MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 581: HENRY SHORT

(Cyclone Comics 005, 1940)

Henry Short is a pretty middling super-villain (it's been a particularly dry stretch of comics, what can I say) but he certainly has the confidence for the major leagues. He's a guy who lives in a castle so nice that it is pointed out by tour guides but who pays a hundred bucks a year in taxes and when local treasury agents come around to inquire about this he openly threatens to put them in the hospital. This is a bad idea, by the way! Governments may be famously okay with rich people avoiding taxes through means like legal loopholes but straight-up refusing to pay is a surefire way to bring the hammer down on yourself.

And that's without adding in the fact that Short's business model is extorting rich people by threatening to turn them insane with a special chair. You especially have to pay your taxes if you're a criminal, man! That's how they got Al Capone!

All in all, Henry Short is lucky that all he got was a butler to the head. Getting caught by a super-hero has to be better for your prison reputation than being pulled in by the IRS, right?

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 022

There's a little super-hero in all of us, I reckon.

Volton: 

Volton comes on strong. I mean, look at the guy: crotch-forward, power device on a chain welded around his waist, moisturized, in his lane. The very second he figured out how to have super-powers he was in his element.

And because Volton (aka Guy Newton) HATES CRIME and HATES CRIMINALS he heads on down to the local police station in his only-the-most-confident-heroes-wear-them sweater vest and beats up cops until they let him be a semi-official vigilante. And he is much more qualified than the pack of ding dongs the Commissioner here has working for him - do any of them have electrically powered super strength or an electrical forcefield or the ability to suck the electricity out of a person to stun them? They do not. 

Volton does such a good job beating up crooks that not only does the Commissioner come around on him but lets Volton date his daughter. This is the workaround for those fathers who ostentatiously display a shotgun when the new beau comes around, fellows: vigilante justice. (Cyclone Comics 001, 1940)

Volton is our second encounter with a future member of Marvel's team of public domain super-heroes-turned-Nazis the Battle-Axis, and it's hard to say if Roy Thomas did him the most dirty or the least. His stated reasons for the heel turn are certainly the flimsiest of all the Battle-Axis members but just like his revised origin of having been struck by lightning they aren't actually true, as this version of Volton is a prototype of the same kind of android as the Human Torch, taken along when Dr Nemesis Death split from Phineas Horton after helping him create android life but before turning to fascism.

All this is interesting in a universe-building kind of way (the Human Torch has a little brother who hasn't showed up in decades! What's up with that?) but a bit of a missed opportunity in that the original version of Volton is more than a bit fascist. Why bother making the Human Meteor go Nazi for Ireland when you could have him be the android and simply let Volton follow his heart?

the Red Knight:

What can I say: I like super-hero-adjacent characters and stories of knightly adventure are full of those. The Red Knight, for example, is Sir Miles of Lorraine and he has special red chain mail! and that's about it. Even worse, his adventures are set during the First Crusade, so there are likely to be fewer dragons and evil warlocks and more historic war crimes heinous enough to still come up in international relations. Lucky for me, the Red Knight series only had two installments and the second one (the one more likely to have war crimes in it) is missing! As it stands, the Red Knight spends most of his energy dealing with his evil uncle rather than in slaughtering all and sundry. (Cyclone Comics 001, 1940)

Robo of the Little People:

Like Electro before him, Robo here is actually a super-powered robot piloted remotely by a scientist (in this case a guy named Vedik). The gimmick in Robo's case is that he was constructed as a giant robot by the inhabitants of an isolated Antarctic valley but once he started to explore the outside world for them it quickly became clear that his creators were in fact very small and Robo was the size of a regular human. 

Robo probably would have transitioned into regular super-heroing at some point but since he only has a handful of appearances most of his adventures are concerned with day-to-day survival in our wacky world. (Cyclone Comics 002, 1940)

The Eye:

The Eye is just that: a huge, disembodied eye with associated lid, lashes, etc, that appears with or without a halo of flame to serve the cause of justice throughout the world. It is, without a doubt, an outlier in the group of beings that can be labelled "super-hero".

About the only thing that we know about the Eye is that it is a well-known figure world-wide. It's been operating for long enough that legends of its deed are present in a number of different cultures and whispered of by the criminal fraternity. Other than that: nothing. The Eye sees injustice and metes out justice and that's all.

Actually, there is one other thing we can infer about the Eye: either its power levels or its willingness to act directly varies over time. Sometimes, as above, it takes the shortest route to justice, employing heat rays and knocking planes out of the air willy nilly. Other times (and particularly by its last few appearances), the Eye contents itself with passing off information to human agents such as lawyer Jack Barrister. Is the Eye periodically short on power? Is it bored of the lack of challenge inherent in eye-beam based justice?

