The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: minor super-villain

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 931: THE HEATER

    (Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941)

    Having so recently weathered the cold-based threat of the Wingers, the US aviation community is now faced with another elemental enemy in the form of the Heater, a mysterious plane that is attacking aircraft with a heat ray. Cloud Curtis, self-appointed defender of the airways, is of course keenly interested in this development.

    Unlike the Wingers, the Heater’s motivations are never explored. They could be spies, territorial smugglers, extortionists like their predecessors, any number of things. And yes: despite being a group of at least four men they are called the Heater singular, probably because it is the plane that is being referred to rather than the gang inside of it.

    Cloud Curtis’ first attempt to stop the Heater is stymied when they melt the grappling arms right off of his Golden Bullet. This marks the second out of two times that his signature move (grab ahold of a plane and then personally board it and punch everyone out) has been stymied by these uncouth plane gangs.

    Thankfully for Curtis and the other denizens of the skies, while he was trading bullets for heat ray blasts his ally Pop Whistler was back at their home base inventing a new type of plastic that not is only heatproof but reflects heat back at its source. Once the Golden Bullet is coated in this material it is a simple matter of engaging the Heater in another dogfight and they are soon treated to a dose of their own incendiary medicine.

    Categorized in: Accessories (Aircraft & Rays), Elements (Fire), Murder

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 930: THE BLACK DRAGON

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 930: THE BLACK DRAGON

    (Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941)

    Here’s the thing about the Black Dragon: though he looms large in the early adventures of Captain Battle and is a key player in the origin of Hale Battle, he doesn’t personally do that much villainy.

    So just what is the Black Dragon’s deal? Well, he’s a magic using tyrant who lives in a secret castle in some unspecified Asian mountains, and he’s the secret mastermind behind the Axis Axian Powers, making him the guy behind WWII! Like I said above: he doesn’t personally get his hands dirty.

    So what kind of evil does the Black Dragon get up to? Mostly he captures people and turns them into monsters with his fell majicks, such as when he attempts to do so to Captain Battle, above. This attempt fails because the Black Dragon fails to think to take his prisoner’s iconic jet pack away.

    In his second appearance, in Silver Streak Comics 011, the Black Dragon captures Captain Battle’s assistant Jane Lorrain and offers her the creep villain’s choice of becoming his queen or being transformed into a monster. He then attempts to take on Captain Battle in hand-to-hand combat and is quickly disabused of any illusions he might have had about his martial prowess. 

    The reason that the Black Dragon is so personally unimpressive as a villain is that all of his important evil works are done by Deaglos, giant bird-men that he makes out of captives. Monstrous humanoid mutates are nothing new in comics even this early in their history, but the Deaglos have one very cool feature that almost feels like it comes from a Vertigo-era New Weird comic: they are created using the spirits of the extinct dodo and so are immune to death.

    (the Deaglos also have field commanders referred to a “your cluckness,” which is very fun)

    By Silver Streak Comics 012: Captain Battle gets on the right page and realizes that if he cuts off the Black Dragon from his Deaglo supply he will have little to no ability to do evil. Plus the Deaglos are technically also victims, so his prior solutions of horrifically melting them with his dissolvo ray or using their inexplicable vulnerability to radio waves to kill them all are no very heroic acts. Accordingly, he brews up a “de-witcher solution” and applies it to a captive Deaglo, restoring him to his human form of Major Ling Fu.

    Captain Battle and the Major then go on to blast all the other Deaglos with the de-witcher, which coincidentally places a hostile force within the very walls of the Black Dragon’s fortress (this is where Hale Battle comes from).

    In his final act as a super-villain, the Black Dragon responds to this invasion by making what is probably the funniest evil exit of the Golden Age. “Ha Ha-Haaaaaa!” *strikes evil pose* *sinks into floor* *is never seen again*. I can’t endorse the whole thing where he started World War Two, but this exit really engenders a lot of affection for the guy in my heart.

    Categorized in: Animals (Dragons), Henchmen (Deaglos), Supercrime (Attempted World Conquest) 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 929: THE BEAU

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 929: THE BEAU

    (Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941) 

    The
    Beau is a piratical figure who uses his uncanny resemblance to the
    heroic Pirate Prince to take over the latter’s ship and make off with all the treasure he had gathered in order to buy slaves and set them free. Although his motivation seems to be 100% loot and 0% perpetuation of slavery I suppose that we must consider the impact of his theft on others and give him a few more Evil Points for his deeds.  

