MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 940: THE PARSON

(Silver Streak Comics 014, 1941)

The Parson is a weird little dude who takes over a gang of opportunistic London-based looters who have been taking advantage of the ongoing Blitz to make big bucks off of the misfortune of their fellows. Though the gang is initially against the notion of, again, a little weird dude muscling in on their racket, the Parson presses the issue with his powers of hypnotic domination, the source of which is as mysterious and unexplained as the reason for his nom de guerre. 

(note the backward-speak in the above panel - this is the only instance of him using Zatara-style "magic words" in the story. After this it's just big-eye hypnotism)

We do, however know the Parson's motivation for taking over the gang: he is in fact a Nazi agent working to destabilize London by encouraging the gang to greater and more violent crime, and he reports directly to - a very rude - Adolf Hitler.

This is a Daredevil comic, which means that the Daredevil has to be in it, which means that he has to get to London somehow. This is achieved by having Bart "the Daredevil" Hill fly a bomber across the Atlantic to the British on a lark. Once he is on the ground, his super-hero intuition is strong enough that he immediately tracks the gang to their bunker lair.

Though the Parson gets briefly gets the upper hand with a little quick hypnotism, the Daredevil's willpower proves too great to be suppressed for long and he swiftly batters the whole gang into submission.

A final note: though the Parson's men are low-down dirty thieves and murderers, they are still unwilling to work with a Nazi, to their moderate credit.

Categorized in: Ideology (Nazis), Power (Mind Control), Professions (Religious)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 575: NAD NEUROD

(Champion Comics 009, 1940) 

Nad Neurod is a gang boss with an ambitious and not-uncommon-in-comics scheme: knock out the power and other utilities so that you can take advantage of the resultant confusion and loot an entire city (NYC in this case) at once! Even more importantly, he and his gang provide the perfect test/demonstration of the Human Meteor's powers in his first foray into the outside world.

(Nad Neurod is also exactly the kind of moniker that makes my Backward Name Senses tingle, but I'll be danged if I can find any evidence of anyone named Dan Doruen existing ever, let alone in 1940. I'd put money on it being a reference to something, but sadly I must place it on the big Pile of Unsolvable Puzzles and move on with my life)

Neurod and his cronies have a particular role to play, and that is to be a reasonably credible threat that a super-hero can thrash on their first outing, and they serve their purpose admirably - they completely flummox the authorities of New York City (probably) and are themselves flummoxed (and mostly killed) by the Human Meteor.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 366: THE SCAVENGERS

(Military Comics 005, 1941) 

The Scavengers are an interesting bunch, but all of the most interesting things about them are implied rather than stated. As seen above, they show up to loot and murder in the aftermath of WWII battles. The fact that they all look the same, like little rat-men, is probably meant to be a metaphorical signifier of their moral degradation but I like the implication that this is what happens to battlefield looters, like the the transformation of a ghoul or other cannibal. This of course means that there could be Scavengers throughout human history - fun!

The Scavengers don't actually get to do much scavenging in-story, sadly. Instead, they are captured by the Nazis and enlisted in their capacity as weird little creeps to dispose of the Blackhawks. And they do pretty well at it! Their downfall comes due to the interference of the excellently-named femme fatale Red Laura, who somewhat predictably falls for Blackhawk's nobility and shirtlessness.

Despite having a heroic last stand, pictured above, Red Laura actually manages to survive the issue. One hopes that she was a bit more picky about who she worked for going forward, because I am inordinately fond of her. It's just such a good name!

In conclusion, the Scavengers should be BRUNG BACK. Not only did they not all die at the end of the adventure (as the Blackhawks are about as likely to punch out as to shoot an opponent) but the idea of them cropping up in the aftermath of war throughout history is very cool! We need more types of human monster who wear their spiritual corruption on the outside, if only for greater variety in D&D.