The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Professor

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 025

    I feel like we could avoid some of this unpleasantness if we made the Mad Arts a required part of the curriculum again.

    Unnamed Sorcerer:

    The Golden Knight and Alice are up to some good old-fashioned adventure, as they travel into the land of Kongola to seek out the cause of mysterious disappearances of people in adjoining Kooran. Just where are Kongola and Kooran? I’m going to say somewhere in what is now the United Kingdom since that that is where the Golden Knight is headquartered, but they could literally be anywhere given that he has started visiting his supernatural brothers in-law on the Moon and the Sun and thus has an interplanetary range.

    Kongola turns out to be a good place for adventure, as it is filled with magical and monstrous threats including:

    – hypnotic illusions

    – carnivorous trees hiding behind those illusions

    – club-wielding minotaurs

    – giant bats

    – ape men, who manage to carry off Alice

    Pressing on, the Golden Knight arrives at a huge tower that he says has been built by the enslaved people of Kooran, but I never see them.

    So just who is responsible for the kidnappings, the tower and the monsters? Why, this insane magician, who claims to have done it all so that he can be safe from floods and then promptly jumps off the tower into a… lake? and drowns. More importantly, why is he listed here in the space reserved for low-rent mad scientists? Because while comic book magic users fill a very similar ecological niche as super-scientists they don’t have as great a population and consequently a far lesser rate of one-note losers, and I had to put him somewhere. (Fantastic Comics 019, 1941)

    the Professor:

    The Professor is a hypnotist of some stripe who uses his powers to turn lawmen into agents of his gang. He meets his match in detective Spencer Steel, who as a comic book protagonist is of course immune to such feeble things as mind control and quickly turns the tables on his would-be master. (Fight Comics 011, 1941)

    Unnamed Scientist:

    Though this unnamed scientist talks a bit like a kindly mentor who gives you super-powers in order to save mankind from aliens etc, in practice he just has a kid tied up in his jungle compound who he feeds potions to. Perhaps he had some sort of important plan that would justify this behaviour but if so it is lost to the ages when he wanders out into the jungle to get hilariously killed by an extremely jumpy snake.

    The poor kid, meanwhile, grows into a giant and aimlessly wanders the countryside battling various world militaries until Power-Man shows up and tosses a bomb at his gut. It’s a bummer ending that wouldn’t happen in most comics and I kind of respect it. (Fight Comics 012, 1941)

    Dr Moluk:

    Dr Moluk and his assistant Scorpo have developed a machine that takes germs and bacteria and assembles them into multicellular organisms that resemble golden dragon-dogs. He intends to use these creatures to sow mass panic and ultimately take over the world. An evil plan, but a cool one. 

    Unfortunately for Moluk, his assigned heroic enemy is Guy Gorham, who is billed as the World’s Greatest Chemist but acts like the World’s Most Thorough Ass-Kicker. He busts in, beats ten kinds of hell out of Moluk and Scorpo, and ends up feeding the former to his own dragons. It honestly feels like bullying by the end. (Great Comics 001, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 957: THE PROFESSOR

    (Dynamic Comics v1 001, 1941)

    Unlike most Professors in comics, this fellow is seemingly not named that because he is a scientist but rather because he is a clever criminal. He and his powerful companion Hugo are hired by the evocatively-named Hell Gang to intercept and destroy some key evidence while it is en route from the District Attorney’s office to the courthouse where Hell Gang leadership is on trial.

    It’s not fair to blame the Professor for this because there’s no way that he could know, but Jim Hornsby, aka the Black Cobra, works at the very district attorney’s office that the records are coming from and so is in a perfect position to stick his nose in and foil the whole plan. The records are delivered just in time to convict the Hell Gang, and though the Professor and Hugo get away I am pretty concerned about the Professor’s spine after the punch he takes in that final panel above.

    Categorized in: Generica (Professors), Misc (Mercenaries)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 018

    I’m not sure that these guys all have degrees. 

    This fellow is known only as the Professor, and he conducts experiments in long- and short-range mind control on Lost Hope Island until Secret Naval Agent Spike Marlin shows up in search of a missing ship’s crew. (Speed Comics 009, 1940) 

    This unnamed scientist has developed a drug that puts people into indefinite comas and has used it to kidnap and store ten millionaires, presumably with the intent of ransoming them back to their families. Before he actually gets to the point of sending the ransom notes, however, he makes the mistake of allowing his gangster hirelings go out and use the drug to mug people on the street, thus leaving a trail of mysterious coma victims that the indomitable Detective Crane follows all the way to the scientist’s secret penthouse. (Superworld Comics 002, 1940)

