Pierre La Morte: 1947, Thrilling Comics #61 (Better). La Morte is a ruthless French treasure hunter and he kidnaps Dane Hunter to guide him through the jungles of West Africa in search of a temple and solid gold idols worshipped by a tribe of headhunters. Dane is rescued by his gal Princess Pantha and they fight their way free, assuming that Pierre has fallen victim to either the headhunters or killer crocs in the river, the only way away to elude the savage tribe. However, at the end of the story he is revealed to have survived, vowing that the duo will not make it to civilization and reveal his crimes to the authorities. Sadly, the story was not continued in the following issue so La Morte's ultimate fate is unknown.
Lady Satan: 1944, Catman #23 (Holyoke). A brunette woman with a pinched death-head face starts appearing at an aircraft factory, seemingly able to kill the workers by merely showing her face. She is stopped by the Hood and unmasked as the wife of Abel Garling, the company owner. Garling was being paid by the enemy to halt production and had worked up this scheme with his wife wearing the skull-face mask to terrorize the workers. They rigged up the plant grounds with electric wires and when she stepped on a contact plate, her victims were electrocuted.
Lady Serpent: (Better). This murderous female fought Black Terror. She had hypnotic powers and loved gems.
Professor Lago: 1940, Science Comics #5 (Fox). Professor Lago heads a gang of spies and saboteurs (Radnor, Olga, and an un-named man) who blow up the Panama Canal which puts the hero Dynamo on their tracks. Lago has another act up his sleeves, he plans on poisoning Extown's water supply from his secret chemical lab. Again he's stopped by Dynamo. He's presumably killed when his lab is blown up. The other members of the gang are arrested.
Lailani: Wonderworld Comics (Fox). Vampire Queen of the Valley of the Moon. The magician/mystic Yarko and an expedition are on a search in the frozen northwest of the Yunnan Province looking for the Hoshai, a flower with human blood and found in the Valley of the Moon. They find not only the flower but a kingdom of vampire women. Lailani has vast hypnotic powers but not as strong as Yarko's.
Landor: 1939, Speed Comics #1 (Harvey). Landor lives up to his billing, "maker of monsters". He wears a hooded robe and creates monsters like a seven foot tall woman with functional bat wings, giant mosquitoes, and various Frankenstein styled monsters. He's opposed by the non-powered couple Anthony "Tony" Torrence and Torrence's fiance Marcia (the GCD lists her as Maria, but the stories I've read have her as Marcia). Landor may have powers himself as he repeatedly escapes sure death, and each time Tony seems to think the villain is surely dead this time. Landor's head and face is skull-like ala the Phantom of the Opera or the Red Skull.
Lana the Lion Girl: 1941, Amazing Man Comics #19 (Centaur). Beautiful Asian Lana is hired by mob leader Scarskull to kill the DA Sam Williams whose investigations are putting the pressure on the mob. To this end she and her lion Leo are a girl lion tamer act for a stage/vaudeville show starring the local celebrities such as the state governor, mayor, senator and the DA. And, also starring Dr. Hypno. Suspicious of her behavior, Hypno mentally takes over Leo and cowers Lana when she tries to use him as a weapon. Scarskull later falls to his death while fleeing capture. NOTE: Other sources give her a last name. This is a correction of that data.
Lapadra: Anthony Durrant provides: Lepadra was a jungle ruler who could transform herself into a leopard and also transfer the brain of a leopard into a human or vice versa. She succeeded in transplanting the brain of Tanee, the mate of Jo-Jo the Jungle King, into the body of a leopard. Jo-Jo forced her to reverse the fiendish operation, after which she died at the hands of her own victims
Laughing Head: Prize Comics (Feature Publications). A crook with a big grin and a "ho ho ho" commits daring crimes and leads his gangs against the Black Owl (I) on several occassions. However, each time the Black Owl has the last laugh.
