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The Claw was a Tibetan terrorist from the mid-20th Century. The Axis Powers sought an alliance with him on multiple occasions, and The Claw is known for his own successful invasions of America.
His villainy was put to an end in 1945 when he was killed in battle.
Biography[]
Birth[]
The Claw was born in the thriving town of Death's Head in Tibet, to Zola, the owner of a popular tavern there, who kept herself veiled at all times, and Mei Ting, her husband. (COMICS: Daredevil Comics Vol 1 12: Who He Really is and How He Came to Be!!)
Zola had been running the tavern by herself
Experiments with Magic[]
The Claw sold his soul to Lucifer.[1]
Master of Ricca[]
The Claw took control of the island of Ricca,
As Morris and the men of the Morosa returned to the grotto in the leech-boat, a guard hysterically pleaded for orders, to which the Claw angrily responded to use "the Flame". The flammable liquid had no effect on Morris and the others, as they had been subjected to Morris' radiation. (COMICS: The Claw)
When Morris, the newly rescued Pearsall, and the sailors entered the Claw's throne room, they found the despot missing, and, believing the Claw had made good his escape, Morris grimly concluded that the world had not heard the last of the Claw. (COMICS: The Claw)
Outbreak of World War II[]
In truth, the Claw had merely relocated to the radio room beneath the castle. (COMICS: War!)
As the Castle above-ground was destroyed by an explosion arranged by Morris, the Claw listened to a radio broadcast detailing that "aggressor nation" led by a "dictator" had declared a war, and that millions were being slaughtered. Meditating on the matter, the Claw then descended to his munitions factory, looked at the the weapons being built, and declared that it was time.[2] (COMICS: War!)
Shortly afterward, the Claw paid a visit to the dictator, offering his services in exchange for half of Europe. When the dictator attempted to refuse, the Claw smashed a vase as warning. The cowed dictator accepted the terms. (COMICS: War!)
The Claw's slaves worked night and day to construct a devastating weapon- a mobile aquatic fortress in the shape of an armoured train. The Claw sent the train forth to wreak havoc on allied ships, sinking them and returning the submerged hulks to Ricca aboard an underwater railroad. The train was also sent to shell the civilian populations of the Allies in a terroristic campaign. (COMICS: War!)
Despite their successes, the Claw lambasted his generals for their perceived lack of progress, pointing out that they weren't prepared for a long campaign, and decided to enter the war effort himself. The next night, the Claw again grew to colossal size in the Atlantic, and, again using the hypnotic hum, began to manipulate the water around him into a giant vortex, powerful enough to alter all the ocean currents on Earth in his direction.[3] His work done, the Claw descended back into the ocean and returned to his armoured train. (COMICS: War!)
Meanwhile, onboard the Morosa, Jerry Morris loses his child brother Tad to the ocean waves. Due to his loss, Morris swore vengeance on the Claw. Utilizing cars fitted with specially built lightbulbs containing a gas of Morris' own design, the chemist adventurer took the cars to the surface of the ocean, where the special lights frozed the water in front and beneath them in a column to the bottom of the ocean.[4]
Battle of Manhattan[]
Death[]
| “ | By the shades of Zeus you swine shall die! Taste that, infidels! | ” |
–The Claw, uttering his final words before being fatally electrocuted | ||
Weapons and Abilities[]
Inherent Abilities[]
- Durability: The Claw was shown to be more durable than a typical human.
- He survived the massive explosion of his armored train that caused it to fly up into the air from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. (COMICS: War!)
- He survived airplane bombings that levelled a fortress. (COMICS: The Green Claw)
- A stick of dynamite placed between his sandal and his foot caused him pain. (COMICS: Daredevil Battles the Claw)
- A stick of dynamite down his throat causes him internal injuries and causes him to retreat. (COMICS: Daredevil Battles the Claw)
- While human-sized, he is only incapacitated by falling off a cliff. (COMICS: The Claw vs. Daredevil)
- Survives a volcano erupting into his face. (COMICS: Claw / Daredevil)
- Size-Changing: The Claw was able to grow to such heights as to dwarf the island of Ricca itself[5], or to stand in the Atlantic ocean and make ships seem small.[6]
- He could selectively choose which parts of himself he wanted to grow, such as growing his arm to catch an airplane flying overhead. (COMICS: Claw / Daredevil!)
- 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. (COMICS: The Claw)
- Size Reduction: The Claw shrinks Major Carl Tarrant to the size of a doll using his hypnotic abilities. The affect is only temporary, so the Claw places Tarrant inside a box so that when he begins to return to his normal size he'll be crushed to death. (COMICS: The Green Claw)
- Telekinesis: The Claw was able to create an oceanic vortex that drew all the ocean currents in the world in his direction[3] (COMICS: War!)
