The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Magician from Mars

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 465: THE HOOD

    (Amazing-Man Comics 010-011, 1940)

    The Magician from Mars’ final foe is a two-issue affair, but the first one is a bit of a nothing story: a mysterious terror attack at an airport turns out to be the work of a villain named the Hood who has found a way to… play a loud sound into a glass ball and then use it as a grenade. It’s a weird contrivance even by sci-fi super-hero comic standards. In any case, the Magician from Mars blows up all of the Hood’s factories and they flee into space.

    I do appreciate a villain who takes the time to dress their henchmen in proper minion outfits though. Plus this is some great we-don’t-quite-have-the-visual-language-of-comics-worked-out-yet-but-we’re-trying jumping around from the Magician from Mars.

    Next issue sees the Magician from Mars returning to her home planet where the Hood is leading an attempted rebellion – fairly successfully in fact, until a nigh-omnipotent superwoman joins the fight on the side of Martian King Marsu and his dishy son Prince Taal.

    Though the Hood is on the ropes and on the run, she takes the time to end the budding romance between the Magician from Mars and Price Taal by shooting the latter as he tries to defend our hero. And what’s that? I said “she”? Yes, because the Hood is in fact a woman! And what’s more an older woman! And even more shocking, she’s Jane “Magician from Mars” 6em35’s aunt!

    All of these revelations are only a bit out of left field. Jane’s aunt was a character in her first appearance and was even a minor antagonist in that story, but rather than attempting to install herself as an iron-fisted dictator she was instead a cruel and controlling guardian who kept her ward in check due to her very unusual super-weakness of… a genetic predisposition to like her relatives. Notably, this version of Aunt Kinza (yes she could have more than one aunt but why complicate matters?) does not appear to have magical powers. Sadly, there were no further Magician from Mars stories, so the path that Kinza took to become the Hood, like Jane’s eventual revenge for her lost love, will remain an untold story.

    ADDENDUM: This is a very good vengeance-swearing panel. Look out, oh vile aunt.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 465: THE HOOD

    (Amazing-Man Comics 010-011, 1940)

    The Magician from Mars’ final foe is a two-issue affair, but the first one is a bit of a nothing story: a mysterious terror attack at an airport turns out to be the work of a villain named the Hood who has found a way to… play a loud sound into a glass ball and then use it as a grenade. It’s a weird contrivance even by sci-fi super-hero comic standards. In any case, the Magician from Mars blows up all of the Hood’s factories and they flee into space.

    I do appreciate a villain who takes the time to dress their henchmen in proper minion outfits though. Plus this is some great we-don’t-quite-have-the-visual-language-of-comics-worked-out-yet-but-we’re-trying jumping around from the Magician from Mars.

    Next issue sees the Magician from Mars returning to her home planet where the Hood is leading an attempted rebellion – fairly successfully in fact, until a nigh-omnipotent superwoman joins the fight on the side of Martian King Marsu and his dishy son Prince Taal.

    Though the Hood is on the ropes and on the run, she takes the time to end the budding romance between the Magician from Mars and Price Taal by shooting the latter as he tries to defend our hero. And what’s that? I said “she”? Yes, because the Hood is in fact a woman! And what’s more an older woman! And even more shocking, she’s Jane “Magician from Mars” 6em35’s aunt!

    All of these revelations are only a bit out of left field. Jane’s aunt was a character in her first appearance and was even a minor antagonist in that story, but rather than attempting to install herself as an iron-fisted dictator she was instead a cruel and controlling guardian who kept her ward in check due to her very unusual super-weakness of… a genetic predisposition to like her relatives. Notably, this version of Aunt Kinza (yes she could have more than one aunt but why complicate matters?) does not appear to have magical powers. Sadly, there were no further Magician from Mars stories, so the path that Kinza took to become the Hood, like Jane’s eventual revenge for her lost love, will remain an untold story.

