The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Lev Gleason

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 925: THE IRON-JAW

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The US is being rocked by a series of explosions targeting munitions factories and other facilities contributing to national defense, and not even the speed of the Silver Streak is enough to combat the organizational skills and coordination of the mysterious mastermind behind them. It is only by sheer coincidence that he happens upon an imperilled security guard from a plant in Georgia and learns from him that the men who blew up his workplace were under command of a mysterious figure called “Iron-Jaw” and that they all work for the “Axes Government”.

    Even with this information under his belt, the Silver Streak still loses two more factories to the Iron-Jaw before finally running down some of his men in Boston and discovering the secret of their great organizational abilities: a super-miniaturized (for the 40s) radio set used to relay orders to the Axes forces in America. By following the instructions coming from a captured unit, the Streak and Whiz are finally able to get the jump on the Iron-Jaw’s men and prevent the destruction of a plant in Pittsburgh, though the mastermind remains on the loose.

    The Iron-Jaw returns in Silver Streak Comics 010 with a new set of goals – the focus is now on shutting down media criticism of the Axes. To that end, the Silver Streak is drawn away via a report of a potential bombing in Chicago while Iron-Jaw is grabbing the real target, broadcaster Kitty Doyle, in NYC.

    This is Silver Streak we’re talking about here, so he returns in time to interrupt the kidnapping in progress. the mysterious Iron-Jaw is revealed to be a moderately cool-looking/ moderately goofy-looking/ fairly spiky humanoid robot. With a gold finish, no less – so much for thematic consistency.

    Though Iron-Jaw briefly gets the upper hand, even a super strong, very pointy robot is no match for the world’s fastest man and it takes a fatal header onto the streets of Manhattan below.

    Here’s something about the Iron-Jaw: in its first appearance, all it does is talk, while in its second it is completely mute. This dovetails interestingly with something that Kitty reports after its defeat, that investigation of the robot indicates that it was controlled by trans-oceanic radio waves originating from the Axes government. Which seems to indicate that the Iron-Jaw was merely operating as the mouth and hands of one or more spymasters in some comic book pastiche of Germany, which in turn means that this is one of the few times in Golden Age comics in which the villain gets away at the end!* Neat!

    *excluding all of the recurring villains who get away all the time, of course. 

    Finally, Silver Streak and Whiz get to meet FDR to get his congratulationss, plus a Congressional Medal of Honor!

    Categorized in: Body (Jaws), Elements (Iron), Origins (Robots) 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 924: MOLO

    (Silver Streak Comics 008, 1941)

    A killer stalks the entertainment industry! Prominent  people are being murdered, including Academy Award winner Kay Kaye, opera singer Lily Donela and Dick Bradley, recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for “the best play of the year” which I suppose would be for literature? And also very impressive because the Nobel Prize was suspended in 1941 due to the war?

    In total, nine luminaries of the stage and screen have been killed as the story opens and all have been found with a note reading “Death by Molo.” 

    The next projected target is playwright Bruce Canton, who is about to be honoured with a banquet. Enter Presto Martin, master of disguise, who poses as Canton and rounds up Molo with little effort. Case closed, the day is saved, etc.

    There’s just one problem: Canton is murdered at the banquet, complete with calling card, and the witnesses identify the man in Martin’s lockup as the culprit.

    A little of the ol’ disguise routine from Presto determines that the Molo in police custody has a twin brother who is hell-bent on continuing the murder spree. This means that Martin has to dress up like the logical next victim again and act as bait for a killer again, ho hum. The second Molo is captured with ease and thrown into jail with his brother.

    And just why were the Molos so hell-bent on murdering successful figures in the entertainment industry anyway? Why, because they themselves were failures back in the dying days of Vaudeville and they just couldn’t take seeing other people make it. 