The Law of Caribou: 1937, Western Picture Stories #2 (Centaur). Moss Sharpe is the Law of Caribou, ie a crooked man using his influence and power in the Old West to extort money and railroad innocents to the hangman's noose if they get above themselves. Stopped by “Wild Tex” Martin. Not having any direct evidence on him (his henchman did the actual killing), he's sent into the desert with only a canteen.
The Leader: 1941, Prize Comics #11 (Prize). Planes are disappearing over the Pacific Ocean and Dr. Frost investigates. He finds his plane captured by a magnetic ray and directed over his radio to land on a deserted island. He finds the island is actually hiding a well equipped subterranean base and manned by muscular guards and the burly but sartorial Leader. He plans on conquering the world with aide of invisible planes and super-bombs that will destroy civilization, his first target - America! The captured planes will deliver those bombs. Through injections, he plans on turning the pilots and Dr. Frost into slaves and will pilot those planes. Dr. Frost rescues the pilots and they destroy the island with one of its own bombs, presumably killing the Leader and his men.
League of Lilith: 1942, Exciting Comics #18 (Standard). Dr. Price was working on a device called the cosmoscope, that would utilize the sun's rays for healing. However, when testing it, he was unaware that a "certain planet was in transit across the sun --Lilith the dark moon!" It transforms Price into an evil man, contorting his features and granting superhuman strength. He kills his nurse and intern and uses the device to recruit Carson, a noted physicist, to help modify the machine and then Millis, a hardened criminal. The machine is soon modified so that it can affect people from afar by simply setting it to the year they were born and the League starts recruiting an army. The Black Terror manages to stop the league and destroying the machine, lifting the spell it had put the soldiers under. The three plotters were killed beforehand by Tim using the cannon from an armored truck.
Leatherman: 1949, Rulah #22 (Fox). In the late 1800's, Charles is a very dangerous man, one of the deadliest duelers of the era as well as being a bit of a cad. When a young girl named Ellen catches his eye and he comes on to her, he ends up being challenged to a duel with her current boyfriend. Killing him, he pursues Ellen and eventually marries her as well as going to work for her father's leather business. One evening he discovers her in the arms of another paramour, He kills her lover but cannot bring himself to kill her. So, he spreads word of her infidelity, ruining her reputation and then leaves the country, settling eventually in Africa.
Flash forward half a century, and legend has grown of an eccentric old man calling himself the Leatherman who shows up in the villages the same time each year. Rulah sets out to meet him and ends up saving him from a charging Rhino, earning his friendship. He gives her a leather heart, bearing a cameo with a pic of Ellen. Soon, two bodies of females show up from the local tribes, suffocated in a leather sack. Pursuing his trail, Rulah meets up with Ellen, now an elderly woman living in the area having been run out of England due to scandal. Seems Leatherman had seen her and gone completely around the bend and was setting out to kill her after all these years (story is a little unsure if the earlier murders were done before he saw her and just hated all women other than Rulah or not). He does sneak in and attack her, she dies though again it's unclear whether she has a heart attack or is truly strangled to death. Fleeing Rulah, he only gets a few steps when bitten by a snake and quickly dies.
Leopard: 1941, Shadow Comics v1#11 (Street & Smith). Strange killings plague the city, throats torn out as if attacked by a great beast. As the first death is a watchman at the zoo, the main suspect is the black leopard Riba though she is still in her cage. It seems almost a certainty when later a guard says he shot a black leopard figure attacking someone and Riba is found dead in her pen. However, the Lamont Cranston, aka the Shadow suspects otherwise, showing that Riba was killed by a knife wound. He tracks his suspect to a cult of Leopard worshipers. While most of the worshipers dress in the spotted skins of the leopards and conduct symbolic sacrifices, one insane fanatic dresses in the black skins and is a cold-hearted killer: Mr. Harper, one of the keepers at the zoo. The Shadow is forced to kill Harper when he goes into a murderous rage.
