The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: good henchmen

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 596: THE ROBOT SCIENTISTS OF VENUS

    (Fantastic Comics 003, 1940) 

    The Robot Scientists of Venus are not particularly noteworthy villains on a lot of axes but they are the bosses of perhaps the most visually distinctive groups of the Golden Age, the Leopard Women of Venus.

    What other comic could offer a visual like this: a bevy of bodacious blonde babes in red leopardprint bodysuits, surfing through space on lizard monsters and blazing away with their head-guns? Other Fletcher Hanks comics, I guess, plus early Wonder Woman. But the point stands!

    (here is where I will put a brief aside on the notion of “transmitting” as it exists in Fletcher Hanks comics. Conceptually, transmitting involves just that, the transmission of matter along a light or radio beam of some kind. In practice, it’s more like just being able to fly around in space without any kind of life support like the Leopard Women here)

    Sadly, the Leopard Women are mere vassals of the dominant Venusian race and we don’t really see them again. Happily, the dominant Venusian race are these cool robots! Their leaders appear to be these robot scientists, who seem to be running these Leopard Woman space raids without any clear goals. Sure, they plan on turning Dianna into a Leopard Woman but that seems to be more of a spur-of-the-moment decision.

    Luckily for them, Space Smith escapes before they have to figure out what to do with him. The rest of the adventure is just a series of encounters with colourful robots as they make their way to their spaceship, starting with these (delightfully and conscientiously masked) robot surgeons.

    Everyone in this panel is grumpy.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 582: BARON BLOOD

    (Detective Eye 001, 1940)

    Not the first knockoff of Count “the Most Dangerous Game” Zaroff we’ve met, and certainly not the last. Baron Blood incorporates quite a lot of elements that you’ll find in various adaptations of the story: the island castle with built-in lighthouse to draw victims in via shipwreck, the monocle and prominent facial scar and the pack of hunting dogs and huge hunting guide/servant.

    What sets the Baron apart from the rest of the bored island-dwelling human-hunting aristocratic crowd is that for one he is not actually a baron but an escaped maniac. For two, he both dresses like a super-villain (orange chain mail!) and employs a staff composed of guys dressed as Vikings and armed with machine guns. Really great stuff, top score on the henchman front. Like the original and a lot of knockoff Zaroffs he also gives himself a bit of a hunting handicap, in his case using poisoned darts fired from a sling – some real eccentric villain behaviour.

    He of course (of course) meets his end at the point of his own darts after Dean Denton tackles him from out of a tree. Just carrying around a fistful of them like that is a Health and Safety nightmare in a regular workplace, let alone a jungle island where man hunts man.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 558: DOXOL

    (Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939)

    We (and the Flame) start in media res, as a young woman unsuccessfully attempts to flee a car full of hooded goons, is captured and brought back to an ominous manor in the woods. The Flame cottons on to this and follows them.

    Inside we find Doxol! Doxol is a wizened green fellow who is using mind control drugs (mystic ones!) to create his own little crime cult. This is where the slice-of-life nature of the story gets a bit frustrating from an analytical perspective: is Doxol still setting up or has this cult been a going concern for a while? Were the new recruits all kidnapped or recruited regular cult-style? Even Doxol’s appearance – magic mutation or dramatic disguise? It’s a mystery!

    The Flame has even less information about Doxol than we do because he was dropped into a pit with crushy walls as soon as he stepped through the door. Lucky for him/ unlucky for Doxol his induction ceremony involves a flaming brazier for the Flame to appear in like he does (also lucky for that lady because she doesn’t get shot full of grody mind control drugs).

    Doxol makes his escape while the hooded riffraff deal with the Flame, or so he thinks. Turns out that the Flame was fortuitously flying his plane when he stumbled into this mess. 

    You’d think that engaging a guy like the Flame in a dogfight would level the playing field for a fellow like Doxol but no, he just leans out the window and lights Doxol’s plane on fire.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 552: BARON VON KAMPF

    (Speed Comics 001, 1939) 

    Baron von Kampf! Major recurring Shock Gibson villain and aspiring world conqueror. He’s exactly the sort of evil, sneering gloating villain that I love to see vex the heroes of yesteryear, and due to the fact that his appearances are concentrated in the early days of the super-hero medium that’s about all the characterization he gets. He wants to rule the world and he’s a dick about it.

