Dr. Tana: 1942, Prize Comics 24. (Feature Publications) Dr. Hideyo Tana is your typical Asian menace, billed as the genius and mastermind behind Japanese spying and who had a hand in the planning of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He is opposed by the Green Lama and dies when he accidentally injects himself with poison meant for the hero.
Tarantula: 1950, Authentic Police Cases #13 (St. John Publications). “Paul Trevitt and his step-sister couldn't live in the luxury they craved on the trust fund left them by their father. So, under Paul's warped inspiration, they had turned to robbery and burglary. Their victims being members of their own social circle...” Olga Davis is his beautiful step-sister. They operated out of Florida. Templeton Putney and Bob Kruger round out the gang and operate as butler-valet and chauffeur. Clever, he often leaves “clues” to point to others in his burglaries and murders. Finally outwitted by the Law in the form of Detective Lee Preston and Lt. Oglivee, he got the chair and the rest lengthy prison stays. While some of his movements are described spider-like, there's no real reason given for his colorful name.
Field Marshal Klaus Von Teufel: 1943, Captain Battle, Jr. (Lev Gleason). Capturing the Field Marshal is Captain Battle, Jr.'s mission above all else for he carries Hitler's defense plans and orders in his head. He also has a bizarre looking golden/brass claw where his right hand should be.
Doctor Thorne: 1941, Fantastic Comics #14 (Fox). This robed villain was part mad scientist and part sorcerer. He raises the dead bodies through backwards speaking magic ala Zatara who fly off as spirits into the 4th Dimension. After the mystery of the empty graves gets attention over the news, he plays the part of as a concerned citizen and pays the famous scientist and adventurer Flip Falcon a visit, prompting Flip to use his dimension machine to go to the 4th Dimension once more in pursuit of the spirits. The trap is set and sprung as Flip is overpowered by the spirits and brought to Thorne's "Castle of Misery" where he uses Flip's body to transmit electricy to give to his spirit army. Thinking that killed Flip, Thorne sends his supercharged ghost army to Earth to wreak havoc, their electric touch being instant death. However, Flip is immune to electricity and escapes. In his tussle with Thorne, a powerful blow sends the villain crashing into the dynamos and is electrocuted. Flip then uses the machines to render them dead once more.
Targala: Exciting Comics. (Standard) The last disciple of Esh-Kar, the ape god of evil and foe of jungle princess Kara who rules the immortal warriors of Arohiti. In issue #15, he calls forth the massive statue of Esh-Kar and when that is blown to bits, each part becomes a smaller man-sized ape, invulnerable to spears as hardened stone. Eventually, they are defeated and Targala himself is slain by the supreme priest of the Arohiti. UPDATE(01-10-08). He's the ruler of a race of Eagle Men, men with fully functioning wings on their back and who worship Esh-Kar, the ape god. Targala himself has/had wings (they may have been burned off), and Targala at one point manages to call forth the power of their god that makes his body as hard as the statue itself.
The Teacher: 1942, Lightning Comics v3#1 (Ace). Dennis Durrant writes: The Teacher is a mortarboard and cloak-wearing master spy who kidnaps Captain and Colonel Blake, then sends Colonel Blake out on a mission of sabotage that ends with his death. Captain Blake's daughter Isobel vows to clear their name, and Lash Lighting is assigned to go with her in order to do so, departing on a naval ship under false identities to head to Panama. Of course, the teacher has eavesdropped on Lash's mission briefing, and after Lash and Isobel save the ship on which they are traveling by an attack from captured American fighters piloted by Japanese aviators, he and she are kidnpped by the Teacher at the dock when they arrive at their intended destination, and Lash is strapped to a machine that increases his power a thousand times, then returns it to his body, weakening it severely. He grounds the current, then takes Isobel's hand and sends power into her body, transforming her into Lightning Girl. While Lightning Girl goes to an American fleet to warn it to change course so they will not fall into the Teacher's trap, Lash Lighting breaks the master spy's hold over her father, and he dies while leading a legion of troops against the Teachers own platoon. Meanwhile, Lightning girl succeeds in warning the American fleet to change course, saving the day. She and Lash then discreetly attend her father's funeral, and she vows to stay by his side to help him fight injustice.
