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 833: THE MASTER

(Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) 

The Mosconians, stand-ins for Nazi-allied Russia (or possibly just Russian-flavoured stand-ins for Nazi Germany) have a lot more stick-to-itiveness than your typical gang of foreign espionage agents, to the extent that they manage to not only bedevil the Wizard for three whole issues but also the Shield over in Pep Comics, leading to what is touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics (as previously seen here). The Master is the shadowy figure behind the Mosconian schemes and as seen above he even managed to kidnap the Wizard's brother Grover! A decent showing for a crypto-fascist, considering how ephemeral they usually are.

The actual crossover-precipitating plan is an attempt to blow up the military academies at Annapolis and West Point, thus shutting off the supply of officers to the US armed forces and incidentally killing off a portion of the country's political officials as they attend a ceremony at the latter. The actual crossovers between the Wizard and the two students is fairly ships-in-the-night - he basically waves at them as he leaves to beat up Mosconians at a second location.

The Mosconians and their Master return in Top-Notch Comics 006 with an attempt to blow up Boulder Dam*, which is one of those plots that would be pretty horrifying in real life but is not so exciting or unusual in a comic book. This is also the point at which the Mosconians start to get really German.

*Hoover Dam, which I just learned was in a state of naming limbo for years and only officially became Hoover in 1947! 

The Mosconians next plot, in Top-Notch Comics 007, involves an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Wizard manages to track them down to their staging area in British Columbia, where the Master is finally unmasked and revealed to be the Mosconian ambassador to the United States (not much of a surprise). This is also the point at which the Wizard is chemically blinded, leading him to change his costume to a more standard super-heroic one with no noticeably different eye protection. So attired, he rounds up the plotter in San Francisco with the aid of the Shield.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 821: KONG

(Thrilling Comics 003, 1940)

I can't really devote a lot of energy to Kong because he just kind of makes me tired, conceptually. He's a Yellow Peril dictator who has devoted a fair amount of time and resources to stealing both military secrets and entire scientists from the US as a part of his bid for world domination, opposed only by Doc Strange and his companion Virginia Thompson. All very exciting stuff in theory, but it all resolves into a kind of mush - it's not even as racist as it could be, which is good but not remarkable.

In the spirit of writing something interesting, here are the good parts of Kong's story: 

1. Location: Kong is the dictator of the Asian kingdom of Kachukuo, which was pretty fun to recognize as a stand-in for Manchukuo, the Chinese puppet-state established by the Japanese in 1932. I'm always chuffed to see Manchukuo come up both because it doesn't really do so very often and because I managed to get pretty far into adulthood before I learned about this entire country, and the joy of learning about it is still fresh in my mind. Not that the history of Manchukuo itself is particularly joy-inspiring, but learning is learning.

2. Rays. I like Kong's big chunky ray technology. He's got a red ray that brings the scientists out of the suspended animation he put them in for transport, a blue mind control ray (blue and red seem to come from the same machine) and a green death ray. What can I say, I like a ray, and I like colours.

3. Wild Hill Warriors. At one point Kong tries to get rid of Doc Strong by subjecting him to gladiatorial combat and I just really like the fact that he managed to scare up some Germanic warriors fresh from the sack of Rome for the task. They don't do very well but they're fun!

That's about it for Kong. Doc Strange inspires a revolution in Kachukuo, chucks the dictator into his own chemical soup and thaws out the scientists with a little Alosun, bish bash bosh, start the countdown to the next Fu Manchu knockoff showing up.

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 018

I'm not sure that these guys all have degrees. 

This fellow is known only as the Professor, and he conducts experiments in long- and short-range mind control on Lost Hope Island until Secret Naval Agent Spike Marlin shows up in search of a missing ship's crew. (Speed Comics 009, 1940) 

This unnamed scientist has developed a drug that puts people into indefinite comas and has used it to kidnap and store ten millionaires, presumably with the intent of ransoming them back to their families. Before he actually gets to the point of sending the ransom notes, however, he makes the mistake of allowing his gangster hirelings go out and use the drug to mug people on the street, thus leaving a trail of mysterious coma victims that the indomitable Detective Crane follows all the way to the scientist's secret penthouse. (Superworld Comics 002, 1940)

Detective Crane is back to investigate the destruction of several West Virginian steel mills. It turns out that remote controlled drone bombers are responsible for the attacks, and he trails them back to a base near Pittsburgh filled with awesome robots, plus one Baranian spy who is merely dressed like a robot, presumably in case someone like Crane were to show up. The whole place gets absolutely annihilated.(Superworld Comics 003, 1940)

