SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: IAN KARKULL & WOTAN 1941

What were Ian Karkull and Wotan up to in 1941?

Ian Karkull is my Platonic Ideal of the Median Super-Villain: he has two Golden Age appearances (detailed here) and a handful of post-Silver Age ones but also was seemingly pulled out of a hat (probably by Roy Thomas) as the villain who did some sort of scheme that blasted the Justice Society with some sort of energies that made them age slower so that otherwise normal WWII veterans like Wildcat and the Sandman could be running around fighting crime well past retirement age. It's a Big Deal and it means that Karkull has absolutely been mentioned far more than he's actually appeared.

1. More Fun Comics 069, 'Untitled':But we're here to talk about 1941! What was Ian Karkull up to then? Well for one thing he wasn't calling himself 'Ian' yet - that was presumably added at the same time that he was revived to irradiate the JSA. Karkull was seemingly just another scientist with a cool invention - a machine that turns people into shadows! - that he is determined to use for crime.

Surprise of the year: Karkull has if not a good reason for turning to crime then at least a reason. While exploring the lost Saharan city of Ragnor with his partner Everett Dahlen he is betrayed and left for dead so that Dahlen could run off with a huge ruby. Is it the most rock-solid reason to turn to a life of crime? No, but it's more of an origin than most Golden Age scientists get.

Karkull's first outing ends with him at large, albeit trapped in shadow form by Dr Fate as a sort of ad hoc punishment that is fairly out of line with his crimes of one murder and one bank robbery. That's the Golden Age for you, I guess.

2. More Fun Comics 070, 'Untitled': Not only is Karkull back in the next issue but he brought Wotan with him!

In a development that is only a bit surprising, Dr Fate's slapdash brand of vigilante justice has come back to bite him. Yes, Wotan was sealed in a stony cyst for all time and Karkull was left an intangible shadow but the problem with leaving enough foes just out and about like that is that they might team up, which is exactly what happened when Wotan's wandering astral form (something you really should control for when imprisoning magic guys for all time) met Karkull's shadowy one and they worked together to release Wotan's actual body, albeit without his normal green skin for some reason (the colourist forgot that he was green).

The Wotan/ Karkull team have a plan to conquer and/or attack the nations of Earth from their Arctic base using devices that control 3/4 of the classical elements, namely Earth, Wind and Fire. They accidentally (?) draw Dr Fate's attention by attacking nearby teams of Arctic explorers with their wind weapon, leading to an ultimate 2 vs 1 confrontation in an Arctic dome!

In a bit of an anticlimax, Dr Fate merely sidesteps their fire weapon, causing it to rebound and kill them both. Seemingly, at least - they'll both be back when the continuity nerds start writing comics.

IAN KARKULL

Body Count: 6

End-of-Year Status: Presumed Dead

WOTAN

Body Count:1905

End-of-Year Status: Presumed Dead

(Karkull kills his enemy; Wotan and Karkull jointly kill explorers; Wotan sinks battleship)

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: WOTAN 1940

What was Wotan up to in 1940?

A trip back in time! A year or so ago when I was reading the 1940 issues of More Fun was before I started doing Super-Villain Yearbook posts and so I skipped poor Wotan, an injustice compounded by the fact that he is what I would call a Median Villain: one who has either enough appearances or importance to a hero's history to be more than a minor villain but without the name recognition of a Capital S Super-Villain. Wotan has a bit of both: as Dr Fate's first enemy he gets dredged up every once in a while when a magic guy (or gal, occasionally) is required.

1. More Fun Comics 055, 'Untitled':  Wotan's Golden Age appearances are pretty standard fare: he is introduced as an evil equivalent to Dr Fate, operating as some sort of magic crime boss - the ins and outs of his operation are less than clear as his main focus is eliminating Fate and his pal Inza Cramer. 

As time goes on Dr Fate gets more ethereal and mystical and I just want to highlight how rock 'em sock'em, throw 'em out the window he was at the beginning. Just a brutal way to deal with a foe (and perhaps a few passing New Yorkers on the sidewalk below).

