Celebrating the worst, wildest, wooliest, weirdest, least-respected and most-underrated comics of the 20th century ... and beyond (i.e. the 21st century)!
Written by Jon Morris, author of The League of Regrettable Superheroes, the Legion of Regrettable Supervillains, and The League of Regrettable Sidekicks.
The Legion of Regrettable Super Villains debut on April 28th 2016 for pre-order. This was the first of two wonderful editions. The second edition is The League of Regrettable Superheroes, both books published by Quirk Books in Philadelphia, PA. It was an instant success at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and on the weird superhero book black market. To date, It does thriving business!
THE BLACK HAND
Created by: Joe Blair and Lin Streeter
Debuted in Blue Ribbon Comics vol.1 No.16 (MLJ Comics, September 1941)
There's probably nothing quite so embarrassing in the super-villain community than accidentally creating your own nemesis, but The Black Hand managed to do just that.
In his defense, he hadn't expected that flippant playboy Tommy Townsend would be saved from a savage torture session at the hands of The Black Hand's men by a giant eagle. Out of nowhere, Tommy is taken away to a distant mountaintop, trained (by the eagle) to fight crime, and returns as The Black Hand's starred-and-striped nemesis Captain Flag! Having messed it up once, The Black Hand returns frequently to make attempts on Flag's life, easy for the skull-faced baddie, whose eponymous mitt possesses the touch of death. But ultimately ends up literally hoisted on a petard.
BLACK TARANTULA
Created by: Unknown
Debuted in Feature Presentation vol.1 No.5 (April 1950)
Undying evil is a common theme in comics, but The Black Tarantula might be doing it wrong. Having terrorized a medieval village just for love of being evil, evidently, which is the villainous equivalent of "shits and giggles". The Black Tarantula finds himself not actually defeated but rather condemned to a graveyard for the subsequent thousand years. Worse yet, the guy got real confessional in the interim. Part villain and part horror host, The Black Tarantula spins his yarn to anyone who'll listen, which is mostly corpses. While he'd begun his career turning guileless maidens into horrible spider-people, these days he spends his time bending the ears of the dead and buried.
BLACK TALON
Created by: Gene Colan and Len Wein
Debuted in Strange Tales vol. 1 No.173 (Marvel Comics, April 1974)
A classic of goofy villainy, Black Talon is a voodoo villain with an eye on harassing Afro-Caribbean crimefighter Brother Voodoo. Dressed like a professional wrestler with a heavy metal chicken theme, the finger-lickin' baddie has actually stood his own not just against Brother V, but also against the full roster of The Avengers! Maybe they were having an off-day. Slightly better than the Black Talon's ridiculous San Diego Chicken Of Death outfit, though, is one of his successors who traded in the chicken suit for a duck costume.
DARK ARCHER
Created by: Unknown
Debuted in: Thrilling Comics vol.1 No.26 (Nedor Comics, March 1942)
Archery-themed bad guys are pretty much a dime a dozen, as well as being villains who pretty much write themselves. Arrows suck, you know? I mean, they're great in theory, but they're all sharp and they can get into you if someone relatively far away just dislikes you enough. Or if there's a strong breeze at the archery competition. Lacking gimmicked arrows, like some other villains I could name, The Dark Archer made his name by personalizing the delivery system -- he didn't shoot his arrows, he just stabbed his victims to death with them. Seems to me he could've saved some money on replacement arrows and just bought a decent knife.
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