MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 699: AGRA

(Planet Comics 002, 1940)

We are introduced to Agra when Earth-woman Ava bursts in to Auro. Lord of Jupiter's court to warn him that Agra intends to kill him. She really talks up Agra's prowess vis-a-vis elephant- human- and tree-slaying, and hopefully takes the time to describe his outfit which for all the world looks like it was designed by Mike Grell just after he finished with Disco Era Cosmic Boy.

Auro of course does not know the meaning of the word retreat, even after suffering a particularly gruesome-sounding wound at the fangs of an escaped gorilla that he can only blame himself for having in his palace in the first place

Agra and his band of hooligans soon arrive to force the confrontation, despite the protestations of Auro's followers. The important thing to not here is the stripe of hair running down each of these guys' heads, which is the sign that they are Jovians and makes it easy to tell when someone in an Auro strip is an Earth human or not. Except when the artist forgets. Or when it's clearly a generic jungle adventure with "AURO"  and "JUPITER" written in as appropriate. Also, I think that Jovian women probably have regular-style hair because Golden Age artists could not countenance drawing a dame without some flowing locks.

All this build up of Agra was of course just just to build up how mighty Auro is for not only defeating him one handed but doing it with a single punch. An effective narrative technique, albeit one that ends up in a high mortality rate for third-string super-villains in later years.

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 034

Here they are! Some guys you've never heard of!

the Press Guardian: 

In the Press Guardian's first outing he is known as the Falcon, but he has the same core mission as he will throughout his career: to clean up crime in Central City via the free press, even if he must do so in a pretty bad costume. A fair few places online list reporter Flash Calvert as the Falcon's secret identity but this is one of your classic reading comprehension/ research tests: it certainly seems like Calvert is the Falcon right up to the last third of the story, in which they start appearing in the same panels as one another. Thus, a claim that Calvert is the Falcon means that the claimant either skimmed the story in question or is taking the word of another who did so.

By Pep Comics 002, the Falcon has officially changed his name to the Press Guardian and traded in his Victorian daredevil costume for a classic suit-and-mask combo. His identity is also revealed as Perry Chase, society columnist and universally derided failson of the publisher of the Daily Express. As with a lot of Golden Age heroes the necessity for your secret identity to be the subject of scorn is not really explained - surely the same effect could be achieved by faking a limp or something and then people wouldn't constantly be insulting you to your face.

But the papes must go through, and the majority of the Press Guardians adventures have a hand in ensuring that they do, if only tangentially. (Pep Comics 001, 1940)

Auro, Lord of Jupiter:

Before Auro was lord of anything he was just some kid with the last name Hardwich who was out on a Sunday space drive with his family when all of a sudden things went wrong and the family space car crashed into the solid, non-gaseous, habitable surface of the planet Jupiter. There, the now-orphaned boy is raised by a Jovian tiger, becomes extra beefy in the high gravity environment, and rises to a position of leadership in the nearby tribe of "Jupiter Brutes," who name him Auro, meaning "Unconquerable".

All this is pretty standard jungle orphan, white guy exceptionalism stuff and I'm sure that one could make a pretty good case for it being just as unpleasant a series of tropes even when divorced from any real-world peoples etc, but what I must focus on is the fact that when you put a jungle guy in space he becomes a space barbarian and is actually pretty entertaining to read. (Planet Comics 001, 1940)

the Red Comet:

Speaking of taking character tropes from one comic genre and putting them in another, here's the Red Comet! Like his fellow Fiction House hero the Red Panther, the Red Comet brings super-hero style to a non-super-heroic world, or worlds in this case, as he beetles around the cosmos righting wrongs.

The Red Comet's main trick involves shrinking and growing at will, but over time he demonstrates a wide range of situationally useful abilities including but not limited to: a crime-in-progress sense, insect communication, invisibility, super strength, the ability to survive in space without PPE, flight and the ability to change the size of others.

The Red Comet's ability to change size is initially attributed to advanced technology (an "intra-atomic space adjuster," natch), while his expanded ability set is generally described as "magic." Then, in Planet Comics 009, he is on a dinner date and explains that he got his size control abilities when he was struck by "some outer space force," which gives him a more traditional super-hero origin. No word on whether his ability to talk to termites is still magic or as a result of another jolt of cosmic energy. (Planet Comics 001, 1940)

Tiger Hart of Crossbone Castle:

Tiger Hart is one of the more obscure Fletcher Hanks characters, a medieval warrior who spends his sole recorded adventure seeking the Great Solinoor Diamond (time for a Real Folk entry for the Koh-i-noor, I suppose) in order to free Queen Hilda from the clutches of the bandit chieftain Turk-the-Terrible. 

