What's this page? Instead of having to go to the individual pages for new profiles and updates, this page is where all the updates will now reside. For a little while at least and then they will be moved to their respective homes. The first one will be sizeable, but afterwards, they will be shorter and more frequent.
Agent X: 1944, Contact Comics #2 (Holyoke). In the South Seas, men are on the hunt for the elusive Agent X whom no man has seen and lived. When her boyfriend Lt. Bill Evans disappears, Mary Roche decides to investigate as Black Venus. She slowly picks up his trail and it leads to a farmhouse with Evans’ body, stuck with a knife and note attached warning others of a similar fate. Black Venus continues until she final confronts Agent X and reveals the agent to be a woman. During the terrific fight, X goes crashing through a window to her apparent doom. Black Venus escapes wearing Agent X’s clothes as a disguise. She has the documents X stole, but also a broken heart.
Baroness Hartlesse: 1942, Captain Aero Comics #5 (Holyoke). Flag-man and Rusty fail in stopping a kidnapping attempt in DC. The Flag-man thinks the victim was Miss Winter, the official secretary to the President of the United States. However, when they visit the office she is still there. Investigating strange troop deployments (to Iceland instead of the East as the President told Major Hornet aka Flag-man he was going to do), they quickly discover the real Miss Winter AND the Baroness, a Nazi agent. They foil her plot and round up most of her gang, but she escapes. She is captured after failing another scheme in issue 6.
The Black Baron: 1942, Captain Aero Comics #8 (Holyoke). The Black Baron is a cruel Nazi pilot sent by Hitler to handle the guerillas of Serbia, which he does by strafing civilians in reprisals for guerilla raids. Captain Aero and Buster are sent to handle the Baron who survives the initial encounter but is apparently killed in their second.
The Black Lama: 1942, Captain Aero Comics #4 (Holyoke). North and West of the Himalayas, beyond Tibet in the snowy peaks of Tangla mountains is the small kingdom of Kan ruled by the Black Lama. He is sought out by Japan for an alliance to conquer India. For his part, he’ll get parts of Bhutan, Nepal, and China. Using his vast mental powers, he is able to make Captain Aero detour his flight from his nearby mission and crash land nearby. In an effort to make him talk, a torturer named Khotang is brought in. Luckily, Khotang is really Carstairs, a British agent. The two fight their way out with Carstairs shooting the Black Lama. They steal a Japanese Zero and Aero is able to deliver the plans to General Chiang Kai-Shek.
Black Tarantula: 1950, A Feature Presentation #5 (Fox). The Black Tarantula is some type of undead. His tombstone that lists no death but a birth of 1101. However, by the account of the story he relates to the ghosts of the same cemetary, he says the events of the story took place approximately 900 years ago and even then he had been not alive for 200 years, suggesting his birth to be somewhere between late 8th or early 9th century. His name on the stone is Zoraster Rorret. He is cruel and evil but falls for Princess Elthena of Minnervale Castle about 900 years ago. She is in love with a commoner named Leopold, forbidden by her parents. He appears to her in his guise as Count Rorret (read the last name backwards) and tells her she could have Leopold forever in death, a death that he can provide. She agrees and he transforms into a large black tarantula and with a single bite transforms her into a being like himself. He hopes as she adjusts to her new evil state of being she'll forget about Leopold. She does not and Leopold reveals he wants to be converted as he knows the secrert to stopping Rorret but he has to be on a more equal level. As Minnervale is new, her stinger bites are not as powerful and that it would take three to convert Leopold. Rorret tries to prevent them and briefly gives up on pursuing the princess though she already shows signs for cruelty. He converts another young woman and she ends up biting Leopold. For two years, Rorret stays away from Leopold but is again led astray by the princess who leads him into a trap. Leopold throws a hood over Rorret, his weakness that when blinded he loses his supernatural powers and those converted through him are restored back to life, thus curing the three mortals. Alive, Leopold is unable to kill Rorret but with the help of the townspeople, they keep him blinded, bind him in chains, and bury him. Overjoyed to have their daughter back, they knight Leopold and allow them to marry. Four years later, Leopold is killed in the service of the king and the Princess dies later. It is unrevealed how Rorret eventually got free from his burial. Rorret is described as having pale skin, but the art has him being darker complexioned. Among his magic powers, he is a powerful hypnotist and able to transform people into animals. He bites in order to kill or convert, but does not show a need to feed as a vampire. He cannot abide sunlight and retreats to underground lairs. He likes killing those that are good or transforming them into animals.
