The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: magic

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 317: MR MURO

    (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 004, 1940)

     

    The most interesting thing about Mr Muro is that he represents an intermediate stage in the development of the comic book Yellow Peril villain, away from the gaudy Fu Manchu style of the pulps and the comics of the 30s. There are a few of these more workaday Asian Threat villains kicking around in 1940/ 41 but they eventually lose out to the super-agents of the Japanese Empire as the preeminent example of such.

    Anyway, Muro is a low-rent would-be world conqueror at heart and has the misfortune to have ended up as the antagonist for Monako, Prince of Magic, a typically-overpowered magic hero. This understandably put a crimp in his plans.

    I his second appearance Muro demonstrates some ability at magic himself, but he never makes a third appearance to give Monako a real run for his money. This does mean that he’s another technically-at-large Golden Age villain, but that’s about it as far as mildly interesting facts about Mr Muro goes.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 290: THE PARROT

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 024, 1941)

    There are two different comic book tropes that come together in the Parrot. The first is simple: the weird-looking guy adopts a criminal persona based on their appearance -. So: the Penguin, the Vulture, the Chicken, the Platypus, the Skull etc. This is basic stuff, but generally fun.

    The second thing has to do with the nature of super-powers, that by their very nature they require countering Just as every penny-ante gangster who faced Superman in the 50s seemed to have gotten their hands on a chunk of kryptonite, the well-informed criminal in a Human Torch story will at the very least have asbestos clothing and some form of fire-suppressing chemical liquid or spray. In extreme cases like the Kryptonite Man or the Torch’s own Asbestos Lady the counter-weapon becomes the entire theme, but the Parrot here represents an intermediate step that I find quite compelling.

    See, a while back the Human Torch encountered a Tibetan cult called the Fire-Men who had fire-powers that they used to fight fire-monsters. One of those Fire-Men, named Culflam, was a crook who got sent to jail at the end of the story, where he shared a cell with the Parrot and taught him all the secrets of the Fire-Men Cult (unfortunately for Culflam, as the last part of the Learn Mystical Secrets in Jail trick is to murder your teacher on the way out). 

    So the Parrot is fireproof. He’s also something like seven and a half feet tall and completely ruthless. All of this makes for a very fun villain, even if all he really does is try to rob an opera crowd. I was pretty jazzed to read his second appearance, two issues later!

    Very sad times had by all: all he does is escape from jail again and then accept a contract from a man with  a German accent to blow up a strategic sulphur supply – his flame immunity doesn’t even come up! And then he dies in a car crash! Truly this is an example of squandered potential.

    Clearly the Parrot should be BRUNG BACK in some form – unfortunately the only hook I can think of are his stolen Fire-Man powers perhaps coming with some sort of curse for shirking the duties of the cult and he comes back to haunt the California desert as a fiery ghost? Or a modern incarnation of the cult needs access to lost teachings and mistakenly resurrects him instead of Culflam?  Or maybe the US government just keeps the bodies of deceased super-villains in cold storage somewhere and he just gets mad scienced back from the dead, I don’t know.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 289: PROFESSOR ENRIC ZAGNAR

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 025, 1941)

    Enric Zagnar is your classic Victim of Orthodoxy. His beliefs (mankind will someday be able to control the weather) clash with the view of the establishment (that is wrong) and so he is left adrift.

    He of course goes off into the mountains to learn how to control the weather and dream of revenge.

    Harnessing the power of black magic, he attempts to flood and drown the entire town and is opposed by everyone’s fave smoke-dweller the Vision.

    Finally, in his moment of triumph, nature itself seems to take a hand and he is incinerated by lightning.

    Honestly the most interesting part of this guy’s story aside from his wild-haired Jack Kirby Draws a Madman design is the specifics of the conflict between Zagnar and his unnamed university. “Mankind will learn to control the weather someday” is not a particularly outré belief, particularly in comics – we’re probably less than a decade away from the heyday of cloud seeding as a go-to solution, for instance – so I reckon it’s the hubris of it all, the Victor Frankenstein “we will be as gods” of it all that narratively seals Zagnar’s fate.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 289: PROFESSOR ENRIC ZAGNAR

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 025, 1941)

    Enric Zagnar is your classic Victim of Orthodoxy. His beliefs (mankind will someday be able to control the weather) clash with the view of the establishment (that is wrong) and so he is left adrift.

