GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 022

Just look at them go.

This gang has hit upon the very effective technique of faking an appearance by the Arrow in order to steal other crooks' takings when they intelligently run away from a potential ass-kicking by a seven-foot-tall vigilante. 

The important corollary to any plan to impersonate a super-hero, of course, is that that hero will eventually get wind and show up to see just what they are supposedly doing, which leads to, yes, a collective ass-kicking by a seven-foot-tall vigilante. (The Arrow 002, 1940)

I'd probably make more of this "ring of big shots" and their plan to take over NYC by blowing up the various dams that contain its water reservoirs (for instance: is a flooded New York without a fresh water supply really worth taking over?) but Phantasmo really torpedoes their whole plan by literally torpedoing their leader as he's trying to torpedo the New Croton Dam, so the whole plot fizzles before it can really get off the ground. (The Funnies 047, 1940)

He may be an extremely generic Central American revolutionary leader who bungles things spectacularly enough that his entire force is destroyed before they actually get around to doing any revolution, but I do find the name "El Tiger" to be as charming as it is linguistically nonsensical. (The Funnies 050, 1940)

Is Eldas Thayer, a cranky old terminally ill miser who stages his own murder in order to frame the Spirit, yet another example of me possibly straying a bit too far from the concept of the "generic costumed villain" that this round-up supposedly exists to showcase? Probably, but that doesn't matter because I am in charge here.

Though the reason for this plot is ultimately "this is a more interesting comic if the Spirit is wanted by the police" (which is why the Spirit is never actually exonerated for this crime), I do really appreciate Thayer's forthright statement that he is doing this because he is an evil old man. Not enough villains have the guts to own up to that kind of thing, you know? (The Spirit, "Eldas Thayer", 21 July, 1940) 

ADDENDUM: I have made a proverbial fool of myself. The Spirit was cleared of the murder of Eldas Thayer like three months later. 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 803: THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN GANG

(The Arrow 002, 1940)

It's an occupational hazard for the costumed adventurer: eventually someone is going to dress up like you so that they can do crimes and get away with it while you take all the blame. And when the hero in question is a mysterious and half-legendary figure like your typical masked cowboy tends to be, why, it must be all the more tempting, as Betty aka the Headless Horseman learns to her dismay when she learns that her own alter ego has been tearing up the Mesa County countryside in a crime spree even though she is attending college in Chicago.

Returning on the first available stagecoach, Betty wastes no time in tracking down the real crooks, then she simply substitutes herself for the convenient her-sized dummy that has been playing the part of the Headless Horseman during the gang raids and leads the whole gang into a corral and the waiting arms of the town sheriff.

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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 788: THE CRIMSON CIRCLE

(Sure-Fire Comics 003b, 1940)

The Crimson Circle are a masked gang with a more grandiose than normal name (and led by the Crimson Mask, as can just barely be made out under that rip in the third panel above, a rare instance of the named villain being less prominent than his named henchmen in a story), who have the fortune to rob the same loan company as the Raven, leading to them capturing, unmasking and forcing him to work for them under the threat of revealing that he is in reality Police Detective Sergeant Danny Dartin, the man in charge of catching the Raven.

Did I say "fortune" above? That should in fact have read "to their misfortune," since as characters in a continuity-light comic, being something as threatening to the status quo as a villain who knows the hero's secret identity is tantamount to a death sentence, and indeed the entire Crimson Circle is gunned down by the Raven and the police as they try to shoot their way out of a bank robbery.

Not that I would imply that Golden Age comics never have long-term plot developments. Case in point: this is the issue in which Danny Dartin's fiance Lola Lash learns of his double life and goes from an enemy to an ally of the Raven. True love overcomes a mindless hatred of crime and so forth.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 719: THE PURPLE GANG

(Science Comics 001, 1940)

The Purple Gang, a bunch of guys in a gang who all wear purple suits and are getting up to no end of crime in whatever skyline-heavy city the Eagle calls home New York City, are a perfect opponent for a super-hero's first adventure: organized enough to pose a challenge but not so tough that thy can't really be stunted on to show how cool the Eagle is.

