The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: scientist

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 013

    Progress! Science! 

    It’s blood that this nameless inventor wants, blood to make his super fuel! Too bad for him that he chose to steal it from US Marine Strut Warren because he ends up extremely dead for his efforts (and the world remains dependant on fossil fuels. Thanks, Strut). (Fight Comics 003, 1940)

    Professor Pierre Villon, refugee from the Paris Medical Academy, has set himself up on a tropical island to further his scientific research into making human/animal hybrids. His method of acquiring test subjects by knocking aircraft out of the sky with an engine killing ray attracts the attention of Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron, and Villon ends up perishing at the hands, claws and teeth of his own creations. (Fight Comics 008, 1940)

    Professor Gustoff’s one interest is in administering his mutagenic fluid to people to turn them into “weird creatures”, aka bald guys with webbed hands and feet.He sets his sights too high when he tries to creaturize South Sea adventurer Shark Brodie and ends up beat up and presumably in some sort of colonial penal system. And the worst part? The poor weird creatures aren’t even fully amphibious – they all end up drowning. (Fight Comics 009, 1940)

    This is Dr Wratt, who lives on an isolated island populated by hypnotically controlled man-apes. He kidnaps Kaänga’s love interest Ann Mason for what I can only assume are weird creep reasons, based mostly on the fact that Wratt’s outfit consists of a short lab smock and nothing else. (Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 013

    Progress! Science! 

    It’s blood that this nameless inventor wants, blood to make his super fuel! Too bad for him that he chose to steal it from US Marine Strut Warren because he ends up extremely dead for his efforts (and the world remains dependant on fossil fuels. Thanks, Strut). (Fight Comics 003, 1940)

    Professor Pierre Villon, refugee from the Paris Medical Academy, has set himself up on a tropical island to further his scientific research into making human/animal hybrids. His method of acquiring test subjects by knocking aircraft out of the sky with an engine killing ray attracts the attention of Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron, and Villon ends up perishing at the hands, claws and teeth of his own creations. (Fight Comics 008, 1940)

    Professor Gustoff’s one interest is in administering his mutagenic fluid to people to turn them into “weird creatures”, aka bald guys with webbed hands and feet.He sets his sights too high when he tries to creaturize South Sea adventurer Shark Brodie and ends up beat up and presumably in some sort of colonial penal system. And the worst part? The poor weird creatures aren’t even fully amphibious – they all end up drowning. (Fight Comics 009, 1940)

    This is Dr Wratt, who lives on an isolated island populated by hypnotically controlled man-apes. He kidnaps Kaänga’s love interest Ann Mason for what I can only assume are weird creep reasons, based mostly on the fact that Wratt’s outfit consists of a short lab smock and nothing else. (Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 027

    Guess what? More minor super-heroes, that’s what.

    the Black Arrow:

    Black Arrow, aka Rex Norton, is a detective/pilot, ho-hum. As per standard he has a great codename. (Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)

    the Researcher:

    A dapper super-scientist armed with x-ray flashlights, paralysis-inducing walking sticks and mind-reading rays. Perhaps the most charming thing about him is that everyone from his enemies to his friends to his lab assistant/love interest refer to him solely as “the Researcher.” (Green Giant Comics 001, 1940)

    the Green Mask:

    The Green Mask started out in Mystery Men Comics as your standard Green Hornet or Crimson Avenger style masked vigilante: capable with his fists and with a gun but otherwise an ordinary if unnamed human man, believed by the police and the underworld to actually be a crook and thus hunted by both, the works. 

    After about a year and a half, he got a bit of a revamp: the Green Mask is now Michael Shelby, son of Senator Shelby, enemy of crime. In an attempt to prevent the Senator from introducing a law that would make crime illegal, gangsters gun him down and shoot up Michael in the process. Lucky for him, family friend Professor Lascomb is present and has a healing vita-ray machine at his disposal – Michael’s life is saved and as happy side effect he is given the power of flight and some ill-defined enhanced physical abilities. His crimefighting career is much the same as before but without the ire of the police. 

    (Like Fox Features’ other big non-Blue Beetle heroes Samson and the Flame, in 1941 the Green Mask gets a bit more of a supporting cast, in his case wealthy socialite Olivia Tracy and her bumbling chauffeur Peters. Like Samson and the Flame this didn’t save him from oblivion when Fox had its troubles in 1942-1943 but unlike them he did return eventually. Kind of) (Mystery Men Comics 001, 1939/ Green Mask v1 001, 1940)

    Domino the Miracle Boy:

    In the same story in which the Green Mask becomes super-powered Michael Shelby (and also Michael Shelby becomes the Green Mask) an unnamed youngster is blown up by a grenade and must be healed by Professor Lascomb’s vita-ray. This youth was called Don (no last name forthcoming) and wasn’t just a blown-up teen but a blown-up teen orphan and so was summarily adopted by Michael Shelby. Domino’s powers are a little less extensive than the Green Masks, as Prof Lascomb foolishly fixed the vita-ray machine’s short circuit in between the two being treated, the main upshot of which is that Domino doesn’t seem to be able to fly but rather gets around on a rope tied to a boomerang. (Green Mask Comics v1 001, 1940)

    Update 1941

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 647: THE MONK

    (Fight Comics 008, 1940)

    I like to criticize scientist-villains a lot for their limited vision, for their inability to see the legitimate money-making options they have after inventing say a super-efficient tunnel digging machine that they view solely as a way to rob banks easily. The Monk is the opposite of that kind of guy, I reckon.