    THE SUPER-VILLAINS OF HOLLYWOOD PODCAST: One of the least successful episodes in the history of the show. The hosts take the bizarre approach of treating the Molo brothers as victims of the entertainment system and among other things demonstrate that they don’t really know what Vaudeville is. Rumours that the podcast was threatened with a lawsuit by the estate of Kay Kaye are unconfirmed, but the episode was quietly removed from the archive after a few months.

    Categorized in: Murder (Serial Killers), Origin (Twins), the Super-Villains of Hollywood Podcast

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 078

    Lev Gleason characters for EVERYONE!

    Daredevil **UPDATE**:

    Daredevil had but one appearance in 1940, so it’s no surprise that the character still had some changes and revisions to go once 1941 rolled around. Firstly, his costume gets an update, with yellow swapped out for red and the complicated “DD” design on the abdomen dropped entirely.

    The most dramatic change, however, is that the Daredevil can now talk. Just how Bart Hill’s traumatic muteness was alleviated is unaddressed – I’m sure that the real answer is that it was inconvenient to write around and so was quietly dropped, but imagining that his successful crimefighting career allowed him to let go of the past is nice.

    Finally, Bart is now a wealthy playboy with a fiance (Tonia Saunders) who isn’t too sure about marrying this manchild after all. Thankfully, Tonia discovers the truth about Bart’s double life in her first appearance, because the Clark/Lois dynamic can get a bit tedious when grafted onto every super-hero’s relationship by default.

    Our final update from Silver Streak Comics 007 is this revelation that the Daredevil’s mastery of the boomerang is so complete that, when thrown by the Claw, he can cause his own body to act like one. This here might just be a new contender for inclusion in lists of obscure and ridiculous super powers, folks.

    In Silver Streak Comics 008 & 009, Daredevil employs a couple of high-tech fighter planes called “the Airdevil,” which a top-notch example of a jokey super-accessory name. Both planes are destroyed during Daredevil’s clashes with the Claw, and he seems to have given up on the idea of the custom plane, at least for the year 1941.

    In Silver Streak Comics 015 Daredevil employs a decoy double named Chester to help in the capture of a villain named the Serpent. Who is Chester? No idea. Will he ever return? Probably not.

    Finally, in Daredevil Comics 002, Daredevil engages in what I would say is some Spider-Man style super-hero quipping as he battles this horde of silent men. Not that super-heroes aren’t constantly mouthing off, mind you, but it doesn’t have this kind of flow. I shall be looking out for more of this kind of patter to see how long it takes to become an established thing.

    Categorized in: Accessories (Airplanes), Day Job (Wealthy Socialite)

    Presto Martin: 

    Presto Martin, though voted “Least Likely to Succeed” in college, is now Captain of Detectives in the NYPD. More importantly for our purposes, he is a master of disguise who is for instance more than willing to take the place of a heavyweight boxer in the ring if it means that he can solve a big case. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    Per Silver Streak Comics 008, Presto is aided in his work by a super-moldable plastic putty of his own concoction.

    Categorized in: Day Job (Police Captain), Powers (Master of Disguise), Team Membership (NYPD)

    Zongar, the Miracle Man:

    Zongar, the Miracle Man, is a functionally-omnipotent magical adventurer like so many of his peers, but rather than casting spells per se Zongar uses a mystical amulet to command the spirit Abaraxx to do his bidding. This might have lead to some interesting developments over time if, for example, a nogoodnik were to get ahold of the amulet but alas, Zongar had only one recorded adventure. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Miracles), Accessories (Amulets)

    Cloud Curtis: 

    Dashing young aviator Cloud Curtis has developed the super plane Golden Bullet, which he flies both as a job and against the enemies of the US and which has one of the goofier features of any comic book super plane in the form of that big propeller located halfway down the fuselage. Curtis is assisted by the apelike Crusher McCoy and the avuncular Pop Whistler as he keeps the airways safe from a series of increasingly unlikely airplane-based threats. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    Categorized in: Accessories (Airplanes), Day Job (Aviators)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 923: PROFESSOR SKINN

    (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    The Skinn family is being killed off – at least seven of them have been murdered on their birthdays, leaving only the odius Mortimer Skinn, and he soon follows, despite police protection. 

