The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Sub-Zero

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 511: DR TRASK

    (Blue Bolt v1 011, 1941)

    Dr Trask is himself not much to speak of: a scientist who has taken over a village in the South American jungle, forced its inhabitants to pan gold and fight for him and killed anyone from the outside world who got too close, including Dr Martin, a scientist whose colleague Dr Howard has hired Sub-Zero to investigate just what is going on. Like I said, pretty standard comic book villain stuff, but his methods, oh boy!

    Dr Trask, you see, has developed so-called “vampire rats” that are said to attack human necks and suck out their blood. A fearsome legend that is only enhanced by just how small and cute the rats are. Look how adorably he foams at the mouth!

    Even better is the revelation that the rats are not actually vampires but instead are carriers of the Green Vampire Germ, a disease that merely makes rats aggressive but makes humans dead. And it looks like a little protoplasmic crocodile! This is unironically one of the greatest things I have ever seen.

    Anyway, Trask jumps on Sub-Zero in an attempt to kill him with Green Vampire Germ and gets frozen to death for his efforts. But not before creating two wonderful bastardizations of science, for which I salute him.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 510: FARGALL

    (Blue Bolt v1 010, 1941)

    Fargall is a scientist-cum-criminal operating out of Centro, Sub-Zero’s chosen home (well, it hasn’t actually been identified as Centro for about 7 issues or so and I’m afraid that it’s slowly transmogrifying into NYC like all unnamed comic book cities but until I’m told otherwise it’s Centro to me) who has taken up the challenge of operating out of a super-hero town by inventing heat ray guns that effectively counter Sub-Zero’s whole deal.

    If that were all that Fargall had going on he’d be lumped in with all of the other one-trick scientists in the round-up but no, Fargall has something that they lack: Fargall has style.

    When Fargall’s scheme goes off he and his guys put on tuxedos and paint the town red. And unlike his underlings, Fargall keeps on wearing that tuxedo as they set out to rob the Legally Distinct from the New York World’s Fair. Because he has style.

    Heck, even the goggles that Fargall and his guys wear to protects their eyes from heat rays look good.

    At this point it would be quite narratively satisfying for Fargall to be undone by his sense of style in some way but since that’s just something I have built up in my head it wasn’t on Bill Everett’s mind when he plotted the whole thing out. Instead, Fargall falls victim to that most pervasive pattern of super-villain hubris: gloating and sadistically taking so long in finishing the hero off that they are able to escape and beat you up. It’s very common!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 504: PROFESSOR X

    (Blue Bolt v1 005, 1940)

    Professor X has two of my favourite qualities in a minor super-villain: a famous name and a prior history. The first is the same kind of fun as when my friend named his cat after me. “What do you mean Professor X keeps getting up on the counter to steal ham?”

    I really love his Prohibition-Era villainy as well, particularly as I had it in my head that he specifically was a bootlegger and thus that all of his great inventions were in service of that – dirigibles full of Canadian whiskey? The axe-proof barrel? The mighty Beer-Bot? Fun stuff. The suicide vest, by contrast is a bit much and not particularly fun, but does establish his bona fides as a legitimate threat.

    Prof. X is on a classic Judge and Jury Revenge Killer tear, targeting Hogan, the cop who brought him in and Johnson, the lawyer who put him away, who since then has become the District Attorney of Centro and close personal friend of local super-hero Sub-Zero.

    Due to this last fact Professor X is forced to turn his genius to the creation of anti-Sub-Zero weaponry, including cold-proof cars, an unfreezable gun that fires superheated bullets and his iconic costume which – you guessed it – is insulated  and renders him immune to Sub-Zero’s freezing powers. And he almost manages to beat Sub-Zero! His only mistake is in having uninsulated water pipes in his secret lair and leads to him being sent to jail inside a large block of ice.

    Professor X returns in the next issue in an attempt to finish getting revenge on DA Johnson as well as new target Sub-Zero (he also tries to kill Sub-Zero’s girlfriend Mary but I don’t think he has a specific grudge against her), and this time he’s accompanied by a costumed henchman named Rat. Once again he very nearly pulls it off but this time his fatal flaw is a lot more fatal, as he misjudges a jump during his escape and does a header out a fourth story window. An ignominious end to be sure.

    JUDGE AND JURY REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/3

    But death is not the end for Professor X! Blue Bolt v1 007 features a gambler named Rocky Garret who has acquired the Professor’s anti-Sub-Zero tech as insurance against interference in his baseball-fixing scheme (and it’s a good idea for him to do so, as his scheme is Not Very Good – a lot of it is literally just putting the wrong numbers on the scoreboard which… isn’t good.  It’s a bad plan.)

