The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: magic

  • 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 063: CHALO

    (Action Comics 024, 1940)

    Chalo was a stage magician who murdered his own brother to acquire real magical secrets which in turn he used for crime. He took a page from the Mad Lama’s book and hired at least one other magical crook as a henchman, a fire- and snake-summoner named Arko.

    By far the best thing about Chalo, however, is that his major use of the powers he murdered his brother to get is summoning a weird toad that freaks everyone out. He does it twice! Solid minor villain, should be BROUGHT BACK in the background of the Oblivion Bar or somewhere like that.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 063: CHALO

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 063: CHALO

    (Action Comics 024, 1940)

    Chalo was a stage magician who murdered his own brother to acquire real magical secrets which in turn he used for crime. He took a page from the Mad Lama’s book and hired at least one other magical crook as a henchman, a fire- and snake-summoner named Arko.

    By far the best thing about Chalo, however, is that his major use of the powers he murdered his brother to get is summoning a weird toad that freaks everyone out. He does it twice! Solid minor villain, should be BROUGHT BACK in the background of the Oblivion Bar or somewhere like that.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 061: THE DEMON

    (Action Comics 022, 1940)

    Whether the capital-D Demon is actually a lowercase-d demon is never actually resolved, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. He shows up when a friend of Tex Thomson’s named Cary James ignores local superstitions to visit an island in the Indian Ocean, where he is quickly captured and murdered by the Demon, who then assumes his appearance and identity via fell majicks.

    The Demon’s only goal seems to be to murder everyone who knew the original Cary James, but whether there is a further motive to his actions is left unexplained, as one of James’ friends happens to have a mystic amulet that is the only thing capable of defeating him. The amulet must be applied directly to the forehead, like so:

    Love that bop on the head action. I also love that though this is ostensibly a Tex Thomson adventure, he basically acts in the role of observer, as the locket-thrower Dr Drummond drives much of the action of tracking, trapping and ultimately destroying the Demon. Huzzah for competent non title characters!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 053: PIANG THE TERRIBLE

    (Whiz Comics 009, 1940)

    A rival magician seeking to steal Ibis the Invincible’s mystic Ibistick, Piang dies at the end of their first encounter, is resurrected via careless use of magic by Ibis and then dies again in their second encounter.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP

    (Action v1 017, 1939)

    Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.

    Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP

    (Action v1 017, 1939)

    Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.

    Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis

  • 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 031: THE MAD LAMA

    (Action v1 009, 1939)

    In a fairly typical display of respect for the Tibetan peoples and their religion, the Mad Lama is a ruthless villain bent on world domination. Presumably he achieved his powers through rigid dedication to the popular “evil” style of Tibetan Buddhism.

    The Lama himself doesn’t get to do much other than bloviate for a while before being incinerated in a magic duel with Zatara, so the most interesting thing about him is the fact that he gathered up a cadre of other villains to help him out, a move that I dearly love as it supplies me with more weird little guys to know about.

    Pictured from left to right (after the Mad Lama, of course) above are:

    -Monsieur Henri, a Frenchman able to conjure illusory mists

    -Lalla Gor, probably meant to be Indian but they just kind of spammed syllables to make foreign names back in the day, able to summon an army of phantom warriors

    –the Tigress, our very own MSV 019 in her first turn as another villain’s henchman (she abandons the Lama to team up with Zatara pretty quickly)

    -Zatara, posing as Major Lee, an Englishman of unknown abilities

    -some bald guy

    The Mad Lama gets mentioned every time someone talks about Zatara’s early career in a comic – he came up a couple of times when Zatanna was on her Dad-quest in the 60s, for example – but I don’t reckon he ever recovered from his incineration to actually come back again.