The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Blue Beetle

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 482: DR KRAKO

    (Big 3 Comics 003, 1941)

    Dr Krako is a 1940s Blue Beetle villain, so he’s a (gang boss/ criminal scientist) attempting to (kill Blue Beetle and then take over the city/ take over the city if he has to kill Blue Beetle to do it). He also has the optional Dr Dodo Memorial Sidequest of trying to kill Joan Mason because she is somehow the only person to know what he looks like even though he is going by his own name and, in fact, skywriting it above the city as part of some nebulous ransom notes.

    But though the broad strokes of Dr Krako’s scheme may be a bit formulaic the specifics are anything but. Skeletons! He has a way to control skeletons with electricity! Skeletons driving cars and shooting bullets out of their heads!

    Skeletons walking around and kidnapping people!

    This skeleton is about to explode! In fact, that’s implicitly the foundation of Dr Krako’s entire scheme – he’s going to march a bunch of skeletons into NYC York City and explode them, then profit somehow. Sadly we never actually see it as he commits the cardinal super-villain sin of having the hero at his mercy and then messing around with deathtraps and such rather than just bumping him off. Obviously I care nothing for Dr Krako himself but his skeleton tech should be BRUNG BACK at the earliest convenience.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 482: DR KRAKO

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 482: DR KRAKO

    (Big 3 Comics 003, 1941)

    Dr Krako is a 1940s Blue Beetle villain, so he’s a (gang boss/ criminal scientist) attempting to (kill Blue Beetle and then take over the city/ take over the city if he has to kill Blue Beetle to do it). He also has the optional Dr Dodo Memorial Sidequest of trying to kill Joan Mason because she is somehow the only person to know what he looks like even though he is going by his own name and, in fact, skywriting it above the city as part of some nebulous ransom notes.

    But though the broad strokes of Dr Krako’s scheme may be a bit formulaic the specifics are anything but. Skeletons! He has a way to control skeletons with electricity! Skeletons driving cars and shooting bullets out of their heads!

    Skeletons walking around and kidnapping people!

    This skeleton is about to explode! In fact, that’s implicitly the foundation of Dr Krako’s entire scheme – he’s going to march a bunch of skeletons into NYC York City and explode them, then profit somehow. Sadly we never actually see it as he commits the cardinal super-villain sin of having the hero at his mercy and then messing around with deathtraps and such rather than just bumping him off. Obviously I care nothing for Dr Krako himself but his skeleton tech should be BRUNG BACK at the earliest convenience.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 480: PORKY HOGG

    (Big 3 002, 1940)

    Obviously the most remarkable thing about Porky Hogg is that he looks like a pig-man but more than that he is a pig-man who has a real gift for motivation and teambuilding.

    These gangsters are worked into a dang frenzy over the prospect of killing the Blue Beetle – I’m pretty sure they killed that guy in the third panel! – if Porky Hogg had the real Beetle on hand during this little rally they might have taken him out with sheer enthusiasm.

    So, having correctly identified the Blue Beetle as the only thing standing between him and complete domination of New York City and having mentally conditioned an entire gang into some sort of Blue Beetle-hating cult, just what is the plan?

    Here’s where we start to get into Porky Hogg’s failings, because the plan is a bad one: kill a guy and frame the Blue Beetle for it by leaving a sticker on the body. I mean, it works, because the cops in Blue Beetle comics are dumb as hell, but it doesn’t actually do anything to remove the Blue Beetle from the city, because the cops are dumb as hell and the Blue Beetle can easily avoid them. In fact, the cops are always after the Blue Beetle. That’s the kind of super-hero he is, the kind that the cops are after!

    The rest of the story involves a lot of running around and attempted murder. Blue Beetle gal pal Joan Mason gets kidnapped as per usual and taken to Porky Hogg’s incredibly inconvenient mountaintop lair and then Porky Hogg gets knocked off of that same lair to his death. You know what they say: don’t live on a mountain if you’re not prepared to fall off of a mountain.