They also quite noticeably do not all have purple suits on - of the six or seven Purple Gang members shown on panel, only one even comes close and his suit is more of a dark blue. And since the purple suit thing is mentioned not once but twice in the course of the story I must assume that the colourist simply did not give a care.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 671: THE ERASER GANG

(Masked Marvel 002, 1940)

The Eraser Gang, aka the Erasers, aka the Dead Erasers, are a gang with a gimmick: they don't just hijack armoured cars, they make the cars and their occupants disappear completely, to the consternation of the authorities.

But just why do they do this? It's never actually spelled out but as the Masked Marvel discovers when he is captured by them their actual weapon of choice is not a dissolving ray or a powerful acid but a deadly gas. Presumably disappearing the bodies and the scene of the crime using a powerful helicopter hoist was a way of keeping the authorities from learning that all they needed was a few gas masks to kibosh the entire operation.

Unluckily for the Erasers, the Masked Marvel has rendered himself "impervious to all gasses" and so is able to escape and blow all or most of them to kingdom come.

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Some say they're not generic enough but I think they're trying their best.

This fellow is part of a gang looking to hijack a shipment of railway guns from train engineer Runaway Ronson. I really enjoy the look of the padded suit they use to help survive crashing a car into a high-speed train but I really really enjoy the fact that they immediately scramble off into the woods and are never seen again, as if they were completely unrelated to the criminal plot. (Blue Bolt v1 007, 1940)

This fellow's a pseudo-Nazi spy named Ketler who goes up against Sub-Zero in an attempt to influence the very specific Torpedo Workers Union into striking and hindering part of the US defense program. I feel like he overestimates the usefulness of the mask as he doesn't change anything else about his appearance when not murdering people but that's not what gets him caught so I guess I'm the fool here.(Blue Bolt v2 002, 1941)

Colourful enemy aces are the best/ only tolerable part of the absurd number of Golden Age comics about pilot-adventurers, so my little ears pricked up when American-flying-for-the-French Loop Logan was challenged to a dogfight by a Nazi called the Blue Duke but... there's nothing to him. He's just a guy with a name who's been sabotaging French planes and shooting them down. Waste of a good name, if you ask me. (several days later note: it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this guy's name was a play on the Red Baron) (Blue Ribbon Comics 004, 1940)

These guys briefly terrorize New York (possibly - we have another instance of a city that is Clearly New York City But the Mayor is Wrong) with a futuristic tank mounted with a death ray. If they a) had a name and b) weren't completely demolished by Mr Justice in about three panels they might have made the leap to full Minor Super-Villain status but as it stands they're an object lesson in why ultra-powerful ghosts need a tougher class of enemy to be really entertaining. (Blue Ribbon Comics 010, 1941)

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The thing is that they have some but not all of the attributes of a super-villain.

A sea-raider who uses a stolen acid gun to build a psychically-controlled army of skeleton men? If only he had a name or had a bit more swagger! Alas for him the Shark puts him down before he could do enough to elevate himself out of this gathering of also-rans. (Amazing-Man Comics 021, 1941)

This gang of guys dressed as mailmen don't give the Blue Beetle much trouble even when wielding compressed air guns that fire explosive pellets. I admire the visual, though. (Big 3 005, 1941)

The Scooby-Doo style "fake haunting to drive people away from treasure/natural resource/property" is of course super-villain adjacent, but there are so many instances of in comics that I tend to disregard them as generic criminality. This unnamed fellow, however... not only was he attempting to scare off a homeowner so that he could look for pirate treasure in her basement but he went and "I would have gotten away with it..." -ed at that meddling Marvelo, Monarch of Magicians. (Big Shot Comics 009, 1941)

Just some nameless goons that take part in an usurpation attempt against Blue Bolt villain the Green Sorceress but they're Jack Kirby goons so they look fantastic. (Blue Bolt v1 004, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 418: THE RED HOOD GANG

(Funny Picture Stories v1 003, 1936)

These guys are a bunch of dipshits, but they're kind of lovable. They kidnap reporter Red Dolan to keep him from exposing their murder operation and basically give him a guided tour of exactly how to own them. Look, here's some tear gas! Now we'll all go into a different room while you overpower your guard. Buncha goofs.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 331: THE LEGION OF DESPAIR

(Human Torch v1 006, 1941)

A fairly simple one today: am man named Haskell advertises for people with no hope in life, then selects the most desperate of them into a gang. Since they were all prepared to die already, the members of the Legion of Despair are prone to, say, blowing themselves up with grenades in order to see that their compatriots get away with whatever loot they're scampering off with.

