GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 018

The hits flops just keep coming.

This gang doesn't bother to give themself a proper name even though their scheme is extremely big and loud: they have access to a magnetic ray device and have employed it to pull down multiple large buildings in scenic Midtown City, thus killing between one and four thousand people (a printing error obscures the exact number), all so that their demands for protection money from the owners of other buildings will be paid without question. It's just as well that the Comet eye-beams them all.

I really am stuck on the fact that they haven't bothered to give themselves a name, when they have such attention to detail that the hostages they grabbed in order to stymie the Comet were literally Mr & Mrs John Q. Public Priorities differ, I suppose. (Pep Comics 009, 1940)

Buck Brady of the FBI is investigating a gang that is smuggling Malaysians across the Canada/ US border (because nobody would expect them to, that's why) and the ringleader, when he shows up, is dressed fantastically. I cannot believe that more super-villains aren't wearing big fur coats when they look so great when paired with a cowl mask. Anyway, he turns out to be Lieutenant Thomas of the US Border Patrol. (Prize Comics 003, 1940)

Move over pre-2000s Wolverine, because this guy right here is possibly the most mysterious figure in comics. Samson and David track him to the hidden City of Erde after he initiates a series of attacks against the US, presumably with an eye on conquering it. But who is he? How did he become king of Erde and its population of cavemen? Where did he get the weaponry his cavemen are using in their attacks? Just how the heck did a whole city full of cavemen go unnoticed smack in the middle of the US, secret valley or no? (Samson 002, 1940)

This unnamed mustachioed man is remarkable mostly for the number of pivots that he manages to pull off over the course of a 13-page story. He first attracts Samsons's attention with a scheme to pit the presumably South American country of Ecuazil against its neighbour (sadly unnamed but probably something like Perile or Aregentuay) and then conquer both once they were both sufficiently weakened by the fighting. Once Samson and David put an end to that he hypnotically enslaved Samson for a while, then launched into a full-fledged invasion of the US. Pretty good range, I'd say.

The US invasion plan also featured this amazing spindly-legged flamethrower tank. Bask in its pleasing aesthetics and questionable strategic value! Please also note David in these panels as this is a good representation of his role in the comic: all enthusiasm, willing to lasso absolutely anything, very low actual impact on events as they unfold but clearly Samson enjoys having him around.

Finally, I don't quite know why but I feel that I must highlight this sequence in which Samson hurls a man into a pit and then his lifeless body is just there for the next two panels. I want to frame this and hang it on my wall. (Samson 002, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 437: THE GHOST RIDERS

(Star Ranger 001, 1937)

The Ghost Riders are just another gang of bank robbers but I just can't resist a good outfit, and a trio of hooded cowboys with tommy guns is a great visual if I ever saw one.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 378: THE THING

(More Fun Comics 064, 1941)

This is not a complicated one: Congo Bill is asked for help by his friend Jack Brent. Brent is trying to sell his plantation, one of the assets of which is his good relationship with the local labour pool. Just as he had found a buyer, a skull-headed goon called the Thing started murdering workers. It's about par for course re: jungle comics portrayal of nonwhite folks and fairly standard otherwise and of course the Thing turns out to be Mr Tate the prospective buyer attempting to get a better price via wholesale slaughter. The one redeeming feature of the story is this:

The Thing looks sick as hell. You'll be hard pressed to find a better look than a skull in a hood and the cool dagger is a real bonus. The bulletproof vest is of course not visible but speaks to a thoughtfulness that is shamefully wasted in this grubby little scheme.

And yes that is Congo Bill in blackface.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 358: THE BLACK HOOD

(Master Comics 018, 1941) 

Okay, I am a big fan of the Black Hood. Let's count down the reasons:

One: very exciting to see the classic super-suit being worn in the early days of suits and robes. This look won't take long to become ubiquitous once it catches on but it's still pretty rare in 1941.

Two: not only is he a fashion pioneer but he is a thought leader in the field of henchman couture. Dressing your guys in a slightly worse version of your own costume (in this case bright rather than dark blue) is a surefire move in the villain game and it's going to be a while before we see it with any kind of regularity.