    He of course goes off into the mountains to learn how to control the weather and dream of revenge.

    Harnessing the power of black magic, he attempts to flood and drown the entire town and is opposed by everyone’s fave smoke-dweller the Vision.

    Finally, in his moment of triumph, nature itself seems to take a hand and he is incinerated by lightning.

    Honestly the most interesting part of this guy’s story aside from his wild-haired Jack Kirby Draws a Madman design is the specifics of the conflict between Zagnar and his unnamed university. “Mankind will learn to control the weather someday” is not a particularly outré belief, particularly in comics – we’re probably less than a decade away from the heyday of cloud seeding as a go-to solution, for instance – so I reckon it’s the hubris of it all, the Victor Frankenstein “we will be as gods” of it all that narratively seals Zagnar’s fate.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 282: KHOR, THE BLACK SORCERER

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 282: KHOR, THE BLACK SORCERER

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 022, 1941)

    Khor, the Black Sorcerer is one of those magical generalists I was talking about back when I wrote about the Mor the Mighty, with a diverse range of magic abilities including stun bolts, paralysis spells, teleportation spells and shrinking spells. He’s a Jack Kirby troll-man special who comes to the attention of the Vision when he kidnaps a whole-ass Antarctic science expedition because he’s a lonely immortal who doesn’t know how to make friends normally.

    By far the most interesting thing about Khor is that his home in the Antarctic tropical paradise the Land Where Time Stands Still has since been retconned as part of Marvel’s main Antarctic tropical paradise the Savage Land. This a fun bit of trivia, but more fun is the idea that throughout the whole convoluted history of the Savage Land (or at least from 1245 AD onward) an immortal French wizard is holed up in a little cave in the one location in the whole dang place not overrun with swamp men or ape men or dinosaurs, missing all the fun. Dante Alighieri is fighting literal demons in an alien amusement park while Khor spends the afternoon washing his robe. Delightful!

    It all ends with the Vision pitching Khor into a lava flow and freeing his collection of beefy old men. I won’t say that I won’t miss him, but I’ll always know that in any story set between 1245 and 1941 AD he’s there, in the Savage Land, bored out of his mind, and that’s enough.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 282: KHOR, THE BLACK SORCERER

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 282: KHOR, THE BLACK SORCERER

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 022, 1941)

    Khor, the Black Sorcerer is one of those magical generalists I was talking about back when I wrote about the Mor the Mighty, with a diverse range of magic abilities including stun bolts, paralysis spells, teleportation spells and shrinking spells. He’s a Jack Kirby troll-man special who comes to the attention of the Vision when he kidnaps a whole-ass Antarctic science expedition because he’s a lonely immortal who doesn’t know how to make friends normally.

    By far the most interesting thing about Khor is that his home in the Antarctic tropical paradise the Land Where Time Stands Still has since been retconned as part of Marvel’s main Antarctic tropical paradise the Savage Land. This a fun bit of trivia, but more fun is the idea that throughout the whole convoluted history of the Savage Land (or at least from 1245 AD onward) an immortal French wizard is holed up in a little cave in the one location in the whole dang place not overrun with swamp men or ape men or dinosaurs, missing all the fun. Dante Alighieri is fighting literal demons in an alien amusement park while Khor spends the afternoon washing his robe. Delightful!

    It all ends with the Vision pitching Khor into a lava flow and freeing his collection of beefy old men. I won’t say that I won’t miss him, but I’ll always know that in any story set between 1245 and 1941 AD he’s there, in the Savage Land, bored out of his mind, and that’s enough.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 273: MOR THE MIGHTY

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017, 1941)

    Mor the Mighty is part of one of my favourite types of super-villain: the magic user who has mastered a couple of spells and intends to see just how far they can get with them. In this case, our friend here seems to be limited to enlarging animals and conjuring stacks of explosives – though he might be juicing the stats of the animals a bit, too.

