The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Black X

  • CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 004

    More wounds for the wound god!

    American Ace:

    Minor Marvel adventure hero Parry Wade, aka the American Ace, is riddled through the torso and crashes his plane after a dogfight. He gets better. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003, 1940)

    Black X:

    Shot in the left shoulder by agents of Vlamir Koran, then nearly dies of exposure while seeking aid. (Smash Comics 001, 1939)

    Black X’s aide Batu gets shot in the left shoulder on his next mission, while Black X himself gets his skull creased by a bullet. (Smash Comics 002, 1939)

    Finally, Black X gets his right arm broken by a guy named Taneo. (Smash Comics 005, 1939)

    Clip Carson:

    Shot in the left shoulder by the dastardly Mister K. (More Fun Comics 068, 1941)

    the Devil’s Dagger: 

    The Devil’s Dagger’s aide Pat Gleason is shot in the right leg by the dastardly Mr H. (Master Comics 015, 1941)

    Jim Dolan: 

    Two-fisted magazine editor Jim Dolan is not only thrown off a bridge to drown but machine gunned on the way down. Thankfully they only get his left shoulder. (Wow Comics 002, 1941)

    Ka-Zar:

    The Golden Age Ka-Zar is covered in shallow cuts as torture. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 005, 1940)

    A few issues later he gets shot in the (left? side by an unscrupulous hunter. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 011, 1940)

    And a few issues after that, the same unscrupulous hunter shoots him in the (left?) arm. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, 1941)

    Tiny: 

    The Ragman’s sidekick Tiny is shot in the right arm by a Nazi. (Cat-Man Comics 005, 1941)

  • CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 004

    More wounds for the wound god!

    American Ace:

    Minor Marvel adventure hero Parry Wade, aka the American Ace, is riddled through the torso and crashes his plane after a dogfight. He gets better. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003, 1940)

    Black X:

    Shot in the left shoulder by agents of Vlamir Koran, then nearly dies of exposure while seeking aid. (Smash Comics 001, 1939)

    Black X’s aide Batu gets shot in the left shoulder on his next mission, while Black X himself gets his skull creased by a bullet. (Smash Comics 002, 1939)

    Finally, Black X gets his right arm broken by a guy named Taneo. (Smash Comics 005, 1939)

    Clip Carson:

    Shot in the left shoulder by the dastardly Mister K. (More Fun Comics 068, 1941)

    the Devil’s Dagger: 

    The Devil’s Dagger’s aide Pat Gleason is shot in the right leg by the dastardly Mr H. (Master Comics 015, 1941)

    Jim Dolan: 

    Two-fisted magazine editor Jim Dolan is not only thrown off a bridge to drown but machine gunned on the way down. Thankfully they only get his left shoulder. (Wow Comics 002, 1941)

    Ka-Zar:

    The Golden Age Ka-Zar is covered in shallow cuts as torture. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 005, 1940)

    A few issues later he gets shot in the (left? side by an unscrupulous hunter. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 011, 1940)

    And a few issues after that, the same unscrupulous hunter shoots him in the (left?) arm. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, 1941)

    Tiny: 

    The Ragman’s sidekick Tiny is shot in the right arm by a Nazi. (Cat-Man Comics 005, 1941)

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 013

    REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 013

    Yet again we have a selection of comic book appearances of real-style people for you to enjoy.

    Adolf Hitler:

    Warak, dictator of Barbaria is a bit generic as far as pseudo-Hitlers go, but a pseudo-Hitler he is. (Smash Comics 017, 1940)

    Scraggs, leader of the Green Shirts, is very much a “make the leader look like Hitler as shorthand for These Guys Are Fascists” character, a subspecies that will nearly die out some time in 1941 but survives in small numbers to this day. (Startling Comics 001, 1940)

    Devil’s Island: 

    Black X has himself sent to, and then escapes from, Devil’s Island in order to secure a fellow prisoner with valuable US defense secrets in his head. (Smash Comics 013, 1940)