All pretty standard sword and sorcery stuff but, presumably in deference to the fact that the story was being published in Planet Comics, it all takes place on the planet Saturn. This raises many questions! Are Tiger Hart et al Saturnians? Are they from a far enough future that humans have colonized Saturn (and the habitability of Saturn must be taken as a given, alas) and then gone through a societal collapse of some kind, a Dark Age and now a medieval-style era? Or, as the only real reference to Saturn is that the Solinoor is from Saturn, is the story set on a far-future retromedieval Earth? Many things to ponder. (Planet Comics 002, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 698: SINFO

(Planet Comics 002, 1940)

Sinfo is a scientist of the unspecified future who has used his mind control technology to dominate a city of Neptunian Crab-Men and is now looking into the possibility of doing the same to the people of Earth. As such, he has captured space adventurer Buzz Crandall along with his associates Dr and Susan Curan.

I have a lot of affection for Sinfo, 100% of which are because I appreciate his aesthetics. Why, just look at the giant fan that he has installed at the highest point of Crab City in order to keep it shrouded in concealing mists! It's beautiful!

And speaking of Crab City, I love the design of Sinfo's thralls the Crab-Men. Talk about simultaneously goofy and menacing! If these were video game enemies I would absolutely underestimate them constantly, only to lose 3/4 of my health to a spinning claw attack.

Sinfo himself also looks amazing. I don't know if he's an alien or a mutant or what, but the important thing is that he's dressed like someone who lives in a swamp in a movie from the 70s, his facial skin looks like it's melting, and he's not balding gracefully. This is peak Scientist Who Lives Alone styling.

Sinfo's attempts at taming the human mind are cut short when he makes one of the super-villain's cardinal errors and allows his primary piece of technology - in this case his Crab-Man controlling device - fall into the hands of the protagonist. This leads to Sinfo falling to his death as he is flung from the top of a building by his former subjects. A fairly ruthless move on Buzz Crandall's part but I suppose at this point he'd gone through a lot.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 697: THE CREATURE

(Planet Comics 002, 1940)

Having defeated the evil Sarko, Flint Baker and his crew are ready to head home to accept their accolades as the as-fas-as-anyone-knows first humans to land on Mars, when word comes from Princess Viga that the city of Ru is facing yet another deadly threat. This time it's a giant four-armed primate that attacks three times per year and hauls Martians away to an uncertain and terrifying fate. Will Flint Baker help them? Of course he will!

It's a daunting beast to be sure, and it compounds the danger by immediately grabbing Princess Vigo and Baker Expedition stowaway-turned-crewmember Mimi, but Flint proves the old adage true once more: no matter how big you are or how many arms you have, you're not walking away from a rocket ship to the mouth.

I suppose that the old saying was only partially accurate in this case, actually, because the monster does walk away from the scene, if only to die elsewhere. Baker and his crew must pursue on "rocket-propelled degravitation pods" (i.e., pogo sticks).

Arriving at the monster's location, Baker and his men find that it is indeed dead, but also that it was not some wild creature with a periodic appetite for Martians but the creation of a little green guy with a big head. The Creature! Which, yes, is almost certainly not what they call themself but "the creature" is basically the only thing that is used to identify them in the caption boxes so I'm going with it.

Not only does the Creature reveal that they were the creator of the monster, but that the beast was in fact made out of the kidnapped Martians! And they're making another one! Just how many Martians were being kidnapped, and for how long?

(this is honestly a pretty great slow burn horror concept that was certainly out of the realm of 1940 comic book storytelling: people start disappearing, nobody knows how or where, and then after a couple of years someone sees a creature grabbing someone. And then every time it comes back, it's a bit bigger or has another limb, etc. Ideally the reveal comes while the beast is still alive, via DNA sequencing or something like that)

Honestly, the Creature is an amazing villain. A bombastic weirdo living in a cave and making a monster out of people? Terrific. But also, they are super strong and invulnerable to ray gun blasts that destroy everything around them. Who is this little creep and why are they living in a cave making monsters?

