The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: murderer

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 131: THE ADDER

    (Action Comics v1 035, 1941)

    Yet another spy encountered by Clip Carson, the Adder was interested in blowing up the Panama Canal for unclear reasons. Much more interestingly, he took his name from a snake-shaped ring which both fatally poisoned those he punched with it and left a cool snake mark on the spot he hit, and evidently he used it enough that his men spoke of him in hushed terms as “the Child of Death,” which is an amazing name.

    As with so many villains who use a cool signature weapon, the Adder ends up falling on his own ring. A sad end.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 111: THE SPECTRE

    (More Fun 061,1940)

    Impersonating and framing a super-hero is not an uncommon thing to do, but Gustav Gilroy took the added step of adopting his target’s identity as his own in his campaign of turning his enemies to gold via chemical-laced free gum samples.

    Gilroy also faced the Spectre in the first year of his career and so didn’t really comprehend just how bad his choice of scapegoat was – the only surprising thing about his end is that he was ultimately turned to gold by his own hand rather than that of the earth-bound ghost himself.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 101: THE CLOAK

    (More Fun Comics 054, 1940)

    If a crooked importer named Crandall hatches a scheme to kill off his business rivals and then makes up a villain named the Cloak to blame the crimes on, is he in fact that villain? This correspondent says yes. 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 092: THE PAINTER OF DEATH

    (Detective Comics 042, 1940)

    The Painter of Death (never actually called that in-comic, sadly) engaged in a campaign against the subjects of paintings by up-and-coming portraitist Antal. He first attacked the painting of the person and then killed them in the same manner: via dart, arrow, gunshot etc. Eventually, Bruce “Batman” Wayne commissioned a painting from Antal and used it to set a trap which netted Wylie, an art collector who had invested heavily in Antal’s work and saw the murders as a way to raise the value of his investment via morbid publicity.

    Though Wylie bumped himself off at the end of the adventure, the bullet-riddled Antal portrait of Bruce Wayne sticks around to become one of the minor stock trophies in the Batcave. The Painter of Death or Prophetic Portraits Case is also mentioned a couple of times as Batman and Robin’s “first big case” and the reason for their fame. Does this reflect some attitude of the creators about the story itself or is it just a plot contrivance? I have no idea!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 092: THE PAINTER OF DEATH

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 092: THE PAINTER OF DEATH

    (Detective Comics 042, 1940)

    The Painter of Death (never actually called that in-comic, sadly) engaged in a campaign against the subjects of paintings by up-and-coming portraitist Antal. He first attacked the painting of the person and then killed them in the same manner: via dart, arrow, gunshot etc. Eventually, Bruce “Batman” Wayne commissioned a painting from Antal and used it to set a trap which netted Wylie, an art collector who had invested heavily in Antal’s work and saw the murders as a way to raise the value of his investment via morbid publicity.

    Though Wylie bumped himself off at the end of the adventure, the bullet-riddled Antal portrait of Bruce Wayne sticks around to become one of the minor stock trophies in the Batcave. The Painter of Death or Prophetic Portraits Case is also mentioned a couple of times as Batman and Robin’s “first big case” and the reason for their fame. Does this reflect some attitude of the creators about the story itself or is it just a plot contrivance? I have no idea!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 068: THE MASTER

    (Action Comics 030, 1940)

    I’ve decided to introduce a system for dealing with some of the more minor super-villains who do not incite as much excitement in me to vomit out more than a cursory sentence about them (slightly unfair to the Master, who is kind of interesting, but I am uninspired today) In such cases, we will be answering one or both of the following questions:

    What makes them a super-villain? In addition to his super-villain name, the Master has three qualifying super-villain attributes

    1) Methods: he kills those who resist his extortion attempts by releasing huge poisonous beetles in their homes.

    2) Powers: the Master, unlike many of Zatara’s opponents, is a magic user. Specifically, he has the ability to resist and shrug off Zatara’s own magic

    3} Association: he employs the services of the Tigress

    What’s interesting about them? Honestly, it’s the idea of a crook being able to resist a magical hero’s powers. Underused and underappreciated!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 068: THE MASTER

    (Action Comics 030, 1940)

    I’ve decided to introduce a system for dealing with some of the more minor super-villains who do not incite as much excitement in me to vomit out more than a cursory sentence about them (slightly unfair to the Master, who is kind of interesting, but I am uninspired today) In such cases, we will be answering one or both of the following questions:

    What makes them a super-villain? In addition to his super-villain name, the Master has three qualifying super-villain attributes

    1) Methods: he kills those who resist his extortion attempts by releasing huge poisonous beetles in their homes.

    2) Powers: the Master, unlike many of Zatara’s opponents, is a magic user. Specifically, he has the ability to resist and shrug off Zatara’s own magic

    3} Association: he employs the services of the Tigress

    What’s interesting about them? Honestly, it’s the idea of a crook being able to resist a magical hero’s powers. Underused and underappreciated!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 063: CHALO

    (Action Comics 024, 1940)

    Chalo was a stage magician who murdered his own brother to acquire real magical secrets which in turn he used for crime. He took a page from the Mad Lama’s book and hired at least one other magical crook as a henchman, a fire- and snake-summoner named Arko.

    By far the best thing about Chalo, however, is that his major use of the powers he murdered his brother to get is summoning a weird toad that freaks everyone out. He does it twice! Solid minor villain, should be BROUGHT BACK in the background of the Oblivion Bar or somewhere like that.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 063: CHALO

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 063: CHALO

    (Action Comics 024, 1940)

    Chalo was a stage magician who murdered his own brother to acquire real magical secrets which in turn he used for crime. He took a page from the Mad Lama’s book and hired at least one other magical crook as a henchman, a fire- and snake-summoner named Arko.

    By far the best thing about Chalo, however, is that his major use of the powers he murdered his brother to get is summoning a weird toad that freaks everyone out. He does it twice! Solid minor villain, should be BROUGHT BACK in the background of the Oblivion Bar or somewhere like that.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 061: THE DEMON

    (Action Comics 022, 1940)

    Whether the capital-D Demon is actually a lowercase-d demon is never actually resolved, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. He shows up when a friend of Tex Thomson’s named Cary James ignores local superstitions to visit an island in the Indian Ocean, where he is quickly captured and murdered by the Demon, who then assumes his appearance and identity via fell majicks.

    The Demon’s only goal seems to be to murder everyone who knew the original Cary James, but whether there is a further motive to his actions is left unexplained, as one of James’ friends happens to have a mystic amulet that is the only thing capable of defeating him. The amulet must be applied directly to the forehead, like so:

    Love that bop on the head action. I also love that though this is ostensibly a Tex Thomson adventure, he basically acts in the role of observer, as the locket-thrower Dr Drummond drives much of the action of tracking, trapping and ultimately destroying the Demon. Huzzah for competent non title characters!