    Detective Crane is back to investigate the destruction of several West Virginian steel mills. It turns out that remote controlled drone bombers are responsible for the attacks, and he trails them back to a base near Pittsburgh filled with awesome robots, plus one Baranian spy who is merely dressed like a robot, presumably in case someone like Crane were to show up. The whole place gets absolutely annihilated.(Superworld Comics 003, 1940)

    Overworked and underappreciated Department Public Sanitation scientist Dr Sheldon might be justified in his workplace dissatisfaction but he expresses his negative emotions in an unproductive manner, by poisoning the city reservoir and killing thousands of people. It must be cathartic though, because the Arrow has to shoot him with one of his trademark arrows in order to prevent him from poisoning the reservoir even more than it was before. (The Arrow 002, 1940)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 018

    I’m not sure that these guys all have degrees. 

    This fellow is known only as the Professor, and he conducts experiments in long- and short-range mind control on Lost Hope Island until Secret Naval Agent Spike Marlin shows up in search of a missing ship’s crew. (Speed Comics 009, 1940) 

    This unnamed scientist has developed a drug that puts people into indefinite comas and has used it to kidnap and store ten millionaires, presumably with the intent of ransoming them back to their families. Before he actually gets to the point of sending the ransom notes, however, he makes the mistake of allowing his gangster hirelings go out and use the drug to mug people on the street, thus leaving a trail of mysterious coma victims that the indomitable Detective Crane follows all the way to the scientist’s secret penthouse. (Superworld Comics 002, 1940)

    Detective Crane is back to investigate the destruction of several West Virginian steel mills. It turns out that remote controlled drone bombers are responsible for the attacks, and he trails them back to a base near Pittsburgh filled with awesome robots, plus one Baranian spy who is merely dressed like a robot, presumably in case someone like Crane were to show up. The whole place gets absolutely annihilated.(Superworld Comics 003, 1940)

    Overworked and underappreciated Department Public Sanitation scientist Dr Sheldon might be justified in his workplace dissatisfaction but he expresses his negative emotions in an unproductive manner, by poisoning the city reservoir and killing thousands of people. It must be cathartic though, because the Arrow has to shoot him with one of his trademark arrows in order to prevent him from poisoning the reservoir even more than it was before. (The Arrow 002, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 731: THE PROFESSOR

    (Silver Streak Comics 002, 1940)

    The Professor sits right on that dividing line between “super-villain” and “gang boss with a cool nickname” and what pushed him over the line for me was the fact that he makes three absolutely classic comic book super-villain mistakes in this issue. MISTAKE #1: The Professor lures the Wasp and his aide Bill Barnes to an isolated area to eliminate them before they interfere with his plans as they have in the past, but they don’t even know that he’s out of jail, let alone planning a robbery. Don’t call attention to yourself.

    Just a brief action shot to show the Wasp really using that wing-cape he takes his name from before moving on to…

    MISTAKE #2: Despite the fact that Barnes and the Wasp escape from his trap and know that he’s about pull a big job, the Professor continues with his plans and ends up losing his loot to the Wasp. Don’t be predictable – change your plans if you need to.

    The Professor and his men set out in hot pursuit of the heroes and the loot, and this is where he commits MISTAKE #3: so intent is he on his goal that he ignores the risks involved in piloting his fragile speedboat too close to a freighter and gets everyone killed. The sunk cost fallacy can be deadly. Don’t forget that cutting and running is always an option.

    It’s a harsh world out there for the low-level super-villains, but you don’t have to go around making things harder for yourself.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 731: THE PROFESSOR

    (Silver Streak Comics 002, 1940)

    The Professor sits right on that dividing line between “super-villain” and “gang boss with a cool nickname” and what pushed him over the line for me was the fact that he makes three absolutely classic comic book super-villain mistakes in this issue. MISTAKE #1: The Professor lures the Wasp and his aide Bill Barnes to an isolated area to eliminate them before they interfere with his plans as they have in the past, but they don’t even know that he’s out of jail, let alone planning a robbery. Don’t call attention to yourself.

    Just a brief action shot to show the Wasp really using that wing-cape he takes his name from before moving on to…

    MISTAKE #2: Despite the fact that Barnes and the Wasp escape from his trap and know that he’s about pull a big job, the Professor continues with his plans and ends up losing his loot to the Wasp. Don’t be predictable – change your plans if you need to.

    The Professor and his men set out in hot pursuit of the heroes and the loot, and this is where he commits MISTAKE #3: so intent is he on his goal that he ignores the risks involved in piloting his fragile speedboat too close to a freighter and gets everyone killed. The sunk cost fallacy can be deadly. Don’t forget that cutting and running is always an option.

    It’s a harsh world out there for the low-level super-villains, but you don’t have to go around making things harder for yourself.