Terrible Midge: 1943, Prize Comics #43 (Prize). Foe of the the Black Owl.
Dr. Teufel: 1941, Key Ring Comics #1a or 1e (Dell). Dr. Teufel is a saboteur out to destroy America (presumably for the Nazis). He has agents scattered about in key places such as Operator 4 is a radio operator at an Army camp. Teufel is causing planes to wreck as well as kidnapping the pilots and holds hostage Arlene Loughran, a sister of a pilot. Teufel has a remote and well equipped mountain base, surrounded by electrical towers and an electrical fence. His agents also have access to at least one autogyro as getting there any other way is near impossible. He is apparently killed when the hero Radior turns his vast powers onto the tower that Teufel retreated to, melting it and surrounding the villain with flames of vast heat. Note: An interesting comic, especially considering the early date for an atomic hero. The limited and bizarre color scheme (blue, black and yellow, with blues replacing about 75% of the areas where there should be black) though probably helped to insure this hero would not be wildly known.
Der Teufel: 1942, Cat-man Comics #11 (Temerson/Helnit/Continental). Dressed as an archer with a satanic face, Der Teufel (the Devil) is a Nazi agent, disrupting the War effort. First by killing people at announcement ceremonies with his pitchfork style crossbow bolts and then swapping out the champagne bottle for a high explosive at a christening launch of a new Destroyer, sinking the ship and killing scores at one time. He's defeated by the Hood and is last seen floundering in the water with an oncoming shark. He is gone before he can be rescued.
Thacker the Great: 1941, Amazing Man Comics #19 (Centuar). Aman and Zona are investigating a series of suicides at a hotel across the street from where Thacker is advertised performing. After coming across the name Thacker in relation to a realty company, Amazing Man follows up with some research and discovers all the suicides happened on one side of the building when the sun was the strongest because Thacker needed the sunlight to reflect off his large mirror to hypnotize from the distance across the street. Thacker was the brother of the president of Thacker Realty Company who were hoping to drive the price down with the suicides. Amazing Man's mind proved strong enough to resist the hypnotism and captured Thacker.
Thade: 1944, Shadow Comics v3n11 (Street & Smith). Called "The Death Master" and "Crime's Colossus" he was a balding, black magic foe of the Shadow.
The Thinker: 1941, Popular Comics #60 (Dell). Don't know much about this fellow, only seen one part of a serial story and his actions are hardly that of a villain. He's able to project his thoughts, voices and powers over great distance and calls Dr. Hormone to come to him. While Hormone follows the call, he's ambushed by the Klan who try throwing him into a deep pit, but the fall becomes just a few feet as the Thinker telepathically fills it instantly. And then he makes it a pit once more as the villains try to cross after Hormone and Jane. When the Naziians try to strafe the pair, the Thinker remotely gives Hormone his power, making him bulletproof and able to literally blow the plane from the skies. To get to the Thinker, Hormone and Jane parachute into a mysterious gorge and start to fall through time. And that's where that particular issue ends.
The Thinking Ape: 1943, Green Hornet Comics #14 (Harvey). Mala is "the thinking ape", an intelligent type of gorilla that seems able to understand and answer questions from her trainer Fersatz, such as "how many fingers am I holding up". During one show, she escapes and John Doyle goes into action as the Zebra. However, he sees Mala just exiting and then re-entering the building from the back. He's surprised to hear over the radio of an ape running loose, engaging in acts of sabotage and is bullet-proof to boot! As the Zebra, he tracks down this Thinking Ape and reveals it to be Mala's master in an ape costume. He is the one who set Mala loose to cover his actions, but didn't anticipate her simply returning back to her home.
Thorga: 1939, Fantastic Comics #1 (Fox). Thorga is the first villain to face Samson and thus the first of his parade of foes that were bald geniuses and madmen that tried to conquer the world through super-science. And, like most of them is killed in fighting the hero. In addition to his army, he has advance tanks and airplanes.