Leopard Queen: Exciting Comics (Better). White queen of the Majaja tribe, she wears a leopard skin, steals and kills for the sake of doing so and has the reputation for being able to change into a leopard to kill. She is defeated by Judy of the Jungle, killed by falling on her own claws. Judy also reveals that the woman only appeared to change into a leopard, she'd change places with a leopard she had trained to kill for her. Whatever it was that drove her to insanity, was lost when she died.
Leopard Women of Venus: 1940, Fantastic Comics #3 (Fox). The Leopard Women of Venus fly on the back of saurians through space. They dress in spotted red tights and shoot flames through a horn on the skull-caps on their heads. They capture Space Smith and Diana and transport her to the robot scientists of Venus.
The Leper: 1942, Boy Comics #5 (Lev Gleason). The Leper is a corpulent Nazi agent behind various acts of sabotage and leader of Fifth Columnists. Despite his name, there's nothing terribly special about him. He's captured by Crimebuster.
Lilith: (Better). "Regent of Darkness--Princess of the planet Pluter--Supreme ruler of the universal Realm" With the aide of her allies Dr. Voodoo and the Immortal Emperor, this femme fatale has her sights on ruling the entire solar system yet is stymied by Wonderman II.
The Limping Man: 1943, Prize Comics #30 & 31(Prize). A master criminal and murderer, he sought the life of a friend of Walt Walters who was running for election to a high office. The Limping Man is good at disguises and quick witted to come up with various murderous plots and making good his escape despite a pronounced limp. His identity in issue 30 is hinted at being retired neurologist Dr. Riddel who seemed to be confied to a wheel chair. He was opposed by Yank and Doodle.
Ah Ling: 1941, Daredevil Comics #3 (Lev Gleason). Beautiful but deadly Asian crime boss, she runs a night club in Hollywood. There, she manages to extort as well as kidnap and torture those she thinks she can get money out of. Her torture room is in the cellar of her home manned by Chinamen. The editor of the local paper is in deep with her and when his reporter Hal Higgins suspects Ah Ling behind a Hollywood star's disappearance, he has the man sacked. However, it proves to be the impetus that Higgins needs to become the hero 13. She manages to escape their first encounter.
Lion Heart: (Fiction).Anthony Durrant writes: Lion Heart was a bearded man with a bald head who stumbled on the body of a lion that had been killed by Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Seizing the opportunity, Lion Heart skinned and tanned the hide of the lion and made it into a robe that he himself wore. He then went to a nearby village and proclaimed himself the new chief. When the old chieftain tried to kill a lion with his bare hands as Lion Heart claimed he had done, he was himself killed by the lion. Lion Heart expelled the Chief's Daughter from the village and she immediately went to see Sheena, who was captured when she and her mate Bob went to Lion Heart's village. Lion Heart then called a meeting of all the chiefs in the area, so they could see Sheena and Bob being sacrificed to the lions in the village square. In the end, Sheena and Bob escaped and the lions fell victim to Sheena's dagger. Lion Heart was killed when the other chiefs forced him to fight a wild lion who had been drawn to the village by the scent; he proved to be, in actuality, a craven coward.
The Lip: 1945, Golden Lad (Spark). Wearing a bushy wig and eyebrows, and make-up to protrude his lower lip, the Lip sells beef on the black market. Swiftarrow exposed him.
"Spot" Lipton: 1941, Thrilling Comics #21 (Better). A crook and a killer, he escaped from a squad car and hid out at a circus, killing the animal trainer as well as a clown whose costume he put on in order to escape. He was captured by the Woman in Red.
Little Fuhrer: 1944, America's Best Comics 12 (Better). A diminutive German about the size of a young teenager, the little Fuhrer grafted the brain cells of a German strongman named Hans into his own making him a genius and making Hans obey his every command. They were stopped by the American Eagle.
The Living Torch: 1942, Man of War Comics #2 (Centaur). Professor Books has found a way to temporarily produce living torches (they die shortly after, all burnt up) and fires them through a special cannon at armored cars and such. His plans are discovered by Fire-man and Nancy and he and his henchmen are killed by their latest Torch who breaks free before he dies.
