The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: spy

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 098: THE INVISIBLE MAN

    (Detective Comics 041, 1940)

    What makes them a super-villain? He’s an espionage guy with an invisibility formula.

    What is interesting about them? Invisible guys are often pretty dull comic book villains, but I will give the Invisible Man/ Dr Ellis this: his cover identity is as a scientist in the team that is trying to catch him, and he’s evidently arrogant enough that he actually developed a formula for a gas that would render him visible again but assumed that investigator Cliff Crosby would not have the chemical knowhow to synthesize it. He was wrong!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 087: BLITZ

    (Blue Beetle Comics 004, 1940)

    Blitz: by far the best thing about this probably-meant-to-be-German spy is his collection of henchmen, who include a maniacal dwarf and Ax, who is somewhat unsurprisingly obsessed with his signature weapon. Love a henchman who goes all-in on their bit.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 079: THE WASP

    (All American Comics 016, 1940)

    What makes them a super-villain? He’s a master spy called the Wasp who engages in submarine espionage while wearing a tuxedo – basically a checklist of qualifying traits. Unfortunately, that’s also the answer to the second question – he’s only interesting because of his checklist, just a fleeting antagonist for a throwaway story.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 057: THE MASTERMIND

    (More Fun Comics 049-050, 1939)

    Masked spy chief. After his first appearance is foiled by adventurer Biff Bronson he pulls one of the more major pivots in supercrime by opening one of those wax museums that doubles as a murder palace, where he himself is killed in a second encounter with Biff.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 057: THE MASTERMIND

    (More Fun Comics 049-050, 1939)

    Masked spy chief. After his first appearance is foiled by adventurer Biff Bronson he pulls one of the more major pivots in supercrime by opening one of those wax museums that doubles as a murder palace, where he himself is killed in a second encounter with Biff.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 044: THE MASK

    (Whiz Comics 002-015, 1940-1941)

    This fellow right here is the spy that Spy Smasher was trying to smash for the first year and a half or so that he was in action. I tend to think of him as a bigger deal than he actually is because of my tendencies re: thinking too much about comics, but certainly if Spy Smasher himself had managed to remain a going concern after the 40s then the Mask would have eventually been brought back, like the Ultra Humanite.

    Due to the fact that he was operating before the US entered the war he was a kind of general all-purpose spy, though I’m sure he’d have been revealed as a Nazi if he’d made it to 1942. He was more successful than most in his endeavors, in that although he was consistently foiled, he always managed to get away with his hide intact. Until his penultimate appearance, that is, when an enraged mind-control victim threw him off of a skyscraper.

    But the Mask survived and not only that he thrived! Despite having to get around on crutches, he rebuilt his mind control device, captured Spy Smasher and turned him evil! The evil Spy Smasher then ruined the moment of triumph by killing him.

    The evil Spy Smasher would persist, battling Captain Marvel for the next four issues before being cured, so in death the Mask had managed to prompt some of the earliest examples in comics of heroic crossovers and longer-term storytelling!

    UPDATE 1940 

    UPDATE 1941 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 044: THE MASK

    (Whiz Comics 002-015, 1940-1941)

    This fellow right here is the spy that Spy Smasher was trying to smash for the first year and a half or so that he was in action. I tend to think of him as a bigger deal than he actually is because of my tendencies re: thinking too much about comics, but certainly if Spy Smasher himself had managed to remain a going concern after the 40s then the Mask would have eventually been brought back, like the Ultra Humanite.

    Due to the fact that he was operating before the US entered the war he was a kind of general all-purpose spy, though I’m sure he’d have been revealed as a Nazi if he’d made it to 1942. He was more successful than most in his endeavors, in that although he was consistently foiled, he always managed to get away with his hide intact. Until his penultimate appearance, that is, when an enraged mind-control victim threw him off of a skyscraper.

    But the Mask survived and not only that he thrived! Despite having to get around on crutches, he rebuilt his mind control device, captured Spy Smasher and turned him evil! The evil Spy Smasher then ruined the moment of triumph by killing him.

    The evil Spy Smasher would persist, battling Captain Marvel for the next four issues before being cured, so in death the Mask had managed to prompt some of the earliest examples in comics of heroic crossovers and longer-term storytelling!

    UPDATE 1940 

    UPDATE 1941 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 032: MADAME KELLY

    (Action v1 011, 1939)

    There are basically three levels of Zatara enemy: unpowered crooks such as the Tigress (MSV 019) or the Ghost (MSV 021) or a million gangsters over the years who are wildly outclassed and only have a chance if they manage to get the jump on him; villains of roughly equal or even greater power to him such as the Mad Lama (MSV 031) and finally folks like the Mad Lama’s minions: armed with one really good trick that can give them a situational edge against him. The latter are generally the most entertaining, as rather than toying with them like a mouse or bringing all he resources to bear on a genuine threat, he is often forced to take some time to figure out what’s going on. Which brings us to Madame Kelly.

    Madame Kelly is a magic-using spy who wears cute outfits while trying to steal some defense plans that are being transported by cruise ship. Her only demonstrated power is to summon an illusory ghost, which she uses as a distraction while she hunts for her target below decks. Zatara spends a fair bit of the story stumped because he can’t banish what isn’t actually a ghost. It’s fun stuff! They should BRING HER BACK

    ADDENDUM: Gentle reader, I present to you the sea-ghost of Madame Kelly:

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 029: THE PURPLE HOODS

     (Feature Funnies 016, 1939)

    Not much to distinguish this spy organization foiled by Quality character Black X, other than the fact that their leader spends the entire adventure dressed for bed, complete with a little tasseled nightcap. I choose to ignore the in-text indications that he was in fact just about to go to sleep and instead believe that he dressed like that all the time. BRING BACK tasseled nightcaps! 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 020: THE GORRAH

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 020: THE GORRAH

     (Action v1 002, 1938)

    Early on in Tex Thomson’s adventuring career, he and his pal Bob Daly found themselves in a hidden city called, appropriately, the Sealed City. There they met the leader, or Gorrah, of that city and eventually discovered that he was an usurper who they quickly helped overthrow. There it would end for your average hidden-city-usurper but not this Gorrah, no sir. He came back half a dozen times, indulging in schemes such as:

    -turning people into weird cyborgs

    -turning people into weird rat-men

    -attempting to take over Turkey

    -fixing boxing matches

    and so on. 

    By his last appearance, he was dealing with Mr America instead of boring old Tex Thomson and it wasn’t a very fair fight. Over the years he had shed his super-science, his one-time hypnotic power and even his flamboyant costume and was merely a one-eyed agent of some unspecified Foreign Power (ie, the Nazis) tasked with bombing libraries, which somewhat ignominiously (if predictably) ended with him being blown up by his own bomb. A sad end to be sure.