The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Nazi

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 322: THE BARRACUDA

    (Daring Mystery Comics 008, 1942)

    A certain number of uboat captains are going to be written villainously enough to meet all of my criteria and Captain Erich von Wolff, AKA the Barracuda, is one such.

    Like seriously a real stinker of the highest order. It’s a good thing that the Fin is on the case to beat the tar out of him and deliver him to the British. I was going to say that hopefully he was tried and executed after the war but some cursory research suggests that u-boat commanders who weren’t killed in battle largely weren’t. I’m sure he had a long career as an investment banker or something.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 321: THE BLACK ACE

    (Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940)

    The costumed fighter pilot might just be one of the most basic levels of super-villain. Here we have the Black Ace, Nazi and foe of the Flying Flame. He has a tower with an anti-aircraft vibrational cannon in it and a plane with a skull and crossbones on it. He gets shot down at the end of the story. FIN

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 002

    Back again with another collection of science-villains who didn’t quite make the grade!

    Fritz Cardif here has a gunpowder-exploding ray and a lot of big plans. He probably would have made the main list except that I personally find his antics very dull, with the exception of the lil’ stinker moment pictured above. (Hit Comics 006, 1940)

    Dr Marko figured on using kidnapped scientists as research slaves in his Grand Canyon hideout, but he too was corralled by Neon the Unknown. (Hit Comics 013, 1941)

    Professor Dorn here is your typical Nazi scientist obsessed with replicating the powers of the Sub-Mariner for the glory of the cause. He ends up lasting about fifteen minutes after meeting the real deal. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941)

     Dr Sunga has a pretty good scheme going wherein he seeming kills people by sending them a cursed wand that is actually harmless – seemingly the perfect crime! But the Golden Age Falcon figures out the trick: it’s actually the box that the wand is sent in that does the killing. Sunga of course ends up dead by his own fiendish device. (Daring Mystery Comics 005, 1940)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 002

    Back again with another collection of science-villains who didn’t quite make the grade!

    Fritz Cardif here has a gunpowder-exploding ray and a lot of big plans. He probably would have made the main list except that I personally find his antics very dull, with the exception of the lil’ stinker moment pictured above. (Hit Comics 006, 1940)

    Dr Marko figured on using kidnapped scientists as research slaves in his Grand Canyon hideout, but he too was corralled by Neon the Unknown. (Hit Comics 013, 1941)

    Professor Dorn here is your typical Nazi scientist obsessed with replicating the powers of the Sub-Mariner for the glory of the cause. He ends up lasting about fifteen minutes after meeting the real deal. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941)

     Dr Sunga has a pretty good scheme going wherein he seeming kills people by sending them a cursed wand that is actually harmless – seemingly the perfect crime! But the Golden Age Falcon figures out the trick: it’s actually the box that the wand is sent in that does the killing. Sunga of course ends up dead by his own fiendish device. (Daring Mystery Comics 005, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 005

    GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 005

    They’re back! They’re insufficiently interesting! They’re costumed! For the fifth time! 

    This fella is just a regular degular Nazi spy, but I like his confidence, even if Super Spy G-5 does wrangle him almost instantly. (Hit Comics 015, 1941)

    These fellas are a rare example of subway pirates, who derail and loot in the New York underground. My delight in this is dampened somewhat by their habit of carrying off ladies for unspoken but surely unpleasant reasons – happily the Human Torch gets ’em pretty quickly. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 013, 1940)

    This here fellow is another Nazi, operating out of London. His plan to simultaneously turn the US against England by pinning the murder of a movie star on an Englishman and also enrich himself by making that Englishman his wealthy cousin is overturned by reporter ‘Headline’ Hunter. I do appreciate how grotesque his weird mask makes him look. 

    If I was feeling a bit more generous some of these guys would get entries of their own under the name the Leader, but low-effort Nazi spies can be happy with a tag and go screw. (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

    This trio of bank robbers might not have made the cut if they weren’t constantly hamming it up like this while battling Father Time. Mike, Mugsy, Other Guy: welcome to the club. (Captain America Comics 008, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 005

    They’re back! They’re insufficiently interesting! They’re costumed! For the fifth time! 