Overworked and underappreciated Department Public Sanitation scientist Dr Sheldon might be justified in his workplace dissatisfaction but he expresses his negative emotions in an unproductive manner, by poisoning the city reservoir and killing thousands of people. It must be cathartic though, because the Arrow has to shoot him with one of his trademark arrows in order to prevent him from poisoning the reservoir even more than it was before. (The Arrow 002, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 798: DR DEATH

(Target Comics v1 008, 1940) 

Dr Death's initial outing, in Target Comics v1 008, is a pretty typical late-1940/early 1941 plot about trying to draw the US into WWII by attacking shipping and throwing blame for it on an enemy of the unnamed fascist nation that Death is working for. Notably, Dr Death does not appear in the issue and works through various minions whom he directs via loudspeaker.

Probably the most interesting thing about this first appearance is the fact that Dr Death has a few White Streak contingency schemes in place, including the addition of a coating of anti-electricity glass to his submarine-cum-torpedo superweapon. Despite this, and despite the fact that the White Streak is trapped inside the thing when it sets out to explode a portion of the US fleet, it is destroyed by the Streak because he simply left some electricity outside the sub before boarding, and not only was he able to direct its actions from inside but it was able to shove the submarine onto some rocks for him, disabling it and freeing him (the White Streak's power level has been ramping up pretty significantly as his series has continued - at this point he's basically magic).

Dr Death returns in Target Comics v1 009, and this time he's not just prepared for the White Streak but actively trying to kill him. He sends one of his minions to lead the Streak into a trap by murdering his captured agent Messer with a cool knife and then returning to Death's base at an easy-to-follow pace. This turns out not to work due to the fact that Messer was at the FBI's New York HQ and there was a considerable amount of competition between the White Streak and various law enforcement officials who were on hand.

(this seems like the place for an aside about Dr Death's choice of costume and all I really have to say is that it's great. Seven foot-tall green man with a radio speaker voice? Terrific stuff, no notes)

The White Streak picks up Dr Death's trail again when he visits his friend Dr Simms' lab for some assistance and finds the villain there murdering Simms' niece Betty. Dr Death comes out on top in this encounter thanks to a very specific ray gun that "dissolves" the Streak's electron vision but merely stuns the android himself.

Even a ray gun-wielding megacrook with steel-lined gloves is ultimately no match for an ancient super-powered Mesoamerican android, and Dr Death is eventually tracked down and unmasked beheaded to reveal that he is really... Dr Simms!? This is completely wild, friends. Simms, if you don't recall, is the archaeologist (later rounded up to all-around super scientist) who discovered the White Streak in his volcanic cocoon, and he has been basically the only member of his supporting cast ever since - contextually, this is like Batman pulling off Clayface's mask to reveal that he is actually Commissioner Gordon.

I can only assume that Carl Burgos had gotten tired of Simms and took the thirdmost direct way of getting rid of him (after having him be murdered and just never using him again), because this is some real off-the-wall behavior on Simms' part. Was he already Dr Death when he met the White Streak? If so, what a terrible decision to keep hanging around with the avowed and deadly enemy of all warmongers, and even moreso if he made the decision to take up the Dr Death mantle as the White Streak's friend, like meeting and befriending and hanging out with and helping a prominent environmentalist and then getting really deeply invested in dumping toxic waste into the ocean.

And on top of everything else, why suit up and challenge your super-human acquaintance to a head-to-head battle rather than just sneaking up behind him and bashing him on the head with something when he was not expecting it? Do you reckon that this was a mid-life crisis thing?

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 793: BIG SHOT

(Target Comics v1 002, 1940)

Big Shot, a New York gang boss with a European spy named Drusella as his companion (a slight speculation as some imprecise speech balloon tails make it hard to be entirely sure just who is talking about what, but the details seem to fit), is after the technological advances that the Skipper has made in Boystate, with an eye toward using them to take over the world. His initial plan - drive up to the front gates and wing it from there - doesn't bear fruit, so he is forced to improvise a real plan on the spot. Also please note that the Skipper is on to Big Shot from the very start thanks to mind-reading technology that one of the Boystate Rangers tells Big Shot about. This whole three-part story functions mostly as a demonstration of Boystate's power for the reader.

Since the Skipper's stated mission is to take lost and abandoned boys and turn them into upstanding American men, Big Shot's new plan involves recruiting a suitably wayward youth to infiltrate Boystate and do a little espionage. His chosen agent is the unnervingly-named Pretty Boy, a would-be gangster with a world-weary attitude.