    Boy Inventor Dickie Dean hasn’t been idle while this campaign of murder has been going on: thanks to a surveillance balloon he raised over the town for the purpose, he and his pal Zip Todd are able to track the culprit to his home. There. they learn that he is a blind beggar whom they had prevented Mortimer Skinn from beating some months prior, and that he is in fact Mortimer’s brother and the sole surviving member of the Skinn clan.

    Professor Skinn (unsettling name. unsettling family name) reveals that Mortimer and his other brothers attempted to kill him for his life insurance some years back but had only succeeded in blinding him and leaving him for dead. He spent at least some of the intervening time creating his frankly amazing looking cybernetic eye/helmet and planning a revenge that with the death of Mortimer is complete. And now he’s ready to put his skills to use in the world of crime!

    Dickie rebuffs Skinn’s attempt to recruit him as a partner, so out comes the scalpel, the bone drill and the brain injection fluid, because Professor Skinn is not one to take no for an answer. Dickie Dean is promptly evilized and turned on to the benefits of a life of crime.

    The new super-science criminal duo proceed to create a precious metal-attracting magnet and go ham on the town’s gold supply.

    Fortunately for Dickie’s long-term viability as the lead character in a comic strip, Zip Todd gets himself free after days (weeks?) of imprisonment and turns the tables on Skinn thanks to some lax lab safety procedures that mean there’s just vials of nitroglycerine lying around to grab. Skinn reverses the evilization procedure with a handy ray and is hauled away… FOR NOW.

    (also Skinn is vulnerable to attacks on his enormous weak point, like a video game boss)

    Professor Skinn returns in Silver Streak Comics 008, where he escapes prison with the help of his assistant Blubber’s berserker strength. Please not that the Castleton PD saw fit to take away Skinn’s helmet when they locked him up, thus rendering him blind – I’d call that cruel and unusual punishment.

    Dickie, rightfully concerned about Skinn being on the loose, works on an invention that he can use to counter anything that the Professor throws at him, while Skinn does the same and then forces a confrontation by kidnapping Dickie’s parents.

    It’s a tehnological showdown: disintegrator ray vs invisibility ray, and Dickie’s invisibility gives him just enough of an edge to free his parents and destroy the disintegrator, though he himself is captured in the process.

    Professor Skinn next sets out to loot Castleton again, this time with an army of remote controlled robots, but between Zip Todd (overlooked in the scuffle) leading the entirety of the Castleton PD back to his base and a still-invisible Dickie getting loose and causing a ruckus he and Blubber are ultimately forced to zipline down the mountain to freedom.

    This is enough for Professor Skinn: he challenges Dickie to settle things with a war of inventions via singing telegram.

    Silver Streak Comics 009: the war of inventions kicks off after both parties have had a couple of months to prepare, in a fairly horrific fashion as Professor Skinn shells the Castleton High School.

    After putting some distance between them and their surviving classmates, Dickie and Zip Todd wait out the initial shelling in an impenetrable fort before sallying forth in a similarly impenetrable tank equipped with a force ray cannon. They are accompanied by a squadron of small but mighty robots to counter Skinn’s own robot forces. Skinn, in addition to his mechanical infantry, has an air force comprised of trained, bomb-dropping birds, and is conducting his artillery barrage from a base concealed behind a waterfall. 

    I must say that I was disappointed by Skinn’s use of fairly conventional artillery, but he won me back with the robot army and sea gull air force.  

    Professor Skinn is extracted from behind the waterfall when Dickie uses his force ray to bounce a few artillery shells back to their source, and then makes a bid for victory by having his birds carry off Dickie and Zip while he and Blubber steal Dickie’s super tank. It all ends badly, however, as Professor Skinn and Blubber blow themselves up while trying to activate the force ray. Professor Skinn has finally joined the rest of his family in Hell.

