MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 948: DR HORROR

(Captain Battle Comics 002, 1941)

The Sisters of Fear, a trio of witches who either are the Three Witches of "Macbeth" fame or who take a lot of inspiration from them, have a new scheme: to create a horrible creature to spread death and destruction across the face of the Earth.

As part of the prep for this task they gather together all of their fiendish allies, the Demons of Land, Sea and Air, and I must commend them on being a diverse and fun-filled collection of grotesques

The Sisters do the "double double toil and trouble" routine - either in homage to the great witches of antiquity or as a callback to one of their own classic numbers, depending - and call Dr Horror into being. There are three things worth pointing out about this guy:

1. his pupils are little human skulls 

2. he's a dedicated nudist

3. somehow he is a doctor, despite a) having just been created and b) having an innate antipathy toward human society, the only place where being a doctor has any meaning. But perhaps that's the point - that he cares so little for the mores of humanity that he's going to adopt that title, our puny certification boards be damned

Dr Horror is a pretty straightforward guy: he hates humanity, he has all the terrible power of the elements at his command and thus he spends most of his time post-creation blasting humanity and its trappings to smithereens.

Dr Horror's depredations are unopposed by any hero. Instead, the forces of nature themselves rise up and destroy him by holding him in place with a whirlwind and then exploding a volcano under his feet. There's a strong implication that this is because Dr Horror is a being of darkness and evil and that the essence of nature is bright and good, which is all fine but I really resent the implication that the dinosaurs were also evil and that that is why nature destroyed them.

Dr Horror swears that he will return to avenge himself and the Sisters of Fear (also blown up), but he has not yet managed to do so.

Categorized in: Generica (Doctors), Murder (Attempted Destruction of Humanity), Origins (Magical Constructs) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 521: RED DUGAN

(Blue Ribbon Comics 003, 1940) 

Red Dugan is a down-on-his-luck gang boss who turns to what will be a classic crime method in the Silver Age particularly: he kidnaps a scientist and forces him to science up a weapon for him to smite his enemies with. In this case, the scientist in question is one Dr Cardo, who seems oddly prepared for the task of making a Seafood Platter Man. Was he kidnapped just before embarking on his own reign of terror? We can only speculate.

Dugan sends his new monster to plant a bomb on the ship they are based out of, allowing it to show off its might via a cool underwater octopus battle. FEATURING: two very charmingly rascally fish enjoying a free buffet.

The story ends with a triumphant Red Dugan in full control of his monster, having disposed of his enemies and Dr Cardo (he thinks. In reality the monster was conditioned to be unable to harm its creator) and presumably ready to loot and pillage all water-accessible riches he can. We can speculate that he would have met his comeuppance in the next issue and that it would have been at the hands of nautical adventure trio the Devils of the Deep because their name was the title of the adventure but neither they, Red Dugan, Dr Cardo or the monster ever appeared again.

Bonus: One more look at those great fish. And they have some crustacean friends!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 415: THE GORILLA

(Blue Beetle Comics 009-010, 1941)

The Gorilla is actually Jack Castle, a drunken lout who happens to be the lab assistant to the unhinged Dr Brock. Castle pushes his employer a bit too far and ends up on the wrong end of an ape brain transplant. Dr Brock meanwhile has forgotten one of the major things about brains and so ends up like so many other mad scientists do after transplanting an unwilling one: murdered by his own creation.

Castle was a creep as a human and he's no better as a gorilla, so he ends up vowing revenge on all humanity.

But it's a tricky prospect, taking on the world with a gorilla body and no people skills. The Gorilla's only adventure post-origin involves his trying to take over the underworld based solely on physical prowess and it goes poorly - in fact, both of his adventures end with him crawling off to nurse a gunshot wound.

It's all okay stuff, but the most interesting part of it is that the Gorilla is an antagonist without a protagonist. In storytelling terms I suppose that the Gorilla is the protagonist and the world is the antagonist? The point it that this is an early experiment in having the villain headline the story and I appreciate it.