Pretty Boy is delivered from the harsh streets of NYC, where a boy might get beaten up by a grown man and forced into a life of crime, to the nice streets of Boyville, where boys are beaten up by their fellow boys in order to impart solid moral lessons. The nuance is unfortunately lost on him, and Pretty Boy sets out to fulfill his mission in the most direct manner possible.

There's some shenanigans involving a brief accidental foray into space as Pretty Boy steals an aircraft that he has no idea how to fly, but the end result is his delivering to Big Shot a bug-o-plane, a cosmic ray gun and the Skipper's chief aide the Captain, at which point Big Shot tosses both the Captain and Pretty Boy into the skeleton-filled dungeon pit that he has had installed in his NYC penthouse apartment.

At this point, Pretty Boy begins to see the error of his ways, and after some weeks of imprisonment and privation manages to make his escape and head back to Boystate for help.

Once the Skipper and his personal child army are on the case, it's all over for Big Shot. He doesn't even get the satisfaction of executing his prisoner thanks to the repentant Pretty Boy.

And speaking of Pretty Boy, he reforms and sheds his former, weird-to-type-this-many-times-in-short-succession name for the impersonal M-4 as he joins the Boystate Rangers and trades in his former rough and tumble lifestyle for one of blissful militarized conformity.

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 021

Another truckload of half-baked mooks for your viewing pleasure.

The otherwise-normal gangsters who have gotten ahold of a piece of superscience and are using it for crime are an important part of the super-hero comic ecosystem. Here is a wonderful example of such in the form of a gang who have access to disintegrator ray pistols and are using them like regular guns during a bank robbery. Fantastic stuff. The Invisible Avenger hits them with a train. (Superworld Comics 002, 1940)

He may be a mere hold-up man in a bandit mask (surely the lowest tier of costumed villainy until the invention of putting a nylon stocking on your head) but I am very pleased to tell you that this fellow's real name is Solo Mogart. Also that he eventually gets beaten up by the Raven. (Sure-Fire Comics 002, 1940)

This fairly nondescript gang of generically foreign spies have access to an invisible fighter plane and the best thing they could think to use it for was smuggling people into the US. Baffling! They make the mistake of tangling with flying cadet Lucky Byrd and end up in the slammer. (Target Comics v1 003, 1940)

This fellow is pretending to be Rip van Winkle or an analogous long-term sleeper for some reason related to moonshining. Maybe the full plot is interesting enough to be an entry on its own but sadly the extant copy of this comic is missing the first few pages of this story and so I have very little idea what is going on. He gets beat up and tossed in the clink thanks to crusading reporter Phil Manners. (Target Comics v1 003, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 740: THE DEATH BATTALION

(Smash Comics 007, 1940)

You're going to have to trust me because I have gathered no evidence, but I can state with some confidence that the American people of late 1939/early 1940 had a great deal of (perhaps wishful) hope in the effectiveness of the French Maginot Line, right up to the point at which the Nazis did an end run around it and into France. A fair number of war comics of the time (like the adventures of Corporal Collins, for example) feature defenses of the Line (or fictional versions of the Line) from the advancing Axis. Perhaps the most interesting version of this Maginot Line fandom is the concept of the US defending itself via "the Caldwell Line," a series of floating fortresses running from Canada to Tierra del Fuego, if the caption box is to be believed (the floating fortress is another frequently referenced Golden Age idea that I have no other examples of beyond "dude, trust me").

The Axis powers (still creeping up to the line of just saying Nazis) respond to this defensive superiority by deploying their finest spies, under the leadership of Madame la Coquin here. And since the greatest enemy of the spy in America is Black X (in a Black X comic, at least), la Coquin and her cadre start their campaign by hatching a plot to kill him.

As is usually the case in plots to preemptively murder the protagonist of a comic, this proves to be a very bad idea. The Black X manages to fake his own death with the help of a handy psychic illusion (courtesy of his aide Batu) and uncovers the whole operation, namely a secret underground base from which Madame la Coquin and her Death Battalion comrades plan to attack the Caldwell Line using manned torpedoes. An insane plan!

Black X manages to foil the suicide runs of the first two Death Battalion members by radioing their positions to the US Coast Guard, but finds himself unable to do so when la Coquin takes out the final torpedo herself, because they are very horny for one another. And he almost saves her! Oh Black X, are you ever going to find love in the arms of someone who isn't an enemy agent?

(in one of my patented unproveable theories about comics published before my father was born, I reckon that la Coquin was originally going to be our old friend Madame Doom but they didn't want to blow her up)