The Eye's eye also flips from left to right sometimes. This is actually quite eerie! (Keen Detective Funnies v2 012, 1939)

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 010

We have mad scientists at criminal scientist prices.

Dr Koch is one of the many people hungry to get their hands on the secret vitamin supplement that turned the Champ (derogatory) into the Champ (aspirational) after its creator Dr Marlin is murdered. Koch's mild claim to fame is the fact that he's the first one to get ahold of the formula long enough to do anything with it. What he did, specifically, was to mix up a big batch and pump it directly into a poor guy named Cris, thus turning him into a lumpy rage-filled monster-man.

Koch gets away at the end of his encounter with the Champ and his little pal Henry (Cris sadly does a header off a cliff) but characters later in the story talk about him as if he's dead. Dead or hiding out in a cave in Mexico: either way he's not bothering the Champ any more. (Champ Comics 011, 1940)

Dr Bolms (excuse me, Doktar Bolms) here is a mere gangland plastic surgeon, which was enough to draw the attention of Secret Agent Z-2 here but not necessarily enough to draw ours. What really sets him apart from his peers is the fact that he has captured a government agent named Monty Wood and has been practising facial surgeries on him. Horrible! (Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940)

Dr Sax is a doctor/spy who needs Tornado Tom's good good blood to rejuvenate his spy chief, but since he's an evil man he is determined to take all of his blood instead of just some of it. (Cyclone Comics 005, 1940)

These youngsters are the Space Rovers, Jane and Ted, a coupla youths who were forced to flee in Jane's father's spaceship rather than have it and its ray cannons fall into the hands of enemy spies and now just kind of ping pong around the Solar System in the hopes of getting home. Their first port of call is Mercury, where they have the misfortune of meeting the Mercurians of Thian, who only live twenty years, are mad about it and thanks to their head scientist Flaedo here have exactly one proposed solution: capture longer-lived beings and vivisect them.

I love his little mustache! Don't worry, he gets electrocuted in the Space Rovers' escape. (Exciting Comics 002, 1940)

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 005

You can't deny that they were real people.

Adolf Hitler:

This unnamed leader of the unnamed forces that the Flying Trio are battling on behalf of the little nation of Sylvania is a real Hitlerian fellow (Crash Comics Adventures 005, 1940) 

Amelia Earhart:

Two variations on a theme: using the story of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart as fodder for a damsel-in-distress story. The first (Amazing-Man Comics 018, 1940) involves the Shark rescuing Amelia Reinhardt from an old man who has her trapped in the jungle in hopes that she will fall for him. The second (Big Shot Comics 019, 1941) features aviator Rocky Ryan and his pal rescuing Amy Every from cartoonishly racist cannibals.

Captain Kidd:

Crooks try to pull a fast one by purchasing Captain Kidd's authentic treasure chest and then "discovering" it after filling it with stolen gold (Cyclone Comics 001, 1940)

Ethan Allen: 

The Liberty Lads are back at it, getting their grubby mitts all over the American Revolutionary War. This time they meet Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys on the eve of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. (Champion Comics 009, 1940)

John Hancock and Samuel Adams:

More Liberty Lads shenanigans. This time they're saving Samuel Adams and John Hancock from capture by the British, something that as far as I can tell almost happened in our timeline. (Champ Comics 011, 1940)  

Joseph Stalin:

"Nilats," leader of "Aissur" is tracked to his office in "Wocsom" by Strongman, who objects to the Aissurans' invasion of the Balkan country of Rutania (Crash Comics Adventures 003, 1940)

Orson Welles:

For a while, Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' broadcast is used as a shorthand for a reason that the cops blithely ignore multiple calls about some fantastic threat, only they certainly never do more than allude to the real thing. This time it's giant mutant ivy plants and the dumb police are talking about a broadcast by "Worsen Welds". (Amazing-Man Comics 006, 1939)

Saladin:

Makes a one-panel appearance in the otherwise undistinguished Crusades comic "Reynard the Fox". (Cyclone Comics 005, 1940)

Tecumseh:

Whether "Metumseh" is a stand-in for Shawnee leader Tecumseh or they just mushed around his name to make up one for this fellow I cannot say, but they were certainly thinking of him while they did it. (Champion Comics 010, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 021

They're just these guys, you know?

the Solar Legion:

The Solar Legion is the brainchild of Adam Starr, a 23rd Century man about whom very little is ever revealed. Emerging from a concealed base on Io, he sets out to rid the Solar System of the scourge of space piracy via the most direct route possible: blowing up all of the space pirates.

