The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Blue Beetle

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 442: GAT ARAT

    (Mystery Men Comics 023, 1941)

    I think that Gat Arat’s name doesn’t mean anything, that it’s just a guy with the unusual surname “Arat” and the nickname “Gat”, but it bothers me. I feel like I should be able to extract meaning from it. Is it a reference to 40s popular culture? Is he supposed to look like a rat? No idea.

    Confusing name or not, it turns out that Gat Arat has taken a lesson from the dearly departed Dr Krug, he of the exploding gorillas, only instead of trying to destroy NYC York City using hard-to-acquire primates he is extorting NYC York City using easily-sourced birds. He also demonstrates his temper via one of the more striking methods I have ever seen: hurled explosive pigeon.

    There’s a lot of running around and birds exploding and deathtraps but what it all comes down to in the end is that Gat Arat never considers that any of his explosive pigeons might return to him, a frankly major oversight. Still, he manages to survive a bird-based train explosion unlike his three cronies so he has a chance to learn from his mistakes.

    BONUS HONOURS: the Blue Beetle is thanked on the radio by the Mayor of New York York City, whoever he is.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 441: MAGOG

    (Mystery Men Comics 022, 1941)

    Magog clearly has some big plans – he repeatedly sends taunting notes to the police and announces his criminal debut by blowing up a playground full of children – but he is almost immediately baited into the open by a fake newspaper and dies in a struggle with the Blue Beetle so we will never know what they were.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 440: GALGO

    (Mystery Men Comics 020, 1941)

    Hey kids, it’s Galgo! A seemingly regular gang boss! Just how did he hack the system and end up on this illustrious list of no-name losers?

    He dressed his men like gorillas for no apparent reason. That, my friends, is the simple life hack that will take your regular villainy (such as stealing a device which reportedly forces criminals to confess) to a super level.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 439: THE SKY-RULER

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 439: THE SKY-RULER

    (Mystery Men Comics 019, 1941)

    I’m not sure what the Sky-Ruler’s deal is. 

    Scratch that – I know what his deal is. He rules the sky. He flies around in a big bomber plane and uses it to drop cars containing his enemies on the streets of New York City (he also tries to throw off the scent of the police by calling these the “Skyscraper Murders” in his notes but I have to imagine that this would only work as long as nobody noticed the enormous plane circling the city every time one happened).

    I also know what the Sky-Ruler is doing: he’s extorting inventors with the threat of being fatally deplaned in order to get ahold of their various formulae. But why does he want them? He claims that “now the city will be at my mercy,” which could mean looting, destruction, ransom or conquest in equal measure. Serves him right that the Blue Beetle captures him by causing his lowly, ground-based car to crash.

    Two more things about the Sky-Ruler: his henchmen are called the Sky-Raiders and I always appreciate a nominative flourish even when applied to no-name thugs, and also I appreciate that his character design seemingly involved giving him as many distinctive facial features as possible.

    But what was his deal?

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 428: THE WHITE FACE

    (Mystery Men Comics 001, 1939) 

    I have made an error! Two errors! The first was in skipping the Blue Beetle’s very first foe, and it was because of the second, that I had the antagonist in this story marked down as the White Face Gang rather than the White Face, plus his gang. If it was the former, the best their unnamed leader would get was a place in the Generic Costumed Villain Round-Up, but no, he has a special name!

    Mind you, he’s still a very unremarkable guy: a banker’s personal secretary gone bad, ho hum. Much more interesting is the Blue Beetle’s original suit-and-tie-vigilante costume and modus opperandi, down to a Green Hornet-like facade of criminality, the better to lure crooks into his confidence. It was gone by his next appearance, but he had it and that’s all that matters.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 428: THE WHITE FACE

    (Mystery Men Comics 001, 1939) 

    I have made an error! Two errors! The first was in skipping the Blue Beetle’s very first foe, and it was because of the second, that I had the antagonist in this story marked down as the White Face Gang rather than the White Face, plus his gang. If it was the former, the best their unnamed leader would get was a place in the Generic Costumed Villain Round-Up, but no, he has a special name!

    Mind you, he’s still a very unremarkable guy: a banker’s personal secretary gone bad, ho hum. Much more interesting is the Blue Beetle’s original suit-and-tie-vigilante costume and modus opperandi, down to a Green Hornet-like facade of criminality, the better to lure crooks into his confidence. It was gone by his next appearance, but he had it and that’s all that matters.