The Blue Falcon: 1942, Captain Aero Comics #2 (Holyoke). A lady Nazi pilot in control of a deadly “blue ray” which she has equipped on the nose of her plane and that can quickly reduce an enemy aircraft into molten metal. Originally Captain Aero faced her in the Caribbean where he thought she had perished but she pops up again months later in China bedeviling some of the Flying Tigers who happen to be old friends of Captain Aero. Her viciousness can be shown when she sends the outfit a message along with the ears of some missing squadron leaders.
Deathless Witch of Spittin’ Devil: 1945, Four Favorites #18 (Ace). Attractive young woman Marcia Davis is upset when a road construction crew remove a large boulder blocking a cave. She is convinced that it has freed the spirit of an ancestor rumored to be a witch, though her fears were dismissed by her fiancé Bill Cooper, Aunt Agatha and her guardian Mr. Walker. A couple days later, the Daily Star sends their new reporter Isobel Blake to investigate the stories of a witch running around the “Spit-in-Devil” or “Spittin’ Devil” countryside. She convinces her friend Lash Lightning to come along. At first dismissing the stories as local superstitions, their attitude changes when the figure of a robes witch pushes over a large boulder to crash into the car driving them up the mountain, killing the driver. They change into their costumes and track the witch to an old mill just in time to find the dead body of Bill Cooper. They also find Mr. Walker and Aunt Agatha prowling about and the unconscious body of Marcia some distance away. Back at the Davis home, the two heroes announce the secret to solving the case is at the mill and the cave. The witch first blocks Lightning in the cave and then strikes at the mill where Lightning Girl is investigating. Lightning Girl destroys the mill wheel before she can be thrown in, and the witch in her madness jumps to her death. Later, the heroes reveal the witch to have been Marcia. She was so obsessed with the reports of her ancestor being a witch, she had come to believe she herself was one. Lightning Girl had figured out her identity by the mud on Marcia’s shoes matched that of the banks of the river which was different from the rest of the estate.
The Devil: 1940, Mystery Men Comics #7 (Fox). The Devil is sending threatening messages to Sinclair Barlow, extorting money from him. Barlow tells Wing Turner and Wing Turner lies in wait for his return. When Turner spots the Devil's plane, he takes flight and the two have an aerial dog-fight. With his plane damaged, the Devil returns to his castle, pursued by Turner. The two fight hand-to-hand and the Devil's disguise is knocked loose and Turner recognizes him as "Baldy" Barry. Baldy claims he has cheated the electric chair before and he will again and he jumps into a convenient lava pit. The story is sparse on many details. The Devil's disguise seems simply horns and mustache. He is bare-skinned besides trunks and gun holster. He has the castle and a plane equipped with guns. The first panel of the story shows him standing in some flames - could Baldy have real fire powers and jumping into the lava pit was really a way to escape as opposed to suicide?
Siva Dey: 1953, Undercover Girl #6 (Magazine Enterprises). Female inventor, she has a small rod that animates stone to do her will. She uses this power to animate a huge statue from the “Temple of Jain” and then to unite the hill tribes in India under her rule. She is defeated when Starr Flagg aka Undercover Girl has the pass that Siva Dey’s army of statues and tribesmen are passing through dynamited. Presumably, Siva Dey is taken prisoner and without allies is unable to procure more of the materials she needs to make more rods.
Jim Evers: 1941, Spitfire Comics #2 (Harvey). Evers is a brilliant scientist in 1980 who discovers the secret of space travel. On the maiden voyage of his one-man ship, it is struck by a meteor that disables his ship and leaves him in orbit of the Earth until a decade later a passing comet is able to pull it from its orbit and he crashes back on Earth. However, in those years, he was sustained by the unfiltered rays of sun, grows to eight feet tall, and his mind has become deranged with a hatred of mankind. Once on Earth, he puts together a gang for plunder and murder. In his lab, he grants his men the power of invisibility to even the odds in their battle against the Magician from Bagdad. His story gets weirder when a small winged being appears to him with a call to help. Evers captures him but it telepathically reaches out to the Magician. The creature basically says “Me Sisti Poo Me Poo Me” or variations of it. Sisti helps the Magician defeat Evers and seems to become his sidekick. As this is the last Magician from Bagdad strip, we don’t discover who or what Sisti is.
