The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: DC Comics

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 389: MISTER K

    (More Fun Comics 068, 1941)

    Mister K is an unspecified enemy agent encountered by macho adventurer Clip Carson in Panama. His plots and schemes are pretty rote – any comic set in Panama is almost certainly about trying to sabotage the Panama Canal, after all – but his tool of choice is a carnivorous plant called the Devil-Flower, so that’s fun.

    Interestingly, we last saw Clip Carson battling unspecified enemy agent Mister Z in Colombia. Assuming a linear distribution, we can assume that a theoretical Mister A is stationed… somewhere near the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua?

  • 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 386: THE EVIL ONE

    (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)

    It’s always simultaneously great and perplexing when someone in a comic story calls themself something like the Evil One. Like obviously there are cackling devil-themed villains throughout comics who are aware of the role they are playing, but theoretically even a crypto-Nazi spy like this fellow believes that they are in some way doing the right thing by their country, right? Is calling yourself “the Evil One” mere propaganda or is it an indication that the character is in it for the villainy more than out of (in this case) patriotic fervour?

    Whatever his name’s origin, the Evil One delivers enough super-spy action to back it up: he’s got a hidden base with a retractable wall hiding the entrance, a remote-controlled car and a paralysis ray gun, all deployed in a scheme to kidnap Prince Ivor, scion of an unnamed European nation that has been invaded by the Evil One’s unnamed European nation.

    Luckily for Prince Ivor, the Radio Squad are on the case! Also, the Evil One is not evil enough to ruthlessly murder the two police officers he just paralyzed, which seems like a real Evil 101 move to me. He is duly punished for his Neutral act when those same two guys capture him and rescue Prince Ivor.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 385: THE GREAT MEDICINE BIRD

    (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)

    It’s an old, dumb trope: diamond thief Gordon Slade escapes into the jungle with his loot and then takes over a tribe as it’s spiritual leader – sometimes it’s a god but in this case it’s as a medicine man. Between the name and the outfit the Great Medicine Bird, like a lot of his shitty compatriots, technically qualifies for the status of minor super-villain. But since I don’t especially like them, they’re going into roundup posts from now on.

    And yes I could have just started a roundup post with this guy but then I wouldn’t have the opportunity to present this: the most over-the-top death I have encountered in a while: briefly getting the upper hand over Congo Bill, Slade is grabbed by a boa constrictor. He kills it, causing them both to plunge into a crocodile-infested river. Congo Bill’s pal Professor Kent calls him both a snake and a rat as a eulogy.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

    (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)

    Deeja Kathoon is an occultist and necromancer who has the ability to summon and bind ghosts to his service and uses this power to unleash a ghostly crimewave on Cliffland, NJ. He has what turns out to be an Indian surname but there’s no indication in-story that he’s supposed to be Indian and so I must assume that it’s a coincidence and that my first guess was correct and his name was chosen by picking random syllables out of a hat.

    Ordinarily this would be the point at which I say “unfortunately, he chose to do his crimes in the Spectre’s home town,” but not this time, for you see the Spectre is a ghost. Kathoon binds him just like any other ghost and almost forces him to destroy the Cliffland City Hospital before the Ring of Life manages to deus ex machina him out of that particular jam.

    One thing that goes unexplored and unexplained in the story is the zippy little rocket ship that Kathoon tries to escape in once the Spectre is free. In the absence of any hint or eleventh hour reveal that he is an alien or magical time traveller I must assume that it is a magic rocket ship, which is great. More magic rocket ships are what we need, in my humble opinion.

    It’s just possible that being forced to do Kathoon’s bidding rattled the Spectre, or at least convinced him that the guy was a legitimate threat, because not only does he kill him via rocket ship explosion, he then hunts down and kills his ghost. This is, yes, a step more extreme than 1939 Batman gunning down the odd monster, but then again this is the Spectre. He has a reputation for brutality for a reason.

    In conclusion, this little cloud guy that Kathoon made to intimidate the Spectre is the sensational character find of 1941.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

    (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)

    Deeja Kathoon is an occultist and necromancer who has the ability to summon and bind ghosts to his service and uses this power to unleash a ghostly crimewave on Cliffland, NJ. He has what turns out to be an Indian surname but there’s no indication in-story that he’s supposed to be Indian and so I must assume that it’s a coincidence and that my first guess was correct and his name was chosen by picking random syllables out of a hat.

    Ordinarily this would be the point at which I say “unfortunately, he chose to do his crimes in the Spectre’s home town,” but not this time, for you see the Spectre is a ghost. Kathoon binds him just like any other ghost and almost forces him to destroy the Cliffland City Hospital before the Ring of Life manages to deus ex machina him out of that particular jam.

    One thing that goes unexplored and unexplained in the story is the zippy little rocket ship that Kathoon tries to escape in once the Spectre is free. In the absence of any hint or eleventh hour reveal that he is an alien or magical time traveller I must assume that it is a magic rocket ship, which is great. More magic rocket ships are what we need, in my humble opinion.

    It’s just possible that being forced to do Kathoon’s bidding rattled the Spectre, or at least convinced him that the guy was a legitimate threat, because not only does he kill him via rocket ship explosion, he then hunts down and kills his ghost. This is, yes, a step more extreme than 1939 Batman gunning down the odd monster, but then again this is the Spectre. He has a reputation for brutality for a reason.

    In conclusion, this little cloud guy that Kathoon made to intimidate the Spectre is the sensational character find of 1941.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 383: THE VOODOO KING

    (More Fun Comics 066, 1941) 

    The Voodoo King is nothing special: a colonial administrator in the the Kangean Islands of Indonesia (meaning that he is probably our first Dutch super-villain), he uses his weird getup and knowledge of chemistry to scare off iron miners so that he can steal the diamonds that are also abundant in the mine. Too bad for him that the mine owner is friends with pilot/ adventurer Captain Desmo and so he gets his clock cleaned.

    By far the best thing and also the biggest disappointment about the Voodoo King are the spooky speaker-equipped scarecrows that he uses to scare off the miners – they are very cool looking but I keep thinking that they are weird wicker robots and then getting sad when I remember that they are inanimate.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 383: THE VOODOO KING

    (More Fun Comics 066, 1941) 

    The Voodoo King is nothing special: a colonial administrator in the the Kangean Islands of Indonesia (meaning that he is probably our first Dutch super-villain), he uses his weird getup and knowledge of chemistry to scare off iron miners so that he can steal the diamonds that are also abundant in the mine. Too bad for him that the mine owner is friends with pilot/ adventurer Captain Desmo and so he gets his clock cleaned.

    By far the best thing and also the biggest disappointment about the Voodoo King are the spooky speaker-equipped scarecrows that he uses to scare off the miners – they are very cool looking but I keep thinking that they are weird wicker robots and then getting sad when I remember that they are inanimate.