The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: brung back

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 153: KULAK

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Kulak is the High Priest of Brztal, which is originally implied to be an ancient lost civilization but I believe is later defined as extra-dimensional in some way. His deal is ostensibly that he is upset that his tomb was disturbed so he is going to destroy humanity, but I don’t know that he wasn’t just looking for an excuse to flex his magical muscles. He gets up to a lot of fun stuff with disasters – worldwide flooding and riots, plagues of lucusts etc – and summons armies of ancient Brztalan dead to smite his enemy but ultimately is put down again by the Spectre.

    In what is going to be an ongoing theme with these one-off All-Star villains, he eventually gets Roy Thomased into the pages of All-Star Squadron to mix it up with the Spectre one more time.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 152: NYOLA

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Nyola is an Aztec priestess of Yum-Chac, the god of rain. As you might expect, the indigenous religions of the Americas are treated with utmost dignity and she is not portrayed as a fanatic who, for example, would kidnap a woman for human sacrifice based on tangential offense done to her faith. Also, Hawkman doesn’t then follow her back to Mexico and bring the might of the authorities down on an indigenous religious group that is, yes, killing people but still doesn’t quite seem like the right call. Or wouldn’t if he had. Which he didn’t.

    Despite her seeming death at the end of her first appearance she later shows up in the Roy Thomas version of the Monster Society of Evil in All-Star Squadron with actual powers! Guess Yum-Chac is on the list of legit deities in the DCU!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 150: BELDAME GAFFY & TRYGG

    (All-Star Comics 001, 1940)

    A couple of magic users, Beldame Gaffy (curse-caster) and Trygg (necromancer) team up to steal the lands that rightfully belong to Trygg’s niece and nephew so that he could get rich via a zombie-staffed mining operation. Things go well until Hawkman shows up to explode them to death. Also, these are the first (only?) Welsh super-villains we have (will ever?) encountered!

    Ordinarily in a two-person set-up like this I would designate one as the boss and the other as a lieutenant or minion but Gaffy and Trygg really do seem like an equal partnership. Sadly however, only Trygg has made any subsequent appearances, specifically in the 2000s-era Hawkman series. I guess it makes sense that the necromancer would be the one to return from the dead but one must nonetheless mourn the dearth of Beldames in this modern world.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 140: IKER

     (Adventure 064, 1941)

    Yet another Hourman mad scientist foe, Iker (properly Dr T.Z. Iker, but the only time that shows up is on a mailbox) is a classic Victim of Orthodoxy, having been kicked out of the Science Club by the hidebound Dr Orr for espousing “fake theories”.

    Said fake theories enable Iker to build a machine capable either of creating lifeforms out of energy drawn from the 5th Dimension or of drawing lifeforms from the 5th Dimension and giving them form – it’s explained in a bit of a rush in the second-last panel – and he uses them for a bit of crime and revenge before being driven mad by his technology’s destruction in the climactic battle of the adventure. The important part is that some of them are knife-wielding dwarves and one of them is a giant version of himself named Normo.

    SHOULD THEY BE BROUGHT BACK? is a moot question as I discovered when I did my customary check: he already has, in JSA v1 005, 1999, as a rehabilitated employee of Tylerco! 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 140: IKER

     (Adventure 064, 1941)

    Yet another Hourman mad scientist foe, Iker (properly Dr T.Z. Iker, but the only time that shows up is on a mailbox) is a classic Victim of Orthodoxy, having been kicked out of the Science Club by the hidebound Dr Orr for espousing “fake theories”.

    Said fake theories enable Iker to build a machine capable either of creating lifeforms out of energy drawn from the 5th Dimension or of drawing lifeforms from the 5th Dimension and giving them form – it’s explained in a bit of a rush in the second-last panel – and he uses them for a bit of crime and revenge before being driven mad by his technology’s destruction in the climactic battle of the adventure. The important part is that some of them are knife-wielding dwarves and one of them is a giant version of himself named Normo.

    SHOULD THEY BE BROUGHT BACK? is a moot question as I discovered when I did my customary check: he already has, in JSA v1 005, 1999, as a rehabilitated employee of Tylerco! 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 138: DR DOOG

     (Adventure 061, 1941)


    Starman’s first foe is also his first super-foe: the diabolical Dr Doog. Doog (and nothing is ever made of his name being Good, backward) has stolen a device called to Ultra-Dynamo from Professor Davis (above right) and is using it to disrupt electrical power across North America in service to his dreams of world domination.

    Doog brings in deathtraps, a hollowed-out mountain base and perhaps most importantly, a group of henchmen with the excellent name the Secret Brotherhood of the Electron. It’s small wonder that he’s already been brought back once or twice, a decision that I wholeheartedly endorse.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 138: DR DOOG

     (Adventure 061, 1941)


    Starman’s first foe is also his first super-foe: the diabolical Dr Doog. Doog (and nothing is ever made of his name being Good, backward) has stolen a device called to Ultra-Dynamo from Professor Davis (above right) and is using it to disrupt electrical power across North America in service to his dreams of world domination.

