The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: scientist

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 303: THE HANGMAN

    (Captain America Comics 006, 1941) 

    There are three big reasons that I like the Hangman:

    1. It’s hard to beat a Golden or Silver Age story that revolves around a group of suspects who might be the villain. Just a series of fun character sketches followed by (in this case) the character’s grisly murder.

    2. The Hangman isn’t actually supposed to be a luchador but he sure does look like one, and that’s one of the top super-hero/ villain looks.

    3. The Hangman is in reality… Dr Nicolai Vardoff, the supposed victim! Always a fun twist. His motivation? People kept bothering him when he was trying to work, so he faked his death and killed all the botherers, plus his best pal Ludwig. What a wacky dude.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 303: THE HANGMAN

    (Captain America Comics 006, 1941) 

    There are three big reasons that I like the Hangman:

    1. It’s hard to beat a Golden or Silver Age story that revolves around a group of suspects who might be the villain. Just a series of fun character sketches followed by (in this case) the character’s grisly murder.

    2. The Hangman isn’t actually supposed to be a luchador but he sure does look like one, and that’s one of the top super-hero/ villain looks.

    3. The Hangman is in reality… Dr Nicolai Vardoff, the supposed victim! Always a fun twist. His motivation? People kept bothering him when he was trying to work, so he faked his death and killed all the botherers, plus his best pal Ludwig. What a wacky dude.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 269: THE BRAIN OF PROFESSOR DONAIRE

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 015, 1941) 

    I must admit that I was predisposed to give Professor Donaire the benefit of the doubt, given that where I’m from a donair is a delicious late night drunken street food. But he didn’t need it! Even with a non-snack-based name, Prof. Donaire would be a terrific villain.

    Having said that: Prof. Donaire is a real dummy. He suffers from exactly the same failure of imagination as our old pal Python: that nobody would bother to investigate the nearby vicinity when large numbers of corpses are found in quick succession.

    But the similarities to Python don’t end there! Like Python, Donaire lives in an old stone structure (a temple rather than a castle, buts still) retrofitted with a modern lab, has a big bald goon with a K name (Karlo to Python’s Kreeper) and the corpses he’s dumping are sans brain.

    Unlike Python, Prof Donaire has no interest in the brains of his victims. No, he’s a body thief. He’s scooped out his own brain and put it in a jar and now can control five seperate bodies on the 40s equivalent of a Local Area Network. And as always with any kind of body part thief, Donaire is just salivating at the thought of adding a toned super-hero bod to his collection.

    Luckily for the Angel, merely having the bodies of a bunch of athletes does not grant Donaire the reflexes or fighting abilities of their original owners. Likewise, being able to mobilize four bodies for a melee doesn’t convey the ability to coordinate their attacks. The Angel is perfectly fine.

    All good things come to an end, however, and Professor Donaire learns a bit too late the primary rule of having an disembodied brain: don’t just, like, put it on a shelf or other easily accessed location in a glass jar. In this particular case, Donaire ends up setting his own lab (and therefore brain) on fire but the Angel would have been completely justified in nailing it with a jump-kick.

    In conclusion: the Brain of Professor Donaire should absolutely be BRUNG BACK.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 265: THE MAD DOCTOR

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 009, 1940)

    This one, while not being particularly spectacular as a whole does contain a lot of fun elements. Let’s count them off!

    We open on our hero one a one-issue trip to Europe (1) where he pooh-poohs the local superstitions (2) about a castle full of vampires who steal young women (3).

    The Angel – for it is he who pooh-poohs – quickly gets mixed up in an attempted vampiric abduction and, surprise surprise, the guy isn’t actually a vampire at all (4). A shame, because I love it when vampires are wretched little weasels instead of cool guys in evening wear.

    It turns out that the supposed vampire clan is actually a front for an unnamed mad scientist – “Mad Doctor” is a captions-only unofficial name (5) – who is kidnapping the young women for use as test subjects (6) in his mind-swapping machine (7) and he intends to place his latest victim’s mind into the body of a gorilla (8).

    Lucky for the hapless fraulein, the Angel shows up, there is a fracas and the whole place ends up exploding (9).

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 262: DR MANYAC & THE GREEN FLAME

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 004, 1940)

    Dr Manyac here is a perfectly fine criminal scientist with a very good name. It’s just too bad for him that he is in the very common position of being completely overshadowed by his henchmen:

    THE GREEN FLAME! Very very cool looking guys who are also some of our first simple examples of evil opposites, as their green flame burns cold to contend with our pal the red-hot Human Torch. Using the threat of the Green Flame’s cold causing buildings to crumble and collapse, Manyac aims to ransom New York for big bux.

    Unfortunately for his plans, and especially for his henchmen, the Green Flame’s suits aren’t quite robust enough to stand up to the Human Torch’s flame. They all end up roasted, while Manyac is carted off to jail, never to be seen again (until he’s brought back and killed off in 2009, natch)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 257: THE SWORDS OF DEATH

    (Hit Comics 006, 1940)

    Once again we find ourselves profiling the interesting henchmen of a run-of-the-mill villain: the Swords of Death, in this case. A trio of assassin/ thieves armed with electrified rapiers and high opinions of themselves, the Swords have the misfortune to run into perennial-punching-bag-but-actually-fun-character the Red Bee on what seems to be their first mission, whereupon he promptly kills two of them.  

