Friday Fiends: Evilhearts of Two Cities

Like all fictional fiends fabled for fabricating felonies ferociously, the vilains of our twin publishers tended to gravitate to burgs with their own superheroes which protected them from the forces of evil.

Over the past year and a half (with some months of inactivity sprinkled within this period) we have considered such foes of fabled fighters of freedom each Friday. This week, we shift the focus to Riverdale's premier criminal mastermind, and subsequently will dissect some of the other bad guys that surfaced to plague its peace loving citizens.

Evilheart was really Reggie Mantle, a spoiled brat attending Riverdale High with two purposes in life, to entice Veronica Lodge (and Midge Klump, from time to time) into a romantic relationship, and to torment his frenemy Archie Andrews. It was this latter agenda that activated the same PH factor as his freckled foe yet decidely opposite, drawing upon the blackness of his being. Summoning this energy to become Evilheart, Reggie had enhanced strength and durability as well as a plethera of gadgets to use against Arch's alias Captain Pureheart the Powerful, and his allies Superteen and Captain Hero.

On a parallel plane (and publisher) another greedy green garbed goon tormented Hub City, whom we previously considered, in the form of Banshee. Himself relying on a gimmick, a glider cape allowing him to defy gravity, the Banshee was ultimately brought back to Eartth by a faceless foe whose fearlessness exposed this felon as a fraud.