    The
    Beau makes the interesting decision to adopt a very adversarial and
    abusive relationship with the Pirate Prince’s crew, rather than for
    instance, playing things cool and making up a believable lie about
    taking the treasure to be cleaned. They are therefore quite receptive
    when the real Pirate Prince, disguised as the Beau, shows up to challenge his rival to a duel to the death. In conclusion, a bad plan, poorly executed, but I like the name and you know I love a pirate.

    Categorized in: Fraud (Heroic Impostors),  Origin (Villains of the Past), Theft (Piracy)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 928: THE DOMINO

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    Dominic Leonetti, aka the Domino, is a nightclub owner/gang boss with what I would call a moderate commitment to his chosen theme. Sure, he plays a game of dominoes with his victims before killing them, and sure he leaves a domino in the hand of whoever he kills, but where’s the domino tie pin or domino-handled knife or even that old standard the domino mask? Even his nightclub is called the Red Rouse, which is so much not a domino term that it doesn’t seem to mean anything. Call it the Red Pip!

    The Domino’s attempt to murder his underling Chick Biro is foiled when it turns out that Biro has been replaced by Presto Martin and that Martin is wearing a bulletproof vest (and this has officially happened often enough that the crooks in Martin’s version of NYC should be headshot-only at this point). The gang manages to escape thanks to Martin’s bumbling assistant Sergeant Murphy, but they have to take it on the lam.

    Being on the run means that the Domino is unable to run his nightclub, to which he objects. What, I ask you, is the most logical and straightforward way for him to get back to his preferred lifestyle? All answers are wrong because what Leonetti decides to do is start killing cops in alphabetical order (leaving a domino behind so that the police can be sure it’s him), with the explicit threat that the killings will continue until the charges against him are dropped and he is left alone. Is this the least thought-out plan in comics history? It’s certainly the worst one that I personally can think of.

    Presto Martin solves this problem like he solves all problems: by dressing up like the Domino’s next most probably victim and tanking a tommy gun clip thanks to his presumably magical bulletproof vest. A few well-placed bullets drives the gang’s car off the road, followed by a few well-placed punches to send them to sleep, and the reign of the Domino is over.

    Categorized in: Activities (Games), Day Job (Nightclub Owner), Location (NYC)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 927: THE HIGH ONE

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The High One is a fascist spy chief cum mad scientist who has been using an advanced poison to wage a surprisingly successful campaign to kill of the upper echelons of the US government. This has brought him into conflict with Bart Benson, aka Secret Agent X-101, who is soon captured by the High One’s agents and bundled off to his HQ in the small town of Newburgh to be gloated at and then executed.

    Though the High One is clever, he ultimately falls prey to pride: X-101 is able to lure him close enough by insulting him to get ahold of him, get free and chuck him out one of his ostentatiously huge windows. After that it’s a simple matter of bringing down a planeload of poison before it gets to Washington DC and the whole operation is over.

    I would like to note that before the High One is taken out he does manage to kill the US Secretary of State, which is a bit more of an impact than even super-villains are usually able to pull off. Is this in fact Henry L. Stimson or just some generic comic book man? Impossible to say unless we treat the Lev Gleason Comics Universe as a coherent thing and he shows up in, like, a Daredevil story some day.

    The High One is also notable for having employed a femme fatale spy named Sandra who served as a recurring foil for Secret Agent X-101 and who is a part of that rarefied sisterhood of recurring female villains who ultimately get away with it because the feature that they appear in has been cancelled. So long Sandra; have fun hanging out with Fraulein Doktor’s Daughter and Illyria, Queen of Spies.

    Categorized in: Alphanumeric (One), Espionage (Crypto-Fascist Spies), Real Folk (Henry L. Stimson)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 927: THE HIGH ONE

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The High One is a fascist spy chief cum mad scientist who has been using an advanced poison to wage a surprisingly successful campaign to kill of the upper echelons of the US government. This has brought him into conflict with Bart Benson, aka Secret Agent X-101, who is soon captured by the High One’s agents and bundled off to his HQ in the small town of Newburgh to be gloated at and then executed.

    Though the High One is clever, he ultimately falls prey to pride: X-101 is able to lure him close enough by insulting him to get ahold of him, get free and chuck him out one of his ostentatiously huge windows. After that it’s a simple matter of bringing down a planeload of poison before it gets to Washington DC and the whole operation is over.

