MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 948: DR HORROR

(Captain Battle Comics 002, 1941)

The Sisters of Fear, a trio of witches who either are the Three Witches of "Macbeth" fame or who take a lot of inspiration from them, have a new scheme: to create a horrible creature to spread death and destruction across the face of the Earth.

As part of the prep for this task they gather together all of their fiendish allies, the Demons of Land, Sea and Air, and I must commend them on being a diverse and fun-filled collection of grotesques

The Sisters do the "double double toil and trouble" routine - either in homage to the great witches of antiquity or as a callback to one of their own classic numbers, depending - and call Dr Horror into being. There are three things worth pointing out about this guy:

1. his pupils are little human skulls 

2. he's a dedicated nudist

3. somehow he is a doctor, despite a) having just been created and b) having an innate antipathy toward human society, the only place where being a doctor has any meaning. But perhaps that's the point - that he cares so little for the mores of humanity that he's going to adopt that title, our puny certification boards be damned

Dr Horror is a pretty straightforward guy: he hates humanity, he has all the terrible power of the elements at his command and thus he spends most of his time post-creation blasting humanity and its trappings to smithereens.

Dr Horror's depredations are unopposed by any hero. Instead, the forces of nature themselves rise up and destroy him by holding him in place with a whirlwind and then exploding a volcano under his feet. There's a strong implication that this is because Dr Horror is a being of darkness and evil and that the essence of nature is bright and good, which is all fine but I really resent the implication that the dinosaurs were also evil and that that is why nature destroyed them.

Dr Horror swears that he will return to avenge himself and the Sisters of Fear (also blown up), but he has not yet managed to do so.

Categorized in: Generica (Doctors), Murder (Attempted Destruction of Humanity), Origins (Magical Constructs) 

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Look out! It's the hordes of Hell!

Storm-Demon: 

Summoned by the evil magic-user Trug to destroy Ibis the Invincible and Taia, the Storm-Demon proves to be no match for the god Osiris, summoned by Ibis in self defense. Really appreciate the route one, "guy made out of storm clouds," aesthetic of this fellow. (Whiz Comics 016, 1941)

She-Devil:

Despite the failure of his first demonic minion, Trug employs this She-Devil to lay in wait for Ibis and Taia along the path to his lair. I sincerely hope that this actually is a demon and not just a magically disguised fist-fightin' lady hired by Trug to beat the tar out of them, because while Ibis is completely fooled by the "lady in distress" act, Taia is not so trusting and uses the Ibistick to light her up. (Whiz Comics 017, 1941)

Unnamed Demon: 

This unnamed demon, summoned by villainous magician the Half-Man as a weapon of mass destruction against his country's enemies, is a bit generic but not every demon needs to be a star. Much more interesting is the Ancient Egyptian-themed being summoned by Taia to counter it. Just what is his deal and where did he get that cool flail? (Whiz Comics 024, 1941)

Lucifer: 

Though this version of Lucifer buys souls, lives in a place alternately called "Hades" and "the Inferno" and is, you know, named Lucifer, the text consistently refers to him as a "genii" rather than a demon. Who knows why but it's a fact. 

Never seen, this Lucifer has already bought the Claw's soul at some point in the past and now lends him further power so that he can make one last attempt at destroying Daredevil. Why do this seemingly for free? Perhaps removing Daredevil from the playing field, rather than helping the Claw, is the goal. Or maybe Lucifer is just nice! 

The Claw does not in fact manage to defeat Daredevil and is thereafter confined to the continent of Asia for his failure. For, like, one issue. (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941) 

Lucifer's Minions: 

In addition to the draconic Guard of the Gate of the Inferno above, Lucifer supplies the Claw with a variety of demonic beings to help him in his quest. A brief rundown: 

Winged Beasts!

Poison-Fanged Eagle-Men! 

The Three-Headed Dragon! 

Gigantic Snakes! (these ones are my favourites)

And a general demonic rabble that includes a few of the types we saw before but more importantly that cool caveman-demon!

Ultimately, the forces of Hades prove no match for Daredevil and his boomerang. Most of them end up buried under an avalanche, and while my RPG-influenced mind assumes that that means that they are all then banished back to Hell it's entirely possible that they are just dead. (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

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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) 

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Look out! Its demons!