- Mind reading: The Claw was able to read unguarded thoughts. (COMICS: Claw / Daredevil!)
- Strength: The Claw was shown to be stronger than a typical human.
- Crushes Sin-Lee to death in his grasp. (COMICS: Daredevil Battles the Claw)
- Crumples a building by slamming his fist into it. (COMICS: Daredevil Battles the Claw)
- He expected to throw Daredevil into the stratosphere. (COMICS: Daredevil Battles the Claw)
- Held onto an airplane in midflight. (COMICS: Claw / Daredevil!)
- Stomps into an extinct volcano hard enough to trigger a volcanic eruption. (COMICS: Claw / Daredevil)
- Force Waves: A metal-melting effect caused by the Claw. When Tarrant trips the Claw, he falls forward and melts the robots that he had previously stated "could not be hurt". (COMICS: The Green Claw)
Magical Abilities[]
- 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!" (COMICS: Daredevil Versus the Claw)
Magical Artifacts[]
- Jewel of Tibet: A mind-control gem.
Skills[]
- Hypnosis: The Claw places Franklin D. Roosevelt into a hypnotic trance and forces him to enact dictatorial laws and policies, as well as declaring martial law, to demoralise and constrain the American people. After Daredevil discovers this, Henry A. Wallace is sworn in to take over for him. (COMICS: The Claw vs. Daredevil)
- Hypnotises United States Army Air Forces officers to act as part of his air fleet and kill their fellow officers. (COMICS: Claw / Daredevil!)
Technology[]
Vehicles[]
- Armored Train: An airtight, sea-faring train that maneuvered through the water like an aquatic snake, the train was used for destroying ships from beneath, with its airtight turrets with such accurate precision that they could target cities fifty miles inland. (COMICS: War!)
- Boring Machine: A subterrene vehicle used by the Claw.
- Leech-Boats: The leech-boats were a fleet of submarines stationed on Ricca and manned by the Claw's dream-slaves. They were designed to allow for covert underwater ship penetration and looting. (COMICS: The Claw)
Devices[]
- Radio Beam Machine: A device that disables airplane engines from a distance. (COMICS: Claw / Daredevil!)
- Radio Finder: A device that can track a person's "vibrations". (COMICS: The Green Claw)
Weapons[]
- 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. (COMICS: The Claw in Action)
Victims[]
Killed[]
One of multiple ships sunk by the Claw's Armored Train.
- Over 1000 civilian ocean goers[7][8] (Mostly offscreen; mentioned; on his orders)
- At least 50 civilians inland[9][8] (Mostly offscreen; mentioned; on his orders)
- Over 3000 more civilian ocean goers[10][8] (Mostly offscreen; mentioned)
- Tad Morris[8]
- At least two of his own men[11][8]
- At least one Ice Car occupant[12][8]
- Sin-Lee[13]
- At least two construction workers[14][13]
- At least 1000 New Yorkers[15][13] (Mostly offscreen)
- Four of his troops[16][13]
- At least two Bostonians[17][18]
- At least two Philadelphians[19][18] (on his orders)
- At least three United States Air Force officers[20][21] (on his orders)
- At least two United States Army officers[22][21] (on his orders)
- At least 1000 United States Army officers[23][21] (on his orders)
Notes[]
Behind the Scenes[]
- The Claw was created by American cartoonist Jack Cole,[24] who also created Plastic Man.[25]
- American author Jeff Rovin said "No comic book antagonist was as merciless as the Claw".[26]
- The Claw has been noted to be among the among the various Axis-aligned supervillains in comics that proliferated in the Golden Age, such as the Red Skull, Captain Nazi, Baron Gestapo, Captain Swastika, and Captain Nippon.[27]
Appearances[]
- Silver Streak Comics
- The Claw (first appearance)
- War!
- Silver Streak Comics #5 (Advertisement, back cover)
- The Green Claw (as "the Green Claw")
- Daredevil Battles the Claw
- The Claw vs. Daredevil
- Claw / Daredevil!
- Claw / Daredevil
- Daredevil Versus the Claw
- Daredevil Comics
- The Claw Doublecrosses Hitler!
- World's Worst Villain!
- Out of the Murky Past! (reprint of Silver Streak Comics Volume 1, Issue 1)
- The Claw in Action!
- The End of the Claw! (appearance of death)
External Links[]
- The Claw at Wikipedia
- The Claw at the Public Domain Super Heroes Wiki
- The Claw at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
References[]
- ↑ This happened sometime prior to "Silver Streak Comics Vol 1 11: Daredevil Versus the Claw", offscreen of course.
