The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: calling card

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 934: THE LADY KILLER

    (Silver Streak Comics 012, 1941)

    The Lady Killer makes his debut at the glamorous Crane Club, in which he attacks and nearly kills rising stage star Betty Crawford and takes a moment to grandstand a bit before making his escape. The name is a somewhat presumptuous one here, given the fact that he has yet to kill a lady.

    He makes up for this over the next few days as he murders a whopping fourteen women and injures a similar number of people and leaves a “Lady Killer” calling card at the scene of each crime. Though this is a fast turnaround on murder, I think that technically he is a serial rather than spree killer as he seems to be choosing his victims rather than attacking targets of opportunity – it’s just that his pool of potential victims is so huge that he can kill whenever he feels like it.

    Presto Martin eventually lays hands on the Lady Killer in his usual manner, through disguise. Specifically, by announcing that the villain will reappear at the Crane Club and then impersonating him there at the appointed time, and sure enough, the Lady Killer’s ego is too great to allow this imposture to stand and he gets within range of the detective’s fists and has his big hat knocked off.

    This is the point at which a mystery story would pay off and one of the suspects would be unmasked, but the thing about this story is that there are no suspects. Like, literally none – the only named characters in the comic other than Presto and his supporting cast are Betty Crawford and her beau and they are the only ones who it couldn’t be. Instead the Lady Killer is just Some Guy who had a very bad breakup and lost all his money and decided to take it out on an entire gender instead of dealing with his issues in a more mature manner. As a fan of a mystery I feel robbed.

    Categorized in: Crime Theme (Killers), Language (Expressions), Murder (Serial Killers)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 932: THE GHOST OF THE DOMINO

    (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

    The Domino is dead! All those murders he did and more importantly admitted to when he was trying to extort the NYPD have caught up to him via the electric chair, and all of New York breathes easier.

    Not for long, however, as the various witnesses at the Domino’s trial, and particularly the members of his own gang who turned state’s evidence, begin turning up dead with a domino – that has the Domino’s fingerprints on it! –  in their hands. Rumours that the ghost of the Domino has returned for revenge start flying around the underworld.

    And to top it all off, the Domino’s grave turns out to be empty!

    Now, the seemingly dead gangster returned from the dead to get revenge is a common enough trope that we can lay out the possible ways it might have happened with ease:

    1. the Domino’s death was faked and the “body” smuggled out for “revival” elsewhere

    2. the Domino really dies and his body was collected by an unscrupulous scientist for revival or brain transplant, etc.

    3. the Domino’s body was stolen and he is being impersonated, possibly by a secret identical twin

    4. it’s actually the Domino’s ghost

    Feel free to place a small bet on which of these comics-accurate options is the case here.

    Answer: it’s option 3! The Ghost of the Domino is in fact Pete Poulos, one of the Domino’s former lieutenants, who has faked his old boss’ return and done all of the seeming revenge killings as a smokescreen for his true goal: to eliminate all the other former members of the Domino gang who know where their old boss’ money is hidden.

    As per usual, a combination of facial disguises and a bulletproof vest carries the day for Presto Martin, and the Ghost of the Domino is sent to replace the original in prison (and possibly the grave).

    Categorized in: Accessories (Calling Cards), Activities (Dominoes), Fraud (Fake Ghosts)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 928: THE DOMINO

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    Dominic Leonetti, aka the Domino, is a nightclub owner/gang boss with what I would call a moderate commitment to his chosen theme. Sure, he plays a game of dominoes with his victims before killing them, and sure he leaves a domino in the hand of whoever he kills, but where’s the domino tie pin or domino-handled knife or even that old standard the domino mask? Even his nightclub is called the Red Rouse, which is so much not a domino term that it doesn’t seem to mean anything. Call it the Red Pip!