    Sadly this is it as far as Professor X’s legacy goes. I was kind of hoping that Sub-Zero would be confronted with a guy in a mesh bodysuit every now and again going forward, but alas, it was not meant to be.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 504: PROFESSOR X

    (Blue Bolt v1 005, 1940)

    Professor X has two of my favourite qualities in a minor super-villain: a famous name and a prior history. The first is the same kind of fun as when my friend named his cat after me. “What do you mean Professor X keeps getting up on the counter to steal ham?”

    I really love his Prohibition-Era villainy as well, particularly as I had it in my head that he specifically was a bootlegger and thus that all of his great inventions were in service of that – dirigibles full of Canadian whiskey? The axe-proof barrel? The mighty Beer-Bot? Fun stuff. The suicide vest, by contrast is a bit much and not particularly fun, but does establish his bona fides as a legitimate threat.

    Prof. X is on a classic Judge and Jury Revenge Killer tear, targeting Hogan, the cop who brought him in and Johnson, the lawyer who put him away, who since then has become the District Attorney of Centro and close personal friend of local super-hero Sub-Zero.

    Due to this last fact Professor X is forced to turn his genius to the creation of anti-Sub-Zero weaponry, including cold-proof cars, an unfreezable gun that fires superheated bullets and his iconic costume which – you guessed it – is insulated  and renders him immune to Sub-Zero’s freezing powers. And he almost manages to beat Sub-Zero! His only mistake is in having uninsulated water pipes in his secret lair and leads to him being sent to jail inside a large block of ice.

    Professor X returns in the next issue in an attempt to finish getting revenge on DA Johnson as well as new target Sub-Zero (he also tries to kill Sub-Zero’s girlfriend Mary but I don’t think he has a specific grudge against her), and this time he’s accompanied by a costumed henchman named Rat. Once again he very nearly pulls it off but this time his fatal flaw is a lot more fatal, as he misjudges a jump during his escape and does a header out a fourth story window. An ignominious end to be sure.

    JUDGE AND JURY REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/3

    But death is not the end for Professor X! Blue Bolt v1 007 features a gambler named Rocky Garret who has acquired the Professor’s anti-Sub-Zero tech as insurance against interference in his baseball-fixing scheme (and it’s a good idea for him to do so, as his scheme is Not Very Good – a lot of it is literally just putting the wrong numbers on the scoreboard which… isn’t good.  It’s a bad plan.)

    Sadly this is it as far as Professor X’s legacy goes. I was kind of hoping that Sub-Zero would be confronted with a guy in a mesh bodysuit every now and again going forward, but alas, it was not meant to be.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 007

    All Novelty Press edition!

    Dick Cole, Wonder-Boy: 

    Dick Cole was left on the front steps of scientist Professor Blair as a baby, and according to him there was an accompanying note requesting that he use his hitherto-untested experimental child-rearing techniques to bring the kid up to be superhuman. And it works! Dick Cole is stronger and faster and smarter than everyone else, and works to help those around him in whatever way he can.

    Sadly for me the Dick Cole series is set at a military academy, a surprisingly popular location in early comics. I think that the weird pseudo-military class structure that such places had/have was popular for the easy drama inherent in the noble protagonists being forced to kowtow to undeserving upperclassmen but reading comics about teenagers being assholes to each other for imaginary reasons palls quickly. (ADDENDUM: I wrote this at the beginning of my Dick Cole reading and am pleased to say that the military academy stuff isn’t as bad as it is in other comics of the time) (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    BONUS: here’s Dick Cole as a very cool baby.

    Sub-Zero:

    AKA Sub-Zero Man. Part of a Venusian expedition to Earth whose extremely awesome looking spaceship crashed through a frozen gas ball en route, killing everyone but Our Hero, who instead becomes uncontrollably and destructively super-cold.

    After a couple of issues of misunderstood wandering and being hunted, Sub-Zero endears himself to the city of Centro… Oregon? by saving it from a volcano. (highway signs place Centro somewhere between Los Angeles and Topeka, so it’s probably either Oregon or Northern California, and Oregon is closer to volcano country). There, he settles down to a regular super-hero life, albeit one with no secret identity, Centro slowly becomes NYC like so many other comic book cities and people basically forget the fact that he’s an alien. (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    the Phantom Sub: 

    A bunch of young men led by Jack Damon and Slim Dugan construct an advanced submarine in secret, as you do, and end up as wanted fugitives dispensing justice on the high seas via an electrified water cannon and some plucky attitudes. (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    Near the end of 1941 the Phantom Sub added the power of flight to its many features, and shortly after that the Phantom Sub crew were able to come in from the cold and begin aiding the US war effort. (Blue Bolt v2 006, 1941)

    the White Rider and Super Horse:

    During a stagecoach holdup, a youngster named Peter (no last name given) is orphaned and flung into a river that eventually flows into the mysterious Lost Valley, where he befriends and is raised by an old hermit named Jeb and a cool horse named Cloud. Eventually, the hermit dies of puma and Peter and Cloud make their way to the outside world where it turns out that due to the valley’s depth it somehow had more gravity and thus the two are super strong. Anyhow, Peter immediately hunts down and kills the bandit who orphaned him and resolves to stamp out crime as the White Rider and Super Horse. 

