The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Skull Squadron

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 044

    GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 044

    Bored? Unemployed? Why not explore a career in low-tier supercrime? 

    the ABC Gang:

    I must regretfully inform you that the ABC Gang that is described here does not appear in this issue, as Spencer Steel and his pal Doakes instead get sidetracked by a different gang that is looking to rob the bank that they pegged as the logical next target in the ABCs’ pattern. This is a real shame, because “gang who robs banks in alphabetical order by name, but only if the town also conforms to alphabetical order” is a 1950s Batman villain-level of crime-as-compulsive puzzle and I would love to see a 1940s interpretation of that.

    Logically, Steel and Doakes would pick up the hunt for the ABC Gang in the next issue but no, they are completely forgotten by then. Golden Age comics, baybee! (Fight Comics 011, 1941)

    the Vultures:

    The Vultures, an elite Nazi air squadron, owe their success to the fact that they get all hopped up on “dope” (weed? heroin? are either of those going to help you do a dogfight? My lack of familiarity with both hard drugs and aerial combat is showing) before taking to the air.

    The Vultures show up to defend the German military assets that Chip Collins and what I will charitably still call the Skull Squadron are busy blowing up. Disappointingly, the fact that the Vulture leader is high as hell throughout the ensuing dogfight and parachute duel does not come up at all.  (Fight Comics 014, 1941)

    the Dust Bandits:

    When Professor Fraser’s incendiary dust gas bullets are rejected by the US Government for being a horrible war crime, he is determined to destroy the formula rather than, say, selling it to the Nazi Baron lurking in his home. Objecting to this lack of initiative, Fraser’s lab assistant and step-daughter conspire to kill him, then hook up with a crooked banker to organize the Dust Bandits, aka the Dust-Gas Gang, for a quick crime spree before taking the Baron up on his offer. As is so often the case with fire-based super-villains they find themselves opposed by a fire-based super-hero, in this case the Flame. (The Flame 007, 1941)

    the Leopard Men:

    To my shame, this instance of the Leopard Man trope marks the first time that I thought to look into whether there was a reason that it was so common in jungle fiction other than that leopards are cool. It turns out that as has so often been the case a cultural practice among a colonized people was vilified and outlawed as a part of the process of cultural subjugation. Leopard Societies appear to have filled a pretty diverse set of roles across West and Central Africa, ranging from pro-trade fraternal orders to vigilante groups, but thanks to sensationalist reporting and pulp writing we are going to keep on encountering them as generic jungle villains. 

    This particular bunch is after explorer Buck Johnson for some bullshit reason. (Great Comics 002, 1941)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 013

    Progress! Science! 

    It’s blood that this nameless inventor wants, blood to make his super fuel! Too bad for him that he chose to steal it from US Marine Strut Warren because he ends up extremely dead for his efforts (and the world remains dependant on fossil fuels. Thanks, Strut). (Fight Comics 003, 1940)

    Professor Pierre Villon, refugee from the Paris Medical Academy, has set himself up on a tropical island to further his scientific research into making human/animal hybrids. His method of acquiring test subjects by knocking aircraft out of the sky with an engine killing ray attracts the attention of Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron, and Villon ends up perishing at the hands, claws and teeth of his own creations. (Fight Comics 008, 1940)

    Professor Gustoff’s one interest is in administering his mutagenic fluid to people to turn them into “weird creatures”, aka bald guys with webbed hands and feet.He sets his sights too high when he tries to creaturize South Sea adventurer Shark Brodie and ends up beat up and presumably in some sort of colonial penal system. And the worst part? The poor weird creatures aren’t even fully amphibious – they all end up drowning. (Fight Comics 009, 1940)

    This is Dr Wratt, who lives on an isolated island populated by hypnotically controlled man-apes. He kidnaps Kaänga’s love interest Ann Mason for what I can only assume are weird creep reasons, based mostly on the fact that Wratt’s outfit consists of a short lab smock and nothing else. (Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 013

    Progress! Science! 

    It’s blood that this nameless inventor wants, blood to make his super fuel! Too bad for him that he chose to steal it from US Marine Strut Warren because he ends up extremely dead for his efforts (and the world remains dependant on fossil fuels. Thanks, Strut). (Fight Comics 003, 1940)

    Professor Pierre Villon, refugee from the Paris Medical Academy, has set himself up on a tropical island to further his scientific research into making human/animal hybrids. His method of acquiring test subjects by knocking aircraft out of the sky with an engine killing ray attracts the attention of Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron, and Villon ends up perishing at the hands, claws and teeth of his own creations. (Fight Comics 008, 1940)

    Professor Gustoff’s one interest is in administering his mutagenic fluid to people to turn them into “weird creatures”, aka bald guys with webbed hands and feet.He sets his sights too high when he tries to creaturize South Sea adventurer Shark Brodie and ends up beat up and presumably in some sort of colonial penal system. And the worst part? The poor weird creatures aren’t even fully amphibious – they all end up drowning. (Fight Comics 009, 1940)

    This is Dr Wratt, who lives on an isolated island populated by hypnotically controlled man-apes. He kidnaps Kaänga’s love interest Ann Mason for what I can only assume are weird creep reasons, based mostly on the fact that Wratt’s outfit consists of a short lab smock and nothing else. (Jungle Comics 002, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 025

    Just a great bunch of guys.

