The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Dr Fate

  • SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: WOTAN 1940

    What was Wotan up to in 1940?

    A trip back in time! A year or so ago when I was reading the 1940 issues of More Fun was before I started doing Super-Villain Yearbook posts and so I skipped poor Wotan, an injustice compounded by the fact that he is what I would call a Median Villain: one who has either enough appearances or importance to a hero’s history to be more than a minor villain but without the name recognition of a Capital S Super-Villain. Wotan has a bit of both: as Dr Fate’s first enemy he gets dredged up every once in a while when a magic guy (or gal, occasionally) is required.

    1. More Fun Comics 055, ‘Untitled’:  Wotan’s Golden Age appearances are pretty standard fare: he is introduced as an evil equivalent to Dr Fate, operating as some sort of magic crime boss – the ins and outs of his operation are less than clear as his main focus is eliminating Fate and his pal Inza Cramer. 

    As time goes on Dr Fate gets more ethereal and mystical and I just want to highlight how rock ’em sock’em, throw ’em out the window he was at the beginning. Just a brutal way to deal with a foe (and perhaps a few passing New Yorkers on the sidewalk below).

    2. More Fun Comics 056, ‘Untitled’: But of course throwing Wotan out of a window wasn’t going to stop him. Would it stop Dr Fate? Of Course it wouldn’t. He returns with a vengeance, quite literally: as revenge for Fate trying to kill him Wotan is going to blow up the whole damn world! Just try to stop that with a sock on the jaw, Fate!

    One sock to the jaw later, Dr Fate seals Wotan in a little rocky cyst for all time.

    Body Count: 0

    End-of-Year Status: Entombed

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 388: THE MASTER

    (More Fun Comics 068, 1941)

    The Master is… probably Russian. It’s the same as all of the “pseudo-German crypto-Nazi” characters that populate comics pre-Pearl Harbor. Reading through the vagueness, he is a scientist whose partner emigrated to the US about the time of the Russian Revolution while the Master stayed behind. Now the Master wants revenge for his partner’s success and also is gearing up to take over the world and he’s using his sonic death ray device to achieve both tasks. Or would do, if Dr Fate wasn’t around to poke his helmeted nose into things.

    By far the coolest thing about the Master is the depiction of said sonic death ray – it resembles nothing so much as an amorphous life-form, which is very cool! More of that, please!

    Oh yes, once the Master is foiled he jumps in a swamp and drowns.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 388: THE MASTER

    (More Fun Comics 068, 1941)

    The Master is… probably Russian. It’s the same as all of the “pseudo-German crypto-Nazi” characters that populate comics pre-Pearl Harbor. Reading through the vagueness, he is a scientist whose partner emigrated to the US about the time of the Russian Revolution while the Master stayed behind. Now the Master wants revenge for his partner’s success and also is gearing up to take over the world and he’s using his sonic death ray device to achieve both tasks. Or would do, if Dr Fate wasn’t around to poke his helmeted nose into things.

    By far the coolest thing about the Master is the depiction of said sonic death ray – it resembles nothing so much as an amorphous life-form, which is very cool! More of that, please!

    Oh yes, once the Master is foiled he jumps in a swamp and drowns.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 387: NEGAL

    (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)

    Negal is some sort of demon lord who has been allowing ghosts to leave his realm and harass a guy on Earth. He gets very easily intimidated by Dr Fate’s ability to blow up a skull and doesn’t appear again until Countdown to Mystery in 2007, wherein he is a bit more of a threat.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 381: NYARL-AMEN

    (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

    Okay, so the guy on the throne is Nyarl-Amen, AKA the Ancient One AKA the Lost Wisdom AKA the Wonder Wisdom. Fifty thousand years ago he ruled the world from beneath the waves as head of the Nyarl-Amen Dynasty.

    Nyarl-Amen has lived in the City of Nyarl-Amen for one hundred thousand years…

    His arsenal includes the Magic Eyes of Nyarl-Amen…

    And together with his minions the Fish Men of Nyarl-Amen he seeks to reconquer the world and presumably establish a Second Dynasty of Nyarl-Amen. Whatever you say about this civilization, “It has too many names,” can’t be one of them.

    The thing is, all this repetition has left me unsure just whether we’re dealing with an immortal fish-man sea-wizard attempting to reclaim his glory after 500 centuries or a city with an upstart ruler and bad imagination. I suppose whether it’s Nyarl-Amen the First or Nyarl-Amen the Six Hundred and Fifteenth doesn’t really matter since Dr Fate ends up blowing up every single Nyarl-Amen mentioned thusfar.

    These guys should 100% be BRUNG BACK for one simple reason: the best thing about Aquaman stories is the weird collection of pulp novel civilizations that coat the DCU seafloor and these fish-head weirdos would enhance that immeasurably.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 381: NYARL-AMEN

    (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

    Okay, so the guy on the throne is Nyarl-Amen, AKA the Ancient One AKA the Lost Wisdom AKA the Wonder Wisdom. Fifty thousand years ago he ruled the world from beneath the waves as head of the Nyarl-Amen Dynasty.

    Nyarl-Amen has lived in the City of Nyarl-Amen for one hundred thousand years…

    His arsenal includes the Magic Eyes of Nyarl-Amen…

    And together with his minions the Fish Men of Nyarl-Amen he seeks to reconquer the world and presumably establish a Second Dynasty of Nyarl-Amen. Whatever you say about this civilization, “It has too many names,” can’t be one of them.