    The Domino’s attempt to murder his underling Chick Biro is foiled when it turns out that Biro has been replaced by Presto Martin and that Martin is wearing a bulletproof vest (and this has officially happened often enough that the crooks in Martin’s version of NYC should be headshot-only at this point). The gang manages to escape thanks to Martin’s bumbling assistant Sergeant Murphy, but they have to take it on the lam.

    Being on the run means that the Domino is unable to run his nightclub, to which he objects. What, I ask you, is the most logical and straightforward way for him to get back to his preferred lifestyle? All answers are wrong because what Leonetti decides to do is start killing cops in alphabetical order (leaving a domino behind so that the police can be sure it’s him), with the explicit threat that the killings will continue until the charges against him are dropped and he is left alone. Is this the least thought-out plan in comics history? It’s certainly the worst one that I personally can think of.

    Presto Martin solves this problem like he solves all problems: by dressing up like the Domino’s next most probably victim and tanking a tommy gun clip thanks to his presumably magical bulletproof vest. A few well-placed bullets drives the gang’s car off the road, followed by a few well-placed punches to send them to sleep, and the reign of the Domino is over.

    Categorized in: Activities (Games), Day Job (Nightclub Owner), Location (NYC)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 926: THE WINGERS

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    One day while noodling around in his super plane, Cloud Curtis comes across a crashed plane in Death Valley, with near-dead pilot speaking of snow on the wings. What could this mean?

    Cloud and his entourage check in with Mr Richmond, owner of the plane, and find that it is the latest in a series of crashes and disappearances. This is all highly suspicious, and what’s even more suspicious is the brick with a note wrapped around it that comes smashing through the window as they discuss it, containing an extortion demand from a group calling themselves the Wingers (and signed with a cool little winged skull).

    Cloud determines that the surest way to ferret out the Wingers is with a decoy plane that he even goes to the trouble to stuff full of passenger-dummies for some reason. Sure enough, the gang show up in a high-powered plane equipped with what amounts to a snow cannon, which they use to ice up the decoy’s wings. Not only does this explain the “snow in Death Valley” thing, but also the reason why they call themselves the Wingers – because they attack wings!

    The Wingers are admirably well-prepared to deal with Cloud Curtis: their plane is not only bulletproof but treated with some sort of low friction coating that prevents the Golden Bullet’s robot grappling arms from working on it. This comes back to bite them, as Curtis, out of other ideas, just ends up blowing them up with a hand grenade rather than continuing to try to capture them.

    Categorized in: Body (Nonhuman Parts), Extortion (Corporate), Location (Death Valley)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 924: MOLO

    (Silver Streak Comics 008, 1941)

    A killer stalks the entertainment industry! Prominent  people are being murdered, including Academy Award winner Kay Kaye, opera singer Lily Donela and Dick Bradley, recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for “the best play of the year” which I suppose would be for literature? And also very impressive because the Nobel Prize was suspended in 1941 due to the war?

    In total, nine luminaries of the stage and screen have been killed as the story opens and all have been found with a note reading “Death by Molo.” 

    The next projected target is playwright Bruce Canton, who is about to be honoured with a banquet. Enter Presto Martin, master of disguise, who poses as Canton and rounds up Molo with little effort. Case closed, the day is saved, etc.

    There’s just one problem: Canton is murdered at the banquet, complete with calling card, and the witnesses identify the man in Martin’s lockup as the culprit.

    A little of the ol’ disguise routine from Presto determines that the Molo in police custody has a twin brother who is hell-bent on continuing the murder spree. This means that Martin has to dress up like the logical next victim again and act as bait for a killer again, ho hum. The second Molo is captured with ease and thrown into jail with his brother.

    And just why were the Molos so hell-bent on murdering successful figures in the entertainment industry anyway? Why, because they themselves were failures back in the dying days of Vaudeville and they just couldn’t take seeing other people make it. 

