The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Zatara

  • 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 060: THE MASK

    (Action Comics 022, 1940)

    The Mask is your garden-variety master of disguise, con artist subtype: he assumes the identities of others in order to acquire monies from their banks and businesses. He is distinguished from the rest of his ilk in two ways: firstly in that he is our second villain to employ the aid of the Tigress and secondly in that he actually has his face surgically altered to make his impersonations.

    His downfall comes when he assumes the identity of Zatara in order to claim some reward money that the magician had turned down, leading to this:

    It’s sometimes unclear whether Zatara ever reverses this kind of transformation, so I just go by what’s said and done on-panel. If he turns a crook to stone and says he’s going to come back for them later then he does. Otherwise, there’s a petrified wrongdoer in a field somewhere to this day. All this is to say: Zatara never gives any indication that he’s going to change the Mask back, so I imagine that he served his sentence for fraud and had to reintegrate to society looking like that.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 059: THE MASTER OF THE MOOR

    (Action Comics 021, 1940)

    The Master of the Moor is part of the kind of comic story that starts out overly complex – the corrupt sheriff and coroner of a small town in Sussex, England plot to replace local aristocrat Lord Ralway with a double in order to steal his lands – and with the addition of a few comic book elements becomes just completely untenable. To whit:

    -the man who they have recruited to be the double, the Master of the Moor himself, seems to be Way Too Into his role, as witnessed in the above panel. If any crime required a cool and measured hand it would be the impersonation of a public figure. Costumes and code names and oh, let’s say trained giant condors used to assassinate witnesses are a bit too flashy for such a sneaky task.

    -they decide to proceed with the replacement despite the fact that the famed magician and super-hero Zatara is visiting. Now, it’s sometimes hard to judge just how famous Zatara is supposed to be in these comics, despite his fairly well-publicized world-saving exploits, but any visitor is surely an undue risk in such an operation, right?

    Anyway, they get well and truly magicked up.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 037: THE GORILLA KING

    (Action v1 019, 1939)

    Classic mad scientist stuff here: work out a revolutionary technique to transplant human brains into gorillas and then aim no higher than sending your gorilla-men out on horseback to plunder Mexico. Blows himself up, as per the above image.

  • THE FATE OF ATLANTIS

    Lost cities get a lot of play in comic books, especially Atlantis. Sometimes it seems like enough little fragments and offshoots managed to survive the place that it would be surprising to hear of anyone dying. Here are a selection of fates of Earth-Two Atlantis:

    -Earth’s second moon collides with the planet, causing the sinking of Atlantis. the colony city of Ophir in Africa and an underwater remnant survive (Action v1 017-018, 1939)


    (this is the Atlantis that Zatara encounters with Setap. Doubles as a Fate of Ophir entry: the pseudo-historical Biblical city is a remnant of Atlantis until Zatara blows it up)


    -Some portion of the people of sunken Atlantis move to the underground regions of the Arctic, founding the nation of Ugar (Adventure 052, 1940)

    (Earth-Two is riddled with underground kingdoms such that it would be surprising if no Atlanteans ended up down there)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to a vast cavern under the Azores (Action v1 037-038, 1941)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to the interior of Brazil (Action v1 043, 1941)

    (Both of the latter two involve aviator-heroes the Three Aces, yet they fail to even mention the Azorean Atlanteans to the Brazilian Atlanteans)

    More updates as I encounter ’em!

  • THE FATE OF ATLANTIS

    Lost cities get a lot of play in comic books, especially Atlantis. Sometimes it seems like enough little fragments and offshoots managed to survive the place that it would be surprising to hear of anyone dying. Here are a selection of fates of Earth-Two Atlantis:

    -Earth’s second moon collides with the planet, causing the sinking of Atlantis. the colony city of Ophir in Africa and an underwater remnant survive (Action v1 017-018, 1939)


    (this is the Atlantis that Zatara encounters with Setap. Doubles as a Fate of Ophir entry: the pseudo-historical Biblical city is a remnant of Atlantis until Zatara blows it up)


    -Some portion of the people of sunken Atlantis move to the underground regions of the Arctic, founding the nation of Ugar (Adventure 052, 1940)

    (Earth-Two is riddled with underground kingdoms such that it would be surprising if no Atlanteans ended up down there)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to a vast cavern under the Azores (Action v1 037-038, 1941)

    -A portion of the population of sinking Atlantis relocates to the interior of Brazil (Action v1 043, 1941)

    (Both of the latter two involve aviator-heroes the Three Aces, yet they fail to even mention the Azorean Atlanteans to the Brazilian Atlanteans)

    More updates as I encounter ’em!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP

    (Action v1 017, 1939)

    Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.

    Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 036: SETAP

    (Action v1 017, 1939)

    Setap is fun because she’s one of the few old lady super-villains who actually is an old lady, rather than a gangster in drag. She’s also pretty happy about her plan to steal youth from one of Zatara’s pals, until he reverses the process and blows up her city.

    Setap is also an early example of a reformed villain, as she shows up a few issues later (presumably after stealing youth off someone else, as she is young again) and enlists Zatara’s help in finding her ancestral home, Atlantis

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 034: THE ICE MENACE

    (Action v1 015, 1939)

    Just a regular sort of science villain with a regular sort of plan: create a heat ray cannon and use it to ransom the world by melting the ice caps. Derailed and frozen solid by Zatara after a mere few flooded cities. Actually, that would be a neat way for him to come back: thawed out by global warming.

    Occasionally a clear super-villain is unnamed in the course of a story and I have to go by something they are referred to in captions. The Ice Menace always feels like one of those to me but I think they actually call him that during the story? Wild.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 032: MADAME KELLY

    (Action v1 011, 1939)

    There are basically three levels of Zatara enemy: unpowered crooks such as the Tigress (MSV 019) or the Ghost (MSV 021) or a million gangsters over the years who are wildly outclassed and only have a chance if they manage to get the jump on him; villains of roughly equal or even greater power to him such as the Mad Lama (MSV 031) and finally folks like the Mad Lama’s minions: armed with one really good trick that can give them a situational edge against him. The latter are generally the most entertaining, as rather than toying with them like a mouse or bringing all he resources to bear on a genuine threat, he is often forced to take some time to figure out what’s going on. Which brings us to Madame Kelly.

    Madame Kelly is a magic-using spy who wears cute outfits while trying to steal some defense plans that are being transported by cruise ship. Her only demonstrated power is to summon an illusory ghost, which she uses as a distraction while she hunts for her target below decks. Zatara spends a fair bit of the story stumped because he can’t banish what isn’t actually a ghost. It’s fun stuff! They should BRING HER BACK

    ADDENDUM: Gentle reader, I present to you the sea-ghost of Madame Kelly: