The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Masked Marvel

  • NOTES: AUGUST 2026

    the Looming Spectre of Death:

    An impressive Grim Reaper complete with bloody scythe and optional army helmet looms over an Alaskan town in this Liberty Scouts Guards tale. (Man of War Comics 001, 1941)

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:

    It’s a good thing that these cops don’t quite manage to murder the Raven for aggressively running away from them like this, because they all know his alter ego Danny Dartin and it’s the one time they would actually feel bad about summarily executing someone. (Lightning Comics v2 003, 1941)

    Great Folk:

    We never actually meet the Masked Marvel, but we can glean two things about him from context: 1) he is a mysterious masked bowler who travels the land doing exhibitions of skill at local bowling alleys and 2) he looks enough like Doctor Nemesis that the latter is mistaken for him without even trying. (Lightning Comics v2 003, 1941)

    Honours – Marvo the Magician:

    Both Marvo the Magician and his monkey Tito are knighted by the unnamed king of this unnamed South or Central American country for saving their crown jewels from pirates. (Lightning Comics v2 003, 1941)

  • NOTES – DECEMBER 2024

    Drawn Without Reference: 

    The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds find themselves facing a very off-model spider in the lad of the Batmen. (Pep Comics 003, 1940)

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:

    I was briefly tempted to give the cops of the MLJ universe a pass on shooting at the Comet because he did after all kill a bunch of them while mind controlled but then I remembered that a) that’s still no excuse to gun someone down in the street, and b) it’s still bad that they’re just blazing away at a flying man in the middle of a large city full of other people. (Pep Comics 004, 1940)

     And they do it again… (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

     And again… (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

    … and again (in a crowded state legislature building!) (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

    Louisiana cops try to blow away Naval Academy Midshipman Lee Samson for escaping jail and stealing a police car. (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

    Crossovers:

    Oft touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics, the Shield shares a total of four panels with the Wizard as they both set out to foil some dastardly Mosconian spies. (Pep Comics 004, 1940)

    Less frequently mentioned are the brief encounters between the Wizard and Lee Samson, aka the Midshipman and the Shield and Keith Kornell, aka the West Pointer, two very similar and very dull military academy students from different branches of the military-industrial complex. And they are less interesting, so that makes sense.

    The next issue features another appearance by the Wizard, this one less highly touted as it’s the second time it happened plus he just shows up to loan the Shield a plane. I personally think that that’s remarkable, as Golden Age crossovers tended more toward the one-off. (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

    Minutia: 

    The Shield briefly pitches pro baseball under the name the Masked Marvel, as part of an investigation into a protection racket targeting players. (Pep Comics 007, 1940)

  • NOTES – DECEMBER 2024

    Drawn Without Reference: 

    The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds find themselves facing a very off-model spider in the lad of the Batmen. (Pep Comics 003, 1940)

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:

    I was briefly tempted to give the cops of the MLJ universe a pass on shooting at the Comet because he did after all kill a bunch of them while mind controlled but then I remembered that a) that’s still no excuse to gun someone down in the street, and b) it’s still bad that they’re just blazing away at a flying man in the middle of a large city full of other people. (Pep Comics 004, 1940)

     And they do it again… (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

     And again… (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

    … and again (in a crowded state legislature building!) (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

    Louisiana cops try to blow away Naval Academy Midshipman Lee Samson for escaping jail and stealing a police car. (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

    Crossovers:

    Oft touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics, the Shield shares a total of four panels with the Wizard as they both set out to foil some dastardly Mosconian spies. (Pep Comics 004, 1940)

    Less frequently mentioned are the brief encounters between the Wizard and Lee Samson, aka the Midshipman and the Shield and Keith Kornell, aka the West Pointer, two very similar and very dull military academy students from different branches of the military-industrial complex. And they are less interesting, so that makes sense.

    The next issue features another appearance by the Wizard, this one less highly touted as it’s the second time it happened plus he just shows up to loan the Shield a plane. I personally think that that’s remarkable, as Golden Age crossovers tended more toward the one-off. (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

    Minutia: 

    The Shield briefly pitches pro baseball under the name the Masked Marvel, as part of an investigation into a protection racket targeting players. (Pep Comics 007, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 671: THE ERASER GANG

    (Masked Marvel 002, 1940)

    The Eraser Gang, aka the Erasers, aka the Dead Erasers, are a gang with a gimmick: they don’t just hijack armoured cars, they make the cars and their occupants disappear completely, to the consternation of the authorities.

    But just why do they do this? It’s never actually spelled out but as the Masked Marvel discovers when he is captured by them their actual weapon of choice is not a dissolving ray or a powerful acid but a deadly gas. Presumably disappearing the bodies and the scene of the crime using a powerful helicopter hoist was a way of keeping the authorities from learning that all they needed was a few gas masks to kibosh the entire operation.

    Unluckily for the Erasers, the Masked Marvel has rendered himself “impervious to all gasses” and so is able to escape and blow all or most of them to kingdom come.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 670: WINGS

    (Masked Marvel 001, 1940)

    Wings is the otherwise-unnamed leader of a gang with a pretty good gimmick: model planes loaded with explosives and rigged with a device that homes in on magnets. Using these, they cause a series of “mysterious explosions” at banks, etc, and loot to their hearts’ content in the ensuing chaos.