    Weirdly, Blue Beetle faces off against another guy named Porky Hog (with one g and not as piggy) the next year in Blue Beetle v1 008, and he also framed the Blue Beetle for murder because, as mentioned, the cops in Blue Beetle comics are dumb as hell.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 478: BORGO

    (Big 3 001, 1940)

    Here’s the thing about Borgo: they call him the Mirror Murderer in the opening blurb and then never do so again, even though he kills several people using mirrors. It’s a good name and I’m sad that I can’t justify using it so I’ll keep this short.

    Borgo’s got one goal in life and that’s to kill the five scientific James Brothers, seemingly because one of them fired him for stealing radium. Is it rational to kill five men for the entirely justified actions of one? No, but that’s where super-villains come from, isn’t it. 

    He also has one of the better deathtraps of all time: a big drum that he straps Blue Beetle gal pal Joan Mason to the top of, with the goal of vibrating her to death.

    And that’s a wrap on Borgo.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 478: BORGO

    (Big 3 001, 1940)

    Here’s the thing about Borgo: they call him the Mirror Murderer in the opening blurb and then never do so again, even though he kills several people using mirrors. It’s a good name and I’m sad that I can’t justify using it so I’ll keep this short.

    Borgo’s got one goal in life and that’s to kill the five scientific James Brothers, seemingly because one of them fired him for stealing radium. Is it rational to kill five men for the entirely justified actions of one? No, but that’s where super-villains come from, isn’t it. 

    He also has one of the better deathtraps of all time: a big drum that he straps Blue Beetle gal pal Joan Mason to the top of, with the goal of vibrating her to death.

    And that’s a wrap on Borgo.

  • FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 006

    Who will rid me of these fascist goons?

    The Nordland Bund is another German-American Bund analog but operates as more of a traditional spy operation on behalf of Nazi Germany stand-in Prussland. Their moderately complicated plan to get explosive coal onto US ships leaving Bermuda is foiled by Secret Agent D-13 and his Canadian counterpart/ love interest Lorraine MacAlinn (Mystery Men Comics 019, 1941)

    Like the man’s feet say, the Hoops are a bunch of Nazis (proper Nazis – Fox Features seems to have stopped pussyfooting around with oblique references and backwards words in the last few months of 1941) who had a signature move of leaving a hoop around the neck of their victims. And the word the Blue Beetle is searching for is explode the hoops explode. And fittingly enough the Blue Beetle later uses one of those hoops to explode Baron Gell, leader of the big-h Hoops. (Mystery Men Comics 025, 1941)

    Technically this group is nameless and the Anti-Foreigners Committee is a supposedly patriotic group run by their leader as a cover, but if there’s a name that underlines the simmering fascism that underlies ultra-patriotism better than that one then I can’t recall it. (Amazing-Man Comics 022, 1941)

    These guys are called the Thorns for no particular reason. Just a buncha Nazi goons with a more poetic name than usual. They go up against ultrapatriotic teen Paul Revere, Jr and also his dad. (Banner Comics 003, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 450: COUNTESS BELLADONNA

    (Mystery Men Comics 029, 1941)

    We first see Countess Belladonna at the Westchester Flower Show, where she meets young Brenda Talmadge and murders her for her recently-inherited Riviera Ruby.

    Now here I’m going to jump ahead and spoil the twist of a comic book that was published more than 80 years ago: Countess Belladonna is actually Judge Talmadge, stepfather to Brenda Talmadge. As with any modern reading of a story with gender ambiguity there is a temptation to read more into things than was perhaps intended by the author, but here we go: whereas there are a lot of cases where a crossdressing man in a comic is clearly doing so for convenience, Judge Talmadge appears to have maintained Countess Belladonna as an alternate identity at least long enough for her to become established in New York society, which would presumably take months if not years – it was easier to establish a false identity in the era before electronic records but you had to put in at least some effort.