Three: The Black Hood is introduced as El Carim's arch-enemy, despite never having appeared before' and there are allusions to El Carim having broken up "four of his best rackets" etc. Implied lore is admittedly an easy way to build up a story's interest but I guess I'm a sucker for it.

About the only real criticism I have for the Black Hood is for all that he has experience battling El Carim (potentially years of experience, depending on the rate at which he sets up rackets) he is entirely unprepared to deal with Carim's dank majiks. His approach is a completely straightforward trap and kill attempt and it goes very badly. A real shame.

Nonetheless. regular costumed crooks like the Black Hood are the backbone any supercrime economy and he or his heirs should be BRUNG BACK post haste.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 355: MR MURDER

(Master Comics 015, 1941) 

Mr Murder is your "pay or die" style of extortionist and a) has a pretty great name and b) is presumably in an early stage of his career as there is a lot more "die" going on than "pay".

Mr Murder also has a great understated costume: tunic, hat, cape, scarf, gloves. Just a bit off of what you might see someone actually wearing - nice and menacing in a Shadow sort of way.

And of course Mr Murder turns out to be Reilly, the loudmouthed lawyer from the beginning of the story, presumably using his position to determine opportune targets for extortion and employing my fave the rubberoid mask to disguise his identity. It's a fine outing over all but nothing special. The interesting stuff comes with Mr Murders further appearances:

Mr Murder reappears in Master Comics 027, 1942 and there are several weird things going on. The least of these is his decision to incorporate the rubberoid mask into his costume despite his identity no longer being a secret, but I guess that's no weirder than villains who continue to wear regular style masks in such circumstances.

More interesting is the fact that there seems to have been a Mr Murder/ Bulletman clash some time in between, during which a) Mr Murder found out Bulletman's secret identity and b) Bulletman was thought to have killed Mr Murder. As far as I can tell, this story was never published (I reckon that it's equally likely that a story was produced but never published or someone misremembered Mr Murder being in a story he wasn't), but the upshot of it is that Mr Murder is out for revenge and armed with the knowledge to do the deed. He kidnaps Jim Barr and almost succeds in bumping him off but has seemingly forgotten about the existence of Bulletgirl, leading to him getting his but kicked and dying for real.

OR DID HE? This marks our first encounter with the CRIME EXCHANGE, an organization run by future Minor Super-Villain the Crime Broker, the details of which are not germane other than the fact that at one point the Exchange members petition the Crime Broker to bump off Bulletman, a petition consisting mostly of deceased Bulletman villains. It's madness! A huge (dead) portion of Bulletman and Bulletgirl's rogues gallery, returned to life (or, less incredibly, sprung from prison) in a single panel! Madness!

Okay, maybe this is more exciting to me than anyone else but it is neat. And as someone whose official stance is that super-villains are more interesting when they're still alive I heartily approve.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 353: THE PURPLE HOODS

(Master Comics 013-014, 1941) 

I'm not going to lie: when I started reading this story I got excited for one of the more niche reasons I ever have. See, the prior Buck Jones story - the one with the Ghost Killer gang - was still wrapping up and I had a moment where I thought there would be some very exciting gang continuity if any of the former Ghost Killers, already relict of the White Arrow gang, had joined up with the Purple Hoods. That's an unprecedented three gangs! Alas, Snake and Cope were sent to jail and the counter reset.

Ephemeral hopes and dreams aside, the Purple Hoods are crass capitalist crooks: their big scheme involves kidnapping Mexican farm labourers and pressing them into slavery in a secret oil refinery. Ah, the romance of the Old West!

And speaking of the Old West, this story is a perfect illustration of the weird liminal space that the West occupied in the 40s imagination: is Buck Jones an Old West marshal or a contemporary one? Does this issue offer any clues? The ascent of oil as a valuable resource does overlap with the Old West, and steel oil barrels of the kind pictured above are a 20th Century invention, but one of the major conflicts of the story is a business rivalry between two competing stagecoach lines and while I can find evidence of stagecoaches being used into the early 20th Century I doubt that they were such a going concern as that.