    Despite the superpowers the White Rider is a bit of a dud, hero-wise and Super Horse does most of the heavy lifting, both literally and metaphorically. (Blue Bolt v1 001)

  • NOTES – MARCH 2024 PART 2

    NOTES – MARCH 2024 PART 2

    I used up all the tags on the first one.

    Honours:

    Dick Cole gets the Carnegie Hero Fund Medal for saving a baby and a shirtless lunatic (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    Dick Cole also saves the Princess of the fictional European nation of Dania from pseudo-Nazis and is awarded the Danian Order of the Exalted Knight for his efforts. (Blue Bolt v1 012, 1941)

    Sub-Zero saves the city of Centro from a volcano and gets a banquet in his honour (and more importantly goes from a wanted fugitive to a civic hero) (Blue Bolt v1 002, 1940)

    Ten issues later, Sub-Zero saves the South American nation of Latonia from invasion by crypto-Nazis and is given an unspecified medal (Blue Bolt v1 012, 1941)

    Train engineer Runaway Ronson gets a medal from the Governor of… some state for saving a town from a flood with his train – the story takes place in the Mississippi River Valley which is not exactly a precise geographical location. (Blue Bolt v1 003, 1940)

    Runaway Ronson and his pal Pat also get a personal visit from FDR after stopping some spies from their nefarious train-based plotting (Blue Bolt v1 006, 1940)

    Sergeant Spook is honoured by former President of the US and current president of Ghost Town, George Washington! (Blue Bolt v1 008, 1941)

    Trophy Room:

    Sub-Zero just gives away a huge ruby to his gal pal Janet Ware at the end of his encounter with the Great Green Turtle (Blue Bolt v1 004)

    Kid inventor Edison Bell wins the *checks notes* National Gas Midget Auto Race complete with a trip to the South Seas (Blue Bolt v2 004, 1941)

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:

    PANG! PANG! The cops are trying to shoot fleeing teen Dick Cole in the back after he is framed for murder. (Blue Bolt v1 007, 1940)

    Twice!

    Crossdressing:

    Sub-Zero might just have the least amount of gender panic of any crossdressing Golden Age hero bar Madam Fatal. (Blue Bolt v2 003, 1941)

  • NOTES – MARCH 2024 PART 2

    I used up all the tags on the first one.

    Honours:

    Dick Cole gets the Carnegie Hero Fund Medal for saving a baby and a shirtless lunatic (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    Dick Cole also saves the Princess of the fictional European nation of Dania from pseudo-Nazis and is awarded the Danian Order of the Exalted Knight for his efforts. (Blue Bolt v1 012, 1941)

    Sub-Zero saves the city of Centro from a volcano and gets a banquet in his honour (and more importantly goes from a wanted fugitive to a civic hero) (Blue Bolt v1 002, 1940)

    Ten issues later, Sub-Zero saves the South American nation of Latonia from invasion by crypto-Nazis and is given an unspecified medal (Blue Bolt v1 012, 1941)

    Train engineer Runaway Ronson gets a medal from the Governor of… some state for saving a town from a flood with his train – the story takes place in the Mississippi River Valley which is not exactly a precise geographical location. (Blue Bolt v1 003, 1940)

    Runaway Ronson and his pal Pat also get a personal visit from FDR after stopping some spies from their nefarious train-based plotting (Blue Bolt v1 006, 1940)

    Sergeant Spook is honoured by former President of the US and current president of Ghost Town, George Washington! (Blue Bolt v1 008, 1941)

    Trophy Room:

    Sub-Zero just gives away a huge ruby to his gal pal Janet Ware at the end of his encounter with the Great Green Turtle (Blue Bolt v1 004)

    Kid inventor Edison Bell wins the *checks notes* National Gas Midget Auto Race complete with a trip to the South Seas (Blue Bolt v2 004, 1941)

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:

    PANG! PANG! The cops are trying to shoot fleeing teen Dick Cole in the back after he is framed for murder. (Blue Bolt v1 007, 1940)

    Twice!

    Crossdressing:

    Sub-Zero might just have the least amount of gender panic of any crossdressing Golden Age hero bar Madam Fatal. (Blue Bolt v2 003, 1941)