MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 968: THE BLACK RIDER

(Fantastic Comics 018, 1941)

The Black Rider is a ruthless bandit chief who has not only terrorized the countryside but has had the audacity to kidnap Bill Carrol, Captain Kidd's best friend, an unforgivable sin.

While the Black Rider & Co. might look like they are straight out of a comic set in the American West, Captain Kidd's 1941 adventures have taken place exclusively in Africa, and given the mention of a city called Tanga above, I think that we can pretty confidently place this comic somewhere in present-day Tanzania, in the part that was then Tanganyika (yes, okay, there's also a couple of Tangas in Burkina Faso. I just don't think that they're the right ones, okay?).

Though the Black Rider manages to overpower Captain Kidd and stick him in a booby-trapped airplane during their first encounter this is absolutely not enough to dissuade even novice two-fisted adventurer, let alone a grizzled veteran like Kidd. Kidd's return gambit is to storm the Black Rider's HQ and machine gun the entire gang.

The entire gang bar the Black Rider, that is, because it's time for the dramatic revelation that the Black Rider is... A LADY???!!! Specifically, she is the daughter of the original Black Rider, out for revenge since he was killed by vigilantes but now on her way to a British colonial jail and/or execution. Please note that the Black Rider pulls the old "roughly the same size as an adventure hero until unmasked" trick, going from a burly six foot to a slender 5'6" in about one panel.

Categorized in: Colours (Black), Generica (Riders), Origin (Cross-Dressing Characters, Legacy Characters)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 025

Buncha rude crude dudes for ya. 

The Rio Kid is after another gang of masked bandits, and this time they're in league with a crooked sheriff and led by a corrupt political boss aptly named the Boss. Nothing really remarkable here but I do dig the Boss' hat. (Thrilling Comics 010, 1940)

Jose Gonzales, star football player for Sornora University of Mexico, is visiting Carson University with two aims in mind: hit the ol' gridiron and slap on a mask and steal a newly developed super-explosive for his father, a fascist politician back home. Star Carson U quarterback Dan Duffy foils his hopes on both counts. (Thrilling Comics 011, 1940)

Sneaky, a "notorious" gangster with poor dentition, is featured in the teaser panel at the end of the Firefly story in Top-Notch Comics 009, with the implication that he is going to be a real thorn in the Firefly's side in issue 010. How disappointing, then, to find that he is a mere flunky working for the murderous scientist Henry Falcon. (Top-Notch Comics 010, 1940)

Though the "Danny Dash" feature only lasted two issues, it's pretty clear that creator Erwin L Hess had a lot of medium-to-long-range plans for the story. In the first instalment, Danny and his pal Shamrock "Mac" McGlynn (!!) have a run-in with the the Grey Hordes from the Center of the Earth who have been bombing London for unclear reasons, while the second sets up Charon, an escaped handsome madman who has been roaming Paris murdering people in the belief that he is actually the ferryman of the Styx, ushering souls into the afterlife.

Charon's latest victim is the future brother-in-law of Dash's friend Georges Barnett, and the never-seen third Danny Dash adventure would have involved them searching for Charon and, if I'm any judge of Golden Age plots, finding a connection between him and the Grey Horde. Alas, it's just another thing we will likely never know. (War Comics 002, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 832: SIR GILBERT, THE SUN KNIGHT

(Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)

Sir Gilbert is the evil knight who Galahad sets out to vanquish on his first official Knights of the Round Table mission. He's got all the requisite qualities of an evil Arthurian knight: a cool name, a rakish attitude toward kidnapping and menacing women, and designs on the lands near his castle. And like most if not all non-Mordred evil knights in comic book Arthuriana, he's a completely original character, which is always a bit confusing because there are ever so many villains and scumbags to choose from in the source material.

Canonicity aside, Sir Gilbert is a good first foe for any character. He's got a good name and a bit if a reputation, and he provides just enough challenge to be a credible threat before being defeated so thoroughly that he can be repurposed into an improvised missile.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 811: QUEEN RANA

(The Spirit Section, 14 July, 1940)

Queen Rana is the bearer of the Amulet of Ra, a mystic artifact that grants immortality and invulnerability to the one who wears it. Rana's one ambition in her immortal life is to have a "huge rock of gold" and to that end she has established herself as the ruler of a jungle tribe and turned them to banditry. Is this a good use of eternal life? No it is not. Is it likely to result in her getting a huge rock of gold? Almost certainly not. Is this the sort of ambition that, when achieved, is going to leave her feeling kind of hollow inside? Absolutely.

