World's Wickedest Wednesdays: Ancient Adversaries Again!

The World's Wrinkly-est is more like it... as in King Kull the ancient Beast Man who's technological yet savage race was defeated in prehistoric times by the ingenuity of mankind. Awakening from suspended animation, the master of ancient sciences and physical brutality tried to subjugate modern man until he faced the Big Red Cheese, aka Captain Marvel! After a dozen attempts in the early 1950's upon his revival, Kull lied dormant until such time as he could seek his revenge upon his foes the Marvel Family. After assembling various thugs from three Earths, his ultimate goal of securing the Rock of Eternity almost succeeded until his trio of triumphant terrors, Cap, Mary and Cap Jr aided the combined heroes in a final assault on their wizened old opponent. After which, he was never more than a pawn of another villain, be it Doctor Sivana or Mister Mind.

Over at Charlton' Earth-Four, a more evocative and eloquent elderly evil was on display there, as Evila was revived by the Hooded One and transformed into a modern day threat. However, after but one case she was aged to ancient dust by Peter Cannon the Thunderbolt!

True, both were hairy and, ahem, busty, but definitely you'll want Evila instead of smelly old Kull crashing your party.

Eterno was a brilliant ruler of ancient pre-deluge Atlantis who, much like King Kull, brought technology into a modern era to clash twice with the Mighty Crusaders.

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In 1954, aspiring comic book publisher Charlton purchased the rights to several prominent characters from the expiring Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.Now the MLJ has been added to their stable of characters, we examine the parallels in this series.

World's Wickedest Wednesdays: Bad Bugs

Mister Mind had a long and storied golden age career as the mysterious progenitor for the insidious Monster Society of Evil, most of the while being an ominous voice behind the scenes. Until confronted by his most frequent foe, Captain Marvel. Revealed to be nothing more than an alien worm, possessed of tremendous mental abilities and genius level ingenuity, Mind was electrocuted for his various crimes against humanity. Or was he?

Praying Mantis wasn't always that green, or that preying. He was Hunter Mann, a foul scientist plagued with green skin from his excessive use of chlorophyll, obsessed with turning his creations against his fellow man. Turning into a human insect himself, his first foray against the silver age Blue Beetle didn't go quite well. But was he truly finished or simply biding his time until another more opportune occasion?

In fact, Mantis returned once more but fell to his death when the Beetle slayed the rogue's flying insecti-steed. No more Mantis!

Mr. Worm returned in the modern day, revived from his state of hibernation which his species was prone to when exposed to adverse conditions. Alas for him, his latter day ventures into world domination were equally unsuccessful, even on the one occasion when he devised an artificial body of the Invincible Man to house his evil mind. Whether bugs or baddies, this pair lacked the winning touch to complement their massive intellect and huge egos.

Monster Master filled the void of insect-beast-bewildering criminal mastermind on Earth-MLJ, constantly locking horns with Steel Sterling even when he was dispatched by his once faithful artificial intelligence which developed his creepy creations.

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In 1954, aspiring comic book publisher Charlton purchased the rights to several prominent characters from the expiring Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.Now the MLJ has been added to their stable of characters, we examine the parallels in this series.

World's Wickedest Wednesdays: Neurotic Nazis

What would a fictional world be without a nasty Nazi neerdowells needlessly needling noble nice-guys? Well so that we may be homage to this overly redundant category, we highlight to Aryan airheads that really rubbed our heroes the wrong way.

Next to Captain Nazi, perhaps the position for number two national socialist of Earth-S would be Baron Von Gatz, a thorn in the side of Captain Midnight the inventive licensed legend at Fawcett. Not much to say except he definitely crops his hair clsoe to the scalp and is shameless in the plumage he's draped in. And he had a short fuse, but then didn't all these cookie cutter creeps back in the day?

At least Charlton's standard issue socialist had something distinct (unless you count another such character over at Marvel), he was a real bonehead! Literally! The Smiling Skull was born ugly and didn't let that get in the way of his aspirations for world domination, which he never accomplished thanks to the interference of such do-gooders as Judomaster and Sarge Steel.