    That’s not bad for a guy with a villainous bent – you could engage in a little extortion or theft, maybe set yourself up as a regional gang boss.

    Just kidding, of course. Mor’s big plan is to send out his henchmen (including the excellent ape-man Zabu) and giant kitty to spread terror, confident that this will enable him to conquer… I assume the US. He says universe, but you gotta allow for hyperbole.

    To Mor’s credit, the Marvel Universe is not yet very well-supplied with magical protectors, which is what usually spells their undoing – if you rock up to a generalist like Dr Fate with nothing but a couple of 2nd level spells and an ape-man under your belt then you’re not going to be long for this world.

    Mor, on the other hand, is paired off against Electro, and beats him! His hopes for universal domination are ultimately dashed due to the fact that he doesn’t confirm the kill on Professor Zog as well, and one rapidly repaired robot later Mor is toast.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 273: MOR THE MIGHTY

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017, 1941)

    Mor the Mighty is part of one of my favourite types of super-villain: the magic user who has mastered a couple of spells and intends to see just how far they can get with them. In this case, our friend here seems to be limited to enlarging animals and conjuring stacks of explosives – though he might be juicing the stats of the animals a bit, too.

    That’s not bad for a guy with a villainous bent – you could engage in a little extortion or theft, maybe set yourself up as a regional gang boss.

    Just kidding, of course. Mor’s big plan is to send out his henchmen (including the excellent ape-man Zabu) and giant kitty to spread terror, confident that this will enable him to conquer… I assume the US. He says universe, but you gotta allow for hyperbole.

    To Mor’s credit, the Marvel Universe is not yet very well-supplied with magical protectors, which is what usually spells their undoing – if you rock up to a generalist like Dr Fate with nothing but a couple of 2nd level spells and an ape-man under your belt then you’re not going to be long for this world.

    Mor, on the other hand, is paired off against Electro, and beats him! His hopes for universal domination are ultimately dashed due to the fact that he doesn’t confirm the kill on Professor Zog as well, and one rapidly repaired robot later Mor is toast.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 261: THE SACRED ONE

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 261: THE SACRED ONE

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003, 1940)

    The Sacred one is a pretty bog-standard cult leader in a way that was cliched even in 1940: he’s got a bunch of people in a castle in the New York countryside somewhere and they kidnap beautiful white women to sacrifice to their Fire God until the Angel shows up to murderize them. 

    The only really interesting things about him are the questions that the loose plotting leaves you with: he has hypnotic powers – were these given to him by the Fire God or did he have them already and use them to set himself up as a cult leader? Are all of these guys sequentially using the same castle or is NY just lousy with them?

    The biggest question (and the creepiest part of the story) is what exactly is the nature of the Sacred One’s cult. Once he takes a header into his own pit trap, the cultists all silently line up and shrink down into nothingness. Is this the Sacred One’s death curse? Some sort of ritual suicide? Did they never actually exist in the first place but rather were the creations of either the Sacred One or the Fire God? We will never know!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 261: THE SACRED ONE

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003, 1940)

    The Sacred one is a pretty bog-standard cult leader in a way that was cliched even in 1940: he’s got a bunch of people in a castle in the New York countryside somewhere and they kidnap beautiful white women to sacrifice to their Fire God until the Angel shows up to murderize them. 

    The only really interesting things about him are the questions that the loose plotting leaves you with: he has hypnotic powers – were these given to him by the Fire God or did he have them already and use them to set himself up as a cult leader? Are all of these guys sequentially using the same castle or is NY just lousy with them?

    The biggest question (and the creepiest part of the story) is what exactly is the nature of the Sacred One’s cult. Once he takes a header into his own pit trap, the cultists all silently line up and shrink down into nothingness. Is this the Sacred One’s death curse? Some sort of ritual suicide? Did they never actually exist in the first place but rather were the creations of either the Sacred One or the Fire God? We will never know!