Starr's exploits have their intended effects: 1. many pirates are blown up and 2. the authorities are convinced of the need for an interplanetary peacekeeping force, aka the Solar Legion, with Starr as the head.

Despite his new position of authority, the remaining four Solar Legion stories feature Adam Starr as a solo operator, hunting down pirates and settling factional disputes with his ray gun and two-fisted attitude. (Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940)

the Cat Man:

The Cat Man is David Merrywether, who is orphaned in India after his father William brings his entire family along on a scientific expedition to collect butterflies and they run afoul of a hostile tribe (no word on whether William did something to draw their ire or if they were universally hostile to intruders - in either case the question of just why he would have his wife and two young children along on such a dangerous endeavour remains unaddressed). David, the only survivor, ends up being adopted by a tiger and spends his youth with her in an expository caption.

(I really appreciate this "yadda yadda yadda" version of the Raised by Animals origin story. You've heard it all before, folks: he lived among the tigers and now he has tiger powers. He's back in civilization because he saved a tiger's life and that tiger's mother owed him a favour. Now let's get to the costumed antics!)

Cat Man has all of the expected cat-related superpowers - enhanced dexterity, strength, speed and jumping ability - plus a few less common ones like the ability to speak to tigers and the ability to fall any distance and land on his feet without harm. He also has a cat's enhanced night vision, which takes the form of literal beams of light that emit from his eyes. Fun!

The Cat Man's most striking power is that of having nine lives, bestowed on him by his adoptive tiger mama when he saved her cub. The problem with the "multiple lives" superpower has always been that it's not interesting if it's not used, with the result being that after two 1940 appearances Cat Man is down to seven lives. Surely this cannot be sustained going forward.

Speaking of going forward, we will be hearing more out of Cat Man, one of the minor successes of the Golden Age. Changes are afoot once he has his own title in 1941, starting with a revisions to his much-derided original costume (personally, I like this costume. It very much feels like the sort of thing that someone who had spent their youth alone in a jungle might put together). See you then! (Crash Comics Adventures 004, 1940)

UPDATE 1941

Tornado Tom:

Like the word-box says: Tornado Tom is just some guy who was sucked up by a tornado one day and when he came down again he was inhumanly strong, fast and durable. He also had amnesia, so even though he shares the name Tom Kenny with the famous voice actor of such characters as Spongebob Squarepants, he himself did not know that.

Tornado Tom's origin is never really explored and the two hints we get about the nature of his powers are a bit contradictory:

Possible Mystical Origin: in Cyclone Comics 002, Tom battles some thugs in a stuffy apartment and is drained of vitality by the lack of fresh breezes. In a moment of desperation he calls out to Boreas, "God of Wind" and is revived and re-energized by a gust of air that blasts through the window. Talking points: was it a mystic tornado sent by the gods? Is Tom Kenny a descendant of Boreas or another Greco-Roman figure?

Possible Biological Origin: In Cyclone Comics 005* Tornado Tom's blood is asserted to have miraculous healing properties, possibly as  a result of his being some sort of mutant or mutate. Talking points: was it a radioactive tornado?

This is all ultimately clutching at straws because Tornado Tom is a classic Golden Age cipher, much as I would like to know otherwise. (Cyclone Comics 001, 1940)

* his blood is reportedly transfused into a dying man in Cyclone Comics 004 but that issue is currently unavailable.

Mister Q:

Your typical master of disguise style hero, with a manservant named Ying and a dog named Satan. I quite like Mister Q because I'm pretty sure that his name is derived from the idea of wartime Q-Ships, ie, warships disguised as harmless merchant vessels. It's a neat name for a disguise-based crimefighter! (Cyclone Comics 001, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 580: BLACK MICHAEL

(Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940)

Black Michael is the leader of a band of space pirates based on Pluto and beginning in the year 2140 he terrorizes the solar system, killing and plundering at will.

It's unclear in the original story how long this state of affairs persists for, but a later installment of "the Solar Legion" takes place in 2260, suggesting that Black Michael and his crew might have been going strong for upwards of 120 years. That's a lot of piracy!

All good things must come to an end, however. Black Michael and his entire crew (and a decent chunk of the Plutonian surface) are blown to smithereens by Adam Starr, founder of the Space Legion and real hard-ass.

