The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: murderer

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 413: DR MAGNO

    (Amazing Man Comics 008, 1939)

    Dr Magno is your classic elemental evil opposite: a man with magnetic hands pitted against a man with an iron skeleton. He’s a wild-card ex-foe of the Iron Skull freshly broken out of the asylum to loot Chicago of its jewels and get revenge on his traitorous ex-cronies.

    He’s also, weirdly, an evil equivalent, as both he and the Iron Skull owe their powers to debilitating injuries suffered in the Great War of 1950, but whereas the Iron Skull was rebuilt as a nigh-indestructible cyborg, Dr Magno got some magnetic hands. 

    What’s that you say? The Great War of when? That’s right! The Iron Skull stories are set in the far future of ~1970 CE! Carl Burgos invented retro-future neo-noir while regular noir was still going strong (mostly by not changing the clothing and car styles of the future, but still)!

    Anyway, Dr Magno gets the jump on the Iron Skull using magnetism, but spoils his chances for revenge by making the classic mistake of spending so long gloating and drawing out the hero’s end that he is able to escape.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 413: DR MAGNO

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 413: DR MAGNO

    (Amazing Man Comics 008, 1939)

    Dr Magno is your classic elemental evil opposite: a man with magnetic hands pitted against a man with an iron skeleton. He’s a wild-card ex-foe of the Iron Skull freshly broken out of the asylum to loot Chicago of its jewels and get revenge on his traitorous ex-cronies.

    He’s also, weirdly, an evil equivalent, as both he and the Iron Skull owe their powers to debilitating injuries suffered in the Great War of 1950, but whereas the Iron Skull was rebuilt as a nigh-indestructible cyborg, Dr Magno got some magnetic hands. 

    What’s that you say? The Great War of when? That’s right! The Iron Skull stories are set in the far future of ~1970 CE! Carl Burgos invented retro-future neo-noir while regular noir was still going strong (mostly by not changing the clothing and car styles of the future, but still)!

    Anyway, Dr Magno gets the jump on the Iron Skull using magnetism, but spoils his chances for revenge by making the classic mistake of spending so long gloating and drawing out the hero’s end that he is able to escape.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 409: THE SPHINX

    (Mystery Men Comics 018, 1941)

    The Sphinx is (somewhat appropriately) a bit convoluted? Or maybe disjointed? It’s hard to put into words but there is a weird dreamlike quality to some Golden Age comic books and the Blue Beetle stories from Fox Features often have it.

    To begin: the Sphinx is a mysterious figure who causes subway accidents and then utters threats and pronouncements in a booming voice, seemingly from nowhere. The Blue Beetle swiftly discovers that one of the Sphinx’s minions is in fact crouched nearby with a phonograph, and after some shenanigans and booby traps manages to track down the man who purchased the phonograph’s needle: Mr Ivan. 

    But Mr Ivan is dead, according to his burly identical sister who drives like a maniac. He can’t be the Sphinx!

    Or can he? Yes he can, because Mr Ivan and Miss Ivan are in fact the same person! A person who is getting revenge on the subway company for firing them. And look, I know that reading into past media can be a rocky road but… this cemetery fight sequence rules. If the Sphinx’s whole deal was being a crossdressing man or a trans woman seeking revenge on a former employer for wrongful dismissal I would love it and in my little heart I will believe that that is the case rather than that this is a standard comic book trope of a large man dressed up as a woman for larfs.

    Gender nonconforming icon or no, the Sphinx proceeds with the attempted ruination of the subway company while dressed in a moderately cool set of Sphinx-themed armour. I’m honestly not sure how the story resolves – the gruesome caption about the Sphinx melting inside his armour is followed by some discussion of his being captured by the Blue Beetle. Is “captured” a euphemism for “horribly killed”? Maybe!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 407: DR CLEVER

    (More Fun Comics 074, 1941)

    I have taken an immediate liking to Dr Clever. I mean, just look at the guy: the classic tuxedo-and-cape combo, the rictus grin, the bald pate with two little hair-horns, the tiny skull-and-crossbones pin… he’s really a triumph of design when you think about it. Lucky for us he’s a recurring foe of Johnny Quick so we’ll be seeing him again.

    Somewhat strangely for a man with such an overall villainous look, Dr Clever’s major line is in con artistry: he manages to pull off three schemes in short order in this issue and the only impediment to their success is the involvement of Johnny Quick. Maybe people just love a smiling man. In order then:

    1. Under a fairly flimsy pretense he gives away free food that contains a chemical that turns the eater blue, then sells an antidote for big bucks. This one might be a warm-up as he only seems to get about ten people.

    2. He advertises his new invention: a machine for extracting gold from seawater. Dr Clever sells the gold from this machine for 50 cents on the dollar, but really it’s just a way to launder stolen gold.

