DIVINE ROUND-UP 022

Oh my gosh this place has so many god options.

the Sacred Leopard: 

The animal-worshipping tribe who all dress like the animal in question is a regular trope in jungle comics so of course Kalthar, lord of the jungle eventually encounters some of them. In this case it's Leopard Men from the Leopard Village, who dress in leopard skins and worship Karno, the leopard (Karno seems to be the collective singular noun for the leopard, a thing that happens a lot in jungle adventure books. I'm sure that it happens in real-world language as well, just as I'm sure that most of the examples in comics are just arbitrarily made up). The Leopard Men attack Kalthar and his people because they are being manipulated by a slaver who has a vendetta against them, and end up minus a lot of leopards for their trouble.

God Style: Animist (Zip Comics 005, 1940)

Roor the Octopus God: 

After former Zatara foe Setap achieves her goal of regaining her youth, she reforms and starts looking to reconnect with her Atlantean roots by the simplest way possible: enlisting Zatara's help in finding the sunken city of Atlantis.

Everything is going great - Setap is welcomed with open arms, she and Zatara are learning why Atlantis sank (hit by a lost second moon, natch), etc - when one of the sailors they brought with them starts trouble while stealing everything not nailed down, as so often happens when an ancient civilization is discovered by sea. Specifically, the sailor enters the temple of Roor, the Octopus God, within which the giant and insatiable immortal octopoid was not so much worshipped as imprisoned.

Roor is free to lay waste to Atlantis, and not even the power of Zatara can touch him. The Atlanteans are justifiably upset by this.

Thankfully, the one magic that Zatara has that can affect Roor is that of illusion, by which means he fools the ancient/powerful/gullible god into eating a whole heap of sponge and salt and then exploding himself by drinking more water than he can contain. Atlantis is saved!

God Style: Real (Action Comics v1 018, 1939) 

the Sacred Oak: 

One of the earliest DC books, New Comics (which eventually becomes New Adventure and then just Adventure Comics) had among its many features an adventure strip called 'Vikings' which was kind of slow and dour like a lot of early comics but did feature these doily-hatted Druids and their Sacred Oak that communicates to them via stiff breezes.

God Style: Animist (New Comics v1 010, 1936) 

Shin-Giva: 

Shin-Giva is the god of the Dwarf People of Matto Grosso in Brazil, and his solid platinum idol is the focus of the attention of crooked explorer Frank Hart, who wants to steal it, and his former partner Henri Rinaldo along with Zatara, who want to return it to Shin-Giva's worshippers and do so thanks to Zatrara's mighty magicks (please note that the idol is not returned out of any sense that you shouldn't just waltz in and take valuables from less technologically-advanced societies but rather out of a desire to not crash the world platinum market. So noble!).

God Style: Idol (Action Comics v1 033, 1941) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 493: THE MOON-MISTRESS

(Big Shot Comics 006, 1940)

Moora, Queen of the People of the Moon, is technically only called the Moon-Mistress by her enemies, but what can I say, I love alliteration. As introduced, she is merely the leader of a troublesome "hill tribe" that pistol-packing adventurer Rocky Ryan is asked to settle down on behalf of a local Maharajah (where exactly this takes place is ambiguous: Ryan is one of those Golden Age soldier-of-fortune characters who perpetually bums around an "India" that is really a sort of pan-Asian pastiche).

The People of the Moon have a temple in the hills that does double duty as a laboratory for the wizened scientist La Chega, who has "gathered solar energy" into a series of rectangular prisms that the characters insist on calling cubes. Everyone gasses on for a while about how powerful this is without saying why so I assume that it's just going to be a power source when world domination time comes. Also yes solar power is a bit off-brand for a moon cult but consider: the Moon shines due to reflected sunlight. Makes you think.

The People of the Moon also have some sort of dark spirit that they worship as the moon-god Luna. If we accept the caption box info as canon then Luna is a remnant of a "long-dead god", which is heady stuff. That's unfortunately all we learn before Rocky Ryan, following standard operating protocol for meathead adventuremen, attempts to blow Luna away with a six-shooter.

Whether or not Ryan manages to make Luna even more dead, he does somehow hit one of the solar energy cubes rectangular prisms, setting off a chain reaction that ends up blowing the temple and everything in it sky high (though Rocky Ryan survives, of course). Another ancient culture wiped off the map - all in a day's work.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 377: MAYOOR

(More Fun Comics 064, 1941)

Mayoor is an ancient evil god with no in-comic-defined portfolio but if I had guess I would venture that he's the God of Disappointment. Here's the sum total of his plots and plans: enthrall a society adventurer named Bill Credon, who then lure Dr Fate chum Inza Cramer to Mayoor's Yucatan Peninsula temple-cum-prison. Then there's a bit about using her to spread Mayoor's message and worship but unfortunately for Mayoor that's the point at which Dr Fate shows up and kills him.

It's not even a challenge! And Mayoor should have known that he was outclassed, because Dr Fate* is the one who imprisoned him in the first place. About the only good thing about this guy is that because he was such a nothing villain he could probably be BRUNG BACK as a regional threat without a lot of baggage, just bedeviling the heroes of Central America for decades - it's not as if there were any piece of fiction in which it was easy to kill a god, after all. Worldbuilding!

*this story is a few issues prior to the Dr Fate's origin story, so while retroactively it was probably Nabu or someone else wearing the Helmet of Fate who imprisoned Mayoor, in-story it's still Dr Fate being treated as an immortal wizard.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 246: KARVAC

(Flash Comics v1 014, 1941)

Karvac himself is strictly ho hum territory: a would-be world conqueror who leads his army of heat ray-toting goons on a path of destruction before being beaten up by Hawkman. Snoresville, man.

BUT: the method by which Karvac managed to acquire his army of heat ray-toting goons, now that's the kind of comic book nonsense that we love around here.

Karvac, you see, unearthed rites and rituals connected to Scorio, Alligator God of the Phoenicians, and established both a temple and cult of worshippers to Scorio in the Eastern US, in order to cast ancient ritual magics and bring Scorio to him.

AND IT WORKS! Korvac summons a god! And that god promptly tells him how to make heat rays for his army of goons to tote! (it's not exactly clear in the text whether the army of goons are also the Scorio cultists that Hawkman sees performing rituals at the temple earlier in the story, but it's narratively satisfying to think so)

Scorio eventually gets banished back to the otherworldly swamp that he usually hangs out in, and as far as I know has never made a return appearance. But he should! Korvac might've been a dud, but an ancient and vengeful alligator god who can hand out secret knowledge to evil men is a really neat foe for a guy like Hawkman, particularly once his reincarnation bullshit really gets going - Katar Hol might not know Scorio from a hole in the ground but Scorio knows a soul no matter how many times it's been reborn. BRING BACK Scorio!