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:
“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“Where there is no style, there is in effect no point of view. There is, essentially, no anger, no conviction, no self. Style is opinion, hung washing, the calibre of a bullet, teething beads.... One’s style holds one, thankfully, at bay from the enemies of it but not from the stupid crucifixions by those who must willfully misunderstand it.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)