MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 657: THE SCIENTIST

(Jungle Comics 004, 1940)

The Scientist (no other name given) is a man with a very comic book plan: develop a serum capable of giving gorillas superhuman intelligence, do so to a population of the particularly huge Gorgon Gorillas, and use the resulting army to conquer the world, presumably after a period of rapid gorilla breeding.

Though the Scientist is a compelling villain in his own right (he is a world-class asshole, for example, like all the best bad guys), the stars of this adventure are absolutely the Gorgon Gorillas, who for example respond to a gorilla call by marching single-file through the jungle beating their chests until they just kind of topple into a pit trap.

The post-enhancement gorgons are even better, as they exhibit a range of amazing facial expressions from "benignly intelligent" to "absolutely fucking mental" depending on input from the Scientist.

As is her prerogative, Fantomah waits to step in to the situation until the crisis point, in this case the Scientist ordering his gorilla army to scour human life from the face to the jungle. Alas, he learns too late that the old adage is true: you live by the army of demonized gorillas, you die by the army of demonized gorillas.

NOTES - NOVEMBER 2024

Honours: 

Wonder Boy is generically honoured by all of Europe for stopping a Mongol invasion. (National Comics 001, 1940)

Panel Fun:

I don't normally have enough time or inclination to read the text portions of old comics but I do often enjoy the illustrations accompanying them, especially including this cake man who menaces the Yankee Doodle Boy, whoever he is. (National Comics 006, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 029

They're trying, bless 'em.

Hydroman:

I was going to say that much levity has been mined from Hydroman's origin over the years, but realistically this guy is obscure at best. Some levity has been mined from Hydroman's origin over the years. Is it deserved? Certainly.

Scientist Harry Thurston is having fun mixing up chemicals (specifically water, alcohol and sulphuric acid, though there is some speculation that there might have been some mystery residue in the glassware used) and manages to get some on his hand, which promptly turns to water. In a panic, he calls his friend Bob Blake over to help, and when Bob arrives, fellow scientist Tom Kinsman dumps an entire bucket of the mixture over him like they're all in a dang slapstick comedy.

They manage to counteract the formula, at which point Bob agrees to have the formula injected into him, and while this works as comic book science (if a big splash turned me to water, surely an injection will allow me to control the process! Because it's deliberate and thus more scientific!), surely by all other metrics it is an insane decision. What's to say, for instance, that an injection won't merely turn all of your blood or veins to water, killing you?

Against all odd, the injection works and Bob Blake decides to use his newfound power to fight the wave of crime that is plaguing NYC. To go with his new role, Blake adopts a new moniker - Hydroman - and makes a super-hero costume in perhaps my favourite way, by scraping up all of the random crap in Harry Thurston's lab.

By issue 2, Hydroman gets what only I think of as his iconic look, a baggy suit of bulletproof Translite. It's objectively kind of dumb looking but also... kind of great? It might be the combination of the leather pilot's helmet and the riveted brass collar but the overall effect is very cool and retrofuturistic. Plus the transparent effect really plays well with Hydroman's whole water theme. Finally, note that Hydroman's assistant/ girlfriend Joyce Church is also wearing a bulletproof suit under her coat and I must commend him for being the rare Golden Age super-hero who thinks to distribute such protective super equipment to his civilian aides. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

Update 1941 

the Purple Zombie:

Doctors Hale and Malinsky are partners, but while Hale was working to prolong human life, Malinsky was taking his research and using it to create an army of the undead in order to take over the world. His prototype is Zoro, the Purple Zombie, and once his zombification tech is proven to work (and once Hale starts mouthing off a bit to much), Malinsky decides that things might run a bit smoother if it was just him and the zombie and bumps off Hale.

Unfortunately for Malinsky, some quirk of the zombie technology has made Zoro 1) amoral 2) bulletproof and super strong, and 3) loyal only to Hale, and so he makes short work of not only his erstwhile master but also his three foreign investors.

Zoro is captured by the police and scheduled for an execution that hits a slight hitch when it turns out that in addition to bullets the Purple Zombie is immune to electricity (he also turns a more purpley purple when electrocuted!). Stymied, the authorities agree to release Zoro into the stewardship of Dr Hale (who survived the murder attempt, by the way). The Purple Zombie is not so much a hero as a gun that Hale points at people and situations, but as a pair they basically fit the brief. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

Hyper the Phenomenal:

Visually, Hyper the Phenomenal is great. I really like the... well "retrofuturistic" is the best description of it but of course at the time it was just futuristic. I really like his look, particularly what I assume is a breastplate since it seems to be separate to the shirt - there aren't enough non-aquatic super-heroes with the courage to wear a big scallop shell as armour.

Hyper is really the oddly-named Don-Vin, a scientist who has some sort of affiliation with the US Secret Service, either as an official agent or just a helpful pal. His main tools in the fight against evil are his Neogas Helmet that allows him to fly (plus is has a nifty two-way radio inside) and his Magno-Hydro Gauntlets, capable of both magnetic attraction and repulsion and with which he can both perform feats of superhuman strength (equivalent) and deflect incoming bullets.