Mr Mystic, at the behest of the council of Lamas who empowered him, sets off into the jungle to put a stop to Queen Rana and to destroy the Amulet of Ra, and here is where I personally developed a deep affection for Rana as a villain, because she approaches being immortal, invulnerable and, it turns out, immune to Mr Mystic's magic as license to be just a complete roughneck brawler. She tackles Mystic and nearly cuts him in two while your typical comic book immortal would still be delivering their opening monologue about how lonely they get. It's frankly the sort of behaviour we should see more in the immortal community.

Unfortunately for me and my love of fun characters, the fact that Rana viewed immortality merely as an increased chance to get ahold of that big gold she coveted so much really did point to her being a dummy. Mr Mystic has basically no trouble at all in getting her to trade the Amulet of Ra for a big pile of gold that he, a man who she has seen create illusions mere minutes before has created out of thin air, and after that it's all over, as Queen Rana's two centuries of unaging catch up to her all at once. A sad end to a real scrapper of a character.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 806: THE SCOURGE

(The Funnies 050, 1940)

The Scourge is a bandit chief operating in the nonspecific Medieval-pastiche England of the Black Knight, and let me tell you, he is a terrific villain. His amazing look is one thing - just how many Golden Age villains have the confidence to use eye makeup to accentuate their air of menace? - but on top of that I have seldom seen a villain so eager and joyful to torture a peasant woman. Just an amazingly hateable guy, with a really top-notch crew of evil oafs to boot.

Though the poor woman's husband and sons set out to avenge her, they prove no match for the Scourge and his band of ruffians, and it falls to the Black Knight and a local hunk to get the job done. 

It does of course turn out that a good look and a bad attitude will only take you so far, particularly when your follow-up to a a successful heist is to get drunk in the woods for a week straight. The Black Knight and his unnamed and shirtless assistant make quick work of the lot of them once they are able to approach them on equal footing, and the Scourge meets his end by the Black Knight's Blade.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 659: THE MASKED ARROWS

(Jungle Comics 005, 1940)

As far as being minor super-villains goes, the Masked Arrows are all right: a group of cloaked bandits who manage to run circles around the local forces of law until they push their luck too far and are wiped out.

The far more interesting thing about the Masked Arrows is the fact that they appear in a story that highlights just how literal the title Jungle Comics is, that virtually all of the stories that appear within take place in an undifferentiated jungle setting that is probably meant to be in Africa but which freely incorporates elements from Southeast Asia such as tigers and Indian-style palaces. 

The Masked Arrows' foe is Captain Terry Thunder of the Congo Lancers, a unit of a French Foreign Legion style outfit that I wasted a fair amount of time trying to parse before I realized that "Congo" in this instance was nothing so crass as a geographic indicator but simply meant "jungle" again. To this end, though Fort Death, Thunder's command, is located in a Foreign Legion desert setting it is never more than a days ride from the deepest jungle (and indeed is sometimes in the deepest jungle) and is just as likely to be attacked by South American tribes as desert nomads. Similarly, the Masked Arrows are simultaneously desert and jungle bandits.Wild stuff.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 658: THE ANT WOMAN

(Jungle Comics 005, 1940) 

Conceptually, I love the Ant Woman, a ruthless bandit who lives in a giant anthill and sends swarms of venomous ants out to kill and loot for her. I particularly love her little ant tiara - is it the source of her preternatural ability to control the beasts? I cannot say for they did not go into that. 

(these pics are a bit more racist than I usually go for but they really front loaded it on this one. Just one of the reasons that jungle comics are inferior to other comic genres)

The Ant Woman makes a solid go of trying to dispose of the Red Panther but he ultimately gets the upper hand by the simple method of setting her anthills on fire and once again the old saying is proven true: you live by the swarm of venomous ants; you die by the swarm of venomous ants.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 656: CAMILLA, QUEEN OF THE LOST CITY

(Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

What's this? Another Camilla? Yes, for some reason, the story of the lost Norse city in the African jungle was retold one issue later as one of a lost Mongol city in the African jungle. The two Camillas look the same but where the original was 600 years old Camilla II seems to not be superannuated at all.

Camilla II is also far less classically villainous than her predecessor: sure she claims that her city has the power to wipe out Western civilization but there's no indication that she intends to do anything about it. Likewise, her people raid ivory caravans for trade capital but let's face it: robbing an ivory trader is at worst a morally neutral act. Hell, I'm surprised that this high-tech Mongol-descended people bother to pay for anything at all!

