Milord himself is a misogynistic snuff filmmaker. Luring young Indian women to his movie studio, Milord holds them captive and forces them to act in his movies, having them either raped, tortured, or murdered on camera. Raping some of the women himself, when he grows tired of them, Milord either has them sold to a faraway brothel, or has them gruesomely murdered. Hoping to kill Willie Garvin in one of his films despite growing fond of him, Milord proves himself so awful, that Modesty allows him to be killed instead of having him arrested.
Kane is a murder-happy thug who proves himself the worst of Milord's crew. In charge of luring the Indian girls to Milord's studio alongside Lamont, Kane also acts in Milord's snuff movies, happily raping, torturing, and murdering numerous women on film to satiate his love of violence.
"The Aristo" arc: The Aristo is an aristocratic pirate infamous for stealing cargo from ships; should someone try to intervene, he has the entire crew slaughtered, save for the women, who are captured, raped, and sold to brothels. After getting tricked by Modesty in order to save the life of the pregnant Jo, the Aristo leads a manhunt, hoping to kill Modesty and company to restore his ego.
"Black Queen's Pawn" arc: Queen Ranavalona was the sadistic ruler of Madagascar who "makes Hitler look like Mary Poppins". Ranavalona had slaughtered tens of thousands of her subjects and rival tribes using a variety of cruel methods, from making them walk off a cliff to their deaths, to torturous executions such as crucifixion and mutilation, while enslaving others. Having an egg she worshiped hidden to achieve immortality, Ranavalona had her 520 slaves who buried the egg killed, afterwards having her trustworthy commanders murdered to keep the egg's location a secret.
"The Special Orders" arc: Rosie Ling and James Nagle-Green are a pair of Human Traffickers who supposedly run a charity organization called "The Saviours". Kidnapping underaged women that fit their clients' fetishes, Rosie and James have sold tons of women as sex slaves over the years. Rosie kills anybody who fails her, while James handles the business side of the operation, choosing which women to kidnap to ensure his clients' satisfaction.
"Death Symbol" arc: Yen Kang is a former commanding officer who, after faking his death, took over a hidden Tibet village with his army of renegade soldiers. Forcing the village's 200 inhabitants into slave labor by threatening their children, Kang also converted a Buddhist monastery into his own brothel, the Pleasure House, where young women are purchased as sex slaves for him and his men to rape and abuse to their liking.
Fair for Its Day: A number of arcs in the strip include characters who happen to be New Guinean, Native American, Aboriginal, and other assorted minority groups. The language used to refer to them is often awkward to a modern reader (i.e. Annie calling her friend Joe a "pesky redskin" as a term of endearment in "Butch Cassidy Rides Again"), but the characters are always depicted sympathetically if not heroically. "The Māori Contract" in particular depicts the Māori as friendly, open people who are all contributing members of society.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: For years the Detroit Free Press, alone among US papers, carried the strip, albeit not without some censorship of the more risque panels of the UK original.
Values Resonance: This comic strip had Modesty and Willie, a woman and man, as just close Platonic Life-Partners, showing that it is possible for men and women to just be friends.
The 1966 movie adaptation of the comic strip:
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The totally random musical number involving Modesty and Willie suddenly declaring their love for each other. For one thing, the movie isn't actually a musical.
Padding: It features a fair few pointless scenes (like a magician's tricks) in order to make the running time close to two hours.
Special Effect Failure: The body of the mime killed by Mrs. Fothergill and thrown off the cliff is an obvious dummy.
Values Dissonance: In "A Better Day to Die", Modesty shows a shocking lack of sympathy towards a young South American woman who has been gang-raped by a group of bandits/"revolutionaries", taking the attitude that she'll "get over it" easily because she's from primitive peasant stock and joking that she'll benefit for the rest of her life from having an exciting story to tell.