What I'm getting at here is that I don't know which way the anachronisms are going: is Buck Jones an Old West marshal with forward-thinking villains or a modern marshal in an overly romanticized setting? Who knows!

(I must note that I do appreciate the Purple Hood leader getting his own special version of the gang costume)

ADDENDUM:

Two issues later (Master Comics 016, 1941), the story is clearly set in the Old West! Answers have been forthcoming at last!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 352: THE CRYSTAL

(Whiz Comics 015/ Master Comics 014, 1941)

Basics first: the Crystal is nothing particularly special. He's a businessman or something named Mr James who has a wealthy ward named Ronnie Keller and covets the money that he is charged with administering. It's a pretty common turn of events in comics and Mr James is part of the significant minority of greedy guardians who decide to skip the simple embezzlement and advance straight to costumed thuggery. He's got goons and everything!

There are two other things about the Crystal, an annoying one and a tragic one. The annoying one is that due to the way that early anthology comics were shuffled around fairly frequently, the first of the two-part Companions Three story he appears in is in Whiz Comics 015 and the second is in Master Comics 014. Thus, 80-odd years later and reading books in a collated way rather than as they arrive on the shelves of your local newsagent you never ever end up reading them concurrently. It's maddening! For me! About once every ten years!

The tragic one is simply that the Crystal has a pretty great costume! Just look at that dome! But ten years later the Red Hood would really just blow this costume out of the water. It's not even close! The Crystal's good costume was doomed to obscurity in that moment.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 348: THE SEVEN MASTERS

(Master Comics 012, 1941)

The Seven Masters are just your regular drug smuggling/ opium dealing gang operating out of San Francisco's Chinatown. They don't get up to anything too spectacular - El Carim gets in on the action because the head of the gang is using his criminal might to try to get a woman to marry him instead of her boyfriend - and they trade on some pulp-era Yellow Peril tropes, but despite all of that I must admit to liking their style. The name! The robes! The custom sword-lowering engine! If only they all hadn't been wasted on low-tier chumps!

MINOR SUPER-HERO 041: ZORO THE MYSTERY MAN

(Slam-Bang Comics 006-007, Master Comics 007-022, 1940-1942)

It's easy to quantify Zoro because his name says it all: he is a Mystery Man - nobody knows anything about him: nation of origin, real name, nothing. He has an amazing outfit and a sword cane and a pet cheetah named Cheeta. 

Zoro hangs out a swanky clubs and parties and visits his swanky friends and occasionally gets involved in the mysteries that crop up in such circles. Does he have super powers? Maybe! Or maybe he's just a gifted illusionist - who knows? He's a MYSTERY MAN.

(Zoro should absolutely be BRUNG BACK with absolutely no explanation of what he's been doing for the last 80 years. I HAVE SPOKEN)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 339: THE FIREHAWK

(Master Comics 004, 1940)

The Firehawk is an extortionist of the particular kind that you get in comic book stories that have to clock in at under 5 pages: a dumb one. See, he has a pretty good threat to hold over the heads of his victims in that he can seemingly set them on fire at will. Since he's operating on a movie set, he does so by mixing up batches of thermite-impregnated makeup that presumably self ignites after a set time. Like I said, a good threat. The problem lies with his timing: he dopes all of the makeup at once so that the actors are just igniting one after the other - there isn't even enough time for them to consider paying up. Plus there's the matter of his secret identity, the fourth lead in a film in which numbers 1 through 3 were set to be destroyed, which is at least a bit suspect.

For all that, I love this guy for his costume if nothing else. "Green anthropomorphic cartoon bird" is an underrepresented theme in super-villainy.

****

While thinking about this guy I suddenly had a revelation: in any given super-hero universe there would be a podcast about the super-villains of Old Hollywood. Without question! The only real question is just how many episodes would each villain generate. Sadly for the Firehawk, even though he is the genesis for the idea of the Super-Villains of Hollywood Podcast (an idea so powerful that it has propagated backward through the blog) he probably wasn't fodder for more than one episode - neither Zarrow/ the Firehawk nor any of his victims seemed especially noteworthy in a "lurid true crime podcast" sense so I' afraid that for the inaugural 

Number of episodes of the "Super-Villains of Hollywood" podcast: segment, the answer must be one.