Steel Sterling's opposite number Baron Gestapo seemed to represent Earth-MLJ's version of the same old same old in crew cut corrupt cronies of creeps.

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In 1954, aspiring comic book publisher Charlton purchased the rights to several prominent characters from the expiring Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.Now the MLJ has been added to their stable of characters, we examine the parallels in this series.

World's Wickedess Wednesdays: B Class Brainiacs

These two brainiac baddies are "B" class cranium crooks, i.e. they have the requisite intellect and wicked gravitas to pull off being arch-criminals... but not the endearing evilness to match their peers.

Thaddeus Bogus Sivana Junior was the aspiring son of, you guessed it, Thaddeus Bogus Sivana Senior, the latter being Captain Marvel's greatest adversary. However, despite having a lengthy career causing Fredy Freeman (also a junior, as in Captain Marvel Junior) some level of anxiety, alone Junior was unable to match the dasterdly deeds of his papa.

In fact, perhaps his most significant act was actually a mishap, as his father had finally devised a method of removing the entire Marvel Family and their fellow Fawcett friends from planet Earth-S thanks to the element known as Suspendium. However, junior decided to pat senior on the back to congratulate the villain and instead captured both and his sister Georgia in the same snare! As a result, the Sivana Family was left out of commission during the same period as their opposite numbers for decades!

After being released from this floating prison in space, the most Sivana Junior accomplished was to styme both foe and father with his incompetent intellect. Needless to say, this is world's wickedest wednesdays not necessary world's most successful.

Over at Charlton's Earth-Four, Kong whom we previously considered had a modest career during his three encounters with the Son of Vulcan. Utilizing rotund robots, slicing swords and destructive devices, Kong attempted repeatedly to rid himself of his super-powered enemy and make a name for himself. Like Sivana Junior, he ended up a more or less a B class brainiac. And there are several just crooks in Mighty MLJ that fit that bill.

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In 1954, aspiring comic book publisher Charlton purchased the rights to several prominent characters from the expiring Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.Now the MLJ has been added to their stable of characters, we examine the parallels in this series.

World's Wickedest Wednesdays: Devious Docs

Dual demented docs do doggedly devilish deeds! Say that five times fast! Or better yet, have the bad Doctors... Sivana and Spectro... of adjacent Earths S and 4 say that via their cloned proxies. Each of the good Captains... Marvel and Atom... faced off against these evil geniuses more than once. And on one occasion, against several duplicates of themselves. Thankfully, their heroic opposite numbers still proved superior!

Doctor Thaddeus Bogus Sivana was once an aspiring physicist who invented various revolutionary devices for the benefit of mankind. And yet, secular authorities scoffed at him, and as a result Sivana swore revenge against his fellow man. From that point forward, upon meeting the World's Mightiest Mortal, Sivana was Captain Marvel's most persistent and deadly foe. In fact, on on occasion he trapped the hero and his allies in suspendium. Alas, the mad mental menace and his family was also captured and held in stasis along with the heroic Marvels in suspended animation for decades. Even after his revival, Sivana never won except once when his inventions were actually acclaimed to the point where he received a Nobel Peace Prize when Marvel used them to aid mankind... much to Sivana's chagrine!

Doctor Spectro also wanted to use his colored light technology for the medical benefits of mankind. However, once he was attacked by a gang of opportunistic hoods and his beam was reflected back on himself, Spectro turned evil and gained vast powers which he used against Captain Atom on more than one occasion... including when a miniature malicious mob of his clones attached the Atomic Avenger intent on reassembling Spectro into one man once more. Yet a good persona existed in the group of Docs, who attempted to exert control over the reconstituted Spectro later.

An analog for Sivana over at MLJ/Mighty Comics would probably be the Fly's arch-foe the Spider, another deformed bald midget of malice with a mind for marvelous machinery.

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In 1954, aspiring comic book publisher Charlton purchased the rights to several prominent characters from the expiring Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.Now the MLJ has been added to their stable of characters, we examine the parallels in this series.