MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 857: THE KING

(Wham Comics 001, 1940)

In what is sadly the final appearance of Speed Centaur, he and his pal "Reel" McCoy travel to the Arctic ruins of the City of Centaurs to explore Speed's birthplace. Almost immediately upon setting foot inside, they are ambushed and captured by wild-eyed men who escort them to their leader, a man called the King, who unusually has gone with an eccentric hair choice in every available part of his face but the mustache zone, and is also some sort of insane tyrant.

The King decrees that Speed Centaur must provide entertainment to the assembled inhabitants of the city via gladiatorial combat with three polar bears, a challenge that the super-powered centaur rises to with ease. The next trial that the King decrees is a kind of extended electrical torture that is designed to go on until it kills Speed, only he chooses to take the other way out: beating the daylights out of everyone within reach. 

It turns out that the King and his men were the survivors of a lost Arctic expedition who were in the grips of some kind of extended group blizzard madness and that getting their asses kicked by a centaur was just what they needed to break them out of it. The King turns out to be Professor Dillon, the leader of the expedition, and denies all knowledge of what has been happening in Centaur City for the last five years. I suppose you have to take him at his word, though I personally wouldn't put him in a position of authority again. It's like learning that someone is a mean drunk, you know? 

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 011

What ho! Aliens!

Martians: 

These Martians attack Earth for reasons that will remain unclear forever, because the story they appear in never actually gets an ending. In fact, they never even show their faces, instead attacking from their very cool-looking ships and sending their very cool-looking robots to act as ground troops. The initial invasion is driven off by superhuman scientist Greg Gilday and his associate Joan and then the Martians just never bother to return for another shot. (War Comics 002, 1940)

Barrangees: 

After their initial encounter with the giant insect life of Planet Barrang, Captain Tornado and his companions end up falling in with the Barrangees, a humanoid species who were forced underground when the insects began to increase in size and intelligence, and despite the common cause that they had made with the purple ant faction, the trio are far more comfortable around an non-insectoid race.

(wildly, this extends to not even questioning the Barrangee caste system in which servants are surgically rendered mute as a symbol of their subservience and children are raised in total darkness to give them enhanced night vision)

The Earth-people quickly resolve to help the Barrangees return to surface life using their knowledge of firearms and insecticides. Their main obstacle to this, other than the insects themselves, is the Barrangee High Priest, leader of a religion that worships the Sacred Centipede and by extension all of Barrang's insect life. Captain Tornado eventually resolves this by shooting both the High Priest and the Sacred Centipede dead. (Popular Comics 048, 1940) 

the Batmen:

The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds seem to run into another hostile humanoid species every time they leave the walls of the hidden Diamond Empire, and the Batmen are yet another of these, which they end up in the clutches of after crashing the Rocket's ship into an underground cavern. The king of the Batmen is of course a creep who lusts after the Queen and attempts to dispose of the Rocket via gladiatorial combat vs a giant turtle, but once the Rocket learns that the Batmen are mortally afraid of fire it's all over. Quite literally, because he accidentally burns down their city. (Pep Comics 003, 1940)

the Batmen of Kordano: 

It's been a while since I read "Air-Sub DX" and the world-building was never its main focus, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but as I recall it was set in an undefined future on a planet that I have written down as "Tago-Lor" but could have just as easily been a far-future Earth. The crew of the titular Air-Sub contend with the machinations of various bald guys, including Klawger here, who has assumed the identity of the administrator of some sort of mining colony. 

All this is to say that I have no idea what the deal is with the Batmen of Kordano, aka the Living Dead Men, aside from the facts that a. they look cool, b. they have two great names, and c. they ride around in squat cylindrical vehicles called "mobile pillboxes," which is fun. Aside from that, no idea. Why so aggro? Where or who or what is Kordano? No idea. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 005, 1939)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 008

Magical adventurer Kardak the Mystic is drawn into a series of adventures among the various nonhuman intelligences of the world when his new love interest is kidnapped by some of them and he sets off in pursuit. Here are the ones he meets in 1940:

the Fishtails: 

The Fishtails, inhabitants of "the lost continent, Anderras!" are the ones who start Kardak's undersea adventure off when they kidnap Lorna to fulfil a prophecy that they require a "white, Earth Queen" to protect them from destruction at the hands of their enemies. Setting aside the shades-of-Namor racial aspect of this interspecies deal, this all works out for the Fishtails, as though Lorna has very little in the way of offensive capability, her paramour is able to defeat the Fishtail's enemies the Mocha Men with relative ease. 

Not only is this one of the rare occasions in which a human woman is made the ruler of a nonhuman group without having to suffer the gross overtures of their king, but Lorna and Kardak are allowed to leave once everything is settled, no fuss! Truly the Fishtails are a wonder civilization. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)

the Mocha Men: 

The Fishtails' enemies, the Mocha Men, are fairly generic hostile undersea humanoids, though they do have several points in their favour:

1. a fun alliterative name.

2. four gangly arms, which makes for a fun silhouette.

3. they ride giant sea spiders into battle, which is very fun.