The Lizard: 1942, Lightning Comics v3#1 (Ace)?. The Lizard is able to climb walls with webbed gloves and boots and carries pet gila monsters which he has trained to go for people's throats and kill them. In the story I've read, no origin is given for the Lizard nor any indication if his look is a costume or not. He's apparently killed by a combination of a bite from one of his pets and the multi-story fall it causes. His ill-gotten gains are taken by the Raven and used to build a playground for poor children.
Llaslo: 1940, Amazing Man Comics 15 (Centaur). This turbaned leader is approached by a scientist friend who has hit upon a plan to capture the Iron Skull and use his blood to create an invincible army of living robots. First phase goes off perfectly, they draw and capture the Skull via a powerful magnet that reaches across countries and then inject a formula that spreads the iron effect through his whole body. However, this makes the Iron Skull even more invincible and he quickly mops the floor with them, wreck the magnet and heads back to the ole USA.
Lodar: Anthony Durrant writes: Lodar was a bandit who rose up in protest against the peace treaty between the Atlanteans and the Miro Men, two undersea races. He abducted Queen Maureen Marine in order to kill her and bring war to both the Miro Men and Atlantis; unfortunately for him, he was killed by Romko, one of his own men, who had once been an Atlantean. Mortally wounded, Romko himself died shortly afterward.
Loki: (Fox) Anthony Durrant gives us: Loki was an African native who was capturing women of the tribe ruled by Rulah, the Jungle Goddess, and forcing them to dig for gold at a site where he had found a large amount of gold. Later, he split the gold with Rulah herself, intending to locate Rulah's stash and replace her own share wiith fool's gold, to besmirch her reputation. He was killed by Rulah, who got to keep the gold for herself!
Lone Leopard: 1941, Wings Comics #12 (Fiction). German ace who wears a leopard skin aviator's cap and gloves. He challenges Grease-monkey Griffin to a duel and ends up being captured by Griffin thanks to his pluck and inordinate amount of luck.
Lone Wolf: 1941,Wonderworld Comics #22 (Fox). A dark cloaked and suited villain that opposed the Flame. He was resourceful and outfitted his house into a series of flame-proof deathtraps. He made at least two appearances and at the end of issue #23, his house was destroyed but he was still seen by the reader getting away.
Lonna: 1940, Crash Comics #1 (Holyoke). Lonna is a princess/queen of the mystic land of Shangra located somewhere in the vicinity of Tibet. Her 200 year old great, great, great grandfather is the ruler. When reporters Jack Flynn and Joan Joyce crash, Lonna seeks to make Jack her husband and the new king as the old man wishes to retire. The two royals are willing to go to any lengths to make this happen, the one hitch being Jack and Joan love each other.
Duke Loran: 1941, Amazing Man Comics #22 (Centaur). Duke Loran is the jealous suitor of Princess Deila in the subterannean kingdom/city of Atlantia. Jealous of the attention she shows Reef Kinkaid after he is marooned there, he turns to murder and treason. He attempts to kill Reef and secretly forms an army of real frog-men to overthrow the kingdom. However, Reef Kincaid and Princess Deila are able to commandeer an undersea tank and rout the frogmen. However, Duke Loran not only remains free but his perfidy is left undiscovered. Atlantia was the first city of a lost continent 9000 years ago. When a tidal wave destroyed and sank much of the land, there were survivors who had fled to some caves in the hills. The cataclysm had expanded the cave but also put the only entrance beneath sea level and they rebuilt their civilization there.