Faux Black Terrors: 1947, Exciting Comics #59 (Better). A fight promoter garbs two fighters in Black Terror gear in order for them to stop a fake robbery in front of Jean, a known friend of the Terrors. She also happens to be friends with Bob Benton and Tim who are the real Terror Twins. They investigate, but because Jean is on hand, Bob has to continually play the wimp when in the ring with the fake Black Terror. The whole plot is to promote a charity fight with the “Black Terrors” in the ring taking on six fighters at a time with the promoter and gang of crooked fighters taking the proceeds. Of course, it goes haywire when the real Black Terror and Tim show up and defeat the fighters for real as well as their counterparts. The fake Black Terror is unmasked as Sondo, former circus strong man and wanted escaped convict.
Gorrit: 1942, Weird Comics #19 (Fox). Nazi pilot who wears all black and flies a black plane emblazoned with a skull & crossbones. He is not above firing on farmers. His plane is also equipped to release a stream of flaming oil. Swoop Curtis is the better fighter, but Gorrit manages to escape each time. Series ends without his final comeuppance.
Sin Lee: 1940, Mystery Men Comics #6 (Fox). Sin Lee is a pirate leader in the China Seas. He is a recurring foe of Captain Savage, never staying captured for very long.
Noric, the Maniac of the Opera: 1943, Captain Aero v3 n11 (Et-Es-Go): The opera house in Washington DC has its own Phantom of the Opera type legend. When Joan Wayne goes on a double date to the opera, she also attends a reception for Artura Merez, the president of Comania, a small South American republic rich in rubber that is announcing its allegiance to the Allies. He is struck down by a poison dart, and Joan ditches her formal gown for the garb of Miss Victory (no clue where she was hiding it). She is attacked and hurtled through a secret passage and chute to tunnels beneath the opera house and equipped with a maze of mirrors. She escapes that but Noric binds her with ropes from a whip. He claims to have been living hidden in the cellar for years due to his ugly countenance. However, he sees in Hitler a soul as dark as his and declares allegiance to the Nazis. Miss Victory breaks her bonds and begins beating Noric despite him being armed with a knife. Meanwhile, investigating soldiers manage to follow the trail and arrive in time to see Miss Victory knock the horrible face mask off Noric. He’s revealed as actually being Hans Shroder, former conductor of the opera house orchestra who was also an espionage agent for Germany. After he was let go, he took advantage of the Noric legend to rig up the trap doors and tunnels and killed the workers who built them. Despite Merez originally being thought dead, it is revealed he was taken to the hospital in time and recovered.
Phantom of Cadel: 1940, Mystery Men Comics #7 (Fox). The mysterious and masked Phantom returns to his castle in the village of Cadel. At twilight, he rises from a room with caskets to wander the village and he kidnaps a beautiful young woman. The magician Zanzibar visiting vows to return her. The Phantom claims to be extra strong but Zanzibar easily handles him and the Phantom's death trip of flowing molten lead. Zanzibar rescues the woman but the molten metal triggers an explosion, presumably killing the Phantom. Like the Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom plays an organ and his hideous face is unmasked while playing.
DC Villains
The Gimmick Guy: 1949, Star Spangled Comics #90. A crook with a desire for gold narrowly escapes being captured by Merry the Gimmick Girl. He decides he needs to counter her so he whips himself up some gimmicks in order to become the Gimmick Guy and sets out on a one-man job. He carries an elongating claw that allows him to grab a guard’s gun, a small lasso to trip the guard, an explosive doll, a perfume sprayer that sprays chloroform, and a fake hand that’s handy for when he’s ultimately captured and he lets that be handcuffed to the cop’s wrist. However, when he later tries to steal Merry’s cape which holds her gimmicks and use them against her, he discovers that she had foreseen that and loaded them with gadgets that back-fire against the user. He’s quickly captured for a second time and carted off to jail.
Fawcett Villains
Gloobells: 1941, Whiz Comics #24. Gloobells is a traitorous inventor. He steals military secrets and invents weapons such as a tornado gun to offer to enemies of America. His partner is a large hairy man named Hugo. Hugo looks a lot like an ape, but Gloobells treats him as a mentally deficient human. Hugo does seem capable of independent action and is capable of shooting a gun and taking enjoyment of using the tornado gun on flying birds. Spy Smasher manages to track the duo to their lighthouse lair. Gloobells accidentally shoots Hugo with the tornado gun. He goes flying out of the top of light house and is assumed dead. Gloobells is taken into custody and the weapon turned over to the military.