    This fella is just a regular degular Nazi spy, but I like his confidence, even if Super Spy G-5 does wrangle him almost instantly. (Hit Comics 015, 1941)

    These fellas are a rare example of subway pirates, who derail and loot in the New York underground. My delight in this is dampened somewhat by their habit of carrying off ladies for unspoken but surely unpleasant reasons – happily the Human Torch gets ’em pretty quickly. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 013, 1940)

    This here fellow is another Nazi, operating out of London. His plan to simultaneously turn the US against England by pinning the murder of a movie star on an Englishman and also enrich himself by making that Englishman his wealthy cousin is overturned by reporter ‘Headline’ Hunter. I do appreciate how grotesque his weird mask makes him look. 

    If I was feeling a bit more generous some of these guys would get entries of their own under the name the Leader, but low-effort Nazi spies can be happy with a tag and go screw. (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

    This trio of bank robbers might not have made the cut if they weren’t constantly hamming it up like this while battling Father Time. Mike, Mugsy, Other Guy: welcome to the club. (Captain America Comics 008, 1941)

  • THE ULTIMATE WEAPON

    (Captain America Comics 008, 1941)

    Comic book Nazis mobilized an awful lot of devious superweapons, but the machine gun tractor might just be the greatest one of all. 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 306: THE FIDDLER

    (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

    The Fiddler, being a man who can play his violin at special pitches in order to hypnotize or kill, has the dubious honour of being our first super-powered Nazi villain. 

    The Fiddler is an overplanner, no bones about it. His mission in the US is to kill anti-Nazi politicians (specifically senators, or maybe he’s working up  to governors etc). Here’s his process for doing so:

    -become an acclaimed musician with regular radio gigs

    -establish an employment agency for butlers

    -have butlers placed in his victims’ homes

    -have the butlers install music-activated bombs in the victims’ radios while simultaneously fixing it so that the radio can only be tuned to the station that the Fiddler is going to be appearing on

    -hope that the victim will be listening to the radio at the right time

    -hypnotize the crowd at the performance for some reason, play the Melody of Death to trigger the bomb, et voila

    And it works three times! He bumps off two senators, and would have gotten a third if Captain America hadn’t figured out his plan via one of the one million suspicious things about it.

    It’s frankly a mercy that the Fiddler ultimately melts his own brain while trying to kill an earplug-equipped Bucky via sonic attack, because this is the kind of thing that embarrasses you for life.

  • SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: RED SKULL 1941

    (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

    What was the Red Skull up to in 1941?

    As mentioned in the Red Skull II entry, this here is the real deal bad guy we all know and love to hate, still running around being a total stinker to this day. In-comic there is of course no indication of this, as the decision to differentiate the two was made years later when someone figured that the top Nazi villain worked better as a German guy than an American fascist. Consequently this is a pretty scant Yearbook entry, as most of the Red Skulling for the year was done by another guy.

    Intended or not, this Red Skull has it a bit more together than his semi-predecessor: for one, he has a much creepier mask and has supplemented the red skull calling card with an audible element: Chopin’s Funeral March. AND! He engages with that finest of comic book traditions by wearing a rubberoid mask over his regular mask! Batman eat your heart out.

    As far as actual crimes go… he kills a couple of guys and briefly frames Captain America for kidnapping a General. Mediocre.

    SKULL SCORE: 3/5, just like the other guy. It ain’t gonna change until he melts his face off in… I want to say the early 80s?

    RED SKULL 1941

    BODY COUNT: 2

    END-OF-YEAR STATUS: Presumed dead

  • SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: RED SKULL 1941

    (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

    What was the Red Skull up to in 1941?

    As mentioned in the Red Skull II entry, this here is the real deal bad guy we all know and love to hate, still running around being a total stinker to this day. In-comic there is of course no indication of this, as the decision to differentiate the two was made years later when someone figured that the top Nazi villain worked better as a German guy than an American fascist. Consequently this is a pretty scant Yearbook entry, as most of the Red Skulling for the year was done by another guy.

    Intended or not, this Red Skull has it a bit more together than his semi-predecessor: for one, he has a much creepier mask and has supplemented the red skull calling card with an audible element: Chopin’s Funeral March. AND! He engages with that finest of comic book traditions by wearing a rubberoid mask over his regular mask! Batman eat your heart out.

    As far as actual crimes go… he kills a couple of guys and briefly frames Captain America for kidnapping a General. Mediocre.

    SKULL SCORE: 3/5, just like the other guy. It ain’t gonna change until he melts his face off in… I want to say the early 80s?

    RED SKULL 1941

    BODY COUNT: 2

    END-OF-YEAR STATUS: Presumed dead