The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: minor super-villain

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 154: THE YELLOW-FACED TERROR

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)


    What makes them a super-villain? He’s a money-mad maniac who murdered his own brother to steal a radiation-orb called the Life-Taker, which he uses to rob by the simple act of lobbing it into an area and waiting until it has killed any resistance. He also has a pretty great look, achieved via a crust of a sulphur/lead compound which shields him from his own orb’s radiations. What he doesn’t really have is a name, so I snitched the one used in the above text box.

    What’s interesting about them? Well, it’s a bit debatable but the Sandman might have murdered him. He discovers Wesley Dodds’ secret in the course of the adventure and then in the final struggle… it kind of looks like the Sandman arranges for him to be shot through the head a bit more enthusiastically than needed. Maybe.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 153: KULAK

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Kulak is the High Priest of Brztal, which is originally implied to be an ancient lost civilization but I believe is later defined as extra-dimensional in some way. His deal is ostensibly that he is upset that his tomb was disturbed so he is going to destroy humanity, but I don’t know that he wasn’t just looking for an excuse to flex his magical muscles. He gets up to a lot of fun stuff with disasters – worldwide flooding and riots, plagues of lucusts etc – and summons armies of ancient Brztalan dead to smite his enemy but ultimately is put down again by the Spectre.

    In what is going to be an ongoing theme with these one-off All-Star villains, he eventually gets Roy Thomased into the pages of All-Star Squadron to mix it up with the Spectre one more time.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 153: KULAK

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Kulak is the High Priest of Brztal, which is originally implied to be an ancient lost civilization but I believe is later defined as extra-dimensional in some way. His deal is ostensibly that he is upset that his tomb was disturbed so he is going to destroy humanity, but I don’t know that he wasn’t just looking for an excuse to flex his magical muscles. He gets up to a lot of fun stuff with disasters – worldwide flooding and riots, plagues of lucusts etc – and summons armies of ancient Brztalan dead to smite his enemy but ultimately is put down again by the Spectre.

    In what is going to be an ongoing theme with these one-off All-Star villains, he eventually gets Roy Thomased into the pages of All-Star Squadron to mix it up with the Spectre one more time.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 152: NYOLA

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Nyola is an Aztec priestess of Yum-Chac, the god of rain. As you might expect, the indigenous religions of the Americas are treated with utmost dignity and she is not portrayed as a fanatic who, for example, would kidnap a woman for human sacrifice based on tangential offense done to her faith. Also, Hawkman doesn’t then follow her back to Mexico and bring the might of the authorities down on an indigenous religious group that is, yes, killing people but still doesn’t quite seem like the right call. Or wouldn’t if he had. Which he didn’t.

    Despite her seeming death at the end of her first appearance she later shows up in the Roy Thomas version of the Monster Society of Evil in All-Star Squadron with actual powers! Guess Yum-Chac is on the list of legit deities in the DCU!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 151: THE GREAT REMEMBO

    (All-Star Comics 001, 1940)

    100% included here because I enjoy his name. A Vaudeville memory expert turned spy, captured by minor Golden Age adventure guy Biff Bronson.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 150: BELDAME GAFFY & TRYGG

    (All-Star Comics 001, 1940)

    A couple of magic users, Beldame Gaffy (curse-caster) and Trygg (necromancer) team up to steal the lands that rightfully belong to Trygg’s niece and nephew so that he could get rich via a zombie-staffed mining operation. Things go well until Hawkman shows up to explode them to death. Also, these are the first (only?) Welsh super-villains we have (will ever?) encountered!

    Ordinarily in a two-person set-up like this I would designate one as the boss and the other as a lieutenant or minion but Gaffy and Trygg really do seem like an equal partnership. Sadly however, only Trygg has made any subsequent appearances, specifically in the 2000s-era Hawkman series. I guess it makes sense that the necromancer would be the one to return from the dead but one must nonetheless mourn the dearth of Beldames in this modern world.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 149: KING COBRA

    (All American 029, 1941)

    A simple first costumed foe for Dr Mid-Nite: a mine owner founds his own secret society in order to control public opinion about such things as unionization and also to have a ready-made lynch mob if needed. Really appreciate how on-theme the Cobra Kingdom – wearing a version of King Cobra’s own costume, natch – were at all times, down to referring to their enemies as “mongoose.” It wasn’t a big shock that they almost killed King Cobra himself when it was revealed to them that they had been duped into doing his bidding.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 148: THE SPIDER

    (All American 028, 1941)

    Just a weird little creep with a drug that can mind control someone and then kill them. The Spider hits on a scheme where he is paid by ne’er-do-wells to have their rich relatives write them back into their wills and then mysteriously keel over – and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for Green Lantern and his pesky pals.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 148: THE SPIDER

    (All American 028, 1941)

    Just a weird little creep with a drug that can mind control someone and then kill them. The Spider hits on a scheme where he is paid by ne’er-do-wells to have their rich relatives write them back into their wills and then mysteriously keel over – and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for Green Lantern and his pesky pals.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 147: THE LEADER

    (All American Comics 025, 1941)

    A masked man running a gang of saboteurs to ruin production of war goods as a US steel plant in the name of a vague Cause – at this time most likely fascism – is pretty run-of-the-mill for 1941, but it turns out that the Leader’s real scheme is to drive down the steel mill’s stock price so that he can gain a controlling interest and make big bucks! He’s just duping the fascists-or-maybe-anarchists-or-communists into doing his bidding! The real villain was capitalism all along!

    Sadly for the Leader, his tale of villainy ends like so many that take place in steel mills: with him plummeting into an open vat of molten metal.