Aside from this radical investment in the goals of the group, Haskell's other thematic concept for the Legion is the Dice of Death, which are used to determine who goes on these potential suicide missions by who wins a game of craps (I think? It's not exactly spelled out).

It all comes tumbling down once the Human Torch and Toro get involved, because even with five guys willing to blow themselves up to ensure success there's only so much you can do against a couple of fire men. Haskell turns out to have been cheating in order to avoid risking his life on missions but only after everyone has been captured, offering no real comeuppance other than, presumably, a bad reputation once they're all in prison. Unsatisfying!

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 005

They're back! They're insufficiently interesting! They're costumed! For the fifth time! 

This fella is just a regular degular Nazi spy, but I like his confidence, even if Super Spy G-5 does wrangle him almost instantly. (Hit Comics 015, 1941)

These fellas are a rare example of subway pirates, who derail and loot in the New York underground. My delight in this is dampened somewhat by their habit of carrying off ladies for unspoken but surely unpleasant reasons - happily the Human Torch gets 'em pretty quickly. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 013, 1940)

This here fellow is another Nazi, operating out of London. His plan to simultaneously turn the US against England by pinning the murder of a movie star on an Englishman and also enrich himself by making that Englishman his wealthy cousin is overturned by reporter 'Headline' Hunter. I do appreciate how grotesque his weird mask makes him look. 

If I was feeling a bit more generous some of these guys would get entries of their own under the name the Leader, but low-effort Nazi spies can be happy with a tag and go screw. (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

This trio of bank robbers might not have made the cut if they weren't constantly hamming it up like this while battling Father Time. Mike, Mugsy, Other Guy: welcome to the club. (Captain America Comics 008, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 260: THE SIX BIG MEN

(Marvel Comics v1 001, 1939)

The Six Big Men ain't much, just a bunch of guys who teamed up to do the maximum amount of Crime possible in an unidentified American city. But I am including them in this list, for two reasons: 1. they're the first even marginal minor super-villains in Marvel Comics (I of course know about Timely Comics, pedants, but I round up) history, and 2. the Six Big Men are actually Seven Big Men and One Big Woman, and I love me some nominative misdirection.

So it's like this: the Six Big Men work for Dr Lang (above, middle, bottom) and his associate Lil, with an agreement to split all earnings evenly at the end of one year. Lang and Lil, preferring to reap the entire profit themselves, hatch a plot that involves Lang forming a citizen's group to combat crime and influencing that group to bring in bigger-deal-in-the--golden-Age super-hero the Angel to kill everyone.

And it almost works! The Angel kills basically everyone! The one flaw, of course, is that Lang does very little to cover his tracks and also drew attention to himself in the first place. Ah well, it's early days in the Timely Marvel Universe.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 136: THE LEGION OF THE MASKED

(Adventure Comics 058, 1941)

The Barry O'Neill serial in Adventure Comics had basically been about Barry battling the dastardly villain Fang Gow (Minor Super-Villain 001) from its inception in 1935 to his death by sea mine six years later and evidently someone thought that it could continue as more of a free form adventure strip despite losing that structure (as well as its setting, having started as a comic set in Paris that had quietly moved to London about the time that the German Army marched in). In fact, it lasted for two issues before Barry and his pal Inspector LeGrande retired to New York City and Starman took over the page real estate.

The Legion of the Masked are the one other super-foe that Barry faced after the death of Fang Gow and... they did okay, getting up to a little arson, a little insurance fraud and a fair bit of theft and murder. Why they chose to dress like they are in the Klan while doing it, we will never know.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 120: THE BLUE DEVILS

(Nickel Comics 006, 1940)

A costumed gang that managed to take over a small town under the direction of head devil Lucifer. Not the most distinguished costumed gang ever but you gotta give them credit for trying. And not only do they have devil horns on their hood but there's a skull-and-crossbones on both the hood and the chest! Sartorially speaking, they're years ahead!

Anyway, most of them get drowned by Bulletman.