Sadly, though the Creature might have been immune to ray gun technology they were still susceptible to a good old fashioned sock on the jaw. Flint and his compatriots leave the Creature behind to be blown up with the rest of the laboratory in the obligatory final explosion - a sad end for a terrific antagonist.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 696: QUORAK

(Planet Comics 001, 1940)

Quorak, like Moloka before him, seems to have developed his planet-wrecking technology without a clear indication of how he was going to use it. The caption box mentions destroying "all traces of civilization" and Quorak himself speaks of becoming "the greatest power in the whole universe!" but there have to be a lot of steps in the flow chart with "????" and "work this out later" on them. He does look very menacing while sitting at his desk, though.

Like, yes, Quorak's device can and does pull Pluto toward his base on planetoid Spectremus (excellent name), but why. What is he going to do with a planetload of wrecked cities and dead Plutonians? Is the destruction the point? Then why not push Pluto into the Sun or something? Why pull it?

I think I'm getting so worked up about this because I like Quorak so much. Look at him in his little layered skirt - he could be such a good villain if he had any sort of decent plan. Why, he deals with two Inter-Planetary Police officers without even breaking a sweat!

Ultimately Quorak succcumbs to one of the classic villain's follies, of toying with his victims too much. He hangs Inter-Planetary Police officer Gary upside-down for a larf and ends up zapping himself with Gary's heat ray. And then to add insult to injury he gets captured with his own paralysis ray. Shoulda worked on that flow chart a bit more, Quorak, old pal.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 695: ZAN

(Planet Comics 001, 1940) 

Zan lives on the far-off planet Volcus and uses the energies of its magnetic core to power his spaceship fleet and capture yet more spaceships. And why does he do this? Why, so that he can turn their crew into science zombies and eventually amass an army large enough to conquer the universe!

(he also has this one lady with him at all times and I'm not sure what her role is exactly because she does not utter a single word throughout the comic. Is she his lieutenant? His girlfriend? A different story might have revealed that she was the real mastermind all along but no dice. She just hangs out behind him in her slinky dress and touches his shoulders)

Zan's piracy is very concerning to the Solar Congress, and so they deploy the Solar Force, under the command of Captain Nelson Cole and his little pal Lieutenant Bud. Too bad for them that their ships are made out of the same stuff as all of the missing ones were: they are immediately swept away to Volcus to be zombified.

Zan's whole plan seems to hinge on the unstoppable nature of his science zombie armies, but if I'm honest they aren't as big a threat as he lets on. For one thing, they seem to operate like units in a strategy game in that if they're not being explicitly directed then they just keep on doing what they were last ordered, including marching forward into a pit and just standing around. Does Zan believe that he and his ladyfriend have the wherewithal to control entire armies of these guys on the fly or is he going to start recruiting elite Starcraft players to his side soon?

Zan is ultimately rounded up after Cole and Bud manage to capture the paralysis ray that Zan himself had in reserve specifically to counter his armies if they went haywire. Heckuva way to find out that your contingency plan was viable, fella.

It's nice that they let Zan and his gal pal share a cell, but I'm not sure if she's as into him as she once was.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 694: SARKO

(Planet Comics 001, 1940)

We're in the 1940 run of Planet Comics now, so look out for a fair few of space tyrants with one-word nonsense names. Like Sarko here! Sarko is an Earth man who came to Mars in 1933 and set about conquering the dark side of the planet. Now it's the near future and Sarko has his sights set on taking over the remainder of Mars and the light-side city of Ru in particular. 

The... Ruvians? No demonym is provided. The Ruvians aren't really up to the task of defending their domed city from Sarko and his army of One-Eyed Monster Men, but lucky for them intrepid space explorer Flint Baker and his crew of condemned murderers (plus New York Globe reporter and stowaway Mimi Wilson) have arrived just in time to help out.

In an even greater coincidence, crewman Cliff Grant recognizes Sarko! It turns out that he was in jail for a series of murders committed while under the mental control of a man named Sappo and that Sappo is in fact the same guy! It's a heckuva thing folks, but that's comics for you.

Grant almost gets his revenge, too, but doesn't quite stick the landing. Sarko manages to kill Grant but is then taken down by another member of Baker's crew. Mars and Ru are saved!

BONUS: finding a crashed spaceship from decades earlier is an objectively very funny thing to happen to someone who was just crowing about being the first human on Mars.

Heck! I almost forgot to show the One-Eyed Monster Men of Mars! Well, here one is.