    Does this dedication to the role indicate that it is an expression of Talmadge’s gender identity? No way to tell, really. Countess Belladonna does go on a murder-and-theft spree immediately thereafter but whether it’s because she was an identity created solely for that purpose or because the murder was spur-of-the-moment and Talmadge/ Belladonna figures he/she might as well get as much cash as possible before abandoning the identity is too close to tell.

    One thing is for sure: Talmadge and Belladonna both have a weird toothless rictus grin and that’s probably how the Blue Beetle cottons onto them.

    Countess Belladonna returns in the next issue, this time adding a third identity: Dr Zinn the carnival barker. Or possibly Dr Zinn has replaced Judge Talmadge as the new second identity, as he is effectively absent from the story bar these few panels. This time the Countess has retired her poisoned knitting needles for a skull-bedecked fan that not only dispenses pepper but can be used to hypnotize people. He also has bunch of Native South American dudes in a cage as circus attractions/ henchmen, so this is one of those “very racist” comics we all love so much.

    Anyway, Dr Zinn is just as reckless as the other two identities, as not only does he return to NYC York City rather than going literally anywhere else in the world. Plus he spends a fair amount of time trying to kill Blue Beetle love interest Joan Mason – not a great way to avoid attracting attention to yourself in a super-hero comic. 

    Countess Belladonna ends up getting away and probably would have returned in another few issues with another identity or two, but this is just before the Blue Beetle’s publishing status gets weird for the first time as he moves from Fox Features to a publisher called Holyoke for a few years. Nobody at Holyoke remembered the Countess, it seemed, and by the time the Blue Beetle was back at Fox, nobody there did either. A pretty slick escape, I must say.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 450: COUNTESS BELLADONNA

    (Mystery Men Comics 029, 1941)

    We first see Countess Belladonna at the Westchester Flower Show, where she meets young Brenda Talmadge and murders her for her recently-inherited Riviera Ruby.

    Now here I’m going to jump ahead and spoil the twist of a comic book that was published more than 80 years ago: Countess Belladonna is actually Judge Talmadge, stepfather to Brenda Talmadge. As with any modern reading of a story with gender ambiguity there is a temptation to read more into things than was perhaps intended by the author, but here we go: whereas there are a lot of cases where a crossdressing man in a comic is clearly doing so for convenience, Judge Talmadge appears to have maintained Countess Belladonna as an alternate identity at least long enough for her to become established in New York society, which would presumably take months if not years – it was easier to establish a false identity in the era before electronic records but you had to put in at least some effort.

    Does this dedication to the role indicate that it is an expression of Talmadge’s gender identity? No way to tell, really. Countess Belladonna does go on a murder-and-theft spree immediately thereafter but whether it’s because she was an identity created solely for that purpose or because the murder was spur-of-the-moment and Talmadge/ Belladonna figures he/she might as well get as much cash as possible before abandoning the identity is too close to tell.

    One thing is for sure: Talmadge and Belladonna both have a weird toothless rictus grin and that’s probably how the Blue Beetle cottons onto them.

    Countess Belladonna returns in the next issue, this time adding a third identity: Dr Zinn the carnival barker. Or possibly Dr Zinn has replaced Judge Talmadge as the new second identity, as he is effectively absent from the story bar these few panels. This time the Countess has retired her poisoned knitting needles for a skull-bedecked fan that not only dispenses pepper but can be used to hypnotize people. He also has bunch of Native South American dudes in a cage as circus attractions/ henchmen, so this is one of those “very racist” comics we all love so much.

    Anyway, Dr Zinn is just as reckless as the other two identities, as not only does he return to NYC York City rather than going literally anywhere else in the world. Plus he spends a fair amount of time trying to kill Blue Beetle love interest Joan Mason – not a great way to avoid attracting attention to yourself in a super-hero comic. 

