MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 237: CZAR THE UNKILLABLE MAN

(Flash Comics v1 007, 1940)

Like Echo or Hugo Strange's Monster Men before him, Czar the Unkillable Man is arguably less a super-villain than a tool created by a super-villain, but where's the fun in listing a buncha guys named Dr Samuels and Professor Tompkins or in this case Boris Nickaloff?

Nickaloff is a bit of a mystery - he creates Czar by sculpting a complete human body - inside and out - out of "plasm-clay" and then shocking it to life with a shot of adrenaline. Is this meant to be mad science? Magic? A modern day Pygmalion story? No clues are given. Probably science if the adrenaline is any hint, but I prefer to think it's reality-bending mad art.

Nickaloff gets Czar to rob some banks and kill a bunch of people, and it's here that he maybe turn out to be a bit less of a tool than old Echo after all, as he sets about his rampages with  a bit more gusto than is required. He also kidnaps Shiera Sanders in a fit of man-monster horniness, which is both telling and gross.

Hawkman of course can't let such wanton killing and reallocation of funds stand, and he eventually stumbles upon the Unkillable Man's weakness: he still has to breathe. To be clear, he stumbles upon it because Nickaloff repeatedly states that it is Czar's only weakness in a loud, clear voice, which favour Hawkman repays by killing the both of them via a set of bolas to the neck.

(as seen above, Hawkman initially thinks that he is dealing with a vampire rather than a living statue and I must say that I love this kind of thing much much more than when the hero jumps to a wild conclusion that is correct. Keep up the dumbass guesses, Hawkman!)

As an addendum, an honour! Hawkman gets a vote of thanks from the banks!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 236: THE SNOW-KING

(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940)

A simple concept, but an endearing one: the Snow-King is a famous spy who only works during the winter, hence the name. He's possibly French (at least, he says "au revoir" a lot) and definitely cocky - he is so sure of success pulls the classic move of calling up the authorities to warn them of his next escapade.

Eventually, crack government agent Cliff Cornwall is brought in on the case and works out just why the Snow-King is a cold-weather spy: he relies on the central heating units of the buildings he burgles to disperse sleeping gas throughout them. That solved, he is quickly caught.

Love an arrogantly confident villain; love a suit accessorized with a cape; love the Snow-King. Should be BRUNG BACK as a legacy spy some day.

HONOURS - JOHNNY THUNDER

(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940)

Johnny Thunder is made an FBI Agent. (fired in issue 7)

NOTES - FEBRUARY 2023

The Whip is an okay character aside from the brownface bit but one thing I absolutely love about him is that although he does a credible job at the Ineffectual Secret Identity act he also just travels from town to town with an enormous black horse.

(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940) 

Names:

This old dude shares his name with Kurt Busiek's Astro City character Samaritan! The tally of comics characters named Asa Martin stands at 2! (Flash Comics v1 010, 1940)

Same issue's Hawkman story features a (bad) guy named John Denver!

I'm usually pretty good at catching allusions and so forth in these old comics but I have no idea why Joe Magee = "always bungling something" (Flash Comics v1 015, 1941)

Places: It's a bit hard to make out but the flash on this armoured car seems to place Seguro in "New Texirona" rather than New Mexico, which might just be the most egregious example of 40s comics writers avoiding real place names that I've ever encountered. (Flash Comics v1 016, 1941)

This is how I order in restaurants, too. (Flash Comics v1 017, 1941)

Number of references to "the Third Degree" aka the cops torturing someone as a positive thing this month: 3

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 235: THE ORDER OF ASSASSINS

(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940)

It's another version of the old Order of Assassins, this time as a revival founded by a supposed descendant of Hassan-i Sabbah, the original Assassin of yore, though since he died in 1124 AD there's a decent chance that anybody is his descendant. 

Legitimacy aside, this buncha yahoos operates out of a city-fortress called Alamut (but somewhere in the vicinity of Egypt rather than Iran) and is engaged in a somewhat nebulous plot to conquer the world by assassinating various leaders, including that of the very delicious-sounding nation of Frappe. Hawkman foils this scheme with a few well-placed sling bullets, but even though their leaders are killed, the bulk of the organization survives, possibly as part of the next iteration of the Order, whenever that crops up.

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 233: THE VANDAL

(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940)

The Vandal is a wealthy art collector who kills artists to increase the value of their works and has a bunch of hired goons steal art for him. The best thing about him is his name/ concept, that his art collection would be as impactful to the art world as the ancient Vandals supposedly were in antiquity. Since he's a Golden Age Flash villain, he mostly exists to be trolled at super-speed.