    FDR:

    An off-model Roosevelt visits Carterville and is kidnapped by Devil’s Dagger nemesis Jeff Marlowe (and thus retroactively by Marlowe’s boss Mr H). This is a wild move for a regional crime boss to pull! (Master Comics 006, 1940)

    Gill Fox:

    Probably a different guy to the last “Gil Fox” to appear in a Clip Chance comic – this one is just a small town baseball player. (Smash Comics 015, 1940)

    Groucho Marx:

    Goucho’s look lifted wholesale for this unnamed comedy character. (Star Comics 010, 1938)

    Hollywood:

    Autograph hound adds Shock Gibson to her collection along with “Cary Trooper” and “Glark Cable,” aka Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. (Speed Comics 009, 1940)

    Joe Devlin: 

    Given the prior instance of Joe Devlin being referenced in a Clip Chance story I must assume that the “John Devlin” mentioned here is another. (Smash Comics 014, 1940)

    Joseph Stalin:

    The Three Aces (but not the DC Comics Three Aces, the Harvey Comics ones) transport three anthropology-minded sisters to Paraguay to study the Guató people and stumble upon a plot by the sinister witch doctor Ni Lats to bring all under his sway via hypnotic mind control, for which crime he is drowned in a swamp.

    (slight aside: the Guató are a real people being used as set dressing for an exotic locale, and weirdly, in checking to see if that was the case I’m pretty sure I stumbled across the exact reference that Klaus Nordling drew from – every detail in the brief entry on the Guató in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica is reflected in the story. The mind control thing is added plot) (Speed Comics 010, 1940)

    Samuel Goldwyn:

    Is this movie producer named Sam meant to be Samuel Goldwyn or merely a lookalike reference to him? Regardless, this is clearly Samuel Goldwyn. (Speed Comics 010, 1940)

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 013

    REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 013

    Yet again we have a selection of comic book appearances of real-style people for you to enjoy.

    Adolf Hitler:

    Warak, dictator of Barbaria is a bit generic as far as pseudo-Hitlers go, but a pseudo-Hitler he is. (Smash Comics 017, 1940)

    Scraggs, leader of the Green Shirts, is very much a “make the leader look like Hitler as shorthand for These Guys Are Fascists” character, a subspecies that will nearly die out some time in 1941 but survives in small numbers to this day. (Startling Comics 001, 1940)

    Devil’s Island: 

    Black X has himself sent to, and then escapes from, Devil’s Island in order to secure a fellow prisoner with valuable US defense secrets in his head. (Smash Comics 013, 1940)

    FDR:

    An off-model Roosevelt visits Carterville and is kidnapped by Devil’s Dagger nemesis Jeff Marlowe (and thus retroactively by Marlowe’s boss Mr H). This is a wild move for a regional crime boss to pull! (Master Comics 006, 1940)

    Gill Fox:

    Probably a different guy to the last “Gil Fox” to appear in a Clip Chance comic – this one is just a small town baseball player. (Smash Comics 015, 1940)

    Groucho Marx:

    Goucho’s look lifted wholesale for this unnamed comedy character. (Star Comics 010, 1938)

    Hollywood:

    Autograph hound adds Shock Gibson to her collection along with “Cary Trooper” and “Glark Cable,” aka Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. (Speed Comics 009, 1940)

    Joe Devlin: 

    Given the prior instance of Joe Devlin being referenced in a Clip Chance story I must assume that the “John Devlin” mentioned here is another. (Smash Comics 014, 1940)

    Joseph Stalin:

    The Three Aces (but not the DC Comics Three Aces, the Harvey Comics ones) transport three anthropology-minded sisters to Paraguay to study the Guató people and stumble upon a plot by the sinister witch doctor Ni Lats to bring all under his sway via hypnotic mind control, for which crime he is drowned in a swamp.

