Blake's Enemies
George Marsden Plummer (created by Ernest Semphill), a crooked Detective Sergeant at Scotland Yard, went after Blake when Blake stood between Plummer and a fortune — but like many others, Plummer ended up in a police cell. Unlike many before him, he repeatedly escaped and became Blake's arch-enemy.
Another memorable character was Waldo the Wonderman (created by Edwy Searles Brooks), who started out as a villain and ended up in later stories as a friend of Blake's, helping him in a number of cases. This 1918 superman had tremendous strength, could contort his body like a rubber man and was insensitive to pain. Even after his reformation, he continued to steal money (but his victims were now blackmailers, swindlers and other no-good members of the underworld).
Other notable villains included the Byronic master thief Zenith the Albino (who had crimson eyes), Dr Huxton Rymer, Leon Kestrel and The Master Mummer.
The type of villain Blake faced changed with the times (as did Blake himself). After World War II, his opponents became more down-to-earth, their personalities and motives less fantastic. Veteran writers John Hunter and Walter Tyrer excelled at this type of writing, but others failed to maintain their standards.
Read more about this topic: Sexton Blake
Famous quotes containing the words blake and/or enemies:
“God keep me from the divinity of Yes and No ... the Yea Nay Creeping Jesus, from supposing Up and Down to be the same thing as all experimentalists must suppose.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“There is not a more prudent maxim, than to live with one’s enemies as if they may one day become one’s friends; as it commonly happens, sooner or later, in the vicissitudes of political affairs.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)