MINOR SUPER-HERO 039: THE DEVIL'S DAGGER

(Master Comics 001-020, 1940-1941)

Devil's Dagger! I love this guy. He has a lot of familiar things going on: a wealthy young man named Ken Wyman who works as a reporter in order to get the latest crime news and heads out at night in his souped-up car (the excellently named Speed Ghost) to kick butt accompanied by Pat Gleason, ex boxer and member of the surprisingly large Chauffeur/ Sidekick club.

There are two really interesting things about the Devil's Dagger: 1. really good costume. 2. he's a mission-driven vigilante. Once he rids Carterville of the sinister Jeff Marlowe... he finds out about Jeff's boss, Mr H. But once he gets rid of him, that's it! Wyman unmasks, retires, maybe takes the job at his father's bank, who knows? It's so rare for a super-hero to have a finite career, not just in the Golden Age but any time! How refreshing!

Of course after saying that I would be a monster to suggest that the Devil's Dagger be brung back, and I am not! I do however think that the identity would make for quite a fun legacy hero! Picture it: Carterville has once again become a crime-ridden hellhole, perhaps even under the thumb of a superannuated Mr H (or a corrupted Ken Wyman!), and someone stumbles across the unpublished memoirs of Ken Wyman and takes inspiration from them - maybe an underpaid employee at the Daily Blade, now stripped of assets by venture capital and printing a ten-page synopsis of the top clickbait of the week? Heck, maybe this time it's a whole group of dagger-wielding vigilantes. Fun!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 243: CRIME & CORRUPTION INC

(Flash Comics v1 013, 1941)

I almost didn't include these guys because Johnny Thunder lives in a heightened cartoon reality that only exists within the same world as the Spectre or Hawkman because of the technicality of them all being in the same club and hanging out together. But then, is the fact that New York is full of goofy-ass cartoon people in Johnny's reality any more implausible than Alexander the Great blowing up a portion of the city without apparent consequence in Hawkman's? I say thee nay. Besides, Johnny's adventures almost never verge into super-villain territory... we gotta strike while we can!

So: we find Johnny and his best gal Daisy Darling attending a production of "the Creep", starring actor Jan Marrimore (!) as the titular Creep (a stand-in for a real person playing a fictional villain in a super-hero universe: all my very specific interests are colliding!).

At the end of the play, Marrimore reveals that the show is a stunt designed to publicize the existence and uniform of a crime syndicate operating in the city. Johnny of course immediately encounters one of these men, does not recognize him and is pickpocketed by him. After some back and forth involving ridiculous magic powers, the pickpocket swears to reform and all is well. OR IS IT?

It's not! The remaining members of the gang (which we only now learn the name of - thanks for nothing, Marrimore) swear bloody vengeance and set out to murder Johnny. It's only the fact that he's juiced up on Badhnisian thunderbolt magic that saves the poor oaf.

And that's that, really. Just a gang of costumed crooks, but they're Johnny's gang and he almost never gets to fight proper villains. Since they're comedy characters they end up as paper-thin props for Johnny to bounce around, so there's not much to say about them beyond what I will always say about the suit/cape combo: that I love it.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 209: THE PANTHERMAN

(Crackajack Funnies 031-033, 1941) 

The first costumed foe to face Dell Comics' answer to Batman, the Owl, Pantherman strikes a very impressive figure and knows how to make an entrance. He does seem to be a very sloppy operator, however, as he initially attracts the attention of the Owl after mind controlling a man into stealing his own jewels but not somehow thinking to keep him from calling in the police (and renowned private investigator Nick "the Owl" Terry, natch) afterward.