    3. He creates a service whereby he will register your patent for you but really he just keeps them for himself.

    It’s all almost wholesome, crime-wise. Don’t worry though: Dr Clever is actually an evil wretch of the highest order as evidenced by the above panel in which he murders two henchmen for essentially no reason.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 399: THE MURDER MAESTRO

    (More Fun Comics 072, 1941) 

    The Murder Maestro comes out swinging with a rapid-fire campaign of musical murder. Over the course of two days he delivers five musical warnings followed by song-inspired deathtraps to members of the Tin Pan Alley Club, e.g., “I’m Walking on Air” delivered via singing telegram followed by an attempt to hang the recipient from a light aircraft.

    This of course leads to one of my favourite setups: a collection of possible suspects. Not as much as could be is done with this bunch – two are almost immediately targeted by the Murder Maestro, leaving only two actual suspects – but I still appreciate the effort.

    The Murder Maestro of course is Blind Harry Thorpe, the least likely of the suspects, who turns out to have Dr Mid-Nite-style “can only see in complete darkness” blindness. His murder spree was inspired by the fact that the Tin Pan Alley Club was a collective enterprise in which royalties were pooled and shared among the songwriter members, and of course fewer members meant more royalties for the survivors. Whether Thorpe had an excuse ready for when he was the only one left alive was left unexplored.

  • SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: IAN KARKULL & WOTAN 1941

    What were Ian Karkull and Wotan up to in 1941?

    Ian Karkull is my Platonic Ideal of the Median Super-Villain: he has two
    Golden Age appearances (detailed here) and a handful of post-Silver Age
    ones but also was seemingly pulled out of a hat (probably by Roy Thomas) as the villain who did some sort of scheme that blasted the Justice Society with some sort of energies that made them age slower so that otherwise normal WWII veterans like Wildcat and the Sandman could be running around fighting crime well past retirement age. It’s a Big Deal and it means that Karkull has absolutely been mentioned far more than he’s actually appeared.

    1. More Fun Comics 069, ‘Untitled’:But we’re here to talk about 1941! What was Ian Karkull up to then? Well for one thing he wasn’t calling himself ‘Ian’ yet – that was presumably added at the same time that he was revived to irradiate the JSA. Karkull was seemingly just another scientist with a cool invention – a machine that turns people into shadows! – that he is determined to use for crime.

    Surprise of the year: Karkull has if not a good reason for turning to crime then at least a reason. While exploring the lost Saharan city of Ragnor with his partner Everett Dahlen he is betrayed and left for dead so that Dahlen could run off with a huge ruby. Is it the most rock-solid reason to turn to a life of crime? No, but it’s more of an origin than most Golden Age scientists get.

    Karkull’s first outing ends with him at large, albeit trapped in shadow form by Dr Fate as a sort of ad hoc punishment that is fairly out of line with his crimes of one murder and one bank robbery. That’s the Golden Age for you, I guess.

    2. More Fun Comics 070, ‘Untitled’: Not only is Karkull back in the next issue but he brought Wotan with him!

    In a development that is only a bit surprising, Dr Fate’s slapdash brand of vigilante justice has come back to bite him. Yes, Wotan was sealed in a stony cyst for all time and Karkull was left an intangible shadow but the problem with leaving enough foes just out and about like that is that they might team up, which is exactly what happened when Wotan’s wandering astral form (something you really should control for when imprisoning magic guys for all time) met Karkull’s shadowy one and they worked together to release Wotan’s actual body, albeit without his normal green skin for some reason (the colourist forgot that he was green).

    The Wotan/ Karkull team have a plan to conquer and/or attack the nations of Earth from their Arctic base using devices that control 3/4 of the classical elements, namely Earth, Wind and Fire. They accidentally (?) draw Dr Fate’s attention by attacking nearby teams of Arctic explorers with their wind weapon, leading to an ultimate 2 vs 1 confrontation in an Arctic dome!

    In a bit of an anticlimax, Dr Fate merely sidesteps their fire weapon, causing it to rebound and kill them both. Seemingly, at least – they’ll both be back when the continuity nerds start writing comics.

    IAN KARKULL

    Body Count: 6

    End-of-Year Status: Presumed Dead

    WOTAN

    Body Count:1905

    End-of-Year Status: Presumed Dead

    (Karkull kills his enemy; Wotan and Karkull jointly kill explorers; Wotan sinks battleship)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 393: THE TENTACLE

    (More Fun Comics 069, 1941)

    We don’t get a lot of backstory on the Tentacle. Presumably he’s a botanist or at least a gifted amateur horticulturalist, as he has developed a type of plant that strangles folks to death and can be triggered remotely (or on a timer, possibly). He uses this creation to blackmail rich men until he is tracked down by the Spectre and of course meets his end at the fronds of his own creation.

  • 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 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.