    I like the Swords of Death – any time a hero has to beat up a bunch of cool henchmen is okay by me, and cool electric swordsmen who sneak around in hats and overcoats like the Ninja Turtles are extra fun. Possibly the most intriguing thing about them, however, is that the surviving member of the three kills himself upon being defeated by the Red Bee, rather than be captured. A shocking degree of loyalty! Especially as…

    … he works for this weird little creep (named Kulak, in a weird made-up name coincidence), continuing the long comic book tradition of inexplicable loyalty-unto-death by ruthless killers toward people who probably wouldn’t buy them a coffee on their birthday, let alone give a damn that they were dead.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 257: THE SWORDS OF DEATH

    (Hit Comics 006, 1940)

    Once again we find ourselves profiling the interesting henchmen of a run-of-the-mill villain: the Swords of Death, in this case. A trio of assassin/ thieves armed with electrified rapiers and high opinions of themselves, the Swords have the misfortune to run into perennial-punching-bag-but-actually-fun-character the Red Bee on what seems to be their first mission, whereupon he promptly kills two of them.  

    I like the Swords of Death – any time a hero has to beat up a bunch of cool henchmen is okay by me, and cool electric swordsmen who sneak around in hats and overcoats like the Ninja Turtles are extra fun. Possibly the most intriguing thing about them, however, is that the surviving member of the three kills himself upon being defeated by the Red Bee, rather than be captured. A shocking degree of loyalty! Especially as…

    … he works for this weird little creep (named Kulak, in a weird made-up name coincidence), continuing the long comic book tradition of inexplicable loyalty-unto-death by ruthless killers toward people who probably wouldn’t buy them a coffee on their birthday, let alone give a damn that they were dead.

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 001

    Like costumed villains, there are a lot of scientists out there doing crimes involving superscience but just missing the levels of interest, ambition or scale to graduate to true super-villain status. Sometimes this is because of poor planning or lack of vision and others just have the misfortune to run into a protagonist while still in the initial stages of their venture. And don’t they deserve a forum just as much as the generic costumed villains we all love?

    Julius Korn: 

    Our first science fiend is Julius Korn, who takes over a lighthouse with his crew of misfits in order to use his ray machine to sink passing ships. It’s unclear just why he does this – is it a weapons test, a piracy scheme, fifth column activity or plain sadism? – but he is thwarted by sea rover Dusty Dane and his pal Big Mike Cardigan and ends his days like so many other comic book scientists: exploding along with his invention. (Feature Comics 048, 1941)

    the Professor: 

    The Professor here operated a scheme whereby he used a magnetic engine killing ray to bring down mail planes in Arizona’s Painted Desert. As befits a scientist operating in cowboy territory, he was willing to get his hands a bit dirtier than your typical effete science-man, but even that wasn’t enough to save him from the Fargo Kid. (Feature Comics 051, 1941)

    Unnamed Scientist: 

    This unnamed fellow went to the trouble of developing anti-Flash technology – specifically, glasses with rotating lenses that allow him to see fast-moving objects – to protect his kidnap gang rather than, say, moving to another city (or marketing his glasses somewhere, natch) (Flash Comics v1 001, 1940)

    (Trophy Room bonus: the Flash keeps the glasses)

    Dr Jennings: 

    This here’s Dr Jennings, who works in a research lab with Jay “the Flash” Garrick and kidnaps a lot of people to live out his dream of establishing a colony on Mars but then is betrayed by his venture capitalist partner Enzil who just wants to establish himself as a Martian tyrant in a story that feels oddly prescient somehow? Anyhow the Flash is more focused on rehabilitation than your average Golden Age hero and so Jennings is allowed to go back to his old life after Enzil is vaporized by spider-aliens. (Flash Comics v1 024, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 254: THE SMOKE THIEF

    (Flash Comics v1 023, 1941)

    I’ll be honest: this is a very charitable entry on this list. The Smoke Thief is Dr Lucius Darrell and his gang of toughs, who use smoke bombs and special goggles to rob people on trains. If this was the main focus of the story, that might just be enough for full Minor Super-Villain status, but it ain’t.

    The real point of the story is this. Darrell captures Hawkman, then tries to kill him by chucking him out of a plane, which leads to a whole sequence where Hawkman is nursed back to health by the birds, earns their trust and eventually becomes their leader, leading them in righteous vengence against poor unsuspecting Dr Darrell.

    So yes, I’m being charitable. Being absolutely destroyed by Hawkman and an army of birds isn’t particularly villainous but it must be terrifically unpleasant. Plus the Smoke Thief is an excellent name.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 254: THE SMOKE THIEF

    (Flash Comics v1 023, 1941)

    I’ll be honest: this is a very charitable entry on this list. The Smoke Thief is Dr Lucius Darrell and his gang of toughs, who use smoke bombs and special goggles to rob people on trains. If this was the main focus of the story, that might just be enough for full Minor Super-Villain status, but it ain’t.

    The real point of the story is this. Darrell captures Hawkman, then tries to kill him by chucking him out of a plane, which leads to a whole sequence where Hawkman is nursed back to health by the birds, earns their trust and eventually becomes their leader, leading them in righteous vengence against poor unsuspecting Dr Darrell.

    So yes, I’m being charitable. Being absolutely destroyed by Hawkman and an army of birds isn’t particularly villainous but it must be terrifically unpleasant. Plus the Smoke Thief is an excellent name.