The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Master

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 388: THE MASTER

    (More Fun Comics 068, 1941)

    The Master is… probably Russian. It’s the same as all of the “pseudo-German crypto-Nazi” characters that populate comics pre-Pearl Harbor. Reading through the vagueness, he is a scientist whose partner emigrated to the US about the time of the Russian Revolution while the Master stayed behind. Now the Master wants revenge for his partner’s success and also is gearing up to take over the world and he’s using his sonic death ray device to achieve both tasks. Or would do, if Dr Fate wasn’t around to poke his helmeted nose into things.

    By far the coolest thing about the Master is the depiction of said sonic death ray – it resembles nothing so much as an amorphous life-form, which is very cool! More of that, please!

    Oh yes, once the Master is foiled he jumps in a swamp and drowns.

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 007

    The hits keep on coming:

    This Fellow’s name is Becker and he and his wife run a gang while pretending to be among its victims. An okay scheme, but not really up to foiling Bulletman and Bulletgirl. (Master Comics 014, 1941)

    This guy here is why I have such a hard time relegating masked Western bandits to the dregs of the generic costumed villains: he’s as by-the-numbers a bandit as they come, he robs one stagecoach total, he ends up dying because he falls off his horse… but he is frequently and consistently referred to a “Alkali, the Scourge of the Plains” which is as endearing as it is possible to be. (Master Comics 019, 1941)

    I’m overlooking the fact that this bundist-style not-exactly-German spy encountered by Miss America doesn’t actually wear a costume because a) he’s called the Leader, b) he lives in a wax museum and c) he has a pet gorilla named Gargo. (Military Comics 002, 1941)

    Captain Rajah, AKA the Master, was a jewel thief who ran up against Captain Desmo, in a story even more weirdly pro-colonial than Captain Desmo stories usually are – Captain Rajah is immediately suspicious for being an Indian officer in the Bengal Lancers, continued to be suspected throughout and then turned out to be the Master. The story is from before the invention of “defying expectations”. (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 007

    The hits keep on coming:

    This Fellow’s name is Becker and he and his wife run a gang while pretending to be among its victims. An okay scheme, but not really up to foiling Bulletman and Bulletgirl. (Master Comics 014, 1941)

    This guy here is why I have such a hard time relegating masked Western bandits to the dregs of the generic costumed villains: he’s as by-the-numbers a bandit as they come, he robs one stagecoach total, he ends up dying because he falls off his horse… but he is frequently and consistently referred to a “Alkali, the Scourge of the Plains” which is as endearing as it is possible to be. (Master Comics 019, 1941)

    I’m overlooking the fact that this bundist-style not-exactly-German spy encountered by Miss America doesn’t actually wear a costume because a) he’s called the Leader, b) he lives in a wax museum and c) he has a pet gorilla named Gargo. (Military Comics 002, 1941)

    Captain Rajah, AKA the Master, was a jewel thief who ran up against Captain Desmo, in a story even more weirdly pro-colonial than Captain Desmo stories usually are – Captain Rajah is immediately suspicious for being an Indian officer in the Bengal Lancers, continued to be suspected throughout and then turned out to be the Master. The story is from before the invention of “defying expectations”. (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 342: THE MASTER

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 342: THE MASTER

    (Master Comics 007, 1940)

    Once more we find ourselves with a cult on our hands, and it’s my favourite kind of cult: a) completely fictional and b) just a bunch of bored rich people taking what probably started as an excuse for some light swinging or BDSM way too seriously. It’ the Cult of Jama the Devil-God, folks! Officially broken up by the US government in 1919, they have in fact been lurking in the shadows of the probably-New York upper crust since then, with a particular focus on molding wealthy orphan Imelda Loree (born on the Feast Day of Jama, parents possibly murdered by the cult) into a living goddess figure. This process seems to require either virginity or some sort of spiritual isolation because the main thing tat they do to prepare her is to murder any man who even seems like he might be interested in her.

    And of course this is where my favourite Golden Age adventurer Zoro the Mystery Man comes in, because if there’s a society event where people are trying to hook up, it’s a fair bet that he’ll be there. He witnesses the fourth “keep Imelda Loree from getting any” murder and it’s at that point that the cult is finished.