Captain John Stanley, technical protagonist of the story, doesn't see things like I do, probably because he is an ivory trader. He blows up Camilla II's entire city rather than be her consort, then has the gall to come on to her in the glow of her burning civilization. What a jerk.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 587: THE MASKED MEN

(Exciting Comics 003, 1940)

They may be an ordinary gang of Western Bandits but I can't help but be impressed by just how many of them there are. Every time Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield meets up with the Masked Men he blows at least a couple of them away yet there are always more available to help top man Bull Jeffrey loot the boom town of Concho. They must've been planning a 72-man split of the loot originally!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 577: THE BLACK LAMA

(Champion Comics 010, 1940)

It's a small consolation but this guy isn't actually a lama! Unlike the Mad Lama or the Four Lamas before him (and more than a few to come), this fellow is merely a bandit chief presumably called the Black Lama because he is Tibetan! It this better than a whole class of holy men being portrayed as evil scheming villains? A little! I also want to say that it's because his headquarters are a former lamasery but I don't know if I just made that up.

The Black Lama is the third antagonist of twelve faced by adventurers Dash Dolan and Nalya Randolph (aka the Golden Goddess) on their quest to reunite the twelve diamonds known as the Dragon's Teeth so that their patron Dr Ying can sell them and use the proceeds to defend China from a dastardly warlord. It's a very video game or 80s cartoon setup: the two are taking the gems to sell when they are waylaid by the warlord's soldiers and must use the Dragon's Teeth as a distraction to save their lives. Twelve soldiers then grab one gem each and immediately scurry off to sell them to seemingly the most evil man they could think of, because each one is in the hands of a grade-A creep - most of them just kill the soldiers rather than pay them!

The Black Lama is remarkable among this group mostly for his name - it's that extra 5% that elevates him from mere villain to minor super-villain. Also he captures Nalya and attempts to marry her against her will, a classic villain move if ever there was one.

The Lama has plans to dispose of Dash Dolan by dunking him into a cauldron of molten gold, This is a good and very gruesome deathtrap! It also should not surprise you to learn that the Black Lama himself meets his end in that very cauldron. You know what they say: you live by the cauldron of molten gold, you die by the cauldron of molten gold.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 570: OO-LHAT

(Champion Comics 003, 1940)

There's a lot to like about ol' Oo-Lhat. He appears in a gross-sounding mist after explorer Walt Worthington and his aide Snowball (did you know that there was a whole category of racist nicknames for African American characters that has largely been forgotten and that involves naming them after something very black or very white? Well now you do) discover a lost Egyptian tomb containing a blazing scarab (the gem cut, not the insect) that drew them into a pocket dimension when touched.

Oo-Lhat captures the duo and forces them to listen to his life story, employing a magical teevee called the Curtain of Ammon to do so.

A priest of Osiris at Karnak, Oo-Lhat gives it all up and switches allegiances to Set in order to obtain gold, power and the love of a beautiful woman.

This is where Oo-Lhat starts to make the transition from small-b to big-b Bad Guy. He makes his way to the Oasis of Memthet, where a cult had gathered to worship the same scarab encountered by Walt and pal. Oo-Lhat takes over by the simple expedient of murdering all of the other contenders.

Discovering the pocket dimension accessible through the scarab, Oo-Lhat moved his cult into it and had them build a city, from which they raided caravans under the somewhat grandiose name of the League of Assassins - pretty sure just jumping out of a portal and stabbing someone is just regular murder, bro.

The real appeal of the scarab dimension, though, was the fact that time essentially did not pass there and so the population was essentially immortal - even those killed by gross bodily trauma came back as weird ghosts. Possibly the best aspect of this is the fact that animals could not properly comprehend this state of being and so immediately died and came back, and as they presumably had an imperfect vision of themselves they came back wrong, leading to the city being full of weird lumpy camels.

The timelessness of the scarab world eventually backfires on Oo-Lhat and his followers when the temple is buried in a sandstorm, trapping them for thousands of years with nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs.

Oo-Lhat is all set to resume his ways as an "assassin" but his followers have other ideas. Presented with the choice of whether to leave or stay, every single one of them leaves. Including Oo-Lhat, after a little five-fingered persuasion from his lieutenant Kardak.

The explorers eventually follow (along with some babes they found and fell in love with) and discover the final fate of Oo-Lhat and the League of so-called Assassins: time spent in the pocket dimension, it turns out, was not avoided so much as deferred: Oo-Lhat, the League and even the babes were reduced to skeletons the instant they exited.