    ADDENDUM: This is a very good vengeance-swearing panel. Look out, oh vile aunt.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 464: THE ELEMENTAL

    (Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940)

    The Elemental! An extradimensional intruder who insinuates itself into the unspecified future world of hero the Magician from Mars via the music of unwitting dupe Bill Wend. Is this a future with wildly relaxed standards for professional music performance or has the musical director of Concert Hall also being influenced by the Elemental? This question will go unanswered, alas.

    Having achieved its goal of entering our reality, the Elemental feeds not only on the crowd’s fear but the crowd itself – I think. Though the extremely florid writing of this panel is wonderful, it’s not too clear if “feeding on human energy” is meant to be literal or not. It does literally eat large portions of the crowd, so either way it is feeding on them.

    Earth’s  armies prove useless against the Elemental, so the Magician from Mars is forced to step in in a kicky new costume.

    This fight between a giant lady and a giant green guy is absolutely the highlight of the story. Both are so powerful that they almost pull a Superman/ Doomsday and battle to the death, but though they are both still alive at the end they are severely weakened. The Elemental disappears while the Magician from Mars is lauded as a hero.

    Eventually, the Magician follows a string of mass kidnappings and discovers a man identified only as the Mad Professor has been capturing people and feeding them to the Elemental in exchange for future consideration when further elementals are summoned to conquer the planet. Seemingly following a hunch, the Magician sings “one of the most beautiful songs in the world” and discovers that, yes, what was summoned via music can be banished in the same way. The Mad Professor she merely collapses a wall on.

  • MINOR SUPER-HEROES 007-014: AMAZING-MAN COMICS ROUNDUP 1939

    (Amazing-Man Comics 005-026, 1939-1942)

    All the ephemeral Golden Age heroes who stalked the pages of Amazing-Man Comics:

    The Iron Skull! I love him. His origin and so forth is doled out after a few issues so initially you don’t know that he is a cyborg war casualty in the far future world of 1970. The most important things are there from the start, though: his huge anime eyes and the fact that every bullet or attack made against him unerringly hit him in his invulnerable head.

    SKULL SCORE: 2/5 Not very skully but he gets a point for the lack of nose.

    Minimidget: Just a super-small guy with a problematic name. He and his galpal Ritty were shrunk and employed as henchmen by a pervert scientist before redeeming themselves via acts of public service. 

    Chuck Hardy: Chuck and Jerry, a couple of deep sea divers, end up in the subterranean land of Aquatania, beneath the Marquesas Islands. They turn out to be super-strong there for murkily-explained reasons and have adventures with the monstrous flora and fauna and the various near-human races. The best part is absolutely the little lobster antennae that all of the various types of Aquatanians have.

    Mighty Man is a huge dude who is the last descendant of folk who settled in a valley where everything is huge. After murdering a bunch of evil cowboys, he emerges from his valley to fight crime. Eventually he gets the power to change size.

    UPDATE 1940

    The Shark! A water-based hero who can talk to sea life and must hit the water regularly, which is about standard for water guys!

    ADDENDUM: Later on he meets his father Neptune and his adventures turn into father/son outings, which rules.

    UPDATE 1940

    Magician from Mars: Not only is Jane 6em35 an Earthian/Martian hybrid from an unspecified future, and not only was she accidentally irradiated as a baby in a way that activated a lot of vague superpowers (including flight, super-strength and a seemingly complete control over matter) but she is a practical and morally flexible hero who takes advantage of the chaos surrounding a rocket crash to make off with $3 million in gold before saving the day. Very fun. Plus: jodhpurs!

    The Cat Man: a very marginal entry on this list. In his first appearance, he develops his signature technique of dressing like an old lady and having his trained cat scratch people with poisoned claws to murder three former criminal confederates, which isn’t particularly heroic? His second appearance is in more of a vigilante role as he murders a gang of wanted men. How could I not include this loveable murderous scamp, really?