The Curse of Skeleton Munroe – Page 104

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 429: LORD MARVEL

20 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Mystery Men Comics 004, 1939) Here we see Lord Marvel, a weird little creep who lives on the planet Ursis (as with many planets in the Rex Dexter comics, Ursis is ambiguously placed: Dexter and his companion/ lover Cynde are constantly sidetracked on the comparatively short voyage from Earth to Mars and always seem to end up on extra-solar planets. The writers of Golden Age sci-fi comics often seem to have a fairly fuzzy grasp of the positions and distances…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 428: THE WHITE FACE

19 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Mystery Men Comics 001, 1939) I have made an error! Two errors! The first was in skipping the Blue Beetle’s very first foe, and it was because of the second, that I had the antagonist in this story marked down as the White Face Gang rather than the White Face, plus his gang. If it was the former, the best their unnamed leader would get was a place in the Generic Costumed Villain Round-Up, but no, he has a special…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 427: THE TUSK

18 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Keen Detective Funnies v2 022, 1940) I want to be clear: there is very little to talk about re: the Tusk. I just find his weird face fascinating. Eponymous tusk plus weak chin plus huge eyes plus bonus enormous combover makes this guy a visual feast! Plus he’s a Masked Marvel foe and I love that guy. Just look at the faces he ends up pulling to highlight the tusk! Real great stuff. Oh, and as for the villainy: the…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 426: THE RED RAIDER

17 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Keen Detective Funnies v2 021, 1940) A simple but effective origin story: The captain of a German Mergan submarine becomes obsessed with death and destruction and goes rogue, preying on Axis and Allied shipping alike and replacing the flag of Nazi Germany Zani Mergany* with the skull and crossbones. Suddenly, the threat of war is a threat to all seagoing vessels! The Red Raider (technically the name of the submarine but I stand firm in my conviction that the name…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 425: THE ONE THOUSAND AND ONE

16 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Keen Detective Funnies v2 019-020, 1940) Love a number name, particularly one so precise as the One Thousand and One. It’s tied to the number of criminals in their employ, but does it go up and down as they gain or lose members? Is the One a very harried HR guy frantically filling positions as they are vacated? Is it just a nice-sounding number and the actual staffing is a bit more loose? These are the important questions. It’s a…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 424: THE FIEND

15 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Keen Detective Funnies v2 011, 1939) The Fiend is a mad scientist/ musician who has developed a supercharged organ capable of destroying structures such as the Brooklyn Bridge. And he does so, ostensibly as a showcase of his power in aid of his conquest of the world but possibly just as a whim – he’s your classic erratic comic book madman. G-Man Dan Dennis tracks him down with relative ease and the threat of the Fiend is ended forever. OR…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 423: THE HAWK

14 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Keen Detective Funnies v2 008, 1939) There’s no bones about it: the Hawk looks like a guy who has a pretty extensive model train setup down in the basement. And he may just! But he’s also a master thief who stashes his loot inside an active Mexican volcano. But the volcano has a tram running up the side, so perhaps his inner train enthusiast is expressing itself in different ways. As always: you live by the volcano lair; you die…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 422: THE MASTER

13 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Keen Detective Funnies v2 002, 1939) Another day, another guy named the Master. This Master is escaped lunatic Pierre Lacroix, leader of the Hooded Cult and would-be world conqueror. Lacroix maintains the loyalty of his cult via drug addiction and has a castle HQ. This is all penny-ante stuff. The most important thing about the Master is his shirt. It’s like, a sweatshirt with attached cowl? Obviously other villains have been doing similar things with robes for years at this…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 421: THE RED-EYED KILLER

12 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Jumbo Comics 020, 1940) What a cool-looking villain! Suit and cape combo? Blood-red eyes? Great stuff. He’s got a cool mask and a wavy dagger and he goes on an enormous spree killing in NYC while Our Hero Inspector Dayton tries to figure out just how he’s going to stop the Red-Eyed Killer. But they spend too much time in the setup! Dayton stumbles into a doctor’s office on the last page and the resolution happens in an instant –…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 420: THE HOODED ARCHER

11 January, 2024 skeletonmunroe Comments 0 comment

(Jumbo Comics 003-005, 1938-1939) The Hooded Archer is included here as a curiosity. He gets an enormous buildup! He’s going to teach the entire movie company that is shooting on hero Wiley Wilton’s ranch the meaning of terror! Here is the meaning of terror. Terror is when: – someone aims but does not fire an arrow at a man (jackass actor Geoffrey Parker) – they then shoot a distinctive arrow at another man (Wiley Wilton) – a bandit (Henry Fleetfoot)…

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