The Thorns: 1941, Banner #3 (Ace Periodicals). 5th Column group, the leader of which was a foreman at the newspaper that Paul Revere, Sr. worked for. The group was uncovered and captured thanks to the work of Paul Revere, Jr., his America Awake Club and his father.
The Three Outlaws: February, 1949, Western Adventures (A.A. Wynn): Blackie Evans and his two friends embark on a crime spree in Red Dog, disappearing after each crime, unable to be found by neither Sheriff Sal nor the posse made up of the men of Red Dog who feel the job of sheriff isn't one for women. Yet it's Sal's friendship with the Brennans, an older couple that lead Sal to capture the gang. When they don't show up in town when they said they would, she suspects something is up and visiting she notices evidence that more than just two people are living there and sure enough, the gang was forcing the couple to let them hide out there.
Ticonda: 1939, Amazing Mystery Funnies #12, v2 #8 (Centaur). An enormous arctic ape, he was on display at the World's Fair. When he saw the Fantom, he broke free and fought him. Fantom eventually knocked Ticonda out and returned him to his captivity. A comment is made that Ticonda and the Fantom fought 10,000 years before which opens all sorts of cans of worms.
Tiger Lady: 1942, Prize Comics #18/v2n6 (Prize). Gangster "Machine Gun" Keller is sent to the electric chair, but his moll, the mysterious Tiger Lady is free and swears revenge for those that had a hand in capturing and convicting him. She uses the tigers of a nearby circus to execute her prey. Her first victim is Prosecutor Wilson. The judge is out of town, but Tiger Lady settles on capturing girl Sherlock, Terry Dane as well as her boyfriend Doug Danville. She also wants to capture the Black Owl, in order to kill both men in Terry's life, not realizing Doug and the hero are the same man. She is eventually captured and revealed to be the circus' animal trainer Madame Feline. NOTE: Her identity doesn't come as too much of a surprise. She uses the circus tigers to kill and is able to come and go as she pleases, she doesn't wear a mask, and even has at the least the circus strong man as part of her gang.
Tiger Man: 1942, Lightning Comics v3#1 (Ace). On the Lost Island off of Singapore, Tiger Man has teamed up with a native named Sabbat to seize the Pearl industry and stolen valuable ruby. Lash Lightning (during his days as Flash Lightning) is charged with getting the ruby back to return it and helps Rita Van Dyke a young pretty blond woman whose uncle was kidnapped when their pearl culture station was raided by the duo. In the end, the masked Tiger Man is revealed to be the uncle who wanted to get his niece out of the way in order to run his crooked business. Tiger Man wears normal clothes but a yellow cowl with black stripes.
The Toad: 1941, Prize Comics #17 (Prize). A Hollywood director is filming a fictitious case of the Black Owl with a villain called the Toad, being played by actor Bela Gulosi. However, a real villain calling himself the Toad is stalking the set, threatening the lead actress Alvetta James and with eyes on the real jewels. Enter Terry Dane, female p.i., hired to protect the actress, and her boyfriend Doug Danville, the real Black Owl. Gulosi and James are both severely wounded and left for dead. The Black Owl eventually defeats the Toad and unmasks him as Lon Shane, Gulosi's understudy. He wanted to get Gulosi and James out of the way so that he and his girlfriend Greta (James' understudy) could take over the roles. Shane is a decent archer, using a bow and arrow to shoot Gulosi, putting two arrows in quick succession into his chest.
The Toad II: 1942, Four Favorites #7 (Ace). An agent for the Axis, he created a couple of death machines. One sent out sonic waves and another that would send out lightning over the soundwaves, able to kill those that spoke. In this way, he tried to force speakers and Congress to make Peace with the Axis powers. His machines were destroyed and he was stopped by Lash Lightning. The Toad had no hair, green skin, a toad like face and spindly limbs. He was able to perform incredible jumps as you'd expect a human toad. He was sensitive about his name though, while he didn't mind his enemies calling him the Toad and fearing him, he insisted that his men call him by his real name Weston.