2. More Fun Comics 056, 'Untitled': But of course throwing Wotan out of a window wasn't going to stop him. Would it stop Dr Fate? Of Course it wouldn't. He returns with a vengeance, quite literally: as revenge for Fate trying to kill him Wotan is going to blow up the whole damn world! Just try to stop that with a sock on the jaw, Fate!

One sock to the jaw later, Dr Fate seals Wotan in a little rocky cyst for all time.

Body Count: 0

End-of-Year Status: Entombed

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 333: THE FIVE FINGERS OF THE HAND

(Leading Comics 001, 1941)

As promised: the Five Fingers of the Hand! Though the Seven Soldiers would go on the fight more than a few teams of super-henchmen, the Fingers are distinguished by being (mostly) pre-established characters. Fun!

Big Caesar:

Big Caesar is whatever. A regular-style gang boss with a good name, elevated by being included in the gang. He appears just this once, in a scheme that involves cutting the power to Broadway and then doing a crimewave in the dark. The Crimson Avenger and Wing take him down without significant effort.

The Dummy:

Like Big Caesar, the Dummy appears for the first time in this issue. Unlike Big Caesar, the Dummy would go on to bigger things - so much so that I am declaring him a very marginal full super-villain, which makes this a cheeky Yearbook entry for his 1941. 

When first seen, the Dummy has two points of interest: 1. he is an "infamous kidnapper" and 2. he may or may not be a real, inanimate ventriloquist's dummy. Even his gang is convinced that he is a front for one of their number. 

Per his talents, the Hand sets the Dummy up with a sweet kidnapping job: he grabs various Hollywood types and leaves behind a lifelike statue in their place. The ransom is thus to "return them to life". Sadly, the sculptor that they must have had on retainer to produce the statues is not shown.

The Dummy is eventually revealed to be alive, though whether he is a very short human with a penchant for sitting still or some sort of animate wooden doll is not explored. Also unexplored: why the Dummy's back room is full of duplicates of the statues that he has already left in place of his victims, and why he has statues of the Vigilante and his second-best sidekick Billy Gunn - it's tough to imagine a scenario in which they might be useful (other than as a heavy object under which to trap the Dummy, of course).

Number of Episodes of the "Super-Villains of Hollywood" podcast: part of a compilation episode about villains who come to Hollywood to do crimes.

Body Count: 0

End-of-Year Status: Captured

The Needle:

The Needle is a recurring foe of the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, a tall thin guy with a needle gun and a wild look in his eyes. Due to the fact that I only pay attention to the cover date on comics and that that never actually lines up with the release date, his first appearance in 1942 won't hit this blog for some time - he'll likely be Minor Super-Villain 555 or the like.

Anyway, he steals a ray gun and tries to blow up the Panama Canal for some reason.

Professor Merlin:

As with the Needle, Professor Merlin's first appearance doesn't take place until 1942. This is especially embarrassing because he actually dies before his first appearance, like one of those RPGs where you can die during character creation.

Merlin's scheme involves scamming gold out of a rich old prospector by exploiting his well-known fear of freezing to death, then managing to collapse a mine on himself when he uses dynamite to blow open a lock that looks like you could pick it with a small enough finger. Nobody comes out on top here: Prof Merlin dies a dummy despite ostensibly being a Smart Crook and Green Arrow and Speedy don't even play that much of a role in his downfall.

Red Dragon:

Our final Finger and the only one to have already shown up previously here, the Red Dragon is his usual terrible self: he takes advantage of an old myth in order to enslave a Native American tribe and force them to mine radium. Lucky for them that the Shining Knight turns up to actually fulfill the prophecy and  kick the Dragon's rear. It's a real evil comic book crime rendered a fair bit less enjoyable to read because of all the racism.