    Countess Belladonna ends up getting away and probably would have returned in another few issues with another identity or two, but this is just before the Blue Beetle’s publishing status gets weird for the first time as he moves from Fox Features to a publisher called Holyoke for a few years. Nobody at Holyoke remembered the Countess, it seemed, and by the time the Blue Beetle was back at Fox, nobody there did either. A pretty slick escape, I must say.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 445: DR DODO

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 445: DR DODO

    (Mystery Men Comics 024, 1941)

    Gotta say: while I was initially quite excited to have a non-gang boss foe for the Blue Beetle after a run of four or five of them and even moreso after seeing that it was a guy named Dr Dodo who looked like a brute mob from a mid-tier FPS with a supernatural theme (you know, he’d be dressed in a bloody butcher’s apron and take like a minute to kill until you figure out the trick to it) but upon realizing that he was just copying the Sky-Ruler and extorting inventors with the threat of fatal deplaning (albeit without bothering with the cars). It’s dispiriting.

    A point in Dr Dodo’s favour for his clearly-stated gals: he has an explosive ray weapon and he is threatening to blow up NYC York City with it unless he’s paid off.

    Unfortunately for Dr Dodo, it’s just not enough. Yes he looks very cool and menacing and like it’s going to eat up your supply of plasma grenades to take him out. Sure he has a workable scheme. Yes he has a great name. But he spends a considerable portion of the story working to keep anyone from finding out who he is – exploding the body of that poor inventor, burning up the records at the local newspaper, kidnapping and attempting to murder Joan Mason and the Blue Beetle – while going around extorting the city under what is evidently his real name, Dr Dodo! And the background information that he is so keen to safeguard, that he was dismissed from somewhere for growing poisonous roses, has no bearing on his schemes and no part in his downfall! Maddening!

    Lets all look at him one last time, though. He really does look cool, doesn’t he? You’re going to have to reload like five times to take this bad boy out with the starting weapon.

  • NOTES – FEBRUARY 2024

    Good reactions by the people in this crowd to Amazing-Man passing through in his Green Mist form – people usually treat it as if he’s invisible but this is much more satisfying. (Amazing-Man Comics 014, 1940) 

    Origins:

    The Shark is not just the son of Father Neptune, he’s part of a long line of father/ son Neptunes and Sharks! I was right in my belief that the Shark was more interesting than most ocean dwelling super-heroes! (Amazing-Man Comics 014, 1940)

    I Don’t Get It Dept:

    The names on this poster are either character in the story (Dr Hypno, Lana the lion tamer) or jokes (Governor Graft, Senator Filchit, Mayor M.I. Blue), but Ivan Coe is not the former and I can’t figure out any way he’s the latter. It’s a puzzle! (Amazing-Man Comics 019, 1941)

    Attacking Hitler:

    Amazing-Man participates in the grand old tradition of political commentary in comics (Amazing-Man Comics 022, 1941)

    Fate of Atlantis:

    Adventurer Reef Kinkaid encounters a fairly standard version of Atlantis (or Atlantia) stuck in a little bubble under an island and still somehow managing to thrive for 9000+ years. (Amazing-Man Comics 022, 1941)

    Gruesome:

    Real gruesome death perpetrated by one-off hero the Marksman (Amazing-Man Comics 023, 1941)

    Famous Names:

    Hobo Harper encounters this evil guy who loves “fancy murders” and is trying to gain control of a travelling carnival – Tony Blair (Amazing-Man Comics 025, 1941)

    Giant guy on the right lives in the Tennessee woods eating wild boar and ends up falling off a mountain while tussling with DA Tom Kerry. Jim Davis is the name. (Big Shot Comics 002, 1940)

    Cops Shoot:

    Captain Courageous is accused of being a spy (literally by one guy yelling “he’s a spy!”) and these cops attempt to execute him. Twice! (Banner Comics 003, 1941)

    Now, the Blue Beetle did just rob a restaurant in order to get in good with a gang, but that’s still not a good reason for this cop to attempt to murder him. (Big 3 006, 1941)

    Canada:

    Always have to note when a comic makes a stop in a specific rather than generic location in Canada, even when it’s not actually Canadian for another eight years or so. This time it’s Captain Courageous showing up to help these wacky pacifist fishermen drive off a Nazi invasion. (Banner Comics 004, 1941)