Lost Pharaoh: 1948, Dagar, Desert Hawk #15 or 16 (Fox). The issue uncertainty arises from the GCD lists it as #15, but Anthony Durrant who wrote me about the character says #16. Anyway, with the history that Durrant provides: The Lost Pharaoh was an Egyptian monarch who had been banished, along with his queen, Akhet, into the Sahara desert. Their tomb was located at a mountain and was guarded by the Egyptian gods. An enterprising criminal disguised himself as the Lost Pharaoh and made his curse come true for the local Bedouin by kidnapping their women. Capturing Ayesha, the ladylove of Dagar the Desert Hawk, he hypnotized her into believing she was the long-dead Akhet and made her appear to come alive in front of the Bedouin. Once hypnotized, she followed the man's commands until Dagar knocked him out, breaking the hypnotic trance. He then left the man who had impersonated the Pharaoh to the Bedouins' mercy.
Lucifer: 1940, Fantastic Comics #6 (Fox). In his first appearance, he just seems a one-off villain facing against Flip Falcon who is trapped by Flip. Later (issue #15), he and his demons become recurring foes for Falcon when he travels through the 4th Dimension. He is able to speak backwards magic.
Lucifer: ~ 1943, Doc Savage (Street & Smith). Roy and Jane Drake are in possession of a treasure map belonging to their ancestor Sir Francis Drake. However, Roy is kidnapped with the map by the mysterious being known as Lucifer. Jane recruits the help of Doc Savage, Monk, and Ham to rescue her brother and find the treasure at Skull Island off of Hawaii. Despite Lucifer throwing obstacles in their way the whole adventure, with the aid of his sacred hood, Doc and his men ultimately foil him and reveal the devilish villain to be Roger Hale, Roy and Jane's guardian.
Lugi: 1941, Lightning Comics v2#1 (Ace). Lugi is a green-skinned Mole man in an underground realm. When the surface man Congo Jack ends up in their realm and earning the loyalty of the beautiful albeit green-skinned queen Moletta, Jack earns the enmity of the jealous and ambitious Lugi. Lugi makes allies with the Blue Dwarfs and their King Bobo in order to seize power for himself and force Moletta to marry him. Ultimately, Bobo is killed and Lugi imprisoned while Jack returns to the surface world.
Luko: 1941, Man of War Comics #1 (Centaur). On the coast of Mexico, Luko is a self-styled dictator with an underground base hosting a huge army. He is goaded into preparing to attack the US by an invisible Mars; however, he and his army are stopped by Man of War. Luko is apparently killed when shot by FBI agent Wanda Hall.
Mr. Lunar: 1945, Blue Beetle 40, (Fox). After serving his time in prison, Mr. Lunar decides to get revenge on the DA and witness that put him there. To distract the police from his target, he created masks that drive their wearers into murderous deeds. Once the masks are taken off, they dissolve into a bitter gas leaving their wearers with no memories of their deeds.
Lurida: 1940, Silver Streak Comics #5 (Lev Gleason). Lurida is an evil woman who spent time in Africa. While there, she learned of the "Gem of Evil" which could be used to summon the Shadow Monster. She somehow learns of the adventures Lance Hale had that has resulted in him carrying a fortune in gems and reasons that the Gem of Evil is one of them. She hires men to steal it and she uses it to call forth the Shadow Monster and commands it to commit various crimes of mayhem from which she and her gang can profit. Hale sets himself against her gang, shooting many of them. She offers Hale a place by her side, but he destroys the gem, banishing the monster. Lurida seems to prefer death over capture and jumps into roaring flames that were originally meant as a death-trap for Hale.
Lutz: 1941, Startling Comics 12, (Better). A sabotage ace working for the Dictator of Fascovia (read Germany), he developed a super-magnet that pulled meteors out of the sky to bomb different US plants. He was captured by Mystico.
The
Lynx: February 1943, Clue Comics #2 (Hillman).
The Lynx is a black marketeer who uses a doll factory as his blind for selling steel to other countries. They smuggle the steel inside the dolls and ship them out. The factory also seems rigged with several death traps. Private Detective Joe Blair gets suspicious when he sees someone stealing steel from a junkyard and loses the trail in the vicinity of the factory. As the masked hero Zippo, he captures the gang. Despite his bestial cat-like face and eyes, the rotund Lynx doesn't display any unusual physical abilities in this encounter.