- ↑ War was declared on the 3rd of September, 1939, so presumably the radio report was made then or in the days immediately following. - "Britain and France declare war on Germany". The History Channel. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 This was confirmed in-story by the United States Weather Bureau. The vortex was strong enough to bring large ships careening into reefs, and Arctic and Antarctic waters into the tropics, causing temperature drops, and swift climate change, bringing snow where there'd never been any. - Silver Streak Comics Volume 1, Issue 2, "War!", page 7
- ↑ Silver Streak Comics Volume 1, Issue 2, "War!", pages 8-13
- ↑ Silver Streak Comics Volume 1, Issue 1, story "The Claw", pages 5, 6
- ↑ Silver Streak Comics Volume 1, Issue 2, "War!", page 7
- ↑ The Claw's Armored Train is stated by the narration to sink "ship after ship"; The one ship shown on-panel (visible to the left in this article) is roughly comparable in proportion to a ship like the RMS Viceroy of India, which according to Wikipedia had a capacity of 1086 people including both passengers and crew. The true death toll is likely much higher, but no reference is given to the total number of ships sunk.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 War! - Silver Streak Comics Volume 1 #2 - Your Guide Publications, Inc. - Published January 1940 - Retrieved 4 February 2025
- ↑ The Claw's Armored Train is shown to bomb highrises and stated by the narration to be heavily attacking suburbs for demoralisation purposes. The actual number goes unstated but is like quite high.
- ↑ The Claw creating a vortex in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is shown to initially affect at least two large ships, possibly three, and a definite third ship after Tad Morris' death. The affect of the currents is shown to cause huge climate-changing events by bringing the waters of both poles in his direction, which causes tropical regions to suddenly suffer heavy snowstorms. Considering people likely froze to death as well as uncounted ships being wrecked, it's likely the true death toll is much higher.
- ↑ After Jerry Morris fires an acid bullet into one of the cars of the train, two men are shown in a compartment rapidly flooding, which the Claw seals off and detaches from the rest of the train with the narration stating men were still left inside it. Credit goes to both the Morris and the Claw.
- ↑ An Ice Car is shown being blown up by an artillery shell from the train. Including Morris himself, his own car was shown to have had room for at least three occupants, meaning that six could potentially have been killed.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Daredevil Battles the Claw - Jack Cole - Silver Streak Comics Volume 1 #7 - Your Guide Publications, Inc. - Published January 1941 - Retrieved 4 February 2025
- ↑ Two are shown to have died from working on the Claw's subterranean tunnel from Tibet to New York City.
- ↑ At least 17 buildings are shown to be melting and collapsing in the middle of Manhattan while the Claw is blasting electrical charges from his hands at them from above. The heat is described by characters as being hot enough to melt cars and lampposts. For further context, the Claw is stated to have emerged from Central Park.
- ↑ The Claw steps on and crushes four of his troops after they unwittingly allow Daredevil to destroy his equipment.
- ↑ Two cars are shown being flung into the air from the force generated by the Claw's Boring Machine. The radio states that people are being slaughtered, but by the time Daredevil arrives the chaos is done and the comic doesn't dwell on the event.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 The Claw vs. Daredevil - Jack Cole - Silver Streak Comics Volume 1 #8 - New Friday Publications, Inc. - Published March 1941 - Retrieved 4 February 2025
- ↑ Two men are shown being drove over by a tank piloted by the Claw's men.
- ↑ While the Claw's forces steal planes from the United States Army Air Forces and raid numerous hangars, only several raids are shown and a total of three officers are shown being shot from above.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Claw / Daredevil! - Silver Streak Comics Volume 1 #9 - New Friday Publications, Inc. - Published April 1941 - Retrieved 4 February 2025
- ↑ The Claw orders a nationwide air raid that gets repelled by Daredevil in his Airdevil. Only two men are shown being killed, but presumably the death toll was higher.
- ↑ Only six are seen dying on-panel, but army bigwigs declare that the Claw's air force is slaughtering their men "by the thousands".
- ↑ Horror in the Comics Part 4 - Ron Goulart - Fangoria #15 - O'Quinn Studios - Published 1981 - Page 30 - Retrieved 3 August 2024
- ↑ Horror in the Comics Part 4 - Ron Goulart - Fangoria #15 - O'Quinn Studios - Published 1981 - Page 30 - Retrieved 3 August 2024
- ↑ The Encyclopedia of Super Villains - Jeff Rovin - Facts on File Publications - Published 1987 - Page 59
- ↑ Supervillain - Encyclopædia Britannica - Retrieved 19 December 2020