So: the Five Fingers of the Hand. Top notch themed name for a henchman group hampered somewhat by the ease with which they were all taken out. Any time the Hand shows up he should have a different iteration of the Fingers with him, and that's that. Bring 'em back, at least in name.

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: RED SKULL 1941

(Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

What was the Red Skull up to in 1941?

As mentioned in the Red Skull II entry, this here is the real deal bad guy we all know and love to hate, still running around being a total stinker to this day. In-comic there is of course no indication of this, as the decision to differentiate the two was made years later when someone figured that the top Nazi villain worked better as a German guy than an American fascist. Consequently this is a pretty scant Yearbook entry, as most of the Red Skulling for the year was done by another guy.

Intended or not, this Red Skull has it a bit more together than his semi-predecessor: for one, he has a much creepier mask and has supplemented the red skull calling card with an audible element: Chopin's Funeral March. AND! He engages with that finest of comic book traditions by wearing a rubberoid mask over his regular mask! Batman eat your heart out.

As far as actual crimes go... he kills a couple of guys and briefly frames Captain America for kidnapping a General. Mediocre.

SKULL SCORE: 3/5, just like the other guy. It ain't gonna change until he melts his face off in... I want to say the early 80s?

RED SKULL 1941

BODY COUNT: 2

END-OF-YEAR STATUS: Presumed dead

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 300: THE RINGMASTER OF CRIME

(Captain America Comics 005, 1941)

Finally, FINALLY, after 300  of these guys an arbitrary milestone lines up with a reasonably cool character: the Ringmaster of Crime AKA the Ringmaster of Death. Compounding the fun of the circus of crime aesthetic is the fact that some of that good-style retconning has been going on and the Ringmaster in this tale has been made the father (and presumably later grandfather, per Marvel's sliding timeline) of the mid-level super-villain the Ringmaster! Uh, if saying that someone is someone else's grampaw is a retcon, that is.

The practical upshot of this is that this Minor Super-Villain writeup also functions as Super-Villain Yearbook, 1941 for the Circus of Crime, which, as a family-owned business entity, is contiguous with the version that reappeared in the 60s even though no individual members reoccur.

All that said, the Ringmaster himself is a fairly regular Nazi creep super-villain. Sure he's got the Jack Kirby villain snake-man look that we all love to hate but compared to his descendant (or, indeed, a regular circus ringmaster) he's a positively dour dresser - his actual theming is pretty weak, when you get right down to it.

Although we must not neglect the Wheel of Death, a perfectly cromulent random victim generator that the Ringmaster presumably stole from one of the sideshow games and spends hours/day applying all the little faces to.

The real star here is the burgeoning Circus of Crime. Not all of the classic archetypes are present (no tall man, no fat guy) but it's a pretty good criminal circus lineup already. To whit:

Omir the Snake Charmer

the Missing Link putting in an appearance for the sideshow folk

Tommy Thumb the circus dwarf who might be held against his will? He definitely does not want to be there

the Trapeze Trio

Zandow the Strong Man

various unnamed clowns, roustabouts and elephant handlers

It's not quite Princess Python levels but it's a good showing.

The Ringmaster of course gets trounced by Captain America, and then according to lore he gets murdered after the war by Nazi loyalists for his failure. His circus endures to this day, however, so that's something. Speaking of which:

CIRCUS OF CRIME 1941 

Body Count: 2

End-of-year Status: Captured/ Defunct

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: HATH-SET 1940

What was Hath-Set up to in 1940?

That's actually a tricky question, because Hath-Set is a tricky character! Technically, he did absolutely nothing in 1940, because he died somewhere in the 1200s BC. Because, yes, Hath Set is mixed up in the unholy mess that is Hawkman and Hawkgirl's origin story.

Of course, it didn't start out complicated: Hath-Set was an evil priest of Anubis who murdered Prince Khufu and his lover Shiera and then they all got reincarnated some 3000 years later to do it all over again. Nice and simple. But comic books are comic books, so all three of these fools have been reincarnated more times than any reasonable person would care to count, including retroactively as characters like the Silent Knight. Hath-Set himself doesn't always show up - his piddly number of appearances in any incarnation would probably net him the status of minor super-villain if he wasn't such an integral part of the Hawks' origin story.

