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| “ | By the shades of Zeus you swine shall die! Taste that, infidels! | „ |
| ~ The Claw's final words before his death. |
| “ | DEATH TO AMERICA!!! | „ |
| ~ The Claw as he invades New York, reducing the city to ruins. |
The Claw, the God of Hate and "The World's Worst Villain", is one of the main villains of Lev Gleason Publications alongside Adolf Hitler.
Though incarnations vary, he is portrayed as an ultimate force of evil, in the original he was a demon who rules the small island of Ricca and became allies with the Axis Powers to achieve world domination. During World War II, he would become allies to the Axis Powers, primarily Hitler, though they tend to have their differences.
He is the archenemy of Daredevil (Bart Hill), Jerry Morris, and Ghost, as well as a foe of several other heroes like Rocky X, etc.
Biography[]
The ruler of the Pacific island nation of Ricca the Claw is the ultimate villain, often called the God of Hate by his own people. The Claw's activities were apparently monitored by an Infernal supervisor and he could travel to Hades to request aid. The Claw's most commonly used power was his ability to make himself any size he wishes, and he usually maintained a height of at least 100 feet. He towered over Manhattan when he first came to the U.S., where he would encounter his greatest foe, Daredevil (Lev Gleason). He was strong enough to pick up a train or rip the roof off of a building and he could not be killed by conventional firearms, though, being somewhat cowardly, he would usually retreat when he experienced pain. He had other ill-defined abilities as well which seemed to depend on the phases of the moon. He was served by a small army of human henchmen and by his goblin-like Clawites.
Over the years, the Claw faced a number of opponents, which included Jerry Morris, Major Carl Tarrant, Daredevil, Ghost, and Rocky X. Claw left Earth during WWII by tricking the Nazis into building him a rocket. He went back to the planet Zylmarx and for decades built up an invasion force to conqueror Earth. His plans are foiled by Rocky X and his allies.
His origins tends to vary on different continuities, but his original one was that he was born on the island of Ricca via a union between a ruthless lady named Zola and a ugly brute named Mei Ting. After he was born, the couple were found dead with Zola committing suicide leaving the baby at the care of the villagers of "Death's Head". Despite their bests efforts to raise him and teach him the ways of good, he chooses the path of evil even as a child. So much that he was then locked up in prison for many, many years until his powers, and soon his size, began to grow. He took advantage of this and broke out of the prison he was kept in while slaying all the guards.
Eventually he would enslave the very island he was born in, Ricca, and became its cruel tyrant. He would then practice the dark arts by selling his soul to Lucifer and earned himself a scientific field so he could build weapons of war and destruction. Now craving to rule the world, he would join the Axis during World War II, mainly Hitler, but his primary concern is conquering America and destroy its democratic ways.
Another origin story he has in his retconned return, he was a chunk of mass blew off the planet Zylmarx and hurtled towards Earth. It streaked over New York and landed in Tibet, far from civilization. For almost four years, the crater remained untouched. There were faint rumblings in the Earth, recorded on seismographs all over the world, but they were not considered unusual. Unknown to humanity, something was slowly developing within the meteor towards its awful birth. Then, early in 1939, the ground split open and out of the crater emerged a horrible sight: The Claw.
In his first run in the Lev Gleason stories, primarily when he was facing heroes such as Daredevil and Ghost, he would soon meet another like-mind supervillain by the name of Cobra Queen who captured Claw and attempted to make him her slave. But when he proves his power too great, the two would work together to conquer the world, and eventually capturing the Ghost to torture him later. Since the first run ended their abruptly, Claw was left victorious while leaving the fate of The Ghost, his archenemy, unknown.
Personality[]
The Claw is a vicious, apathetic, and wrathful megalomaniac hellbent on world domination. Reviled as "The World's Worst Villain" and for good reasons, willing to commit atrocities and war crimes to satisfy his obsession for power and dominance. He is prone to hurl insults to both allies and enemies especially when things don't go his way, and is an absolute dreadful excuse of a boss to his lackeys: Often threatening them with death or outright killing them through agonizing means should they fail him. He is also extremely sadistic, employing torture methods on his victims while making his arch-foes watch as he'll torture their loved ones to death while planning to do the same to them.
He is also known for his pettiness, at one point in the Lev Gleason run he used the powers of Hell itself to plunge the world into chaos just to destroy his hated arch-enemy Daredevil for constantly foiling him. However, beyond all this he is more than willing to strike pragmatic partnerships with other tyrants to suit his needs, such as Adolf Hitler and the other Axis Powers. But due to his immense ego, he acts as if he's the one in-charge even abusing Hitler, threatening his allies with death or using them as shields to protect himself. He also a treacherous snake to work with as well, as he plans to betray the Axis so he can rule the world by himself. His hunger for power having no end, willing to even sacrifice his soul to Lucifer himself just to gain magical abilities for his own.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Hypnotic Hum: The massive mental powers of the Claw were manifested in lightning fired from his fingertips and manifested in a variety of different forms.
- Dream Control: The Claw was able to hypnotically induce sleep in targeted people, controlling whether they would have addictive dreams or horrible nightmares.
- Telekinesis: The Claw was able to create an oceanic vortex that drew all the ocean currents in the world in his direction.
- Portal Conjuring: The Claw possessed the ability to open a portal to the Inferno, by uttering the incantation, "Reficul, retsam! Wolla em ot emoc ot sedah!"
- Mind Reading: The Claw was able to read unguarded thoughts.
- Size-Changing: The Claw was able to grow to such heights as to dwarf the island of Ricca itself, or to stand in the Atlantic ocean and make ships seem small.
- Smoke of Sin: An, incense, that, when burnt and inhaled as smoke, causes the breather to lose all fear. The Claw used it on his minions to keep them loyal.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Claw (Lev Gleason).jpg (112 KB)")
Trivia[]
- He serves as one of the earliest examples of the villain being the title character of their own work.
- He was created by Jack Cole.
- He is one of many Golden Age comic book supervillains to be in the Public Domain, alongside the likes of the Great Question, Mister Mind, Doctor Sivana, Captain Nazi, Doctor Nazo and Iron Jaw.