Topaz: 1944, Yellowjacket Comics #4 (Frank Communale Publishing Co.). This clever crook is a master planner and apparently decent at judo. After spending some time in jail, he decides to open up a school of crime.Unfortunately for him, he sets up shop in the rooms next to those of the hero Yellowjacket. NOTE: This story is interesting as the basic concept and the whole introduction are lifted from a 1943 Hangman. See the entry on Markov on the MLJ Villains page
The Torch: 1944, Exciting Comics 36 (Better). A research scientist for the Timberly Mine Company, Dr. Rydenham uncovered a fabulous Indian ruby. He sent it back via an accomplice to bury it in the empty lot next door to his house. Unfortunately, when he got back to the states, he discovered his accomplice had died in an accident and a hospital going up where the empty lot used to be. He creates a torch that can throw a flame fifty feet and in a yellow welder's outfit decorated with red flames, he reigns terror on those working on the site through sabotage and outright attacks. He's stopped by the Black Terror and Tim.
The Torch Men: 1944? Tops Comics. Ramsey and his lieutenant Carson head up a ring of men dress in gray protective gear complete with face masks and flame thrower torches attached to the tops of the hoods, all in an effort to force Doctor Mityken to give up his flame thrower patents and inventions. However, the Black Orchid witnesses their first attack against Dr. Mityken where an underling burns the doctor’s face and pits her paralyzing black vapors against their flames to bring them to justice.
Torcher: 1943, Super-Mystery Comics v3 #5 (Ace). Murderous partner of the Clown who used a flame-thrower to torture, maim and kill at the Clown's command. He helped the Clown steal an artificial fog machine, by killing the inventor's helpers and turning on his flames on the inventor and his son. Each was horribly disfigured and thought the other dead. The inventor sought out the help of Magno and Davy while his son seemed to throw in his lot with the Clown and Torcher. However, he was really working to turn the fog into a poisonous gas that he used on the gang, killing them and himself in the process. The Clown however has come back from seeming sure death before.
Torchmen: 1945, Startling Comics #32 (Standard).
Nazi Major Horstel developed radium powered jetpacks as an effort to save pilots lives as opposed to parachutes. However, a design flaw makes them have a tendency to burst into flame after sustained use. He adapts the jetpacks to also have a hood with a nozzle to re-direct the heat and flames. Soon, he and a small gang are destroying planes and sabotaging war plants which attracts the attention of the Fighting Yank. Their flight, flame powers, and numbers allow them to get ahold of his cloak but even without his powers, he fights on. With the help of Joan and his ghostly ancestor (who has to save him a couple of times as well as directly intervene this time), he is able to defeat them: Horstel is apparently captured while the others are apparently killed when the Fighting Yank turns their weapon against them. Horstel has a monocle over his left eye.
The Tormenter: 1947, America's Best #21 (Better). The Tormenter: The town of Granger is where Bruce Carter I was born and his descendent Bruce Carter III, aka the Fighting Yank, makes a yearly visit on the anniversary of his ancestor’s birth. However, on one such trip he finds the town being terrorized by a series of murders by a masked man called the Tormenter whose arrivals and departures are accompanied by a whistling sound. He finally stood revealed as banker Frank Meadows who was trying to cover and make up money that he had embezzled. The whistle was just that, a whistle that could be blown or even thrown to attract attention elsewhere.
Toto: 1942, Captain Aero #11 (Holyoke). Toto is a gorilla with a swastika on its chest and trained by its Japanese master to hate and attack Flagman on sight. Flagman manages to turn the tables, capturing the beast and parachuting it into Hitler's headquarters where it goes completely beserk. Its master finally is able to command it to attack Flagman leading the hero and his sidekick Rusty to gun it down before making their escape back to Allied territory.
Doctor Toyat: 1939, Amazing Man Comics #7 (Centuar). In the year 1960, Toyat and his assistant Kito kidnap women in order to make them powerful giants under his control. Toyat is also able to make self-destructing humanoid robots. He's stopped by the Iron Skull and forced to return the gals to normal. Preferring death to capture, he electrocutes himself.
