The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: lieutenant

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 452: THE DEATH MASTER

    (Mystery Men Comics 029, 1941)

    Really very strong showing from the Death Master in the splash panel, with artist Louis Cazenueve (as Lester Raye) doing some great Kirby-esque monster-man work on the man himself.

    And the story version of the character almost measures up! The Death Master is head of a counterfeiting gang who completely buys into his own hype – he’s a sneering, gloating villain of the type I love.

    But why is the Death Master called that? Why, because he can kill a man with but a gesture! He’ll mess you up with magic death powers! Well okay – he’ll mess you up by shooting poison into your eye using a wrist-mounted poison shooter, which is still pretty hard to do. Plus you’re just as dead as if it was done with magic.

    The Death Master is in fact such a good over-the-top bombastic villain that it is for once somewhat surprising to learn that he is acting as a lieutenant for one Mr Hunter, a “famous criminologist” who accompanied the prosecutor to his doom in the panels above. It’s a pretty good scheme, though perhaps it would have been better to beg off helping to pursue the Death Master rather than bump off the pursuer.

    In any case, the Lynx figures out the scheme and brings in not only Mr Hunter but the Death Master via the simple method of shielding his eyes, which is where you want to have magic death powers I suppose. Also if you ever meet a foe with goggles or large glasses.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 452: THE DEATH MASTER

    (Mystery Men Comics 029, 1941)

    Really very strong showing from the Death Master in the splash panel, with artist Louis Cazenueve (as Lester Raye) doing some great Kirby-esque monster-man work on the man himself.

    And the story version of the character almost measures up! The Death Master is head of a counterfeiting gang who completely buys into his own hype – he’s a sneering, gloating villain of the type I love.

    But why is the Death Master called that? Why, because he can kill a man with but a gesture! He’ll mess you up with magic death powers! Well okay – he’ll mess you up by shooting poison into your eye using a wrist-mounted poison shooter, which is still pretty hard to do. Plus you’re just as dead as if it was done with magic.

    The Death Master is in fact such a good over-the-top bombastic villain that it is for once somewhat surprising to learn that he is acting as a lieutenant for one Mr Hunter, a “famous criminologist” who accompanied the prosecutor to his doom in the panels above. It’s a pretty good scheme, though perhaps it would have been better to beg off helping to pursue the Death Master rather than bump off the pursuer.

    In any case, the Lynx figures out the scheme and brings in not only Mr Hunter but the Death Master via the simple method of shielding his eyes, which is where you want to have magic death powers I suppose. Also if you ever meet a foe with goggles or large glasses.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 311: THE GOLD LEECHES

    (Red Raven Comics 001, 1940)

    The Gold Leeches are not terrifically interesting villains, but there are precisely two interesting things about them and that’s enough for me. Uninteresting preamble: Zeelmo, the Gold Leech (unofficial name) is a gold-obsessed gang boss with a few super-scientific gadgets (the Gazegrapho Machine for remote  viewing and the Trembling Death gas which kills via accelerated aging) and a birds-and-skeletons decorating motif that I wish had come up more often.

    Zeelmo attempts to recruit B-tier Golden Age Marvel hero the Red Raven as a minion and ends up chucked into the Trembling Death gas and then blown up for his efforts. That’s interesting thing 1, by the way: being the only Golden Age foes of the Red Raven.

    Interesting thing 2 is that Ratoga, one of Zeelmo’s lieutenants, immediately takes over his organization as Gold Leech II (name still unofficial) and I love it. I know that it can be a bit of a slippery slope from “what happens to the villain’s organization when to villain is killed?” or “who builds all those villain hideouts?” to deeply unfun comics about logistics but I love this sort of thing – more second fiddles should step up like this. 

    Anyway, Ratoga gets smothered by Red Raven in a huge pile of gold.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 019: THE TIGRESS

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 019: THE TIGRESS

    (Action Comics v1 001, 1938)

    The Tigress was both Zatara’s first foe and his only real recurring villain, showing up a dozen times over 3 years. She acted in the role of what was occasionally called a “friendly enemy”: a villain of the opposite gender who the hero has a soft spot for, implicitly or explicitly because they’re horny for them. A Catwoman situation, in other words.

    Like Catwoman and Batman, the Tigress occasionally teamed up with Zatara against a worse foe, and Zatara frequently let her escape at the end of a case out of horny sentimentality. Unlike Catwoman, the Tigress was absolutely a multiple murderer, running armed robbery, assassination and extortion rings at various times as well as acting as lieutenant for several other super-villains such as the Mad Lama.

    Ultimately, Zatara caught the Tigress for the last time and seemingly persuaded her to reform. Whether it stuck or not, she never appeared in a comic book again.