4. their leader is called the Magator, and it's always fun when one of these supposedly alien civilizations uses a properly unique and weird title instead of something like King. It's fun!

The Mocha Men are ultimately defeated (though not wiped out, unusually for the time) by Kardak so that he and Lorna can return to the surface and continue their voyage to India (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)

the Glass Men:

The Glass Men, aka the Looking Glass Men, are solar-powered glass humanoids who live in a glass valley somewhere in the magical realms traversed by Kardak the Mystic and his companions on their way from the Louisiana bayous to the lands of the Master Brahmins. The Glass Men, in my opinion, are very confrontational for guys made of glass. They also appear to have zero power storage capability, as they collapse immediately once Kardak cuts off the sun's rays with an illusory eclipse.

The Glass Men capture Kardak et al with relative ease, at which point we learn that they are one of those types of nonhuman entity that convert enemies into beings like themselves via the application of concentrated solar radiation. Thankfully for Kardak and pals they have access to a magic turban.

King Rexa of the Glass Men is also extremely cool-looking, as Joe Corallo and Butch Mapa recognized when they used him as the basis for the demonic figure haunting the hero in the recent Kardak the Mystic one-shot for Archie. Probably a good call to go with the cool claws rather than the original disc-shaped hands on that guy. (Top-Notch Comics 009, 1940)

the Beast-Men: 

The Beast-Men, like the Glass Men before them, are merely speed bumps along the route that Kardak, Lorna and Balthar are taking to their destination. I do like their style, though they do seem to complicate things a bit more than is strictly necessary - why insist that trespassers must be killed by Beast-Men in animal form only? Why drag things out with gladiatorial combat when the three have already been taken prisoner? I guess it must get boring living in a pocket dimension. (Top-Notch Comics 010, 1940)

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 014

Don't bother asking to see their degrees.

This unnamed scientist has been kidnapping preteens and changing them into hulking brutes via some pretty fantastical brain surgery. He of course gets his ass fatally handed to him by the Red Panther but not before he goes on about producing a new super race and as always I have to question your devotion to science if you think that your physical alterations to these kids are going to be passed on. Who are you, Lamarck? You're going to be performing brain operations on babies all day every day. (Jungle Comics 009, 1940)

Von Blumb is a scientist who is saved from death and treated well by Camilla in her Lost Empire, then heads off into the wilderness to further his research. When he doesn't return after a few weeks, Camilla and Sir Champion head out to check on him and he repays their consideration by capturing them and subjecting them to his reducing serum and adding them to his collection of unwilling subjects. Long story short, they get loose, defeat his pet spider in gladiatorial combat and he gets squashed by a rock. (Jungle Comics 012, 1940)

Von Lohfer is a scientist with a grudge against John D Rockefeller stand-in J B Rockland, who called him a fake and ruined his life. But if Rockland was claiming that von Lohfer was unable to mind control a bunch of cops into doing his bidding he was dead wrong, because that's just what he does until he is ultimately stopped by Quicksilver. (National Comics 005, 1940)

Dr Morbidd has a great name and a really remarkable facial deformity, and he's been using science to raise people from the dead to do his bidding. This is all solid stuff but it doesn't amount to much actual super-villainy. There's some allusion to Morbidd's science zombies being sent out to do murders but the major thing he seems to be interested in is being a real creep to this one young woman he has captured. It would be quite narratively satisfying if he met his end at the hands of his own creations, but sadly he gets his head blown clean off when Merlin the Magician reflects his own death ray beam back at him. (National Comics 005, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 610: 'BDULA KHAN

(Fantastic Comics 006, 1940)

'bdula Khan is the capricious ruler of a mysterious oasis city in North Africa who offers the Golden Knight hospitality and then turns around and makes him battle monsters in an arena for his amusement. He's not particularly notable and I'd likely have passed him over but for three things:

1. The Name. 'bdula is presumably short for Abdula and might be a unique name? Abdula is such an uncommon variant of Abdullah already, and it's a bit tricky to search for a name starting with an apostrophe, but I'm reasonably certain that this is the only 'bdula in comics.

2. The Monsters. I love a good monster and these are suitably weird. Plus, 'bdula Khan keeps them in line with his magical ability to place living beings in suspended animation, a good trick.

3. The Solution to a Mystery. This is the most important one. I mentioned in the entry on the Black Death that Sir Richard and Alice are in Europe when they should be in North Africa somewhere, right? It's not, as I had surmised, because the writer forgot, it's because Golden Age comics and Fox Features in particular had a greater tendency than some of their competitors to swap out writers and artists, presumably for the sake of a deadline. Records of just who was on each feature are pretty spotty (and not helped by the use of a consistent house name no matter who was producing a particular feature) but I reckon that we've got two parallel Golden Knight timelines: one in which he's in Europe with Alice and another in North Africa with a magic ring. I can hardly wait to see if the two timelines are merged (unlikely) or one is forgotten entirely (very likely).

Oh also 'bdula Khan is turned into a statue of a hyena for being a jerk.