The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Lev Gleason

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 040

    Lev Gleason’s finest!

    Lance Hale:

    Lance Hale is a soldier of fortune and jungle adventurer who is notable mainly for the fact that in his first appearance he is given super strength by a fellow with the pleasing name of Dr Grantland Grey so that he can help out on an expedition to the stars, and then after returning to Earth he just… stops using the armband that gives him his enhanced strength. He keeps on adventuring, don’t get me wrong, but as a regular jungle guy, ie, a colonialist race science fantasy figure. 

    Hale is slightly more interesting than his contemporaries in the jungle guy community by virtue of the variety of situations that he gets in: there’s the initial space trip that ends up turning into an interdimensional one and then a battle with invading animal men from a parallel world, a delve into a lost underground kingdom in which he incidentally becomes immortal, cursed demon-summoning gemstone action… I assume that the thrills are eventually going to stop coming but 1940 was almost all hits. (Silver Streak Comics 002, 1940)

    Mister Midnite **HERO UPDATE**:

    As you may or may not recall, Mister Midnite is a hero in the classic formal wear style who has one very specific power, to stop clocks by yelling “time stop!” Well! So we thought! It turns out that in his second appearance, Midnite demonstrates a second power, that of being teleported to a vaguely defined location, and also when he has shouts “time stop!” I really wish that there were more than two Mister Midnite stories so that we would have some more data to use in piecing all this together, but as of now I must assume that he has some sort of vaguely defined wishing power and that “time stop!” is its trigger phrase, like Johnny Thunder and “say you.” (Silver Streak Comics 002, 1940)

    the Silver Streak:

    The Silver Streak! Is notable for two (2) reasons, the first of which is that he is a the-title-of-the-comic-book character who doesn’t show up until issue 3, which is the opposite to how it often works, where the title character goes from proudly front and centre to gone in as many issues.

    The second and more interesting thing about the Silver Streak is his origin, which I have tried and failed to summarize in paragraph form, so here goes as bullet points:

    – the Silver Streak is a race car, or rather a series of race cars because every Silver Streak crashes, killing the driver. Nobody wants to drive for the Silver Streak team. The cars are crashing because they are being attacked by a giant fly.

    – the Silver Streak’s owner is Hindu mystic known only as the Swami. When an unnamed cab driver volunteers to drive the Silver Streak, the Swami hypnotizes him to be a great race car driver.

    – the unnamed driver is immediately killed by a giant fly.

    – BUT! The Swami has a hunch that the man is not in fact dead! He and a pal go to the cemetery and dig up the driver’s unmarked grave, and they are proved right! And what’s more, the prior hypnotic conditioning combined with the near-death experience has made the man (henceforth the Silver Streak) superhuman!

    The first adventure of the Silver Streak concludes with him stealing the latest prototype of his namesake car and using it to destroy the giant fly that “killed” him, and as presented he seems to have been on track to be a car-based super-hero. However, between Silver Streak Comics 003 and 004, the character was handed off from Jack Binder to Jack Cole and the Silver Streak became a guy with super speed, no car required. I don’t know if his origin is ever revised, but I do know that the Silver Streak has several sidekicks over the years and that they all get their powers via a blood transfusion from the man himself, so something’s going on there. Unless his blood was hypnotized too, of course – the Swami never returns, so his deal is never fully explored.

    Like a lot of super speed characters, the Silver Streak ends up being more about cool speed tricks than having a distinct personality, but he’s a fun read nonetheless. (Silver Streak Comics 003, 1940)

    UPDATE 1941 

    Dickie Dean, Boy Inventor:

    We love to see a boy inventor, if only because our brains have been warped enough by the Venture Brothers that we can’t help but imagine their dysfunctional adulthood, and by “we” I mean “I”. Dickie Dean here is particularly good fodder for that little thought experiment, as he is compelled to sign over his inventions to the US government by his misplaced sense of patriotism, so he’s either in for a rude awakening or an increasingly delusional relationship to reality as he gets older. 

