March 1942: A Joker for Junior

You might call Mr. Macabre Captain Marvel Junior’s Joker. Like Batman’s arch-nemesis, he was introduced as an extortionist who broadcasts murder threats to his victims over the radio.

“Tonight, at precisely twelve o’clock midnight, I will kill Henry Claridge and steal the Claridge diamond. Do not try to stop me! The Joker has spoken!” boasts the Joker in Batman 1 (Spring 1940).

“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Macabre cutting in! In less than one minute, Harold Pittwell will die!” broadcasts Junior’s foe in Master Comics 24 (March 1942).

Instead of the Joker’s “smiling venom,” the cloaked and fedora-ed Macabre uses equally effective poison ice darts.

Originally an embezzler named Filpott who adopted his costumed identity to exact revenge, Mr. Macabre plunges an ice dart into himself, faking death to avoid capture by the young superhero. The poison turns his face green, however, making Macabre resemble the Joker even more.

The villain isn’t even displeased by the change.

“A face to inspire terror and horror in many future victims! Ha ha!” Macabre says, underscoring his villainous credentials by allying himself with Captain Nazi.

Many of Captain Marvel Junior’s early adventures show him trashing German and Japanese tanks, ships and artillery, and he does so again when Mr. Macabre reappears in Master Comics 31 (Oct. 1942), having kidnapped an American ambassador.

In the process of rescuing him, the teenage superhero saves American troop ships bound for Australia by intercepting and detonating a Nazi torpedo and then hauling the German submarine that fired it to the surface so the crew can be captured.

Mr. Macabre’s final 1940s appearance came in Captain Marvel Jr. 2 (Dec. 1942), when he tried to sabotage Texas oil fields for the Axis powers.

Blown down by Junior’s super-breath and drenched in crude oil, Macabre is jailed for the duration without ever learning the connection between “that meddling punk” Captain Marvel Jr. and Freddy Freeman, who always seems to be around before the superhero shows up.

Fawcett comics on the newsstands that month