    Doog brings in deathtraps, a hollowed-out mountain base and perhaps most importantly, a group of henchmen with the excellent name the Secret Brotherhood of the Electron. It’s small wonder that he’s already been brought back once or twice, a decision that I wholeheartedly endorse.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 102: ZOR

    (More Fun Comics 055, 1940)

    Zor is from pretty early in the Spectre’s run, back when his concept was “resurrected dead guy” rather than “literal embodiment of the Wrath of God”. More specifically but also vaguely, he was an “earth-bound ghost” which was never really defined but was a pretty powerful thing to be.

    Zor was also an earth-bound ghost, only he was older and thus more powerful than the Spectre, and also evil:

    Zor makes a couple of Golden Age appearances to vex the Spectre before being set adrift in inter-cosmic space. Many years later, he was brought back in Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison, now serving as an evil equivalent of Zatara (and given the first name Zachary) and foe to Zatanna. Given the cosmic nature of the story, this works for me: Zor is whatever he needs to be to oppose his foe of the moment. Honestly, I can think of no better person to bring back a character like Zor. Not many creators would read a story in which a villain shoots bullets out of his eyes:


    And make it canon:

    10/10, top marks. I know Zor is technically Solomon Grundy now but bring him back again anyway.


  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 006 AMAZING-MAN

    (Amazing-Man Comics 005-026, 1939-1942, plus various other Centaur books)

    Amazing-Man is not particularly obscure: he was supposedly the inspiration for both Iron Fist and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt and eventually ended up dropped whole cloth into both one of the Malibu universes and the Marvel Universe (which, yes, means he’s technically in the Marvel Universe twice but if Malibu comics ever comes back in any substantial way I will make and consume an edible hat).

    The thing I always focused on in descriptions of Amazing-Man’s origin were the tests he took to prove that his training was complete. Test 1, put on by underutilized character the Strongest Man in Tibet: hold back an elephant.

    Test 2 is set by the Great Question, a member of the Amazing-Man Training Committee who also happens to be a super-villain, surprising few: fight a cobra without the use of your limbs. This is the one that made the cover, and with good reason – he really chomps that snake good!

    It’s unclear whether Lady Zina is on the selection committee or if they just have a knife-thrower on retainer, but “has a knife thrown through his neck” is definitely the thing about Amazing-Man that stuck with me from my many readings of Jeff Rovin’s Encyclopedia of Superheroes back in the day. That it’s actually a test of his resistance to pain diminishes the weirdness of it only a little.

    Test 4 is just languages and trivia, bit of an anticlimax.

    BUT! Amazing-Man is a genuinely fun comic and I found myself actually reading the text story starring him in the first issue, AND GLAD I AM THAT I DID – it details the test of his musical abilities, and how the final part of the test was to sing a powerful song perfectly. How was that perfection measured? A man strapped to some sort of music-powered death chair nearby died. It is possible that more than one super-villain was on Amazing-Man’s training committee.

    I have not yet read all of Amazing-Man Comics so there may be more tests to be revealed – watch this space!

    UPDATE: No further trials from his initial time before the Council of Seven have surfaced but check out this, from a secondary trial about a year later:

    Purification by fire: a classic (Amazing-Man 011, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 006 AMAZING-MAN

    (Amazing-Man Comics 005-026, 1939-1942, plus various other Centaur books)

    Amazing-Man is not particularly obscure: he was supposedly the inspiration for both Iron Fist and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt and eventually ended up dropped whole cloth into both one of the Malibu universes and the Marvel Universe (which, yes, means he’s technically in the Marvel Universe twice but if Malibu comics ever comes back in any substantial way I will make and consume an edible hat).

    The thing I always focused on in descriptions of Amazing-Man’s origin were the tests he took to prove that his training was complete. Test 1, put on by underutilized character the Strongest Man in Tibet: hold back an elephant.

    Test 2 is set by the Great Question, a member of the Amazing-Man Training Committee who also happens to be a super-villain, surprising few: fight a cobra without the use of your limbs. This is the one that made the cover, and with good reason – he really chomps that snake good!

    It’s unclear whether Lady Zina is on the selection committee or if they just have a knife-thrower on retainer, but “has a knife thrown through his neck” is definitely the thing about Amazing-Man that stuck with me from my many readings of Jeff Rovin’s Encyclopedia of Superheroes back in the day. That it’s actually a test of his resistance to pain diminishes the weirdness of it only a little.

    Test 4 is just languages and trivia, bit of an anticlimax.

    BUT! Amazing-Man is a genuinely fun comic and I found myself actually reading the text story starring him in the first issue, AND GLAD I AM THAT I DID – it details the test of his musical abilities, and how the final part of the test was to sing a powerful song perfectly. How was that perfection measured? A man strapped to some sort of music-powered death chair nearby died. It is possible that more than one super-villain was on Amazing-Man’s training committee.

    I have not yet read all of Amazing-Man Comics so there may be more tests to be revealed – watch this space!

    UPDATE: No further trials from his initial time before the Council of Seven have surfaced but check out this, from a secondary trial about a year later:

    Purification by fire: a classic (Amazing-Man 011, 1940)