As for Doctor Hastor: he electrocutes passengers on the New York subway system in an attempt to extort the city for big bux but before he can get any further Hawkman shows up, there's some back-and-forth that includes an attempt to sacrifice Shiera Sanders to Anubis, and Hawkman shoots Hastor dead with a crossbow.

Don't worry, he'll be back!

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: THE PENGUIN 1941

What was the Penguin up to in 1941?

(Detective Comics v1 058) 'Untitled' **First Appearance**

Heeeey, it's the Penguin, the perennial second-tier Batman villain!

The Penguin really hits the ground running: he's already got his look and his suite of trick umbrellas, so all he really needs is his weird bird-obsession, which kicks in in 1942. 

As is frequently the case with a recurring villain, the Penguin's first outing is one of his most successful: he takes over a gang using his gift for planning crimes and then when Batman starts to butt in he frames him but good.

To really stick the landing, Penguin's men kidnap Batman while he's being transported to jail - Gotham's finest are convinced that he is a crook! The Penguin is getting ready to bump him off! 

Too bad for the Penguin that Robin shows up and the whole plan comes crashing down. Too bad for Batman and Robin that the Penguin actually manages to get away. The next story picks up where this one left off but that's in 1942 so I'll be telling you about it in like six months.

BODY COUNT: 2

END-OF-YEAR STATUS: At large.

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: CLAYFACE 1941

Detective Comics v1 049, 'Clayface Walks Again!'

Clayface's 1941 adventure starts with two asylum guards learning a very important lesson a bit too late: if you exist in a fictional setting, never transport a homicidal maniac in a storm. It's as true in a 1941 comic book as it was in any of the Halloween movies.

Sadly, they remain unaware of the laws of narrative causality right un until their demise while Basil "Clayface" Karlo, protected by those same laws, escapes into the night to kill a man for theatrical makeup.

We are finally treated to a clear look at the Clayface mask and it's appropriately horrible.

Since it's his second outing, there's no need for the mystery element of the story, which ends up making this a far less bloody yarn than the last one: Clayface sets out to burn down his former movie studio but since this is a very predictable thing for him to do he is interrupted by Batman and Robin. He does almost manage to kill the two of them, but they get out of it as you might have guessed.

From here on Clayface focusses his efforts on Julie Madison, as-of-this-issue former fiancé of Bruce Wayne and newly famous actress rebranded as "Portia Storme" to fulfil the whims of 1940s Hollywood. It's never spelled out so his motivation is equally likely to be that she escaped him on his last murder spree as it is that her death would prove most harmful to the studio. 

Clayface is eventually reapprehended after a complicated slight-of hand trick that substitutes Robin for Portia and relies on him using only piercing weapons to the torso. It pays off, so who am I to quibble or suggest that Portia simply wear the life preserver from the start?

That's it for Clayface for about thirty years!

Number of Episodes of the "Super-Villains of Hollywood" podcast: Just one episode for 1941, I'm afraid. It's an eventful time but not enough to sustain more than an hour and half of podcasting.

Body Count: 1

End-of-year Status: Captured

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: THE JOKER 1940

What did the Joker get up to in 1940?

1. Batman Comics v1 001, 'Untitled' **first appearance**

The Joker really hits the ground running in his first crime-outing. He establishes his character - prideful, mercurial and on-theme - and methods that are still in his repertoire to this day

He indulges in the old standard of warning the police ahead of time, then killing his target and stealing their named gems (uh, this is a personal term for any gem famous enough to have a name, like the Hope Diamond. they make more frequent appearances in comics than real life, unsurprisingly). Not the most creative of crime sprees by his own eventual standard, but everyone has to start somewhere. He also murders a number of people who challenge him, including a gang boss and a judge who once sent him to jail (a perfect 1/1 judge and jury revenge slaying! Aim low, kids!).