    Some inventions that Dickie fails to patent in 1940 include: 

    – a device that can replay sound waves and visualize shadows up to 2-3 weeks old

    – a device designed to stop all war by making air as thick as molasses and thus preventing bullets etc from moving fast enough to do harm (importantly, this air is still breathable)

    – an enclosed, submersible speedboat equipped with a device that abates flood waters via rapid electrolysis

    He does sell a magnetic antigravity device for use as a mid-air brake for airplanes, but only because his father is in dire financial straits.

    Dickie Dean is also interesting for the fact that he is from New Castle, Pennsylvania, a real place with a regular amount of history but not otherwise a big name in city circles. Also I just reread the bit where I roasted Dickie for giving away his patents and I want to make it cleat that the part I think is foolish is giving them to, like, the FBI, not donating them to humanity. (Silver Streak Comics 003, 1940)

    UPDATE 1941 

  • 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.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 730: THE LITTLE MEN

    (Silver Streak Comics 002, 1940)

    Normally I try to put things in my own words and really work out the ins and outs of the motivations of the super-weirdos I write about, but I gotta be honest: I have so little idea of what the Little Men’s problem is (problems are?) that I’m just going to point to the intro caption: they’re trying to rid the world of all beautiful women. Simple as that.

    Why are they trying to rid the world of all beautiful women (and/or all beauty, as their leader puts it)? Not a clue. Are they just weird incel creeps or is it something more? No idea.

    One point in favour of the Little Men not being a weird misogynistic serial killer cult (not just a weird misogynistic serial killer cult, at least) is the fact that they have an artificial man with the amazing name Noman, though as with his creators we have so little information to work from that we can’t say for sure if Noman is an android, a homunculus, a frankenstein or something else. It’s all very genre dependent!

    (Mister Midnite is also there)

    The only real clue that we get to the nature of the Little Men is unfortunately also very genre-dependent: during Mister Midnite’s battle with Noman a “strange gas” is released from a cool heart-shaped container. The gas is harmless to humans, but disintegrates the Little Men on contact, indicating that yes, they were not human, but what were they then? Were they: magical beings, aliens, homunculi, magical constructs, earthbound spirits, underground beings, extradimensional creatures, reified fictional beings, elementals, thought projections, time travellers, mutants, chronal echoes, genii loci, regular guys who all had an extreme allergy… there just isn’t enough information, and so we must simplify: they were a bunch of weird little creeps, and the gas was creep remover, which they shouldn’t have just left lying around.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 013

    More. MORE!

    Spiritman: 

    It’s impossible to say if Spiritman’s real name is Spirit Malcolm or if Spirit is just a nickname. The Golden Age is definitely a time in which nicknames are clearly signposted with quotation marks (including names like “Hank” half the time) but they’re also an age of inconsistent editorial standards. Let’s assume it is his given name, because then it’s another fun case of comic book nominative determinism.

    Spiritman is a scientific hero: armed with a Rayodine Pistol, he uses his Futurscope remote viewing device to hunt out evildoers and then – and this is where the “Spirit” part comes in – employs his Mistodine device to teleport to their location, or possibly to astrally project to their location. Either way, the effects are the same: the projected Spiritman can fly and is selectively invisible and intangible, allowing him to really just do whatever he wants. In his sole recorded adventure, this means killing about a dozen men for stealing US gold reserves. (Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939)

    the Wasp:

    Daily Free Press reporter Burton Slade is also masked vigilante the Wasp, so named because his weird cape looks a bit like insect wings if you squint. He also makes a buzzing sound sometimes. (Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939)

    Black X:

    Black X is Richard Spencer, a US espionage agent who travels around with his Indian manservant Batu (who of course is gifted with assorted mental powers). His stories are interesting enough to read but Black X himself is, appropriately enough, a bit of a cipher. Probably the most interesting thing about him is that the monocle he always wears is in fact more of an eye patch to cover his gouged-out eye. He also briefly went by the moniker Black Ace but that failed to stick. (Feature Funnies 013, 1938)

    the Invisible Hood:

