1938 Republic movie serial in which two heroic
Marines (played by Lee Powell and Herman Brix) fight a globe-spanning struggle against the super-scientific arsenal wielded by a sinister
villain known only as "
the Lightning".
The Lightning is really the centerpiece of this one. He was one of the most visually arresting of the serial bad guys with his long black cape and the barbed black helmet that hid his features. (More than one critic has commented on the similarity between the Lghtning and Darth Vader.) He ruled the skies in his enormous flying wing and destroyed whole platoons of soldiers with his electrical torpedoes. In close combat, he picked off his enemies with a pistol that fired bolts of electricity.
In the Firesign Theater album "The Giant Rat of Sumatra", one of the characters is referred to as a "fighting devil dog", and the villain "the Electrician" bears a resemblance to the Lightning.