    (brief aside about the name: this is not in reference to the religious calling but rather the old-school, now-defunct gangster nickname, where “Monk” is short for “monkey”. Which seems like a thing that actual people did do at one point? Call monkeys monks? I only have comic book dialogue to go by, so what do I know)

    The Monk and his gang have developed an advanced rocket artillery that can deliver a high explosive shell at great distance. A great start! Not the most ethical thing that you could spend your time inventing but sure to sell! The only problem is that a) the shells won’t explode unless a lever inside them is pulled while en route and b) the Monk is either unwilling or unable to come up with a second solution after “load each shell with a captured lumberjack” proves successful.

    I mean, using a human does work, I’ll give him that, but even as a non-weapons designer I can spot a couple of flaws: 1) you are artificially limiting your customer base to evil governments willing to spend either their own troops or a constant supply of political prisoners to arm their weaponry and 2) even the most heinous and bloodthirsty warmonger will eventually wonder just what guarantee they have that every person will pull the lever. And sure, you could develop a system to brainwash lumberjacks or a method of remotely compelling arm motion but at that point why not just build a got-danged timing mechanism?

    It is at this point that we must acknowledge that this has been an academic discussion, as the Monk’s greatest mistake was capturing Big Red McLane (Fletcher Hanks’ third or fourth best character but one dedicated mostly to low-stakes lumberjack gangsterism) and so gets fatally punched off of a cliff. Be more careful next time, Monk! And buy a book on lateral thinking or something, sheeesh.

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

    Science class was never like this.

    Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough “noxio gas” to flood the NYC of the I-think-it’s-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940)

    This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he’s introduced while sitting in a tennis judge’s chair for no stated reason. He lives in an inactive volcano, probably in Africa, and is developing a horrible poison dust that he has used to destroy the neighbouring village – it’s probably a good thing that Captain Kidd melts him. (Fantastic Comics 008, 1940)

    Dr Loy here has created an army of chemical androids that he controls and aims to take over the world with. Two problems: the Fantom of the Fair is on the case and Dr Loy’s androids dissolve in water. Loy is quickly arrested. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 002, 1940)

    Chung Hang has a simple dream: wait until the world is exhausted by WWII and then take over using his mind control ray. And he might just get there some day, because Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron just punches him out and leaves once he and his pals have escaped Chung Hang’s science dungeons. (Fight Comics 002, 1940)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

    Science class was never like this.

    Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough “noxio gas” to flood the NYC of the I-think-it’s-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940)

    This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he’s introduced while sitting in a tennis judge’s chair for no stated reason. He lives in an inactive volcano, probably in Africa, and is developing a horrible poison dust that he has used to destroy the neighbouring village – it’s probably a good thing that Captain Kidd melts him. (Fantastic Comics 008, 1940)

    Dr Loy here has created an army of chemical androids that he controls and aims to take over the world with. Two problems: the Fantom of the Fair is on the case and Dr Loy’s androids dissolve in water. Loy is quickly arrested. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 002, 1940)

    Chung Hang has a simple dream: wait until the world is exhausted by WWII and then take over using his mind control ray. And he might just get there some day, because Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron just punches him out and leaves once he and his pals have escaped Chung Hang’s science dungeons. (Fight Comics 002, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 635: KAOS

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 635: KAOS

    (Fantastic Comics 012, 1940)

    Kaos, a Venusian scientist, has a plan that in true comics book fashion is both simple (invade the Earth with overwhelming force, thus taking over almost immediately) and overly complicated (hypnotize the local population of giant vultures and then feed them super vitamins extracted from a specially-bred vine, thus making them even more giant and so fast that they are unbeatable, then teleport them to Earth as your main invasion force). Also: those are some crazy legs on those vultures.

    Kaos may be the villain who benefits the most from a frequent plot element in Stardust the Super Wizard adventures, that Stardust lives so gosh darned far away. Thus, despite the fact that Stardust watched Kaos’ entire plan unfold on his View-Plate and Thought-Recorder, Kaos has enough time to effectively conquer the planet while the Super Wizard is on his commute.

    Once Stardust actually shows up, Kaos is subdued in exactly two panels. The vultures take a bit longer but in short order both they and “Kaos-the-Worm” are on their way back to Venus. There’s no mention of removing the birds’ physical enhancements so I guess it’s now up to the Venusians to deal with millions of huge powerful super-fast vultures.