    The thing is, all this repetition has left me unsure just whether we’re dealing with an immortal fish-man sea-wizard attempting to reclaim his glory after 500 centuries or a city with an upstart ruler and bad imagination. I suppose whether it’s Nyarl-Amen the First or Nyarl-Amen the Six Hundred and Fifteenth doesn’t really matter since Dr Fate ends up blowing up every single Nyarl-Amen mentioned thusfar.

    These guys should 100% be BRUNG BACK for one simple reason: the best thing about Aquaman stories is the weird collection of pulp novel civilizations that coat the DCU seafloor and these fish-head weirdos would enhance that immeasurably.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 377: MAYOOR

    (More Fun Comics 064, 1941)

    Mayoor is an ancient evil god with no in-comic-defined portfolio but if I had guess I would venture that he’s the God of Disappointment. Here’s the sum total of his plots and plans: enthrall a society adventurer named Bill Credon, who then lure Dr Fate chum Inza Cramer to Mayoor’s Yucatan Peninsula temple-cum-prison. Then there’s a bit about using her to spread Mayoor’s message and worship but unfortunately for Mayoor that’s the point at which Dr Fate shows up and kills him.

    It’s not even a challenge! And Mayoor should have known that he was outclassed, because Dr Fate* is the one who imprisoned him in the first place. About the only good thing about this guy is that because he was such a nothing villain he could probably be BRUNG BACK as a regional threat without a lot of baggage, just bedeviling the heroes of Central America for decades – it’s not as if there were any piece of fiction in which it was easy to kill a god, after all. Worldbuilding!

    *this story is a few issues prior to the Dr Fate’s origin story, so while retroactively it was probably Nabu or someone else wearing the Helmet of Fate who imprisoned Mayoor, in-story it’s still Dr Fate being treated as an immortal wizard.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 375: HALDANE THE SORCERER

    (More Fun Comics 063, 1941)

    Haldane the Sorcerer has no backstory in-comic, so I’m going to be making some assumptions here. Assumption Number 1: since he first comes to light at society party that is also attended by Dr Fate pal Inza Cramer I am going to assume that he is part of the same New York/ New England social set as her, as opposed to some sort of party crasher. 

    Assumption Number 2: Haldane is a hobbyist. He is a rich guy who has managed to buy his way into learning, artifacts and power. He obviously has the magic skills to, for instance, turn someone to stone or rig up a voodoo doll to kill them in three days, but he lacks all sense of the practical. As an example: why the heck does he deploy his scheme in the middle of a party attended by none other than Dr Fate’s main squeeze? Because he’s never done anything like this before.

    Let me elaborate on his scheme to underline my point: Haldane is after the hidden treasure of the Jeromes, hidden deep in secret passages below their manor and thought by all to be a mere legend. He has discovered the location of the treasure via scrying. All of his spells seem to be status effect curses – surely the best way to go about things would be to sneak in, maybe curse someone to send them to the hospital? Not running into the middle of a party throwing curses left and right – amateur move.

    To cap it all off, when things start going off the rails Haldane decides to summon a cosmic horror (that, yes, looks a lot like a big bald lug). It’s a wild overreaction that doesn’t even solve his problems – it just scares that poor lady!

    Anyway, Dr Fate socks him one and he flies into the sea. An ignominious end for a mighty sorcerer.

  • NOTES – NOVEMBER 2023

    Fate of the Wreck of the Athenia

     

    Showing tremendous respect for the dead, the Blue Tracer uses the wreck of the Athenia as armour while attacking a Nazi battleship. (Military Comics 005, 1941) 

    Honours


    Marine pilots “Loops” McCann and “Banks” Barrows are “decorated for valor” after a barroom brawl in a Shanghai nightclub leads to the destruction of a Japanese spy cell (Military Comics 005, 1941)

    On Crypto-Fascism: 

    As I’ve said before, the US was officially Not Involved in WWII until the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack and so a lot of pre-1941 comics feature generically Germanish or Japaneseish spies operating on US soil. Military Comics actually features a fair number of actual Nazis (and even some rare comic book appearances by Italian fascists) by having most of its features take place outside of the US. With issue 5 as an example: the Blckhawks battle Nazis in Oslo; the Sniper does the same in Austria; Shot & Shell vex them in a generic Europe; the Death Patrol liberates Nazi POWs as part of the RAF and the Blue Tracer does the same in the Atlantic.

    Loops & Banks, above, are US Marines and as such do not actually battle the Japanese in Shanghai. The most interesting contrast is between Miss America and Yankee Eagle, who both battle Nazi submarines that are preying on US shipping but since the Miss America Nazis are operating out of a New England base and the Yankee Eagle Nazis are based at sea only the latter are actually called Nazis.

    Comics in Comics:

    Inza Cramer meets a fan (More Fun Comics 063, 1941)

    Drawn Without Reference:

    I know that paleontology wasn’t quite as advanced in 1941 as it is today but that is a wild take on what a pterodactyl looked like (More Fun 067, 1941)

    Dynamic Action:

    Check out the dynamic action on adventurer Clip Carson! (More Fun Comics 068, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 157: THE WIZARD

    (All-Star Comics 003, 1940)

    This is the kind of super-villain that you see magical heroes taking on a lot more often than other types: the preemptive striker. The likely cause of this is the status of so many magical heroes as the de facto head of Earth’s magical security, someone that a bad actor can take out and then be free to act with impunity.

    What’s interesting about this super-villain? The thing that appeals to me about this guy, who is primarily a user of illusion magic, is the variety of things he throws at Dr Fate: you got your crazed unicorns, some undead Egyptian warriors, a weird tentacle monster and the “Three Witches of Endor” who themselves cast spells at him. It’s a nice bit of variety!