  • NOTES – JANUARY 2024

    Police Attempted Murder:

    The Green Mask broke an accused murderer (innocent, framed) out of jail so the NYPD attempt to murder him and Domino the Miracle Boy (Mystery Men Comics 020, 1941) 

    The police (behind the green car) attempt to gun down the Blue Beetle with no regard for the innocent witness standing next to him (Mystery Men 027, 1941)

    Future History:

    A stark vision of the state of the mortuary industry in the far-off year 2000, courtesy of Rex Dexter (though as is the nature of many sci-fi comics the setting seems to have drifted into at least  the late 2500s according to some of the headstones in the Moon graveyard) (Mystery Men Comics 021, 1941)

    COMMIES:

    Not too many Communist antagonists show up in the window between the advent of comics and Russia joining up with the Allies, but here we have some attempting to steal a new bomb prototype for their leader “Nilats” (and I guess to be completely accurate there are a lot of  spies with Russian-sounding names etc but almost all of them are clearly meant as crypto-fascist pseudo-Germans more than anything. These fellows being capital-c Communists is a rarity) (Mystery Men Comics 022, 1941)

  • NOTES – JANUARY 2024

    Police Attempted Murder:

    The Green Mask broke an accused murderer (innocent, framed) out of jail so the NYPD attempt to murder him and Domino the Miracle Boy (Mystery Men Comics 020, 1941) 

    The police (behind the green car) attempt to gun down the Blue Beetle with no regard for the innocent witness standing next to him (Mystery Men 027, 1941)

    Future History:

    A stark vision of the state of the mortuary industry in the far-off year 2000, courtesy of Rex Dexter (though as is the nature of many sci-fi comics the setting seems to have drifted into at least  the late 2500s according to some of the headstones in the Moon graveyard) (Mystery Men Comics 021, 1941)

    COMMIES:

    Not too many Communist antagonists show up in the window between the advent of comics and Russia joining up with the Allies, but here we have some attempting to steal a new bomb prototype for their leader “Nilats” (and I guess to be completely accurate there are a lot of  spies with Russian-sounding names etc but almost all of them are clearly meant as crypto-fascist pseudo-Germans more than anything. These fellows being capital-c Communists is a rarity) (Mystery Men Comics 022, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 409: THE SPHINX

    (Mystery Men Comics 018, 1941)

    The Sphinx is (somewhat appropriately) a bit convoluted? Or maybe disjointed? It’s hard to put into words but there is a weird dreamlike quality to some Golden Age comic books and the Blue Beetle stories from Fox Features often have it.

    To begin: the Sphinx is a mysterious figure who causes subway accidents and then utters threats and pronouncements in a booming voice, seemingly from nowhere. The Blue Beetle swiftly discovers that one of the Sphinx’s minions is in fact crouched nearby with a phonograph, and after some shenanigans and booby traps manages to track down the man who purchased the phonograph’s needle: Mr Ivan. 

    But Mr Ivan is dead, according to his burly identical sister who drives like a maniac. He can’t be the Sphinx!

    Or can he? Yes he can, because Mr Ivan and Miss Ivan are in fact the same person! A person who is getting revenge on the subway company for firing them. And look, I know that reading into past media can be a rocky road but… this cemetery fight sequence rules. If the Sphinx’s whole deal was being a crossdressing man or a trans woman seeking revenge on a former employer for wrongful dismissal I would love it and in my little heart I will believe that that is the case rather than that this is a standard comic book trope of a large man dressed up as a woman for larfs.

    Gender nonconforming icon or no, the Sphinx proceeds with the attempted ruination of the subway company while dressed in a moderately cool set of Sphinx-themed armour. I’m honestly not sure how the story resolves – the gruesome caption about the Sphinx melting inside his armour is followed by some discussion of his being captured by the Blue Beetle. Is “captured” a euphemism for “horribly killed”? Maybe!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 169: THE SWAMP MASTER

    (Blue Beetle Comics 010, 1941)

    Once again I am faced with the painful dichotomy of a villain with all of the trappings I love – he’s a bombastic loudmouth with a bunch of costumed henchmen, who uses simple trickery to appear superhuman – but uses them in service to some frankly uninspired crimes.

    In this case, the Swamp Master (great name, too!) emerges from the swamp (natch) with his wet-suited Swampmen and a saurian monster that is actually a disguised series of cranes and flatcars. Driven by a lust for cold hard cash, he and the Swampmen steal whole trains and remove them to the swamp for looting.

    The problem with this scheme is… everything? Stealing and looting entire trains (and murdering everyone on board!) might be a viable money-making scheme if you’re mobile, but just sitting in one place and doing it over and over, particularly in a super-hero universe, is a surefire ticket to jail or the grave, and the Swamp Master is lucky that he got the former.