    The fun thing about the Invisible Hood is that he doesn’t get his signature invisibility cloak until his second appearance, which means that for an unknown number of adventures he was just a Sandman-style two-fisted gas gun jockey in a very impractical full length form-fitting robe. Perhaps he was simply looking for a challenge. (Smash Comics 001, 1939)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 542: THE HOODED RAVENS

    (Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939)

    Just a regular group of modern-day masked rustlers notable for two things: their better-than-average name and…

    … their insanely bad opsec. “Adventure-Hunter” Barry Lane waltzes into sight, makes up a fake toughguy name and backstory and before you can blink twice he has the entire lowdown on the gang’s operations and an invitation to join. And all this in a crowded bar. And the local sheriff had to specifically bring in help to hunt these guys down!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 542: THE HOODED RAVENS

    (Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939)

    Just a regular group of modern-day masked rustlers notable for two things: their better-than-average name and…

    … their insanely bad opsec. “Adventure-Hunter” Barry Lane waltzes into sight, makes up a fake toughguy name and backstory and before you can blink twice he has the entire lowdown on the gang’s operations and an invitation to join. And all this in a crowded bar. And the local sheriff had to specifically bring in help to hunt these guys down!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 541: THE HOODED FIGURE

    (Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939)

    Simply a man who reacts to losing his pilot’s license in a very rational way: he sabotages planes at the local airfield and also booby traps all the parachutes so that they will strangle anyone that uses them.

    Upon being hunted down by two-fisted detective the Duke, the Hooded Figure makes the common mistake of trying to get away in a plane that he himself had already sabotaged. Ah, irony.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 541: THE HOODED FIGURE

    (Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939)

    Simply a man who reacts to losing his pilot’s license in a very rational way: he sabotages planes at the local airfield and also booby traps all the parachutes so that they will strangle anyone that uses them.

    Upon being hunted down by two-fisted detective the Duke, the Hooded Figure makes the common mistake of trying to get away in a plane that he himself had already sabotaged. Ah, irony.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 540: THE WILL-O-WISP

    (Silver Streak Comics 001, 1939)

    As we open, simply everyone’s worried about the Will-o-Wisp, a mysterious crook who shows up at crime scenes and steals what other crooks were about to make off with. The police chief looks bad because he can’t catch the Will-o-Wisp! The gangs are mad because they keep getting robbed by the Will-o-Wisp!

    The Will-o-Wisp’s big mistake comes when he butts in on the mugging of Neal Carruthers III, aka Mister Midnite, which of course arouses his interest. I guess you could argue that that wasn’t precisely a mistake because the Will-o-Wisp didn’t know that he was making it, but what about the fact that his next move was to extort the police chief for $50 000? Even without knowing that the chief and Neal Carruthers were friends that’s just plain playing with fire.

    Mister Midnite of course crashes the cash handoff and manages to figure out the Will-o-Wisp’s secret: that he is not in fact a small ball of light capable of speech but a very gutsy ventriloquist who just saunters up and takes the loot while his victims are distracted by a light on a fishing line or some other apparatus. It’s a bold, bold plan, with one huge point of failure: the first time someone looks away from the light and says “who’s that guy?” you’re screwed.

    Speaking of “who’s that guy?”, one thing that never gets resolved is who exactly that guy is. I assume that he’s meant to be an unknown outsider but thanks to the ambiguity of the simple art combined with the spot colouring everyone looks very similar to one another. I honestly can’t say if one of the cops or crooks introduced in other scenes are supposed to also be the Will-o-Wisp. 

    All we can do is wait for someone to do a gritty reboot of Mister Midnite and give us a satisfying Will-o-Wisp origin (dark sorcerer who gained the ability to gorily eject a glowing orb from his nasal cavity in exchange for the souls of the innocent, I assume).