    The real key thing about a scheme like this is that it works best when there is a sense of fear and confusion. If you don’t know how, why or when these explosions are happening then they are effectively impossible to guard against, after all. The problem with this is that neither Wings nor his gang are constitutionally suited to subtlety. Some examples:

    -beating up a kid in public in order to secure a lost model plane.

    -attempting to assassinate the Masked Marvel several times, including once when he was just mildly suspicious of the guy who beat up the kid, once by blowing up a police station and once in such a way that he was able to completely figure out how the plane-bombs worked.

    -demanding that the city turn over the Masked Marvel to the gang or else they would conduct a series of bombings across the city.

    -signing the ransom note “Wings”.

    All this malarky erodes the gang’s mystique and allows them to tracked down and captured with relative ease. A model plane is only innocuous if you don’t know about model planes with bombs in them after all.

    The Masked Marvel continues to rule, by the way.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 427: THE TUSK

    (Keen Detective Funnies v2 022, 1940) 

    I want to be clear: there is very little to talk about re: the Tusk. I just find his weird face fascinating. Eponymous tusk plus weak chin plus huge eyes plus bonus enormous combover makes this guy a visual feast! Plus he’s a Masked Marvel foe and I love that guy.

    Just look at the faces he ends up pulling to highlight the tusk! Real great stuff.

    Oh, and as for the villainy: the Tusk has a super accurate bomb sight that allows him to blow up banks from super high altitude. I guess these mystery explosions cause enough confusion that his men can swoop in and loot unchallenged. The Masked Marvel also ends up being blamed for his crimes but the Tusk doesn’t have anything to do with that.

    I don’t know the context in which the Tusk could be BRUNG BACK but I wholeheartedly support and advocate for it. He would be a perfect addition to any rogues gallery that regularly gets together to kvetch about their foe. Just glaring in the back, tusk gleaming…

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 427: THE TUSK

    (Keen Detective Funnies v2 022, 1940) 

    I want to be clear: there is very little to talk about re: the Tusk. I just find his weird face fascinating. Eponymous tusk plus weak chin plus huge eyes plus bonus enormous combover makes this guy a visual feast! Plus he’s a Masked Marvel foe and I love that guy.

    Just look at the faces he ends up pulling to highlight the tusk! Real great stuff.

    Oh, and as for the villainy: the Tusk has a super accurate bomb sight that allows him to blow up banks from super high altitude. I guess these mystery explosions cause enough confusion that his men can swoop in and loot unchallenged. The Masked Marvel also ends up being blamed for his crimes but the Tusk doesn’t have anything to do with that.

    I don’t know the context in which the Tusk could be BRUNG BACK but I wholeheartedly support and advocate for it. He would be a perfect addition to any rogues gallery that regularly gets together to kvetch about their foe. Just glaring in the back, tusk gleaming…

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 426: THE RED RAIDER

    (Keen Detective Funnies v2 021, 1940)

    A simple but effective origin story: The captain of a German Mergan submarine becomes obsessed with death and destruction and goes rogue, preying on Axis and Allied shipping alike and replacing the flag of Nazi Germany Zani Mergany* with the skull and crossbones. Suddenly, the threat of war is a threat to all seagoing vessels!

    The Red Raider (technically the name of the submarine but I stand firm in my conviction that the name of a super-vehicle can logically be applied to its owner if they have no codename of their own) has a relatively short reign of terror before he is socked in the jaw by the Masked Marvel and hot damn is “So, you think you can machine gun the Masked Marvel?” a cool toughguy line to say just before taking down the villain and his whole operation.

    *okay I made up Zani but the rest is real

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 426: THE RED RAIDER

    (Keen Detective Funnies v2 021, 1940)

    A simple but effective origin story: The captain of a German Mergan submarine becomes obsessed with death and destruction and goes rogue, preying on Axis and Allied shipping alike and replacing the flag of Nazi Germany Zani Mergany* with the skull and crossbones. Suddenly, the threat of war is a threat to all seagoing vessels!

    The Red Raider (technically the name of the submarine but I stand firm in my conviction that the name of a super-vehicle can logically be applied to its owner if they have no codename of their own) has a relatively short reign of terror before he is socked in the jaw by the Masked Marvel and hot damn is “So, you think you can machine gun the Masked Marvel?” a cool toughguy line to say just before taking down the villain and his whole operation.

    *okay I made up Zani but the rest is real

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 423: THE HAWK

    (Keen Detective Funnies v2 008, 1939)

    There’s no bones about it: the Hawk looks like a guy who has a pretty extensive model train setup down in the basement. And he may just! But he’s also a master thief who stashes his loot inside an active Mexican volcano. But the volcano has a tram running up the side, so perhaps his inner train enthusiast is expressing itself in different ways.

    As always: you live by the volcano lair; you die by the volcano lair.

    Much more interesting than the Hawk is his foe, the Masked Marvel, a mysterious man with generic mental powers (sense the presence of evil, eg) and enhanced physical traits (walk unshielded into an active volcano; hold a steel cable at sufficient tension that an airplane can land, etc), as well as a surprisingly useful ability to project a red shadow. There’s just something about this grim dude with a receding hairline, unremarkable costume and three shlubby assistants that really speaks to me. Lucky for me he’s one of Centaur’s longer-running features, hey?