Lady Satan: 1947, Manhunt! #1 (Magazine Enterprises). This Lady Satan is clever crime boss operating in the Mid-West. She sends instructions on the paper wrapping of expensive $20 cigars. She is careful in the crimes she plans. She does not fear the local police but is scared of the FBI. The banks her gang knock over are not part of the Federal Reserve for example. However, FBI man James Fallon is keeping his eyes open, hoping for the crooks to slip up. One does. Spotting Fallon driving near their hideout and thinking the detective is wise to them, he shoots at Fallon and causing him to wreck. Lady Satan then try to arrange things to look like an accident. They plan on setting the abandoned they use as a hideout on fire, killing Fallon and destroying all evidence. However, they the inn by the rear door. Fallon escapes his fiery doom and calls in the rest of the FBI. Captured, Lady Satan is relieved at least they cannot try her for murder. Fallon informs her only for attempted murder and the bank robbery. She protests that the FBI does not have jurisdiction, but what she apparently did not know was that the inn sat on the state line and when they exited the rear door with the loot, it became a federal crime. Lady Satan wears tight clothes with a deep neckline, accentuating her figure. She appears to be bit of a chain smoker and her hairstyle is done up to resemble horns, making her a classic femme fatale. She and her gang seem to know Fallon of the local FBI office by sight. It is strange that with her cleverness, she would be unaware that their hideout sits on the state line.
Quality Villains
The Crow: 1943, Smash Comics #40. A gang leader from the prohibition days of the 1920s, upon his escape from Leavenworth, he finds the war-rationing days of the 1940s conducive to his style of conducting business. He and his gang are stopped by Larry Noble, the Yankee Eagle.
Atmos Fear: 1943, Smash Comics #44. Atmos Fear is a boy delinquent and consigned to a reformatory. His great grandfather was billed as “the last of the genuine black magic practitioners”. When he died, he willed that his great grandson would be blessed with terrible power on his thirteenth birthday. When that day arrives, he discovers after he gets angry he can radiate such heat to make someone standing near him pass out. With a little concentration he can freeze water coming out of a hose. He uses his powers to escape and then uses the heat to melt a fight promoter’s safe. Unfortunately for him, the female wrestler Daffy Dill is working out in the room on the other side of the wall and the heat permeates through. Fighting him even reduces her figure. When she manages to capture him, she decides on her own brand of justice: she keeps him captured to warm her house in the summer and cool in the winter. Daffy was back up to her fuller figure the next issue.
Ki Kaney: 1943, Smash Comics #44. A hillbilly from Kentucky where he was called “Hurricane” because of how “blowed them rev’nooers plumb outta the hills.” He loves his moonshine and decides to travel to see what other areas’ moonshine is like. He drops off in a train yard and with his incredible strength kills a yard detective. He almost kills Rookie Rankin patrolling nearby as well. He finds a shack where a man has a set-up that appears to be a still. Kaney fills his jug with the concoction and takes a swig when he is confronted by the maker, whom he promptly kills with a blow to the head. However, the man was an inventor and what Kaney drank was a formula for synthetic rubber. It gives Kaney temporary powers of having a rubber resiliency and being able to bounce which allows him to evade capture after a rematch with Rankin. He uses his powers to hold up a bank and escape from the police. Rankin realizes he’s going back to the professor’s shack and when he catches up with him there, Kaney is sleeping off the moonshine. When he comes to, his powers have vanished and Rankin outfights him.
Faux Lady Luck: 1943, Smash Comics #44. Melba runs with a counterfeiting gang of 3 men, one of whom is named Moe. Instead of counterfeiting money, they are counterfeiting War Stamps which the sell at reduced prices. When the broke and love-sick Count DiChange is rejected for the armed service due to high blood pressure, he buys some of the stamps, not knowing that the Lady Luck he buys them from is a counterfeit herself. However, he happens to be friends with Brenda Banks, the real Lady Luck who licks the gang and puts them out of commission.
Marak: 1943, Smash Comics #40. Marak is a master criminal from Paris. He longs for his days there as he finds regular crime beneath him and nothing in America seems challenging enough. He uses his skills from when he ran with the Paris Apache to save a Mr. Elias Green from a mugging and discovers the man is a failed businessman. He convinces him that the two can go into business together and in one year Marak will be a millionaire by making use of Mr. Green’s credit and social standing while Green will be rescued from debt and bankruptcy. In one year, it has come to pass but Green discovers that Marak has been using murder to influence the stock prices. Marak kills Green to keep him from talking. Rookie cop Rankin drops by to talk to Marak over parking tickets and discovers the dead body. However, he finds that arresting Marak does little good as Marak has developed friendships in high places and the Police Commissioner himself has him released. It’s not long before he’s up to his old tricks, and Rankin manages to catch him attempting to kill another man. He outfights Marak and Marak’s would-be victim lives to testify.
