Continuing a look back at the earliest examples of super-villain team-ups in comics. In Part 1, we established the belief that the meeting of Dr. Fate's adversaries and Karkull in More Fun Comics # 70 (August 1941) was probably the first such joint effort among bad guys. Part 2 discussed the Hand's five fingers versus the Seven Soldiers of Victory in Leading Comics # 1 (Winter 1941) as the likely second example, and Part 3 celebrated the multi-part serial depicting the original Captain Marvel's battle with the Monster Society of Evil. Now, we turn our attention to Gotham City....
Before we continue, I need to acknowledge the fact that this brief history of super-villain team-ups has been focused on DC Comics. Part 3 dealt with Fawcett Comics' original Captain Marvel and the Monster Society of Evil, but even that former DC rival has long since been absorbed by DC. I have a feeling I might be missing some super-villain collaboration that took place in pages not associated with the house that Superman built, and I welcome additions. I know some of the Spirit's adversaries worked together at various points, though I don't know the time frame. Those stories first appeared in newspapers (in Will Eisner's weekly comics insert, alongside the individual exploits of Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic) rather than in comic books, but the Spirit's newspaper adventures were also reprinted in comic books.
Anyway, back to DC again, and what I think must be the first one-to-one alliance between A-list comic book bad guys, as the Joker meets the Penguin in "Knights Of Knavery" (Batman # 25, September-October 1944).
Comics crossovers are so common now, and a devil's pact between a couple of bad guys who share a common foe is such an obvious and promising notion for a story. By the time I read a reprint of "Knights Of Knavery" in 1972 (Wanted: The World's Most Dangerous Villains! # 2), the paths of the Joker and the Penguin (and/or the paths of many other Bat-villains) had already crossed on several occasions in the comics, and Joker and Penguin met on two separate occasions on screen, in the 1966 Batman feature film and in a three-part episode of the 1966-68 TV series. But in 1944, and with all apologies to Dr. Fate and his terrible twosome of Wotan and Karkull, teaming the Joker and Penguin was obvious in retrospect but groundbreaking at the time. It wasn't the epic spectacle of Captain Marvel facing and ultimately thwarting Mister Mind and his malevolent minions, but it was for damned sure enjoyable and even epic in its own right.
It would be too pat and presumptuous to say that "Knights Of Knavery" was where comic book super-villain team-ups began in earnest. Still, it's easy to dismiss the relative impact of the Dr. Fate and Seven Soldiers of Victory stories, and maybe--maybe--we can consider the Monster Society of Evil serial as something unique and nonpareil.
"Knights Of Knavery" feels different: It feels like a blueprint going forward. That feeling may be illusory, and it's likely that no subsequent writer held any conscious or unconscious thought of "Knights Of Knavery" when crafting some later gathering of two or more nogoodniks. But man, it feels like a watershed moment, even more so than Mister Mind's legion of doomsters.
So this is where we'll end our brief history of super-villain team-ups. There were many more to come before the Marvel Age Of Comics made 'em a regular part of your comics-reading diet. The Injustice Society (or Injustice Gang) challenging the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics # 37 (October-November 1947) and again in All Star Comics # 41 (1948), and Villainy, Incorporated facing the Amazon Princess in Wonder Woman # 28 (April 1948) were in the Monster Society mold. But through the 1950s and into the '60s, there were more small-group super-villain team-ups than there were sinister societies, and I say "Knights Of Knavery" set the template for most of those. Lex Luthor, the Toyman, and the Prankster. Luthor and Brainiac, and yeah, big bad bald bad Lex clearly got around a bit. Oh, and let's not forget the Joker and Clayface, and my favorite, the Joker and Luthor.
Hyper-speed takes over at this point. In the '70s, Marvel had a series called Super-Villain Team-Up, and DC had one called Secret Society Of Super-Villains. Hell, in 1976, that get-around guy Lex Luthor became the very first DC character to officially meet a Marvel character when he formed an alliance with Doctor Octopus in Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man.
It's all a long, long way from Wotan and Karkull trying to gang up on Dr. Fate in 1941, right? But it had to start somewhere. Honor among thieves? No, at least not usually, and never for very long. But we honor the history. And we still thrill to the stories.
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