MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 672: KARDO, THE MONSTER MAKER

(Masked Marvel 002, 1940)

Kardo, Maker of Monsters, is not quite a super-villain but that's about the closest thing to what he is and I'm not making up a new category for every guy who doesn't quite fit the existing ones. What is Kardo then, you ask? A world-famous scientist with the soul of a clown and a compulsion to make creatures and beasties - when we first meet him he is sharing a drink with his friends Dr Melvyn Hunt and Rosalind Rogers and reminiscing about all the trouble he caused the last time he made a monster.

The fact that Kardo is continuing with his experiments is revealed when he accepts delivery of a human foot, and even then his friends treat him like someone who needs an intervention for hoarding or medium-grade drugs instead of someone treading in realms man was not meant to.

Of course the monster wakes up unexpectedly and is hostile to all human life because why wouldn't it be. Kardo really earns my affection here by being a perfect straight man to the creature's "he's right behind me" routine.

Kardo rounds out his perfect combination of comedy villain traits by being a complete coward and leaving Hunt to battle the monster on his own.

Thus ends the intervention. We love you Kardo and that is why we have impaled your unholy creation on this fence. Now promise that you won't immediately relapse. *Kardo* is immediately considering how best source human brains*

God I love this man. He just can't stop making monsters!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 234: THE WITCH

(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940) 

Long-running foe/ally/love interest of Golden Age master of disguise the King (or King Standish, if you want to go by his full name), the Witch probably deserves a more thorough examination than I'm going to give her, but the fact is that though she is a good character and an admirable foil to the King, the King himself is a bit dull. Sorry, Witchie.

I will say that the New Orleans-set King story in World's Finest 002, in which the Witch is revealed to be a descendent of pirate Jean Lafitte and that her father was actually a crook who had kidnapped her as a baby to spite a different crook and in which she loses not one but two fathers... is a good time, will read again.

ADDENDUM: I don't know if she's telling the truth here, but the idea tht the Witch's criminal upbringing was messed up enough that she doesn't even have a name is enough to make me like her 10x more. (Flash Comics v1 009, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 196: THE JESTER

(Crack Comics 010, 1941) 

The Jester is your standard costumed thief. He commits a series of daring robberies that would in the normal course of things land him in the slammer at the end of a super-hero's fist.

But before Madam Fatal, the hero of this particular feature, can get around to the business of stopping the Jester, the man himself shows up, knocks out Fatal's civilian guise Richard Stanton and kidnaps his friend Professor Mason. OR DOES HE?

No, he doesn't. It turns out that a gang of crooks is framing the real Jester in order to avoid suspicion, but since the Jester is in actuality Professor Mason's estranged son Robert, a rare hero-villain teamup ensues, Professor Mason is rescued and the usually absolutist morality of the Golden Age takes a break as the Jester is allowed to leave having fulfilled his filial duty.