    (slight aside: the Guató are a real people being used as set dressing for an exotic locale, and weirdly, in checking to see if that was the case I’m pretty sure I stumbled across the exact reference that Klaus Nordling drew from – every detail in the brief entry on the Guató in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica is reflected in the story. The mind control thing is added plot) (Speed Comics 010, 1940)

    Samuel Goldwyn:

    Is this movie producer named Sam meant to be Samuel Goldwyn or merely a lookalike reference to him? Regardless, this is clearly Samuel Goldwyn. (Speed Comics 010, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 749: THE SABOTEURS

    (Smash Comics 015, 1940)

    Sometimes all you need is a group of mercenary saboteurs dressed in matching cloaks and gas masks to zazz up a story – Black X and his comic book contemporaries have faced and defeated hundred of sabotage plots in front of my now-jaded eyes over the course of my comics-reading career, and so it takes a bit more than your basic pseudo-Nazi in a suit and tie to get my attention. That there is a suit-and-tie pseudo-Nazi behind the scheme to blow up a city that is technically never called New York is irrelevant, as it’s the cloak-and-gas mask guys who matter.

    Black X and Batu do not of course let this campaign of destruction stand, and despite some unusually acrobatic fighting moves on behalf of the Saboteurs the whole bunch of them are brought to justice after only a moderate amount of infrastructure is exploded.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 749: THE SABOTEURS

    (Smash Comics 015, 1940)

    Sometimes all you need is a group of mercenary saboteurs dressed in matching cloaks and gas masks to zazz up a story – Black X and his comic book contemporaries have faced and defeated hundred of sabotage plots in front of my now-jaded eyes over the course of my comics-reading career, and so it takes a bit more than your basic pseudo-Nazi in a suit and tie to get my attention. That there is a suit-and-tie pseudo-Nazi behind the scheme to blow up a city that is technically never called New York is irrelevant, as it’s the cloak-and-gas mask guys who matter.

    Black X and Batu do not of course let this campaign of destruction stand, and despite some unusually acrobatic fighting moves on behalf of the Saboteurs the whole bunch of them are brought to justice after only a moderate amount of infrastructure is exploded.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 548 UPDATE: MADAME DOOM (1940)

    When we last saw Madame Doom, she had been bested at the game of espionage by the Black X and was fleeing the US for friendlier shores at the end of Smash Comics 004.

    Madame Doom returns with a fresh new attitude for 1940 in Smash Comics 008, as now she is not just working for an analog of the Axis powers but explicitly for the Nazis. It’s a lateral move at best but an important one nonetheless. She only actually appears for a page or so and acts as an obstacle to Black X’s escape from Germany rather than a full-fledged villain, and is then left in his dust as he takes off into France.

    In Smash Comics 012, Black X accompanies US Ambassador Blank to Paris as part of an attempt to initiate peace talks in Europe. Madame Doom is there too, attempting to disrupt the process by manipulating the Hunchback of Notre Dame into assassinating Blank. It’s not explicit that she is still working for the Nazis on this, but c’mon. 

    This issue also marks the zenith of Madame Doom’s investment in the will they/won’t they relationship with Black X, but her plea to him to run away with her is an interrupted first by the Hunchback and then by the French authorities and so it is not to be.

    Madame Doom returns in Smash Comics 014 with some snappy new henchmen, the Legion of Living Bombs, who have: a. very cool costumes (that they don’t actually wear while they’re outside of the house), b. a very cool name (as long as you don’t think too hard about it in any context other than aesthetic).

    More importantly, this story features the zenith of Black X’s investment in the relationship between himself and Madame Doom, to the extent that he resigns from the Espionage for her.

    This proves to be what’s known as a Bad Decision, as Black X soon learns that while Madame Doom is not working for the Nazis this time around (that’s good), that is because she has teamed up with a fellow named Count Mirov in a bid to conquer South America (that’s bad), and that to that end she is dosing her fanatical minions with a fluid that eventually causes them to explode and sending them out to disrupt the Pan-American diplomatic talks (that’s even worse). If there’s a positive to this dastardly plot, it’s that it seems to kill the romantic tension between the two once and for all.