I chose the cover image above because it's probably the most dynamic and interesting view available, due to the unfortunate fact that in Hyper the Phenomenal's sole outing he does very, very little of note. His adventure on the Isle of Arunta was serialized over two issues and for fully half of that time (and somewhere between 1 and 2 days in-story), Hyper stands in front of a steel wall using his gauntlets to prevent a crushing room deathtrap from killing his ally Agent 2Y. A heroic act, to be sure, but not a visually interesting one. And since the first quarter of the story was devoted to setting up the action, Hyper only gets the final quarter to really strut his stuff, and even then he probably only gets the job done because the villains had oppressed the island's inhabitants enough to start a rebellion. A poor showing indeed, Don-Vin. (Hyper Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

Kaänga:

Run-of-the-mill Tarzan clone who was orphaned in the jungle at a young age and whose Jane equivalent is named Ann Morgan. Kaänga's only real point of interest is the umlaut on his second a, but he has close to 200 appearances over the years so I'm sure we'll be seeing more from him. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 656: CAMILLA, QUEEN OF THE LOST CITY

(Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

What's this? Another Camilla? Yes, for some reason, the story of the lost Norse city in the African jungle was retold one issue later as one of a lost Mongol city in the African jungle. The two Camillas look the same but where the original was 600 years old Camilla II seems to not be superannuated at all.

Camilla II is also far less classically villainous than her predecessor: sure she claims that her city has the power to wipe out Western civilization but there's no indication that she intends to do anything about it. Likewise, her people raid ivory caravans for trade capital but let's face it: robbing an ivory trader is at worst a morally neutral act. Hell, I'm surprised that this high-tech Mongol-descended people bother to pay for anything at all!

Captain John Stanley, technical protagonist of the story, doesn't see things like I do, probably because he is an ivory trader. He blows up Camilla II's entire city rather than be her consort, then has the gall to come on to her in the glow of her burning civilization. What a jerk.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 655: CAMILLA, QUEEN OF THE LOST EMPIRE

(Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire! I love a lost ancient kingdom, especially in a jungle comic as it cuts down on the constant flow of racism. This particular ancient lost kingdom was founded by Norsemen, probably some time between 900 and 1100 CE going by the random dates thrown out at various points in the series.

We encounter the Lost Empire through the eyes of explorer Jon Dale, who I will tell you now I do not like. Having made his way to an isolated society with different ways and customs, Dale immediately begins judging and decrying them like a jerk. (aside: I just noticed that the Temple of Thor in the above image has a Thor face on its onion dome and that's just great)

I suppose I must give Dale some credit for mostly objecting to the human sacrifice aspect of Lost Empire culture (and like me he must have been pretty stuck on working out just how long the rainy season might be in the Lost Empire. A human sacrifice per day for two, maybe three months per year? That's gotta be a strain on the population, although given that they have access to a fountain of youth perhaps the major purpose is to prevent overpopulation).

Queen Camilla of course cannot resist the sheer sex appeal of this pasty man in his short and knee-high socks, and when her advances are rebuffed she attempts to make Dale's love interest (his female equivalent Ruth Birch) the next sacrifice to Thor he springs into action and:

a) sabotages the sacrifice chamber so that Ruth is spared

b) I want to say that he causes Camilla's extended lifespan to catch up with her but really he just stands by and watches her die of old age

c) blows up the entire damn city in order to effect his and his companions' escapes

And after wreaking this untold destruction on the Lost Empire and its people he decides to destroy their secret of eternal life because his pedestrian understanding of the world tell him that God would want him to.

I know that I just said that Camilla died of old age, but Jungle Comics 003 features her triumphant and inexplicable return, and with the help of an old seer she successfully enlists the aid of the god Bal to restore her city and people to existence and life, respectively.

When Jon and Ruth have the unmitigated gall to come back to the ruins of the Lost Empire to pick over its shattered remains they are understandably surprised to find it and Camilla alive and un-blown-up, and while the first time Camilla attempted to kill them both was a bit out of order I can completely understand wanting to do so this second time.

Things go poorly for Camilla once again, though it's just the Spring of Eternal Youth and not the entire city that gets it this time. Jon Dale, shitty as ever, determines to come back and pillage the place after the march of time kills her off for him.

Despite the fact that this second lack of access to the waters of eternal life seemed to be causing her to age at regular rather than super-advanced speed, Camilla takes things very poorly and becomes a tyrant (a proper tyrant too! Flayed alive in the torture pit!) and then gets banished. Luckily for her, among the things that Jon thinks that God has an opinion on is the Divine Right of Kings, and he and Ruth help Camilla restore the Spring of Eternal Life and see her welcomed back to her kingdom with open arms once she promises not to have anyone else flayed.