    OR HAS HE? 

    No, it turns out, because Silver Streak Comics 011 features a final appearance in which he attempts to chase Dickie and his pals away from fixing up an abandoned theme park that he has been hiding out in. This is a definite step down for the Professor, from legitimate threat to Scooby-Doo villain.

    Skinn’s main Teen Removal tool in this issue is a very Silver Age vehicle called the Gadget Octopus that is equipped with various gag tentacles (boxing glove tentacle, kicking foot tentacle, net tentacle, kid spanking tentacle etc) as well as a fire cannon for when things get serious.

    Once Dickie gets in a room with him, Professor Skinn is easily captured, as befits his fallen status. He’s taken off to jail once more (hopefully with a better lawyer who can successfully argue against eye confiscation this time) and is never seen again. Did he wisely retire or did the fact that Pennsylvania – where “Dickie Dean, Boy Inventor” is plausibly set – is a death penalty state and Skinn is a multiple murderer come into play? 

    Categorized in: Accessories (Various), Murder (Familicides), Origin (Blind Characters)

  • NOTES: FEBRUARY 2026

    Costume Materials: 

    The Daredevil’s mask is made out of rubber. (Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941)

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects: 

    The NYPD attempts to gun down Nightro (and his dog!) for fleeing the scene of a suicide. (Daredevil Comics 003, 1941)

    Honours – Dash Dillon: 

    University sports hero Dash Dillon captures a U-Boat off the coast of Connecticut and receives a whole host of awards. (Daredevil Comics 004, 1941) 

  • NOTES – JANUARY 2026

    Honours: 

    Aviator Cloud Curtis and his pals are personally thanked by FDR for stopping a spy plot against the US. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941) 

    Decorations: 

    Check out Presto Martin’s portrait of Silver Streak and Whiz! (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941) 

  • ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 014

    We’ve hit a rich seam of aliums this month.

    Mermaid/ Reptile-Men:

    This city of Reptile-Men is ruled over by a Mermaid queen, and I am forced to contemplate, and not for the first time, whether this is an instance of a member or group of one species ruling over another or if it’s one of extreme sexual dimorphism. Whichever one it is, I do appreciate that the Reptile-Men have that really goofy wide stance going on with their lizard legs. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)

    Monkey Men: 

    Also known as the Cannibalistic Monkey Men, these beefy lads vex one of those hidden Ancient Roman colonies that are all over Africa and the Middle East by demanding tribute of human flesh. They eventually meet their match and are seemingly wiped out entirely when they try to eat Kaänga and his new pal “Red” Longjohn. (Jungle Comics 007, 1940)

    Capris-Men:

    Earth is in need of radium, the only cure to a deadly plague that is ravaging the population, and so an expedition headed by Rex Dexter of Mars sets out to get some from the nearly 100% pitchblende planet Capris (okay, so it’s called a planet throughout the story but it’s got to be a dwarf planet or an asteroid or something based on travel timelines alone). The fantastic-looking native Capris-Men, aka the Capris Monsters, don’t take to kindly to this and mount an attack on the expedition, which leads the expedition to leave early, meaning that they don’t get enough radium to treat everyone.

    The obvious solution to this problem is, of course, to tow the entire planet(oid) into orbit around Earth, so that the healing power of ionizing radiation can eternally shine down on its inhabitants and make them the healthiest people in the universe. No word on what the Capris-Men thought about this development. (Mystery-Men Comics 002, 1939)

    the Cave Men and the Lizard Men:

    The Cave Men are basically just some extra hairy guys who live in a cave system called the Underground Empire beneath Rhodesia/modern day Zimbabwe. They are possibly immortal and are ruled by a white lady named Aldia, who is – the question is whether she bothered to share the secret of the Immortal Flame with her subjects.