    David:

    I read the Samson stories in Big 3 before those in his home comic Fantastic, so while I knew about his sidekick David I didn’t really know what his whole deal was. I had read that Samson just found him sitting around somewhere and assumed that that was hyperbole but no, it’s not: Samson is investigating some mysterious plane crashes in the Rockies when he just finds a kid, who turns out to be the only survivor of the latest crash, and just… brings him along. There’s no real attempt to address the fact that he must be an orphan now (or if not and he was travelling alone for some reason, that his family now thinks he is dead) or to find him a familial guardian – heck, his name isn’t even David. It’s low-key one of the weirdest sidekick origins in comics and that’s before he gets his own pair of fur briefs. (Fantastic Comics 010, 1940)

    UPDATES: Even in the updated Samson origin, David is still a hanger-on (Samson 001, 1940)

    UPDATE – the Fantom of the Fair:

    The Fantom of the Fair gets his own short-lived book that sees him spending more and more time fighting crime outside the New York World’s Fair, if you can believe it. To that end he adopts the more generic name of the Fantoman. The costume changes (blue instead of black, uncovered lower face) happened at the end of 1939 and technically I’ve read more Fantom stories in which he had the new one than the old but it never feels right to me. At least you can still see his hair through the cowl.

    Though he has a new name and a not-so-new look, Fantoman retains one of his most iconic properties: every time you start thinking of him as just another masked adventurer he busts out another heretofore-unseen superpower or bit of lore suggesting he is a thousand year old demigod or something. See above as he either teleports or passes through matter for the first and last time. (Fantoman 003, 1940)

    the Spy Fighter:

    It kind of says something about the mood of America in 1940 that there are multiple comic book series that take place in the 1990s after what we know as World War II has stretched on for fifty years (Marvel’s Breeze Barton is the other one that I can recall off the top of my head, while MLJ’s Doc Strong is from a future ravaged by a whole century of WWII). In this version of that, the war has resulted in an amalgamation of the world into three rival nations: Russmany (Europe and Africa), Mongo (Asia) and Greater America (the Americas), and in this world of super nations, a super spy is required to ensure the sanctity of the Greater American way of life.

    That man is Saber, the Spy Fighter! Who does eventually put on a shirt. Saber starts out as physically gifted telepath who roots out enemy agents by reading their ill intent in their own minds and then beats them up for it. Over time, the challenges he faces get larger and less specifically espionage related, and he develops new abilities to meet them, including that of changing his own size at will, to the point that he is eventually able to travel through space on his own power to fight planet-sized enemies. And what can Mongo do to challenge that? (Fight Comics 001, 1940)

    Update 1941

    the Skull Squadron:

    Chip Collins’ Skull Squadron is extremely unremarkable but at this point I have to make note of every skull-adjacent comic book thing. They operate somewhere in between a commando group and the Suicide Squad and barely even have skulls painted on their planes. SKULL SCORE: 1/2 and only for the name. (Fight Comics 001, 1940)

  • CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE WALRUS MEN

    (Fight Comics 006, 1940) 

    In terms of comic book creeps, a race of seven-foot tall barbarians with walrus tusks (and mustaches!) waylaying travellers in the mountains of Tibet are hardly remarkable, and yet I quite like them. I am charmed by their simplicity.

    Plus, they move things around the mountains on what can only be described as a giant toboggan, a very silly thing to do!

  • CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE WALRUS MEN

    CREEPS OF THE WORLD: THE WALRUS MEN

    (Fight Comics 006, 1940) 

    In terms of comic book creeps, a race of seven-foot tall barbarians with walrus tusks (and mustaches!) waylaying travellers in the mountains of Tibet are hardly remarkable, and yet I quite like them. I am charmed by their simplicity.

    Plus, they move things around the mountains on what can only be described as a giant toboggan, a very silly thing to do!

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

    Science class was never like this.

    Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough “noxio gas” to flood the NYC of the I-think-it’s-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940)

    This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he’s introduced while sitting in a tennis judge’s chair for no stated reason. He lives in an inactive volcano, probably in Africa, and is developing a horrible poison dust that he has used to destroy the neighbouring village – it’s probably a good thing that Captain Kidd melts him. (Fantastic Comics 008, 1940)

    Dr Loy here has created an army of chemical androids that he controls and aims to take over the world with. Two problems: the Fantom of the Fair is on the case and Dr Loy’s androids dissolve in water. Loy is quickly arrested. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 002, 1940)

    Chung Hang has a simple dream: wait until the world is exhausted by WWII and then take over using his mind control ray. And he might just get there some day, because Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron just punches him out and leaves once he and his pals have escaped Chung Hang’s science dungeons. (Fight Comics 002, 1940)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 012

    Science class was never like this.

    Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough “noxio gas” to flood the NYC of the I-think-it’s-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940)

    This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he’s introduced while sitting in a tennis judge’s chair for no stated reason. He lives in an inactive volcano, probably in Africa, and is developing a horrible poison dust that he has used to destroy the neighbouring village – it’s probably a good thing that Captain Kidd melts him. (Fantastic Comics 008, 1940)

    Dr Loy here has created an army of chemical androids that he controls and aims to take over the world with. Two problems: the Fantom of the Fair is on the case and Dr Loy’s androids dissolve in water. Loy is quickly arrested. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 002, 1940)

    Chung Hang has a simple dream: wait until the world is exhausted by WWII and then take over using his mind control ray. And he might just get there some day, because Chip Collins of the Skull Squadron just punches him out and leaves once he and his pals have escaped Chung Hang’s science dungeons. (Fight Comics 002, 1940)