From this point on, Camilla is a heroic figure who deals with a series of threats to the Lost Empire and her rule thereof from both internal sources and an increasingly unlikely series of other lost kingdoms.

In one of these adventures, Camilla befriends hunchbacked assassin Caredodo and he becomes her champion/companion, and then about an issue later the comic book "no uggoes on the protagonist's side" clause comes into effect and the benevolent Angel of Faith transforms him into the handsome Sir Champion. Camilla has a long tenure in Jungle Comics and eventually virtually every aspect of her will change but for now this is the status quo.

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 028

Panther-heavy haul this time.

the White Panther: 

The White Panther is (along with his ancient father) the last survivor of some sort of lost jungle civilization that seems to have based their fashion sense along Jack Kirby lines, not that I'm complaining. He only has one appearance, in which he uses his supposed precognitive abilities to help a scientist and his daughter get ahold of some healing gemstones before a crook does.

Since he never appeared again, by far the most interesting thing about the White Panther is his outfit, in which the lower portion seems to be pants and the upper to be his unclothed, chalk-white torso. Also, he appears to be using an unsheathed dagger as a belt buckle and while wildly impractical you can't deny that that is very cool. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

the Red Panther:

The White Panther never returned, but the next issue of Jungle Comics featured the first appearance of the Red Panther (no relation), a fairly standard jungle hero and also a fairly standard costumed vigilante, a combination that I have a lot of affection for. Don't get me wrong, the broader structural problems of the jungle adventure comic are still front and centre but at least the protagonist has a fun look so you can distract yourself occasionally with a chuckle. (Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle:

Tabu, the Wizard of the Jungle! He saved a witch-doctor's life and was blessed with a "sixth sense" in turn unlocked a very wide range of powers and abilities that he uses to keep the peace in his jungle home! These powers include: physical abilities that outstrip those of the various jungle animals around him, including flight; the ability to communicate with and compel the actions of the animals and plants of the jungle; the ability to control the elements of the jungle to cause weather events (mist, wind) or disasters (earthquakes, plagues of insects); and his most spectacularly realized power, to change shape into animals or plants:

Yes, this is the power that Tabu uses to dispose of a group of "slave raiders" in his first appearance by transforming into a carnivorous tree and... eating them? It's possible that Tabu ate those guys, you guys.

At the end of that first appearance the witch-doctor (who implicitly loved the way that Tabu ate those guys) grants him a seventh sense to allow him to "be in touch with the invisible spirits of the jungle." Who knows what might have come of this new well of power if Fletcher Hanks had ever returned to the character but he had better things to do (see below) but sadly he never did. Tabu kept on appearing in Jungle Comics basically for the entirety of its run and the things he could or could not do varied wildly depending on who was on Tabu-duty that issue. (As far as I know he never ate any more guys) (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

Fantomah:

The reason that Fletcher Hanks never went back for another pass at Tabu was presumably because he was too preoccupied with what is perhaps his finest creation: Fantomah!

I won't spend too much time attempting to write the definitive Fantomah biography a) because many people have already written a lot about her and what can I add and b) because there isn't really too much to write about. Like Stardust the Super Wizard she is just this omnipotent, all-seeing justice force who unleashes variably-proportional retribution on various Chaotic Evil criminals, only Fantomah confines her activities to either a jungle or all jungles - it's hard to tell if Hanks was depicting different cultures and areas on purpose or just didn't care about, eg, whether tigers lived in Africa or not.

Fantomah continues after Fletcher Hanks stops making comics, so watch out for her wild new look when we cover the 1941 issues of Jungle Comics! (Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 013

Progress! Science! 

It's blood that this nameless inventor wants, blood to make his super fuel! Too bad for him that he chose to steal it from US Marine Strut Warren because he ends up extremely dead for his efforts (and the world remains dependant on fossil fuels. Thanks, Strut). (Fight Comics 003, 1940)

Professor Pierre Villon, refugee from the Paris Medical Academy, has set himself up on a tropical island to further his scientific research into making human/animal hybrids. His method of acquiring test subjects by knocking aircraft out of the sky with an engine killing ray attracts the attention of Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron, and Villon ends up perishing at the hands, claws and teeth of his own creations. (Fight Comics 008, 1940)

Professor Gustoff's one interest is in administering his mutagenic fluid to people to turn them into "weird creatures", aka bald guys with webbed hands and feet.He sets his sights too high when he tries to creaturize South Sea adventurer Shark Brodie and ends up beat up and presumably in some sort of colonial penal system. And the worst part? The poor weird creatures aren't even fully amphibious - they all end up drowning. (Fight Comics 009, 1940)

This is Dr Wratt, who lives on an isolated island populated by hypnotically controlled man-apes. He kidnaps Kaänga's love interest Ann Mason for what I can only assume are weird creep reasons, based mostly on the fact that Wratt's outfit consists of a short lab smock and nothing else. (Jungle Comics 002, 1940)