Treacherous Trio: 1947, All Top Comics #8 (Fox). The trio are Blackbeard the pirate, the serial wife killer Dr. Crippen and Jack the Ripper brought from the past to the present day by mad scientist Sneer. They are outfought and sent back to the past by Blue Beetle.
Professor Henry Trepper: 1940, Amazing Mystery Funnies #19 (Centaur). A carnival huckster with a strong ability of hypnotism. He used his talents to gleam blackmail information and his hypnotized subjects would then carry out the blackmail and then turn over the money to Trepper, thus the trail could rarely be traced back to him.
Trepper's wife divorced him and then blackmailed him unless she continued to receive a cut. Trepper used his carnival freak Agar, the "man without a brain," to kill his wife and her associates. His killing spree was almost completed when Fantom caught him.
The Triangle: 1944, Camera Comics #2 (U.S. Camera). Nazi pilot captain who became an “ace” by specializing in going after unarmed reconnaisance aircraft. Deciding to make him pay, he's challenged by the Grey Comet, a reconnaisance flier himself. The story was supposed to be continued in issue 3 but it wasn't. Presumably, as the hero was in issue 3, he prevailed over the villain. Also, not sure as to why the name “Triangle”.
The Trigger: (Centaur Comics) When her real estate agent boyfriend Larry receives a death threat, Lucille Martin investigates why someone called the Trigger doesn't want him managing old Mrs. Harnett's estate. As the Blue Lady she discovers hooded men and a mining operation for radium ore underneath the estate. She takes care of the hoods, but the Trigger, a former professor of mining (?), escapes.
Triton: 1941, Captain Fearless #2 (Holyoke). Triton is part of an undersea kingdom and former suitor of the beautiful Dohra. However, she falls for the surfaceman Cap Stone, and Triton recruits a gang to try to kill him. Barely surviving their first encounter because of Stone's super-strength he then recruits the aid of King Zero of the Coral Men, who was banished from the city some time before. Even with those armies armed with rifles that fire freezing rays, Cap Stone is able to lead the forces of Aquari to defeat the invaders while Stone captures Zero and Triton.
Tusk: 1940, Amazing Mystery Funnies #17 (Centaur). An ugly man with large tusk-like teeth on his lower jaw, runs a small gang. With a fast acting knock-out gas of his own invention, Tusk and his gang commit a number of robberies before being stopped by the Masked Marvel.
The Tuxedo: 1943, Exciting Comics #31 (Standard). Anthony Durrant writes: The tuxedo was a spy whose men ran a fictitious lighting company, under which guise they would install special light bulbs made of a photographic material in which the nation's secret plans would be "photographed" as they were drawn up. He and his men would then replace the special light bulbs with more regular light bulbs. He was tracked down and killed by the American Eagle and Eaglet just after he had delivered the plans of a new bombsight to the captain of a Nazi submarine! UPDATE (01-10-08): Since the police weren't sure what the raids were about, the Tuxedo's gang were called the Enigma Raiders. The Tuxedo's final fate is a bit obscure. It's presumed he died when the submarine he was meeting up with fired on the ship with him and his gang in an attempt to get rid of the American Eagle and Eaglet. The two heroes survived however and destroyed the submarine.
Tyrant King: 1946, America¹s Best Comics 18 (Standard). Rex Topsed (read his last name backwards) was an assistant to Dr. Chilton and helped him develop the Electrosorber, a machine that can draw and redirect electrical energy from whole towns. Rex develops insulated rubber-asbestos costumes and electrical "voltoguns" for his gang. With such devices, he wreaked havoc until stopped by Pyroman.
Tyrannus: 1941, Fight Comics #15 (Fiction). Head of a 5th Columnist Army, he achieves an invasion of America, killing senators, capturing the President, etc. However, this is the time that Super-American comes from the future and puts a stop to his invasion plans. In issue 16, Tyrannus reports to Vultro, the German dictator that has conquered all of Europe.