rhodesia/modern day Zimbabwe. They are possibly immortal and are ruled by a white lady named Aldia, who is - the question is whether she bothered to share the secret of the Immortal Flame with her subjects.

The thing that really sets the Cave Men apart is the quality of their enemies, the Lizard Men. Sure, they're just a mindless horde of inhuman monsters who exist only to be righteously slaughtered by the heroic Lance Hale, but just look at their majestic fins! (Silver Streak Comics 004, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 703: THE GREAT INTELLIGENCE

(Planet Comics 004, 1940)

Flint Baker and co are making their return trip from Mars and due to an unscheduled diversion to Pluto in Planet Comics 003 they end up passing Jupiter on the way, at which point they are forced to make landfall to avoid an attack by outer space organisms referred to as "stratosphere serpents" despite being more like starfish crossed with octopuses. While there, Flint and gal pal Mimi Wilson do a bit of exploring and discover the city of Zu, inhabited by a wretched mass of oppressed Jovians and ruled over by the Great Intelligence.

The Great Intelligence is... probably a rogue AI of some description? It watches over the city via the Great Eye, listens with the Great Ear and issues orders with the Great Mouth. It also has flamethrowing capacity. (the reason I hesitate to conclusively say that the Intelligence is a machine is what the Jovian says in the first panel to feature the Great Eye: "our master has lost all human identity." This could easily be interpreted as a bit of flowery language to describe the declining relationship between the city's inhabitants and the machines that run it, but how weird and cool would it be if the whole operation was wired into some wizened cyborg in the middle of everything? And as the comic does not bother to resolve the question it could be either, though given the roasting of that poor old man we can at least confirm a distinct lack of humanity)

Baker manages to fry the Great Eye with his ray gun, upon which we meet the final piece of the city gestalt: its Will, embodied as a bunch of beefy cyborgs.

For fomenting discord in Zu, Flint and Mimi are  sentenced to death via being ground up and fed to the Great Mouth (and this unusually grotesque method of execution did contribute to my theories about the Intelligence having an at least partially organic makeup, thanks for noticing)! Lucky for them, then, that Mimi stumbles upon the Will's one weakness: a thin exposed wire at the back of their necks. They escape their fate in the grinder, destroy the Great Ear and Great Mouth, and evacuate the surviving citizens of Zu back to Earth with them. 

But what of the Great Intelligence itself? Certainly all of its external organs are gone, but the mind itself... who knows?

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 464: THE ELEMENTAL

(Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940)

The Elemental! An extradimensional intruder who insinuates itself into the unspecified future world of hero the Magician from Mars via the music of unwitting dupe Bill Wend. Is this a future with wildly relaxed standards for professional music performance or has the musical director of Concert Hall also being influenced by the Elemental? This question will go unanswered, alas.

Having achieved its goal of entering our reality, the Elemental feeds not only on the crowd's fear but the crowd itself - I think. Though the extremely florid writing of this panel is wonderful, it's not too clear if "feeding on human energy" is meant to be literal or not. It does literally eat large portions of the crowd, so either way it is feeding on them.

Earth's  armies prove useless against the Elemental, so the Magician from Mars is forced to step in in a kicky new costume.

This fight between a giant lady and a giant green guy is absolutely the highlight of the story. Both are so powerful that they almost pull a Superman/ Doomsday and battle to the death, but though they are both still alive at the end they are severely weakened. The Elemental disappears while the Magician from Mars is lauded as a hero.

Eventually, the Magician follows a string of mass kidnappings and discovers a man identified only as the Mad Professor has been capturing people and feeding them to the Elemental in exchange for future consideration when further elementals are summoned to conquer the planet. Seemingly following a hunch, the Magician sings "one of the most beautiful songs in the world" and discovers that, yes, what was summoned via music can be banished in the same way. The Mad Professor she merely collapses a wall on.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 284: KAI-MAK, THE SHARK-GOD

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941)

Kai-Mak here (AKA God of Sharks, Lord of Sharks, Lord of the Deep, Master of the Deep, the Man-Shark) is one of my very favourite things in comics: a weird monster pretending to be a god in order to score power or riches or, as in this case, snacks.

I'm so fond of this trope, in fact, that I have to make sure to frontload the acknowledgement that it is predicated on the idea that a lot of the varied people in the world are credulous primitive savages with no critical thinking skills or I'll focus too much on the monster and gloss over the racism. Someday we'll get to M'nagalah the Cancer God, who at least has the decency to manifest in small mining towns and suburbs.

That having been said, we must acknowledge how great both Kai-Mak and his high priest look. Jack Kirby's finest shark-based work, I reckon. Just look at his nose and his greasy hair!

The Vision shouts a bunch of guesses at what Kai-Mak is that are neither confirmed or denied - he could be right and Kai-Mak could be the last remnant of a race of sharkfolk, sure. He could also be a mutant, an Inhuman, a Deviant, some sort of alien or science experiment or heck, a demi-god spawned by Poseidon in a moment of weakness. Rather than spell out his origin, Kai-Mak opts for a no-holds-barred underwater deathmatch.

After a cool battle under the waves, Kai-Mak is killed and both his worshippers and a selection of human sacrifices are free to go.

Now, if there's one thing that any super-hero universe is simply crawling with, it's humanoid sharks. On a strict market saturation metric there's no logical reason to campaign for the return of Kai-Mak. Too bad for Adam Smith that I think the free market sucks eggs: BRING BACK the Shark-God! There's always room for another giant shark-man! Particularly one who's been nursing his wounds at the bottom of the ocean for 80 years and is after a new community to subjugate. Have him pop up in New England, Deep One style! The old fish-for-sacrifice trade! It literally can't go wrong!