    I would like to note that before the High One is taken out he does manage to kill the US Secretary of State, which is a bit more of an impact than even super-villains are usually able to pull off. Is this in fact Henry L. Stimson or just some generic comic book man? Impossible to say unless we treat the Lev Gleason Comics Universe as a coherent thing and he shows up in, like, a Daredevil story some day.

    The High One is also notable for having employed a femme fatale spy named Sandra who served as a recurring foil for Secret Agent X-101 and who is a part of that rarefied sisterhood of recurring female villains who ultimately get away with it because the feature that they appear in has been cancelled. So long Sandra; have fun hanging out with Fraulein Doktor’s Daughter and Illyria, Queen of Spies.

    Categorized in: Alphanumeric (One), Espionage (Crypto-Fascist Spies), Real Folk (Henry L. Stimson)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 926: THE WINGERS

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    One day while noodling around in his super plane, Cloud Curtis comes across a crashed plane in Death Valley, with near-dead pilot speaking of snow on the wings. What could this mean?

    Cloud and his entourage check in with Mr Richmond, owner of the plane, and find that it is the latest in a series of crashes and disappearances. This is all highly suspicious, and what’s even more suspicious is the brick with a note wrapped around it that comes smashing through the window as they discuss it, containing an extortion demand from a group calling themselves the Wingers (and signed with a cool little winged skull).

    Cloud determines that the surest way to ferret out the Wingers is with a decoy plane that he even goes to the trouble to stuff full of passenger-dummies for some reason. Sure enough, the gang show up in a high-powered plane equipped with what amounts to a snow cannon, which they use to ice up the decoy’s wings. Not only does this explain the “snow in Death Valley” thing, but also the reason why they call themselves the Wingers – because they attack wings!

    The Wingers are admirably well-prepared to deal with Cloud Curtis: their plane is not only bulletproof but treated with some sort of low friction coating that prevents the Golden Bullet’s robot grappling arms from working on it. This comes back to bite them, as Curtis, out of other ideas, just ends up blowing them up with a hand grenade rather than continuing to try to capture them.

    Categorized in: Body (Nonhuman Parts), Extortion (Corporate), Location (Death Valley)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 925: THE IRON-JAW

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 925: THE IRON-JAW

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The US is being rocked by a series of explosions targeting munitions factories and other facilities contributing to national defense, and not even the speed of the Silver Streak is enough to combat the organizational skills and coordination of the mysterious mastermind behind them. It is only by sheer coincidence that he happens upon an imperilled security guard from a plant in Georgia and learns from him that the men who blew up his workplace were under command of a mysterious figure called “Iron-Jaw” and that they all work for the “Axes Government”.

    Even with this information under his belt, the Silver Streak still loses two more factories to the Iron-Jaw before finally running down some of his men in Boston and discovering the secret of their great organizational abilities: a super-miniaturized (for the 40s) radio set used to relay orders to the Axes forces in America. By following the instructions coming from a captured unit, the Streak and Whiz are finally able to get the jump on the Iron-Jaw’s men and prevent the destruction of a plant in Pittsburgh, though the mastermind remains on the loose.

    The Iron-Jaw returns in Silver Streak Comics 010 with a new set of goals – the focus is now on shutting down media criticism of the Axes. To that end, the Silver Streak is drawn away via a report of a potential bombing in Chicago while Iron-Jaw is grabbing the real target, broadcaster Kitty Doyle, in NYC.

    This is Silver Streak we’re talking about here, so he returns in time to interrupt the kidnapping in progress. the mysterious Iron-Jaw is revealed to be a moderately cool-looking/ moderately goofy-looking/ fairly spiky humanoid robot. With a gold finish, no less – so much for thematic consistency.

    Though Iron-Jaw briefly gets the upper hand, even a super strong, very pointy robot is no match for the world’s fastest man and it takes a fatal header onto the streets of Manhattan below.

    Here’s something about the Iron-Jaw: in its first appearance, all it does is talk, while in its second it is completely mute. This dovetails interestingly with something that Kitty reports after its defeat, that investigation of the robot indicates that it was controlled by trans-oceanic radio waves originating from the Axes government. Which seems to indicate that the Iron-Jaw was merely operating as the mouth and hands of one or more spymasters in some comic book pastiche of Germany, which in turn means that this is one of the few times in Golden Age comics in which the villain gets away at the end!* Neat!

    *excluding all of the recurring villains who get away all the time, of course. 

