MINOR SUPER-HERO 024: JUST 'N RIGHT

(Doll Man 001, 1941)

Just n' Right is perhaps my favourite forgotten Golden Age super-hero, or at least the one I've thought about the most. I'm not sure I can adequately explain why but since he only ever appeared in a single six-page story I can at least present the entire thing to you and note the things that prey on my mind in the wee hours.

So: the setup. Justin Wright is a lumberjack and an orphan who has just come of age and inherited his parents' monies. Please note that he is such an orphan that he can't even conceive of having parents. 

It's the old Batman-style "crime orphan vows revenge on crime" origin, only this time it's an adult man rather than a child making the vow.

And in keeping with the Batman-style origin, Justin takes inspiration from a totemic object: sheer fabric, which he had evidently neither encountered nor conceptualized in his former life as a simple lumberjack.

Two things to point out on this page: 1. here's where it's revealed that Justin Wright has chosen Just n' Right as his vigilante name, which is about as extreme as nominative determinism ever gets in comics, I reckon. Take a seat, Edward Nygma.

2. the 'Wayne Reid' credit on the first page is a nom de plume for George E. Brenner, who did a fair amount of work for Quality Comics. I'm generally a fan but this is the perfect page to complain about how many people in his comics have these gaping toothless maws that I can't look away from.

Also the "frame Just n' Right for murder" plot never pays off.

Appreciate a calling card.

And finally: my theory on why Just n' Right never appeared again is that he was immediately arrested for vigilantism after antagonizing this poor police captain who just wanted a nice door. 

So there you have it: Just n' Right. The only explanation for the frequency with which I think of him is that he was a one-and-done. If he'd had a dozen or so mediocre adventures and appeared long enough to get killed in an issue of All-Star squadron he'd be trivia but as it stands he's a weird mystery.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 223: THE VULTURE

(Doll Man 001, 1941)

The Vulture! Flying thief extraordinaire! Terror of NYC for about a week!

In reality the Vulture if a very weird looking guy named Aylmer who is predictably upset at his treatment by an uncaring world but seemingly mostly about being short. Hey, if Quality Comics New York is an accepting enough place that that's all this guy gets bullied about then I have to give it to them, honestly.

The really interesting thing about Aylmer/ the Vulture is not his technology (impressive as a homemade flying suit is) but the fact that he gets away at the end of the story and never appears again. Now, Doll Man comics aren't quite as obsessively catalogued online as, say, Batman comics but as far as I can tell, this dude never ends up paying for the theft of millions of dollar worth of jewelry, the kidnapping of Martha "will someday be Doll Girl" Roberts or the murder of his own father, and in the Golden Age of Comics, motto Crime Does Not Pay, that is a wild and wooly thing to happen.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 222: THE PHANTOM DUELIST

(Doll Man 001, 1941)

The Phantom Duelist is and example of a couple of my favourite comic book story setups: 1. the eerie local legend used as a basis for crime and 2. the murder mystery with a whole passel of suspects. Plus there's a dose of "aren't Hollywood people weird!" for flavour.

So: movie producer Reynolds decides to drum up a bit of publicity by buying a haunted castle and importing it to Hollywood. The only problem: Reynolds is a bit of a shitheel and so is promptly murdered by someone posing as the castle's resident ghost, the Phantom Duelist.

The suspects: 

-Rocky Perrone, gangster who Reynolds refuses to pay off a gambling debt to

-Pierce, Reynolds' leading man who he antagonized and threatened to blacklist

-Marrow, who wants to marry Reynolds' leading lady but is unable to because of her contract

The murder happens at a costume party and Pierce is almost a self-frame due to showing up as the Phantom Duelist. In the end though, the murderer is revealed to be... a fourth guy! Steve Morton the publicity agent who Reynolds has apparently been blackmailing for the past 25 years!

So a couple of points off for presenting an unfair mystery (and another couple for so many of the characters not having first names) but over all top notch comic book tomfoolery.

Number of Episodes of the "Super-Villains of Hollywood" podcast: One episode only. SOme prurient attention paid to Reynolds' shitty doings.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 221: PROFESSOR KYLL/ MINOR SUPER-HERO 023: TRIX

(Doc Savage Comics v1 004, 1941)

Professor Kyll is your regular-style scientist who develops a working humanoid robot and immediately starts thinking in terms of world conquest. My eyes might have glazed over and completely missed him if not for the fact that in the very same town was another scientist, a benevolent one, working on a humanoid robot made of rubber!

Now, Flexo the Rubber Man has not come up on this here blog yet because I've fallen behind on my Golden Age Marvel reading but know ye this: I love me a weird rubber robot and am absolutely thrilled that there are two of them, even if poor Trix here never made a second appearance as far as I can tell. It's enough that they existed and beat the tar out of Kyll's metal guy.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 220: THE IMP

(Doc Savage Comics v1 004, 1941)

An unnamed dwarf performer at the Famous Three Ring Circus, billed as the Smallest Man in the World, the Imp is even more remarkably able to secretly build himself a robotic gorilla-shaped exoskeleton in secret while travelling with said circus.

As is so often the case when a comic character becomes a villain in response to societal scorn and rejection, the Imp ends up taking things too far by using his gorilla suit to rob banks and kidnap the object of his affection, ultimately leading to a confrontation with generic superguy Ajax the Sun Man and one of the more graphic on-panel suicides of the Golden Age.

NOTES: DECEMBER 2022

(Detective Comics v1 058, 1941)

 

Comic book character of the year Claudia Carol, folks.

Names: (Doc Savage Comics v1 003, 1941)

Bit of nominative determinism going on. The protagonist of this piece is Brad Marshall:

Marshal Brad Marshall:

Crook name of Bat Crawley (Feature Comics 040, 1941)

I'm only mostly certain, but I think that "Fasdick" here might be subbing in for "fascist". The government in question does bear all the hallmarks of being a stand-in for one of the Axis powers, but it's a wild stretch, even so. (Feature Comics 040, 1941)

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.