    The thing that really sets the Cave Men apart is the quality of their enemies, the Lizard Men. Sure, they’re just a mindless horde of inhuman monsters who exist only to be righteously slaughtered by the heroic Lance Hale, but just look at their majestic fins! (Silver Streak Comics 004, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 041

    Another assortment of guys for your delectation.

    the Sky Wolf:

    Just another masked pilot in a souped-up named plane (originally the Silver Bullet, followed by the Golden Bullet), the Sky Wolf loses both his place in Silver Streak Comics and his plane’s name to fellow pilot Cloud Curtis once 1941 rolls around, and to add insult to injury, in 1942 the far more successful character of Skywolf debuts over at Hillman, ensuring that he doesn’t even have good SEO. (Silver Streak Comics 004, 1940)

    Whiz, King of Falcons:

    The Silver Streak is not immune to the sting of pride, so when aviator Sir Cedric Baldwin challenges him to a race around the world to prove who is the fastest man on Earth, he accepts, and is of course fast enough that he not only wins but is able to have a very culturally-sensitive adventure in Saudi Arabia along the way. Silver Streak is knocked out and captured at one point, and the falconry-obsessed villain takes advantage of this to inject his favourite bird with some super-fast blood. 

    Astonishingly, this works, despite our only account of the Silver Streak’s origin being as a result of hypnotic conditioning coupled with a near-death experience – perhaps the hypnosis was so deep that it mesmerized his very blood? That would explain the falcon’s immediate shift in loyalty from its owner to its super-heroic blood doner, at least.

    “Whiz, King of Falcons” is technically not this guy’s name until Silver Streak Comics 007, which was published in 1941, but I reckon that calling him “Unnamed Falcon Companion” here and then correcting it in six months’ time would be extremely wilfully obtuse of me. (Silver Streak Comics 006, 1940)

    UPDATE 1941 

    the Daredevil:

    The Daredevil is Bart Hill, a vigilante in the Batman mould, having lost his parents to a gang of crooks and subsequently vowed to revenge himself on crime. Further, those same crooks tortured Bart himself, rendering him mute in the process, and due to a boomerang-shaped brand they left on his chest he devoted himself to the study of the weapon, adopting it as one of his heroic signatures. The Daredevil is one of the longer-running non-Marvel or DC/Fawcett/Quality characters of the Golden Age so he will be making a few appearances here going forward, but there are a few notable things about him:

    – his origin will undergo some revision between his first and second appearances, most notably the fact that his muteness is discarded – presumably to enable for easier storytelling

    – his costume is also somewhat revised, which is fun particularly because, like his Silver Age namesake, he switches from a yellow to a red colour scheme

    – this Daredevil’s Golden Age popularity, combined with his public domain status, means that he’s a popular choice for modern revivals, but the fact that there is a currently-published character with the same name (and owned by Disney, to boot) means that nobody dares to actually call him Daredevil in their stories and so the more recent versions of him have a wide range of variably terrible alternate names including the Death Defying ‘Devil, the Daring Devil and Doubledare. (Silver Streak Comics 006, 1940)

    UPDATE 1941 

    Iron Vic:

    Iron Vic is a frustrating beast. He first appears as a mostly-dead body washing up near the island laboratory of Professor Carvel, who applies a “certain rare serum” to the task of saving his life before dropping dead from the strain. Vic, as the man comes to be known, is rendered both amnesiac and superhuman by the process. He has one proper super-heroic adventure against Carvel’s old colleague Dr Spagna before the strip transitions into one primarily about baseball (and in case you’re wondering there is no mention of the ethical quandary that a superhuman participating in regular human sports would cause). The really frustrating part is that Dr Spagna implies that he knows something about Iron Vic, but the Spagna story is never actually resolved anywhere. Vic is merely an amnesiac baseball player until I think he enters the Army at some point? WHERE OH WHERE IS MY RESOLUTION (Single Series 022, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 737: THE SPOOK