The Spider: 1943, Smash Comics #41. “In an underground den in the heart of the city slum section, there lives a dreaded creature, fearfully known as the Spider to his fellow-lieutenants. He spins his web of extortion and murder, preying upon helpless people.” The Spider is a hunchback with pointed teeth and talon like hands. He is able to accurately throw a knife into a gang member’s back when caught by the police. He keeps a pit full of black widow spiders in which he will throw those who refuse to pay as a lesson to others. That and beatings keep the other store owners in line. However, Rookie Rankin gets wind of the gang while on his beat and tracks the Spider’s gang down. In their conflict, the Spider falls into his own pit and presumably perishes.
09-10-2018
The Glove: 1944, Jim Hardy (United Features). Before Michael Jackson, there was "The Glove" a villainous gang leader who wore a single glove, on his right hand. His gang was able to briefly capture two of the Triple Terror. Despite this, they found him a bit too common for a master-mind and were not surprised to find out that he was simply a lieutenant for the beautiful but deadly Valpine, the true criminal mastermind. Note: In the above issue, the story makes mention the group had faced him before, but at this time I do not have access to earlier stories.
Lady Doom: 1952, Tim Holt #30 (Magazine Enterprises). Lady Doom possessed a mysterious and ancient "Death Wheel," supposedly once
belonging to King Solomon. She traveled the American Southwest would allow people to spin the wheel and learn their fate for a fee. It is possible that Lady Doom herself was the cause behind the wheel's "predictions"
coming true. She was an expert with throwing knives, handling handguns and even able use a blow gun. It is possible that she posed as "Liz Beckett", a woman who claimed to have found gold as the wheel predicted she would. Her activities brought her into conflict with the masked hero Redmask and apparently fell from a cliff to her doom when fleeing from him.
The Mystic Monarch: 1947, Startling Comics #46 (Better). The martian race the Gobuls are at war with the other dominant martian species. The Gobuls are like large round armadillos that can fly while the other race is more humanoid in appearance though their noses and mouths are more beak like in shape. The Gobuls are led in their latest foray into conquest by the Mystic Monarch. The Monarch wears voluminous robes that hide the roud Gobul shape, but his head is that of a green human skull. He is unmasked by Lance Lewis as being a renegade martian and not a Gobul at all.
Paper Man: 1946, Jo Jo Comics #2 (Fox): The Paper Man appears to be a humanoid man made up of folded paper in a standard business suit. He has a moveable artificial island base, machines that can throw lightning and a way to dematerialize and rematerialize objects, such as armored cars with gold. He claims that his folded paper form could be stronger than steel. He also appears to be immune to the powers of Electro in that he is non-conductive. Two of his thugs are Pasty and Roundhouse. Electro manages to capture his men and stop his robberies, but the Paper Man manages to escape.
Un-named - Devil of the Skull: 1946, Jo Jo Comics #2 (Fox): Other than the splash page, this fellow didn't appear anywhere in the story. Still, he was too tantalizing to completely forget, especially as neither Electro nor the Paper Man received origins. Could the "Devil of the Skull" factor in there somewhere?.
DC Villains:
Ace-Deuce: 1941, Star-Spangled Comics #1. Ace-Deuce is a master criminal thief with his own gang. He and his gang are the first foes to be captured by the Tarantula. They manage to escape from police custody and he plans another super-crime, a theft from the top of a skyscraper. They are captured by the Tarantula again. He has his own auto-gyro.
Hood: 1941, World's Finest Comics #3. A man in hood and robe who uses local natives and a witch doctor in an attempt to seize control of the Panama canal. Lando's magic proves to be more powerful than the witch doctor's and the Hood is captured when trying to flee.
Quality Villains
Spider Man: 1943, Feature Comics #66. This short guy dressed like a cowboy with a spider mask, rode a huge acid-dripping spider causing havoc and terror. Spider Widow and the Raven captured him, revealing the spider to be a mechanical one and the Spider Man nothing more than a Nazi saboteur.