    (Madame Doom’s height, hair colour and general appearance are fairly mutable during these appearances, as is not unusual for reoccurring female villains. I mention that here because in order to say that her height had fluctuated I felt compelled to comb through this issue like a foot pervert to see if she was wearing anachronistic 90s stiletto heels, but as you can see above she is not)

    After some hijinks involving Black X’s aide Batu stealing back his letter of resignation so that his boss can get back on the case, Black X returns to Madame Doom’s underground HQ and proceeds to beat ass, and the ease with which he does so to an entire roomful of guys might just be another indictment of selecting your minions for their willingness to die over any other useful quality.

    Defeated, Madame Doom decides to take what I would call “the cool way out” and guzzles some of her own explosive brew rather than be captured. It’s a heck of a way to leave a final impression.

    SPOILER: Madame Doom will return!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 548 UPDATE: MADAME DOOM (1940)

    When we last saw Madame Doom, she had been bested at the game of espionage by the Black X and was fleeing the US for friendlier shores at the end of Smash Comics 004.

    Madame Doom returns with a fresh new attitude for 1940 in Smash Comics 008, as now she is not just working for an analog of the Axis powers but explicitly for the Nazis. It’s a lateral move at best but an important one nonetheless. She only actually appears for a page or so and acts as an obstacle to Black X’s escape from Germany rather than a full-fledged villain, and is then left in his dust as he takes off into France.

    In Smash Comics 012, Black X accompanies US Ambassador Blank to Paris as part of an attempt to initiate peace talks in Europe. Madame Doom is there too, attempting to disrupt the process by manipulating the Hunchback of Notre Dame into assassinating Blank. It’s not explicit that she is still working for the Nazis on this, but c’mon. 

    This issue also marks the zenith of Madame Doom’s investment in the will they/won’t they relationship with Black X, but her plea to him to run away with her is an interrupted first by the Hunchback and then by the French authorities and so it is not to be.

    Madame Doom returns in Smash Comics 014 with some snappy new henchmen, the Legion of Living Bombs, who have: a. very cool costumes (that they don’t actually wear while they’re outside of the house), b. a very cool name (as long as you don’t think too hard about it in any context other than aesthetic).

    More importantly, this story features the zenith of Black X’s investment in the relationship between himself and Madame Doom, to the extent that he resigns from the Espionage for her.

    This proves to be what’s known as a Bad Decision, as Black X soon learns that while Madame Doom is not working for the Nazis this time around (that’s good), that is because she has teamed up with a fellow named Count Mirov in a bid to conquer South America (that’s bad), and that to that end she is dosing her fanatical minions with a fluid that eventually causes them to explode and sending them out to disrupt the Pan-American diplomatic talks (that’s even worse). If there’s a positive to this dastardly plot, it’s that it seems to kill the romantic tension between the two once and for all.

    (Madame Doom’s height, hair colour and general appearance are fairly mutable during these appearances, as is not unusual for reoccurring female villains. I mention that here because in order to say that her height had fluctuated I felt compelled to comb through this issue like a foot pervert to see if she was wearing anachronistic 90s stiletto heels, but as you can see above she is not)

    After some hijinks involving Black X’s aide Batu stealing back his letter of resignation so that his boss can get back on the case, Black X returns to Madame Doom’s underground HQ and proceeds to beat ass, and the ease with which he does so to an entire roomful of guys might just be another indictment of selecting your minions for their willingness to die over any other useful quality.

    Defeated, Madame Doom decides to take what I would call “the cool way out” and guzzles some of her own explosive brew rather than be captured. It’s a heck of a way to leave a final impression.

    SPOILER: Madame Doom will return!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 748: THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

    (Smash Comics 012, 1940)

    The Hunchback of Notre Dame is just that, a modern version of the fictional character, and seemingly just as damaged by society as his predecessor. He is manipulated into working as an assassin for Madame Doom, who is in Paris (presumably on behalf of the Nazis) to disrupt peace talks helmed by US Ambassador Blank but is being effectively countered by the Black X and so must operate through a deniable dupe asset.

