Smile and be a villain

Over the last four or five weeks, I've bought several old Bronze Age Marvel and DC comics on ebay. Because of the sporadic shipment of DCs to West Central Scotland in the 60s and 70s- and the prominence of Marvel, through the b/w reprints- the Treasury-sized tabloids were never on sale in my neck of the woods.
Secret Origins Super Villains (above) features three stories I'd read before ( the Joker/Red Hood tale from the "Batman from the 30s to the 70s" softcover paperback; the origin of Terra-Man; and Captain Cold's debut- which I'd seen in the early 80s UK Super Heroes reprints)

A thing of beauty

The other two stories- a Superboy saga recounting how Lex Luthor lost his hair and a very silly and racist Golden Age Captain Marvel/Sivana strip- had curiosity value. The second tabloid, with a suitably bizarre Cheetah/Wonder Woman story and the tale of Catwoman's amnesia, was slightly more entertaining. Both tabloids carried double-page spreads and clip art of over thirty of the most infamous crooks of the Silver and Golden Ages; More Secret Origins also has mini wanted posters.
That's where my fascination with DC's Legion of Doom started - in 1972 with issue 1 of Wanted- the World's Most Dangerous Villains. I can't remember exactly where but I have the barest recollection of a dark night in Strathaven, with these two comics:

They're cover-dated August but that means very little.The exact time and place is obliterated- a cafe, I think, one of the three in the town. It's quite shocking now to compare the visceral, violent images of Kirby with the innocuous strips in Wanted. None of the stories are especially memorable, despite the action-packed Nick Cardy cover; as was often the case, it was the text page that gripped me. In particular,a list of villains of whom I'd never heard: The Wrecker,Tweedledum and Tweedledee; Hugo Strange (Hugh, here); Dr. Poison and the Duke of Deception.
Something about these reprints drew me back to the title- in its nine-issue run, I bought seven off the spinner rack. Here are the ones I liked best:

 I especially liked the Knights of Knavery story

 This issue also featured Sargon's sultry foe, the Blue Lama

 Number four- the Grundy issue- was bought somewhere like Castle Douglas or Glen Luce, possibly after the holiday we spent at Sandhead in '73,  alongside this Burroughsian beauty:

The series ended abruptly, as many DC series did in that decade. I only read that final issue last month:

I'd only read one Prankster story before but I enjoyed this outing for Crime's Comedy King ; and the Simon/Kirby Sandman strip prefigures some of the more odd Marvel villains of the Sixties.

I had of course been aware that Wanted had first appeared as a DC Special reprint in 1970 but I didn't know there was a '71 edition too. I now have copies of both.

The first collection is slightly better, although I'd read the Shadow Thief story in an 80s digest:

A favourite format!

Almost half of the Sinestro story is given over to exposition; meanwhile the Flash story is disappointing as the Rogues Gallery only have cameos. The second Wanted special features a cute Penguin story and the Flash reprint is gorgeous. But the Toyman tale hasn't aged that well.
These giant issues weren't as splendid or as good value as the later 100 page Super Spectaculars, like this Flash-y package which features an appearance by the loveable Elongated Man, in his original, goofy masked phase:

But if DC had printed a softcover paperback, like Marvel's Fireside Books from the 70s, which villains would I pick to include?

I might not choose origin tales, just stories that reflect the sheer badness of the bad guys in question. Also, some are just so well known, I might forego them (Mistah J. I'm looking at you!).

The shape-changing Clayface represents the atomic-age menaces of the 50s and I first read this story in the b/w Super DC comic circa 1970; and speaking of Atom-ic:

This was one of the comics that had belonged to my cousin Jim. I've chosen it more for the Atomobile than for Gil Kane's dynamic, reworked Thinker ( a GA Flash foe). Finally from the late Sixties, another Golden Age villain, The Gentleman Ghost:

 Yet more Golden Age villains, revamped for the Sensational Seventies; the Two-Face book was from my Stonehouse hospital stay in '72:

I'd read of Vandal Savage nearly a decade before I ever saw him (in Tuska's World's Greatest Superheroes strip, printed in the East Kilbride News in the very early 80s). The Immortal Villain has, somewhat inexplicably, been a favourite since then.

Here's the most Bondian of Batman's foes- the world-beater Ra's al Ghul. The other great villainous icon created for DC in the 70s is, of course, Kirby's ultimate dictator, Darkseid:

 I like the idea of super-villain team-ups- and gimmick/toy-based crooks -so much that I'd just add this for fun:

One of the oddest and most iconic DC monsters  has got to be included:

Splitting the 80s in two, I'd choose Wolfman and Kane's terrifying reboot of Brainiac and Byrne's ruthless businessman Luthor:

 and staying with the Man of Steel's oft-derided enemies, I've chosen this quintessentially creepy villain to represent the 90s- also because he calls to mind Golden Age puppet villain, the Dummy:

  I also want to make room for a couple of groups. The first is one of the weirdest, from the Silver Age Doom Patrol:

Sacre Bleu! Le Brotherhood of Evil!

Next, a perennial criminal organisation and their animated appearances:

I've neglected the Riddler, Grodd the super-gorilla, the Shark and space pirate Kanjar Ro because there have to be some entries for vol.2 !

Next: Madman in a box
The legal bit: All images are considered copyright of their respective owners. Wardrobe by Paul Gambi