Also established this adventure: the smiling-death style of Joker Venom, as well as:

...the classic hideous Joker calling card design.

But despite racking up an impressive success rate and almost killing both Batman and Robin on several occasions, the Joker ends his first outing in the slammer.

2. Batman Comics v1 001, 'The Joker Returns'

That's right, the Joker makes his second appearance in the same issue as his first! They knew he was a hot property from the very start!

After a very dramatic escape from prison and a relocation to his secret cemetery hideout, the Joker settles into his familiar pattern: a taunting message, then theft or the murder of his enemies. In achieving the latter, he employs two of my very favourite deathtraps in comics:

To bump off the Chief of Police: a sound-activated poison dart launcher concealed in his telephone - and he activates it by shouting his own name real loud! Tremendous style points there.

The second is just sharpened playing cars with poison on the edges, but again there's some tremendous style on display in the commitment to the bit of having an entire pack of jokers. Completely worth going around to every gaming supply store in Gotham to buy packs of the same brand of cards.

A minor point in this adventure is that it highlights that the Joker is primarily a jewel thief, something that I associate with the Golden Age version of the character but that might just be me extrapolating from this issue.

And finally we have the death of the Joker, truly one of the great on-brand death scenes of all time as he gets stabbed while struggling over a knife with Batman. It was a good run but the Joker is dead.

OR IS HE???

3. Batman Comics v1 002, 'Untitled'

Since the Joker actually survived the last issue, both Batman and the members of Crime Syndicate Inc  have the same idea: kidnap him while he's being treated for his injuries, the former for some sort of gruesome lobotomy and the latter as a replacement for their recently deceased leader. More than half of the story is taken up with the dueling Joker kidnappings, after which he predictably betrays the crooks, strikes out on his own and ends up left for dead in a burning castle.

More interesting to me is that this is the end of a sequence of events that, well, here's a timeline:

-Initial Joker crime spree. No time period is specified in the story but it seems a fairly rapid-fire series of crimes. Somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks, we'll say. Joker is captured.

-Two days later, Joker escapes. His crime spree resumes at the same pace, with at least two robberies occurring sequentially. Say another 1 to 2 weeks. Joker is seriously injured and rushed to hospital.

-Crooks spirit Joker away following his treatment. His recovery lasts one week, after which he seemingly dies in a fire.

What this all adds up to is a situation like Friday the Thirteenth 2 through 4, but whereas that was an astonishingly bloody weekend told over the course of three movies, this is the Joker committing at least 6 high-profile robberies and 13 murders over the course of one to two months! A huge debut for the big guy!

4. Detective Comics v1 045, 'The Case of the Laughing Death'

Predictably, the Joker is not, in fact, dead! He remains alive to this day if you can believe it!

He has, though, adopted a brand new modus operandi. Perhaps drawing on his brief time with Crime Syndicate Inc, he slips for the first time into an alter ego with the infuriating surname of Rekoj and forms a little gang of his own. Then, after his gang pulls a heist, he robs them as the Joker so that he doesn't have to split the profits with them. IT'S A DUMB PLAN BUT IT WORKS.

I'm willing to forgive, but only because of the great deathtraps, and this is a fun one: a record that releases Joker Toxin as it plays, thus killing even as its message is delivered. Insidious!

At story's end, the Joker is in the drink, presumed dead. For good? No.

5. Batman Comics v1 004, 'The Case of the Joker's Crime Circus!'

For his final outing of 1940, the Joker assembles another gang. This time, it's one of my favourite styles of gang, the circus of crime! They specialize in casing wealthy patrons' estates and manors and then using their circus skills to rob the various joints.

Batman being Batman, he pieces together the clues and tracks down the Joker, who ends the adventure in the traditional manner by seemingly plummeting to his death.

Body Count: at least 14

End-of-year Status: Presumed Dead