    Just what the deal is with the Hunchback is down to three distinct possibilities, all fairly equally outlandish, but all are predicated on the fact that Notre Dame has a hunchbacked bellringer in 1940, like it’s a prerequisite for the job. The possibilities:

    1. That the people of Paris are correct in their belief that this Hunchback of Notre Dame is a direct descendant of Quasimodo, the original, which would imply not only that Quasimodo had a child at some point but that his physical condition was one which was passed down through a line of bellringers for almost 500 years.

    2. Similar to Possibility 1. Quasimodo has a child, but in this case, the Hunchback of Notre Dame Gene is recessive and his descendants are not generationally indentured cathedral slaves. This latest member of the family would thus be reviving an old tradition by being a delusional misfit urban legend.

    3. The citizens of Paris are credulous fools and all hunchbacked bellringers are not, in fact, related. In this scenario we must assume that it’s the job that is so terrible that it drives these poor men mad.

    Regardless of his actual origin, the Hunchback meets his end after attacking Black X in a jealous rage over Madame Doom’s affections. Riddled with bullets, he falls to his death. Black X is still horny for Madame Doom at this point, so she is allowed to leave.

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 012

    Lotta Hitlers in this one.

    Adolf Hitler: 

    Thalga, supreme dictator of Govania, is a clear Hitler analog. (Smash Comics 006, 1940)

    This unnamed Hitler-with-a-goatee comes with a bonus, very tired-looking, FDR! (Smash Comics 006, 1940)

    Hitler look-alike Rudolph Hitz acts as political representative and spy chief for Hitler act-alike dictator Holtz in a plot to rob the US gold reserve at Fort Knox-alike Fort Adam, only to meet defeat at the cold metal hands of Bozo the Iron Man. (Smash Comics 007, 1940)

    Hitlin is a Hitler stand-in who we never actually see and who acts as a motivation for the villains of the piece in their struggle to defeat Hugh Hazzard and his Iron Man, Bozo. Almost charmingly, Hitlin’s followers are called the Batzis or the Batzi Tribe. (Smash Comics 008, 1940) 

    There’s a lot of competition for the title of “most unflattering on-the-nose Hitler analog,” but Motler here might just take it. He’s top five, if nothing else – just an absolute bad’un. Like Hitlin and Holtz before him, Motler is thwarted by Bozo the Iron Man. Unlike them, he then falls off of a cliff and dies. (Smash Comics 009, 1940)

    Franklin D Roosevelt: 

    Briefed on the approach of the Metallic Army by intelligence agent Wings Wendall (Smash Comics 012, 1940)

    Gill Fox:

    Golden Age comics man Gill Fox might not be the coworker most often inserted in stories as a gag but he sure is the one I notice the most. Here he is as a college track star. (Smash Comics 012, 1940)

    Hollywood Crowd:

    Quality Comics comedy character King Archie O’Toole ends up in Hollywood and attends the usual star-studded party, featuring lightly parodic versions of Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, WC Fields, Clark Gable, the Marx Brothers, Hedy Lamarr, Greta Garbo and possibly Joe E. Brown,  Laurel and Hardy and Edward G Robinson, plus a guy who looks very specific and who I could probably figure out if I knew the right things to look for.  (Smash Comics 011, 1940)

    Joseph Stalin:

    Stalin is in the upper right panel here ordering the invasion of Finland, but I include the rest of the page for a history repeats itself kind of view vis-a-vis the invasion of Ukraine. (Smash Comics 010, 1940)

    Unknown:

    This right here is the kind of thing that preys on my mind: a character with a roughly equal chance of being completely made up or being a reference to a real person who I might know immediately if I were reading the news regularly in 1940, but who would take no small amount of research to identify now without stumbling upon a Wikipedia page titled List of Deposed German Intelligence Officials. (Smash Comics 008, 1940)