    THE SUPER-VILLAINS OF HOLLYWOOD PODCAST: One of the least successful episodes in the history of the show. The hosts take the bizarre approach of treating the Molo brothers as victims of the entertainment system and among other things demonstrate that they don’t really know what Vaudeville is. Rumours that the podcast was threatened with a lawsuit by the estate of Kay Kaye are unconfirmed, but the episode was quietly removed from the archive after a few months.

    Categorized in: Murder (Serial Killers), Origin (Twins), the Super-Villains of Hollywood Podcast

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 918: THE BLACK PANTHER

    (Cat-Man Comics 004, 1941)

    The district attorney of Central City, the NYC clone that the Pied Piper inhabits, has been murdered by what the authorities can only conceive of as a beast! The city is in a real tizzy, especially once Police Commissioner Gurry receives a note informing him that he will be the next victim (and the cute little signature on this note is why I am calling this villain the Black Panther when it is not used elsewhere in the story – if we can’t go by what he calls himself then what’s the point?).

    True to his word, the Black Panther shows up at the Commissioner’s office at 10:30, and sics his small-b, small-p black panther on him (I know it looks white in the above panel but trust me). It is only the timely intervention of the Pied Piper that saves the day.

    Though the initial attempt failed, the Black Panther is nothing if not persistent and tries again once the commissioner gets home – I guess the police assumed that the scheduled 10:30 murder was some sort of hard and fast rule that the villain was going to stick to and so they all knocked off for the day once it didn’t happen. It’s all groovy though, because the Pied Piper is still on the case and his magic flute has a “panther-killing” setting. And his fist has a “villain-punching” setting that comes in handy when the Black Panther makes a third attempt on the Commissioner’s life sans pet.

    Once unmasked, the Black Panther turns out to be newspaper editor Purt Mason, and Purt Mason is revealed in turn to be gangster Razor Harris, who spent some time in South Africa while establishing his new identity (and acquiring a panther pal) and came back for revenge on the men who put him away. The Black Panther was a revenge killer the whole time!

    REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/2

    Categorized in: Animals (Panthers), Colours (Black), Murder (Revenge Killers)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 073

    It’s a fine day for a dose of minor super-heroes. 

    Alias X: 

    Alias, aka just X, is a mysterious master of disguise who has been cleaning up crime in NYC for the better part of a year and who, as of his first appearance, has now deigned to tell his origin story to Police Commissioner Malley and newspaper editor Hunch Armstrong.

    Turns out that X was a small-town taxi company owner who was railroaded and sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and that after two years in prison he managed to escape, became a master of disguise by sheer willpower and set out to battle crime until he could track down the crooks who really committed the crimes he was convicted for and clear his name.

    The police commissioner must be a trusting guy, because he refrains from putting out an APB or whatever on Alias X after he hears this confession. 

    As far as I can tell from a skim of the 1942 portion of Alias X’s dozen or so adventures, he never catches up with the crooks who framed him – just one of the many loose ends of the comics. Please also note that Alias X is a calling card guy. (Captain Fearless Comics 001, 1941)

    Citizen Smith: 

    Citizen Smith! Plain old John Smith, who could be any one of us regular Americans! Just a regular guy! So why are we reading a comic book about him?

    Citizen Smith is in actuality John Smith, an aircraft factory worker in Washington DC and also an orphan consumed with the desire to know just who his parents were. While stewing on this after work one day he wanders up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where he receives both great news and a great shock as a ghostly figure appears and tells him that he, the Unknown Soldier, is Smith’s father.

    Smith’s new ghost dad charges him to keep America safe, with the promise that he will appear and aid his son if needed (sadly this does not occur in either of the two recorded Citizen Smith adventures). The newly-created Citizen’s Guardian of Liberty and Guardian of the American Way then sallies forth to whale on fifth columnists with his two good all-American fists.