OR WAS HE? In Crash Comics Adventures 003 Adam Starr searches Mars for a missing heiress and finds not only her but his old enemy Black Michael in a new base under the famed canals of Mars (and of course Jack Kirby loved the concept of the Martian canals - it's evocative!).

Black Michael attempts to feed Starr (and his hostage, for some reason?) to the great Martian god/monster/fish Gansha but makes the fatal error of leaving him armed and both he and the Gansha meet their ends via the muzzle of Starr's extremely over-powered ray gun. Do not take this man target shooting, folks.

Bonus image of the Gansha, the real star of the adventure.

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 020

Super-heroes! Minor ones. 

the Tulpa:

The Tulpa and its originator Tsang had the misfortune to appear only once, in Sun Publications' only proper comic, Colossus Comics 001. This is... a shame? No, it's probably not. As it stands, the Tulpa is an interesting idea: a Tibetan hermit Lama named Tsang manifests a superhuman thoughtform to battle a bandit/Nazi alliance who are preying on nearby monasteries, and as far as 1940s comics set in Asia go, the whole thing isn't even that racist!*

The Tulpa itself is a fairly generic bulletproof muscleman with a pretty great look - I tried to see if that sort of draped hood/cloak was an actual thing that people in Tibet wore at some point (it's just plausible enough looking that it might be inspired by actual clothing) but with the current state of image searching I think it's once again a case of me giving up once it becomes clear that I would have to do Actual Research to find the answer. I also really like the very subtle eyeliner/ domino mask.

*it's still racist, though. Just in comparison.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Tulpa is the fact that it has to be actively maintained by Tsang at a fairly high physical and mental cost. At one point he almost drops his ally down a cliff because a concerned member of the temple staff brings him some food and breaks his trance and later on that poor berated person is proven right because Tsang has to slither over to eat it cold lest he miss the climax of the story. I just think it's neat when a super-character doesn't have unlimited energy. (Colossus Comics 001, 1940)

Icarion:

What could meet the definition of a minor super-hero more than one who never actually appeared in a published story? Yes, poor Icarion (Child of the Sun) here was advertised on the back cover of Colossus Comics 001 as a feature in the second, never-produced issue. All we can say about him is that he could probably fly, but as a long-time comic-book thinker-abouter I have a few well-informed theories as to what his deal might have been:

-descendant or reincarnation of Icarus

-adventurer or archaeologist who has found Icarus' (or more plausibly Daedalus') wings

-winged alien or other nonhuman with a very coincidental name

-scientist or inventor who has created wing tech and chosen an allusive name

-non-flying adventurer with winglike cape (least likely but still possible)

Outside of an amazing lore dump from a long-lost journal or something, we shall never know. (Colossus Comics 001, 1940)

Strongman:

Strongman! Of course there was a Superman knockoff named Strongman, how could there not be? 

Rather than being rocketed to Earth from a doomed planet, Strongman here has been doing yoga (secret yoga) for years and now has super strength and speed as well as invulnerability to small arms etc, super breath and even telescopic vision. Pretty good yoga! He's also wearing a costume that today reads either "1930s sci-fi" or "WWII Nazi character created in the 1980s" (foreshadowing).

As far as secret identities go, Strongman is Percy van Norton, bored playboy complete with monocle, cigarette holder and coterie of socialites who sail around the world on his yacht with him, simultaneously giving him a reason to be in conflict zones and complicating his attempts to intervene in those conflicts. He also has one of the snottiest expressions ever depicted on a playboy - Bruce Wayne could only dream.

Strongman is the second character we have encountered to later be drafted into Roy Thomas' Battle-Axis of public domain super-heroes-turned Nazis and I have to say that he's the one I can actually see doing it, whether because I find his snotty expression so unlikable or because early on he's very against the US entering WWII and doesn't last long enough to get on board with the war effort, so I associate him with the kind of nativist/nationalist/fascist-adjacent types who kept on with those beliefs. I also appreciate that his revised serum-based origin also made him dumber. (Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940)

the Blue Streak:

The Blue Streak (aka the Defender of the People) is an otherwise-unnamed man with a simple charter: protect the weak and persecuted from the strong. He's got an aide named Tago and together they fly all over the world righting wrongs and toppling a series of vaguely fascist dictators and generals. Technically he's just a guy in a costume but due to the nature of comic book storytelling he accomplishes several feats that could be called lightly superhuman. He's the kind of character who would be referred to as being in "peak physical condition" in a handbook or a who's who. I like him! He's got a simple charter and he sticks to it and most importantly if he showed up in a comic as a Nazi I'd figure that something was up. (Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940)