Lucifer: 

Dastardly voodoo man the Voodoo Man has this version of Lucifer possess a young woman for some dang reason. He's got a pretty good look with the sideburns and all, but is surprisingly easy to chase away with an anemically-presented crucifix. (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

the Unholy One: 

The Unholy One is an infernal servant of some kind who has been summoned as a sort of demonic search engine by the Green Sorceress. He appears in the early Simon & Kirby days of Blue Bolt, so he gets an appropriate level of gravitas and "this guy's face is too gross to show you" angles to render him nice and memorable. I like him! (Blue Bolt v1 005, 1940)

Unnamed Being: 

If I'm honest I must admit that I have no idea what this guy is. Heroic former uggo Sir Champion encounters him while searching an extradimensional dreamscape for his liege/lover Camilla after she is abducted to there by the wizard Thoth. He is generally helpful, but "capricious, horned extradimensional being" equals "demon" in my eyes. Plus he's nude! (Jungle Comics 011, 1940)

the Fire-Devil:

Perhaps you will recall our old friend the Witch-Master, lord of the witches of Salem. Well, he in turn serves this fellow, who is referred to as the Fire-Devil throughout the adventure due to the fact that he is summoned out of a bonfire. The various titles that the Witch-Master gives him - Great King of Evil, Great King of Inferno, etc - indicate that he is held in some esteem, but the fact that he can't endure the "level stare" of preteen Mark Kent does diminish this somewhat.

Also humiliating: the fact that a simple bucket of water is sufficient to banish him back to the underworld. (Slam-Bang Comics 005, 1940) 

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I think that demons and devils are the only category of comic book guy I don't have a running round-up for yet (and having said that I'm sure that there will be more), so here we go:

Satan: 

If we're going do do demons, why not start with the one with the most name recognition of all: Satan. As seen here he has been vexing jodhpured adventurer Tippy Taylor in the form of a mad scientist, only to be defeated when his own transformation of Taylor into a greasy-haired demon made him too powerful to handle. (The Arrow 002, 1940) 

Mephisto: 

Stuart Taylor and his pal Dr Hayward are up to their old time travelling tricks, and have stumbled across a wizened old alchemist named Scarpo who has made a deal with the demon Mephisto. Two notes about this exchange: 1. Scarpo is a very bad negotiator. Trading your soul for the secret of transmuting lead into gold is one thing, but then having to go kidnap a queen on top of that? Haggle a bit, bud. 2. Taylor and Hayward witness this demonic bargain and then just wait around for Scarpo to hobble off the Queen Lenore's castle, kidnap her and then hobble back before they get concerned enough to step in.

Once they do deign to get involved, the two time travellers are quite hands-on as demon battlers, and despite Mephisto's jacked bod he is ultimately unable to contend with an axe to the skull from Dr Hayward. (Jumbo Comics 012, 1940)

the Genii 

Genies occupy a weird cosmological space and maybe if they were more prevalent in comics I'd find a more nuanced way to categorize them - I reckon we'll just go on a case by case basis, and this here is a bad'un so he gets shelved with the demons.

Time traveller Stuart Taylor and his pal Dr Hayward have been sent back in time yet again, this time to Baghdad in the very-hard-to-specify period in which pastiche Arabian Nights stories are set. Because Taylor and Hayward are riding on a flying carpet when they enter the city, Stuart is acclaimed as the legendary Cloud Prince, come to claim his throne. This arouses the ire of previous claimant Jir Haffa, who summons the Genii from its fountain home to wreak vengeance on the interlopers.

There's nothing too special about this genie, though he does have a very pleasing pomposity to his speech. The real fun thing about him is that you can explode him with a camera snap because "the genii, being non-physical fails to make an image on the film." Fun! (Jumbo Comics 029, 1941) 

the Kings of Darkness:

By far the best thing about the Genii, however, is that he summons these fellows to deal with Stuart and Dr Hayward. Identical demonic swordsmen/kings? Named Ologa, Kahmo and Madru? And even if you defeat one, his body can be used as the material component to summon five more kings? Just excellent stuff all around. (Jumbo Comics 029, 1941)