    Now, I try to take comics as they are presented to me and not engage in a lot of “what if they were dead the whole time”-style fan theory nonsense but I will say that if I were writing a gritty early-2000s Citizen Smith reboot… all this ghost stuff would just be a hallucination brought on by his obsessions, right? Just a lonely man giving his life meaning by latching on to a powerful symbol to fill the hole in his life. But of course that is not who we are here. Citizen Smith is as he appears: a divinely ordained champion of the American Way. (Captain Fearless Comics 001, 1941)

    Miss Victory: 

    Miss Victory is Joan Wayne, a woman who works in Washington DC in secretarial and similar roles and who seems to have seen an opening for a two-fisted vigilante and filled it, no further origin necessary. There is some hint that her vigilantism is officially sanctioned in the first couple of panels of her first appearance, but if so she has very little oversight. She is much more willing to resort to violence than a lot of her female contemporaries, which is kind of refreshing.

    Miss Victory does share with our old friend the Eagle the inability to really settle on a costume design, so I’m sure that we’ll be revisiting her in that capacity. 

    Case in point: this revised version of her costume from her second appearance, in Captain Fearless Comics 002. As with most of her costume changes it’s a variation on the theme of her previous look and is probably explained by the fact that she  (Captain Fearless Comics 001, 1941) 

    Mr Miracle: 

    Mr Miracle is of course among the ranks of the obscure Golden Age characters who have the same name as a more well-known modern character, but he is also a member of a much more select fraternity: of characters whose origin involves a suicide attempt, though the precise reason that the unnamed man had for jumping is never given.

    The future Mr Miracle is pulled out of the water by a helpful stranger and brought to the great scientist Professor Rietz, who revives him via a twenty hour session under his “mind-ray,” only to be betrayed and shot by his assistant Sango at the final hour. Sango turns out to have been a foreign agent who was laying in wait for the mind-ray to be perfected, and now the hour has come.

    The still-unnamed man wakes to a ruined laboratory and a dying Rietz, who reveals to him in addition to saving his life, the mind-ray has given him great if unspecified powers. He then extracts a pledge from the man that he will use this power to aid mankind and promptly dies.

    The man creates a costume, renames himself Mr Miracle and sets out to use is vast array of abilities (transmutation, teleportation, telekinesis, intangibility, size control, flight, etc, etc. Though Mr Miracle is technically some sort of psychic mutate he is in effect a nigh-omnipotent comic book magic user) to bring Sango to justice. 

    Mr Miracle gets to honour the promise he made to Prof. Rietz precisely one more time (by sinking a u-boat) before fading into the mists of comic book obscurity. (Captain Fearless Comics 001, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 908: THE RATTLER

    (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)

    As we join the action, a passing stranger informs us and also Golden Arrow that the Rattler has broken jail! And he’s handing out calling cards! 

    Turns out that the Rattler, notorious outlaw of the West, is out to get the men who served on the jury at his trial (and, we must assume, the judge and prosecutor as well), and he’s being impressively proactive about it: the above scene takes place the morning after he breaks jail and he has already killed nine members of the jury.

    After the unnamed sheriff’s deputy quits in the face of the Rattler’s murderous machinations, Golden Arrow signs up for the job and is immediately pinned down by a hail of bullets. Bullets which are then revealed to be yet another calling card-type image! For an Old West character, the Rattler is surprisingly brand-conscious.

    The Rattler’s industriousness turns out to include planning super-hero contingency plans: by the time Golden Arrow gets ready to pursue and apprehend him, the villain’s men have already made off not only with Golden Arrow’s horse White Wind but his ladyfriend Carol Braddock. And he arranges for Golden Arrow to be attacked by a (jumping!) rattlesnake – more brand consciousness.

    I’m almost sad that the Rattler falls for Golden Arrow’s subsequent trap. He was doing so well! There’s a lesson here that I can’t quite articulate – perhaps something about the path of revenge laying even the most clever among us low. In any case, it’s back to jail for the Rattler, which will give him more time to come up with an even more extensive revenge list.