    But what of this Master character, you ask? Why he’s Murdock Daw, leader of the cult and huge creep. In classic cult leader fashion, Daw has been duping the Jama cultists for decades in order to enrich himself, and in true creep fashion he seems to have been angling to marry Imelda Loree since she was roughly two years old, and even if I’m reading things wrong he has absolutely been having her suitors murdered in order to make her desperate enough to marry him – real creep behaviour, if you ask me.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 187: THE MASTER

    (Crack Comics 006, 1940)

    The best thing about the Master is absolutely his henchmen, the Kite Men. Identical shirtless bald guys who shoot lightning from their bracelets as they soar above unnamed, probably American cities, the Kite Men are some terrific weirdo henchmen. They all get blasted by the Black Condor by the end of the story, but until then they have a good run.

    The Master himself is your typical world conqueror, whose motivation seems to be that he’s sick of being laughed at because he’s a dwarf. And as if to illustrate, when Black Condor discovers the leader of this plot who has already killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people, he too laughs. HE’S PART OF THE PROBLEM.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 077: THE MASTER

    (All American Comics 010, 1940)

    The Master, in one of those escapades that causes a lot of trouble for folks who feel compelled to work out what’s in continuity and what isn’t, briefly took over NYC using an electricity projector, killed hundreds if not thousands of people, and mobilized a full fascist organization before being stopped by G-2 operatives Red, White and Blue and Doris West.

    Which, to be fair, is the answer. You have to explain whether or not Namor actually sank the Italian fleet or Batman killed Carl Kruger but there are legions of Golden Age characters whose troublesome exploits can be excised willy-nilly and Red, White and Blue are some of the most thoroughly forgotten of the bunch for all that they appeared in four or five different books at various times during the early 40s.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 068: THE MASTER

    (Action Comics 030, 1940)

    I’ve decided to introduce a system for dealing with some of the more minor super-villains who do not incite as much excitement in me to vomit out more than a cursory sentence about them (slightly unfair to the Master, who is kind of interesting, but I am uninspired today) In such cases, we will be answering one or both of the following questions:

    What makes them a super-villain? In addition to his super-villain name, the Master has three qualifying super-villain attributes

    1) Methods: he kills those who resist his extortion attempts by releasing huge poisonous beetles in their homes.

    2) Powers: the Master, unlike many of Zatara’s opponents, is a magic user. Specifically, he has the ability to resist and shrug off Zatara’s own magic

    3} Association: he employs the services of the Tigress

    What’s interesting about them? Honestly, it’s the idea of a crook being able to resist a magical hero’s powers. Underused and underappreciated!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 068: THE MASTER

    (Action Comics 030, 1940)

    I’ve decided to introduce a system for dealing with some of the more minor super-villains who do not incite as much excitement in me to vomit out more than a cursory sentence about them (slightly unfair to the Master, who is kind of interesting, but I am uninspired today) In such cases, we will be answering one or both of the following questions:

    What makes them a super-villain? In addition to his super-villain name, the Master has three qualifying super-villain attributes

    1) Methods: he kills those who resist his extortion attempts by releasing huge poisonous beetles in their homes.

    2) Powers: the Master, unlike many of Zatara’s opponents, is a magic user. Specifically, he has the ability to resist and shrug off Zatara’s own magic

    3} Association: he employs the services of the Tigress

    What’s interesting about them? Honestly, it’s the idea of a crook being able to resist a magical hero’s powers. Underused and underappreciated!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 025: THE MASTER

    (Detective v1 030, 1939)

    I like the Master because he is simultaneously brilliant enough to invent a mind control device capable of enslaving a significant portion of the US Government and dumb enough to brag about his machine to a federal agent not ten feet away from it. Machine smashing ensues.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 025: THE MASTER

    (Detective v1 030, 1939)

    I like the Master because he is simultaneously brilliant enough to invent a mind control device capable of enslaving a significant portion of the US Government and dumb enough to brag about his machine to a federal agent not ten feet away from it. Machine smashing ensues.