Subsequent issues reveal that the Pantherman's sloppiness is more a recent thing, as he has been operating out of the city's sewers for at least the past 4 years and is well on his way to uniting the underworld with himself at the head. It doesn't take much to ruin a promising crime career, however, and once the Owl is on the case, Pantherman is soon caught.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 203: BLACKBEARD

(Crack Comics 016, 1941)

I keep saying that space pirates are too thick on the ground to include every one despite my inclinations but Blackbeard here overruled me on several fronts, including:

-Overall look: that's basically a perfect look for a futuristic pirate (it's not obvious from this image but I reckon that he's shirtless under the coat, btw). Maybe swap the beret out for a more traditional hat but that would be the only thing I'd change.

-Name: can't go wrong with a classic.

-Henchmen:

Blackbeard's crew are the Outlaws of Jupiter, and their names are things like One-Arm Ganz, Patch-Eye Tork and Half-Face McGurk. And Gilene, of course, who seems not to have suffered any sort of nickname-worthy injury.

It's all great stuff, even though Blackbeard's only attempted crime - hijack a shipment of ray guns - is foiled immediately by the Space Legion.

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.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 086: THE MASTERMIND OF CRIME

(Blue Beetle Comics 003, 1940)

A lot of these early Blue Beetle villains are real basic so I'm not even going to bother with the questions.

Mastermind of Crime: very good hood, attempts to take over NYC York City, turns out to actually be the civic reformer who has been raising a stink over all this organized crime all over the place.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 043: THE PHANTOM OF THE PYRAMIDS

(More Fun 049, 1939)

An archaeological dabbler who loots digs in the Valley of the Kings until he is put paid by short-lived detective character Bulldog Martin. Really really enjoy his gold mask/ pharaonic headpiece/ dark red robe combo.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 041: THE SPEAKING FROG

(More Fun 045, 1939)

The Speaking Frog is possibly the most obscure villain in the DC Universe, and that's including Fawcett, Quality and Charlton characters in the mix. This is a shame because simply based on their name and appearance they are the strongest BRING THEM BACK candidate I have ever encountered. 

Some backstory: in 1938 a strip called "Marg'ry Daw" began in More Fun Comics, running for just a few issues. A Little Orphan Annie knockoff, it featured the titular little girl and her dog having adventures with evil scientists and the like while being left alone by her wealthy but distracted father. Or it would have, but someone wasn't feeling it and it was wrapped up in about four issues.

Flash forward a year and "Marg'ry Daw" is back. This time it involves a more attentive Luther Daw taking his daughter on a train trip across the country. Over the course of five installments the following happens:

-They befriend a Hindu mystic on the train. He has a vision of impending calamity and convinces them to disembark with him in Idaho. The train subsequently crashes.

-They accompany Ahm, the mystic, to his friend's secluded mansion. There they meet Stephen Dean, a wealthy vegetarian technophile who collects mummies and Indian artifacts, wears a robe and chortles constantly. A wide array of other eccentric servants and houseguests are alluded to.

-Dean shows off his various gadgets to his new guests, including a voice-activated vault door and the Speaking Frog, a metal statue that talks if a specific object is placed in its mouth.

-A guest is shot in the gardens. Ahm goes for help. Dean disappears. Someone wearing the Frog as a headpiece threatens Luther Daw's life. He knocks them out and looks under the mask but the person's identity is not revealed on-panel. Subsequently Dean's adopted daughter indicates that there may be multiple people in Speaking Frog outfits and tells Daw to kill the real one. (his easy willingness to do so, plus some talk of the Frog not being a man plus Dean being a tech nerd leads to my private theory that the Speaking Frog is meant to be a robot) 

AND THAT'S IT. The feature ends with Daw firing at a Speaking Frog and could have been intended either to wrap up immediately or go on for a dozen more episodes - if there's a person alive who has any idea what was intended then I for one will be as shocked as any person has ever been.

That's about it: all setup, no payoff. The perfect candidate for revival, as they could be anyone! The greatest costume of all time! The most obscure villain of the DCU is ready to walk again! 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 029: THE PURPLE HOODS

 (Feature Funnies 016, 1939)

Not much to distinguish this spy organization foiled by Quality character Black X, other than the fact that their leader spends the entire adventure dressed for bed, complete with a little tasseled nightcap. I choose to ignore the in-text indications that he was in fact just about to go to sleep and instead believe that he dressed like that all the time. BRING BACK tasseled nightcaps!