    JUDGE AND JURY REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 9/15+

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 908: THE RATTLER

    (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)

    As we join the action, a passing stranger informs us and also Golden Arrow that the Rattler has broken jail! And he’s handing out calling cards! 

    Turns out that the Rattler, notorious outlaw of the West, is out to get the men who served on the jury at his trial (and, we must assume, the judge and prosecutor as well), and he’s being impressively proactive about it: the above scene takes place the morning after he breaks jail and he has already killed nine members of the jury.

    After the unnamed sheriff’s deputy quits in the face of the Rattler’s murderous machinations, Golden Arrow signs up for the job and is immediately pinned down by a hail of bullets. Bullets which are then revealed to be yet another calling card-type image! For an Old West character, the Rattler is surprisingly brand-conscious.

    The Rattler’s industriousness turns out to include planning super-hero contingency plans: by the time Golden Arrow gets ready to pursue and apprehend him, the villain’s men have already made off not only with Golden Arrow’s horse White Wind but his ladyfriend Carol Braddock. And he arranges for Golden Arrow to be attacked by a (jumping!) rattlesnake – more brand consciousness.

    I’m almost sad that the Rattler falls for Golden Arrow’s subsequent trap. He was doing so well! There’s a lesson here that I can’t quite articulate – perhaps something about the path of revenge laying even the most clever among us low. In any case, it’s back to jail for the Rattler, which will give him more time to come up with an even more extensive revenge list.

    JUDGE AND JURY REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 9/15+

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 897: MR SKELETON

    (America’s Greatest Comics 001, 1941)

    Mr Skeleton is one of the handful of minor super-villains who are
    foundational to this blog, the true weirdos who my mind turns to
    whenever the subject of obscure comic book characters comes up, and so
    it’s a real relief  to have him finally hsow his face here. This will
    keep happening at least until we reach 1978 and train-themed
    super-villain Casey Jones appears here.

    There are three really important aspects to Mr Skeleton that keep him in my thoughts:

    1. Appearance 

    He’s a chalk-white, twelve to eighteen foot tall man with an emaciated frame, huge hands and feet and a real pumpkin head with the face of a cartoon villain. It’s an extraordinary look, made even more so by his choice to dress in green trunks, a yellow halter top and a green cape. And he has eccentric facial hair!

    It’s a look that works well as both an over-the top campy cartoon villain and as a source of horror – just imagine that face looming out of the shadows at someone. 

    2. Plans and Methods 

    Mr Skeleton’s goal, as far as it is articulated, is to conquer the United States, but he doesn’t really get into the how and why of this because he is busy with step one: recruitment. 

    Specifically, Mr Skeleton needs generals to lead an army against the US, and he has what he seems to think is a surefire method of recruiting them: he kidnaps them and threatens to skeletonize them. This is a tactic that would probably work on me.

    Oddly, Mr Skeleton’s first step in his attempted conquest is to assassinate FDR, a task which he assigns to his most shifty aide. Who fails, by the way, and is skeletonized for his trouble. But why attempt to massively destabilize the US government when you’re still trying to recruit generals for your army of conquest? Honestly, MR Skeleton could probably benefit from a few kidnapped executive assistants. 

    3. DEATH 

    After being foiled by Minute-Man a couple of times, Mr Skeleton decides to get his recruitment program back on track in the most direct manner possible, by marching into the nearest Army camp and grabbing a fresh batch of generals. While he is doing so and simultaneously beating up the entire US Army, he is confronted by Minute-Man once again and ends up being smacked so hard that he turns into a kind of bone explosion. I guess he really was mostly just skeleton, however that works.

    Obviously I believe with all my heart that they should bring back Mr Skeleton – his mixture of goofy and horrifying is always welcome in comics, battling Batman or Wild Dog or somone. You don’t even have to stretch too far to have him come back since he was already some sort of skeleton-man: just put him back together.