    This is the issue in which a young woman orphaned in the vulture attacks attaches herself to Stardust and ends up returning to his star with him to live. I don’t know if this was intended to be a sexy situation or not – the two of them certainly do seem to be giving each other significant looks, but the same panels are really emphasizing just how much bigger Stardust is than her. It’s unsettling! Though she never appears again in a Fletcher Hanks story, this unnamed character is a frequent feature of more recent Stardust works, so I felt I should include her.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 628: PROFESSOR DONALDSON

    (Fantastic Comics 011, 1940)

    Sometimes it’s nice to read a story about a straightforwardly criminal scientist, and that’s just what Professor Donaldson is. He’s invented an “electronic exploder” which can turn steel to dust and by gar if he isn’t going to use that to extort some money out of people with steel things that they would like to stay intact, such as the superstructure of a skyscraper.

    Donaldson is also prepared to pivot: when his original attempt to set up a protection racket fails he attempts to extort NYC itself. This also fails, because Samson is in the city and the Generic New York Mayor has a guy on staff who knows how super-heroes work. Why, they often don’t even ask to be paid!

    But Professor Donaldson just won’t stop pivoting! If extortion isn’t going to pay off then a steel-dissolving ray is the perfect thing for bank robbery!

    The bank robbery is, alas, Donaldson’s last pivot before Samson and David catch up to him. He puts up a very brave front but ultimately a pasty-faced lab rat, even armed with a fire axe, is no match for David, let alone Samson.

    At least Donaldson’s death is somewhat poetic, as he is run down, or “wrecked” by a train, just as he himself had wrecked a train in his earlier campaign to extort the city.

    Shout out also Professor Donaldson’s unusually large number of named henchmen. Good luck looking for new employment Buck, Butch, Silky, Mike, Slinky and Bill. Except not Buck because Samson killed him. Rest in peace, Buck.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 628: PROFESSOR DONALDSON

    (Fantastic Comics 011, 1940)

    Sometimes it’s nice to read a story about a straightforwardly criminal scientist, and that’s just what Professor Donaldson is. He’s invented an “electronic exploder” which can turn steel to dust and by gar if he isn’t going to use that to extort some money out of people with steel things that they would like to stay intact, such as the superstructure of a skyscraper.

    Donaldson is also prepared to pivot: when his original attempt to set up a protection racket fails he attempts to extort NYC itself. This also fails, because Samson is in the city and the Generic New York Mayor has a guy on staff who knows how super-heroes work. Why, they often don’t even ask to be paid!

    But Professor Donaldson just won’t stop pivoting! If extortion isn’t going to pay off then a steel-dissolving ray is the perfect thing for bank robbery!

    The bank robbery is, alas, Donaldson’s last pivot before Samson and David catch up to him. He puts up a very brave front but ultimately a pasty-faced lab rat, even armed with a fire axe, is no match for David, let alone Samson.

    At least Donaldson’s death is somewhat poetic, as he is run down, or “wrecked” by a train, just as he himself had wrecked a train in his earlier campaign to extort the city.

    Shout out also Professor Donaldson’s unusually large number of named henchmen. Good luck looking for new employment Buck, Butch, Silky, Mike, Slinky and Bill. Except not Buck because Samson killed him. Rest in peace, Buck.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 622: PROFESSOR SIMM

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 622: PROFESSOR SIMM

    (Fantastic Comics 009, 1940)

    We open on a very exciting scene! Professor Simm has unleashed giant monsters on an unnamed US city! Chaos reigns!

    I unironically love these monsters. They have that half-baked quality that you get in generic kids toys – the kind of thing you got as a cheap way for your parents to occupy you on a trip and because they have no built-in lore you end up inventing a whole backstory for them. That picture of the humanoid reptile standing next to the giant anthropoid would be on the packaging.

    Having front-loaded a lot of positivity (one last dollop: look at the cavemen riding away on the creatures! It’s very cute!) I must now reveal that this is a pretty bad comic book adventure. I don’t know what was going on at Fox Features in mid-to-late 1940 but they were wildly swapping writer/artists in and out of serials – this very issue features both a Stardust the Super Wizard and a Space Smith story drawn by someone other than Fletcher Hanks!

    While this is a minor problem in terms of narrative consistency – this is as far as I know the only time that Samson it depicted as being three times taller than an average human, for example – it also feels like the story was put together in haste or as the third or fourth thing on someone’s mind. Nothing quite hangs together – Professor Simm starts out demanding control over the US government and later is purely interested in money, for example.

    Once Samson makes his way to Simm’s island castle the story becomes a series of loosely connected vignettes: Samson finds a cage full of cavemen and gets inside, only to immediately leave again. Samson finds a room full of prisoners and skeletons and frees the prisoners. Samson confronts Simm, who escapes. Samson frees more prisoners. Samson kills Simm. It could all be assembled into a coherent plot but very much is not.

    That said, it certainly is a comic full of incident, such as this scene in which Samson sets off a volcano to destroy all the monsters (and hopefully not the prisoners. Hopefully they escaped off-panel) and flies away on a giant bird.It just doesn’t all hold together as a narrative. Things can only get more coherent as we make our way through the Golden Age, right? (SPOILER: not necessarily)