    Finally, Silver Streak and Whiz get to meet FDR to get his congratulationss, plus a Congressional Medal of Honor!

    Categorized in: Body (Jaws), Elements (Iron), Origins (Robots) 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 925: THE IRON-JAW

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The US is being rocked by a series of explosions targeting munitions factories and other facilities contributing to national defense, and not even the speed of the Silver Streak is enough to combat the organizational skills and coordination of the mysterious mastermind behind them. It is only by sheer coincidence that he happens upon an imperilled security guard from a plant in Georgia and learns from him that the men who blew up his workplace were under command of a mysterious figure called “Iron-Jaw” and that they all work for the “Axes Government”.

    Even with this information under his belt, the Silver Streak still loses two more factories to the Iron-Jaw before finally running down some of his men in Boston and discovering the secret of their great organizational abilities: a super-miniaturized (for the 40s) radio set used to relay orders to the Axes forces in America. By following the instructions coming from a captured unit, the Streak and Whiz are finally able to get the jump on the Iron-Jaw’s men and prevent the destruction of a plant in Pittsburgh, though the mastermind remains on the loose.

    The Iron-Jaw returns in Silver Streak Comics 010 with a new set of goals – the focus is now on shutting down media criticism of the Axes. To that end, the Silver Streak is drawn away via a report of a potential bombing in Chicago while Iron-Jaw is grabbing the real target, broadcaster Kitty Doyle, in NYC.

    This is Silver Streak we’re talking about here, so he returns in time to interrupt the kidnapping in progress. the mysterious Iron-Jaw is revealed to be a moderately cool-looking/ moderately goofy-looking/ fairly spiky humanoid robot. With a gold finish, no less – so much for thematic consistency.

    Though Iron-Jaw briefly gets the upper hand, even a super strong, very pointy robot is no match for the world’s fastest man and it takes a fatal header onto the streets of Manhattan below.

    Here’s something about the Iron-Jaw: in its first appearance, all it does is talk, while in its second it is completely mute. This dovetails interestingly with something that Kitty reports after its defeat, that investigation of the robot indicates that it was controlled by trans-oceanic radio waves originating from the Axes government. Which seems to indicate that the Iron-Jaw was merely operating as the mouth and hands of one or more spymasters in some comic book pastiche of Germany, which in turn means that this is one of the few times in Golden Age comics in which the villain gets away at the end!* Neat!

    *excluding all of the recurring villains who get away all the time, of course. 

    Finally, Silver Streak and Whiz get to meet FDR to get his congratulationss, plus a Congressional Medal of Honor!

    Categorized in: Body (Jaws), Elements (Iron), Origins (Robots) 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 924: MOLO

    (Silver Streak Comics 008, 1941)

    A killer stalks the entertainment industry! Prominent  people are being murdered, including Academy Award winner Kay Kaye, opera singer Lily Donela and Dick Bradley, recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for “the best play of the year” which I suppose would be for literature? And also very impressive because the Nobel Prize was suspended in 1941 due to the war?

    In total, nine luminaries of the stage and screen have been killed as the story opens and all have been found with a note reading “Death by Molo.” 

    The next projected target is playwright Bruce Canton, who is about to be honoured with a banquet. Enter Presto Martin, master of disguise, who poses as Canton and rounds up Molo with little effort. Case closed, the day is saved, etc.

    There’s just one problem: Canton is murdered at the banquet, complete with calling card, and the witnesses identify the man in Martin’s lockup as the culprit.

    A little of the ol’ disguise routine from Presto determines that the Molo in police custody has a twin brother who is hell-bent on continuing the murder spree. This means that Martin has to dress up like the logical next victim again and act as bait for a killer again, ho hum. The second Molo is captured with ease and thrown into jail with his brother.

    And just why were the Molos so hell-bent on murdering successful figures in the entertainment industry anyway? Why, because they themselves were failures back in the dying days of Vaudeville and they just couldn’t take seeing other people make it. 

    THE SUPER-VILLAINS OF HOLLYWOOD PODCAST: One of the least successful episodes in the history of the show. The hosts take the bizarre approach of treating the Molo brothers as victims of the entertainment system and among other things demonstrate that they don’t really know what Vaudeville is. Rumours that the podcast was threatened with a lawsuit by the estate of Kay Kaye are unconfirmed, but the episode was quietly removed from the archive after a few months.

    Categorized in: Murder (Serial Killers), Origin (Twins), the Super-Villains of Hollywood Podcast