    (Silver Streak Comics 006, 1940) 

    Continuing from the story of the Panther, Ace Powers ventures into the hole he had left the villain and his Panther Men in, seeking to discover the location of the former and presumably the reason for the deaths of the latter. Making his way through a concealed door, Powers finds the Panther about to be executed by a third villain called the Spook, who states that he is doing so because the Panther failed him, presumably by being foiled by Ace Powers in the previous issue. And let me tell you: I almost always love the revelation that a super-villain is in fact merely an agent of an even more evil villain but I especially love the fact that this means that the Panther Men were essentially subcontracting villainy.

    The Spook captures Powers with the help of his rad Skeleton Men and of course offers him the chance to join up with an organization where failure will get you gruesomely killed (it’s an understandable no from Our Hero). He also lays out his deal, kind of, and this is where we get into the very frustrating thing about the Spook: he’s clearly a vampire, but this comic won’t just come out and say it. Check it out: sharp canines, lives underground, “my body cannot stand sunlight.” Even that mantled robe he’s wearing is pretty reasonable comic book vampire fashion for the early 1940s.

    Plus, there’s the Skeleton Men, who are again rad as hell and are described as being animated by the Spook’s will alone (yes, he says “hypnotic” there but really that’s about the same as describing your power as “quantum” in a comic from 2010 only for magic). That’s some vampire shit right there.

    Ace Powers manages to knock the Spook out with a solid right to the jaw, which disables the Skeleton Men as well – this raises some questions about how security works while the Spook is enjoying a nap, or it would do if he weren’t clearly a vampire.

    To cap off the frustration, Powers decides to rid the world of the Spook with a simple bundle of dynamite rather than for instance dragging him out into the sun to shrivel up, a clear violation of my right to see vampires shrivel up in the sun from time to time. It’s a good thing that this is your final appearance, Ace Powers, because I now have a grudge against you and I would hate to have that taint my reading experience going forward.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 737: THE SPOOK

    (Silver Streak Comics 006, 1940) 

    Continuing from the story of the Panther, Ace Powers ventures into the hole he had left the villain and his Panther Men in, seeking to discover the location of the former and presumably the reason for the deaths of the latter. Making his way through a concealed door, Powers finds the Panther about to be executed by a third villain called the Spook, who states that he is doing so because the Panther failed him, presumably by being foiled by Ace Powers in the previous issue. And let me tell you: I almost always love the revelation that a super-villain is in fact merely an agent of an even more evil villain but I especially love the fact that this means that the Panther Men were essentially subcontracting villainy.

    The Spook captures Powers with the help of his rad Skeleton Men and of course offers him the chance to join up with an organization where failure will get you gruesomely killed (it’s an understandable no from Our Hero). He also lays out his deal, kind of, and this is where we get into the very frustrating thing about the Spook: he’s clearly a vampire, but this comic won’t just come out and say it. Check it out: sharp canines, lives underground, “my body cannot stand sunlight.” Even that mantled robe he’s wearing is pretty reasonable comic book vampire fashion for the early 1940s.

    Plus, there’s the Skeleton Men, who are again rad as hell and are described as being animated by the Spook’s will alone (yes, he says “hypnotic” there but really that’s about the same as describing your power as “quantum” in a comic from 2010 only for magic). That’s some vampire shit right there.

    Ace Powers manages to knock the Spook out with a solid right to the jaw, which disables the Skeleton Men as well – this raises some questions about how security works while the Spook is enjoying a nap, or it would do if he weren’t clearly a vampire.

    To cap off the frustration, Powers decides to rid the world of the Spook with a simple bundle of dynamite rather than for instance dragging him out into the sun to shrivel up, a clear violation of my right to see vampires shrivel up in the sun from time to time. It’s a good thing that this is your final appearance, Ace Powers, because I now have a grudge against you and I would hate to have that taint my reading experience going forward.