The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: DC Comics

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 039: THE SLUGGER

    (More Fun 043, 1939)

    A common or garden-variety mugger, the Slugger’s technique (sneak up and bash ’em on the head) and the frequency of his attacks lead to a lot of press coverage, starting a city-wide panic (as in our previous entry). In response, the Slugger leans into it, up to and including sending taunting messages to the police, a favourite villainous move of mine. Crime can’t be seen to pay in a comic book, though, so he is eventually hauled in by the Radio Squad.

    The Slugger represents my absolute lowest level baseline version of the super-villain by dint of scale of crime. While I’m sure that there are other super-muggers out there to be discovered, I will be very surprised if I encounter another uncostumed, non-powered one.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 038: THE MONSTER

    (More Fun 039, 1939)

    A man who trained a pair of great danes to steal, leading to a city-wide panic after glimpses of the dogs caused people to assume that some sort of creature was involved, which then lead to newspaper front pages. The Radio Squad eventually got their man, though sadly the dogs did not survive.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 037: THE GORILLA KING

    (Action v1 019, 1939)

    Classic mad scientist stuff here: work out a revolutionary technique to transplant human brains into gorillas and then aim no higher than sending your gorilla-men out on horseback to plunder Mexico. Blows himself up, as per the above image.

  • THE FATE OF ATLANTIS

    Lost cities get a lot of play in comic books, especially Atlantis. Sometimes it seems like enough little fragments and offshoots managed to survive the place that it would be surprising to hear of anyone dying. Here are a selection of fates of Earth-Two Atlantis:

    -Earth’s second moon collides with the planet, causing the sinking of Atlantis. the colony city of Ophir in Africa and an underwater remnant survive (Action v1 017-018, 1939)


    (this is the Atlantis that Zatara encounters with Setap. Doubles as a Fate of Ophir entry: the pseudo-historical Biblical city is a remnant of Atlantis until Zatara blows it up)


    -Some portion of the people of sunken Atlantis move to the underground regions of the Arctic, founding the nation of Ugar (Adventure 052, 1940)

    (Earth-Two is riddled with underground kingdoms such that it would be surprising if no Atlanteans ended up down there)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to a vast cavern under the Azores (Action v1 037-038, 1941)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to the interior of Brazil (Action v1 043, 1941)

    (Both of the latter two involve aviator-heroes the Three Aces, yet they fail to even mention the Azorean Atlanteans to the Brazilian Atlanteans)

    More updates as I encounter ’em!

  • THE FATE OF ATLANTIS

    Lost cities get a lot of play in comic books, especially Atlantis. Sometimes it seems like enough little fragments and offshoots managed to survive the place that it would be surprising to hear of anyone dying. Here are a selection of fates of Earth-Two Atlantis:

    -Earth’s second moon collides with the planet, causing the sinking of Atlantis. the colony city of Ophir in Africa and an underwater remnant survive (Action v1 017-018, 1939)


    (this is the Atlantis that Zatara encounters with Setap. Doubles as a Fate of Ophir entry: the pseudo-historical Biblical city is a remnant of Atlantis until Zatara blows it up)


    -Some portion of the people of sunken Atlantis move to the underground regions of the Arctic, founding the nation of Ugar (Adventure 052, 1940)

    (Earth-Two is riddled with underground kingdoms such that it would be surprising if no Atlanteans ended up down there)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to a vast cavern under the Azores (Action v1 037-038, 1941)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to the interior of Brazil (Action v1 043, 1941)

    (Both of the latter two involve aviator-heroes the Three Aces, yet they fail to even mention the Azorean Atlanteans to the Brazilian Atlanteans)

    More updates as I encounter ’em!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP

    (Action v1 017, 1939)

    Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.

    Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP

    (Action v1 017, 1939)

    Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.

    Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 035: THE CULT OF THE TIGER

    (Action v1 017-018, 1939)

    There’s a lot of ancient murder-cults in comics, and a lot of them are orientalist nonsense about primitive superstitions and such. I present this one (duped into doing the bidding of a couple of no-good brothers) solely because of the magnificent crotch-throne.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 034: THE ICE MENACE

    (Action v1 015, 1939)

    Just a regular sort of science villain with a regular sort of plan: create a heat ray cannon and use it to ransom the world by melting the ice caps. Derailed and frozen solid by Zatara after a mere few flooded cities. Actually, that would be a neat way for him to come back: thawed out by global warming.

    Occasionally a clear super-villain is unnamed in the course of a story and I have to go by something they are referred to in captions. The Ice Menace always feels like one of those to me but I think they actually call him that during the story? Wild.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 033: THE ACE OF SPADES

    (Action v1 013, 1939)

    An early example of the principle that if you are friends with a comic book hero you have a high chance of either being the victim of a super-crook or being one yourself, the Ace of Spades is just some guy Tex Thomson made friends with on a ship and mooched houseguest status off of.

    He’s also a very local super-villain, being a guy with an English country estate who seems to spend his time shaking down his neighbours. Dig the accessorizing of the standard Mysterious Hooded Villain outfit with the pith helmet, though.