    But who needs characterization when you’ve 1. got the appearance of a weird little goblin man and 2. employ the services of what are possibly the greatest henchmen of the Golden Age: the Zombies!

    “This Better Not Awaken Anything In Me”

    According to Baron von Kampf, the Zombies are radio-controlled creatures made out of animal parts. Just why they’re called zombies is a mystery – the idea of the zombie as a resurrected corpse or corpselike drugged (or mystically enthralled) person was very much in the cultural ether in 1939, so who the heck knows?

    Naming conventions aside the Zombies look terrific, particularly in a huge group – they’re like something that Steve Ditko might draw swarming out of a portal to beat up Dr Strange.

    Baron von Kampf’s second appearance in Speed Comics 002 sadly does not involve the Zombies but does feature that old favourite gizmo, the engine killing ray, which von Kampf is employing to bring down airplanes in order to conquer the South American nation of El Matador. 

    The real interesting thing about the Baron in this issue is that he still has on what I previously assumed to be some sort of surgical cap but might just be the top of his head? Like it’s a metal plate or something? Like all aspects of the Baron’s appearance it goes unmentioned in the text so we can only speculate on why exactly he is Like That.

    Baron von Kampf shows up maybe half a dozen times total but the real attraction is the Zombies, who get a bit weirder as time goes on. We”l be seeing them again, I assure you.

    UPDATE: Baron von Kampf 1940

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 552: BARON VON KAMPF

    (Speed Comics 001, 1939) 

    Baron von Kampf! Major recurring Shock Gibson villain and aspiring world conqueror. He’s exactly the sort of evil, sneering gloating villain that I love to see vex the heroes of yesteryear, and due to the fact that his appearances are concentrated in the early days of the super-hero medium that’s about all the characterization he gets. He wants to rule the world and he’s a dick about it.

    But who needs characterization when you’ve 1. got the appearance of a weird little goblin man and 2. employ the services of what are possibly the greatest henchmen of the Golden Age: the Zombies!

    “This Better Not Awaken Anything In Me”

    According to Baron von Kampf, the Zombies are radio-controlled creatures made out of animal parts. Just why they’re called zombies is a mystery – the idea of the zombie as a resurrected corpse or corpselike drugged (or mystically enthralled) person was very much in the cultural ether in 1939, so who the heck knows?

    Naming conventions aside the Zombies look terrific, particularly in a huge group – they’re like something that Steve Ditko might draw swarming out of a portal to beat up Dr Strange.

    Baron von Kampf’s second appearance in Speed Comics 002 sadly does not involve the Zombies but does feature that old favourite gizmo, the engine killing ray, which von Kampf is employing to bring down airplanes in order to conquer the South American nation of El Matador. 

    The real interesting thing about the Baron in this issue is that he still has on what I previously assumed to be some sort of surgical cap but might just be the top of his head? Like it’s a metal plate or something? Like all aspects of the Baron’s appearance it goes unmentioned in the text so we can only speculate on why exactly he is Like That.

    Baron von Kampf shows up maybe half a dozen times total but the real attraction is the Zombies, who get a bit weirder as time goes on. We”l be seeing them again, I assure you.

    UPDATE: Baron von Kampf 1940

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 535: VON HAUPT

    (Fantastic Comics 001, 1939)

    Von Haupt is  more like a journey through the traits and attributes of a style of  super-crook than a character: Aviator Captain Kidd is flying over an unspecified jungle when his plane is forced down by an engine-killing ray. Captured by costumed goons, Kidd is brought to a jungle fortress before a vaguely European man  with a German-sounding last name and a monocle. Though threatening, this exchange turns out to be a job interview, as von Haupt needs a few good men to help him take over  the world.

    Von Haupt claims to be (and indeed is) physically immortal due to his experiments but makes sure to clearly signpost his weak point, a withered hand encased in a keen metal gauntlet.

    He demonstrates his power, as well as the razor sharp claws on his gauntlet.

    And finally falls from grace (into vat of sulphur). The weak point comes into play as the gauntlet comes off. The fortress explodes, but Captain Kidd gets out in the nick of time.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 534: THE BRAIN

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 534: THE BRAIN

    (Fantastic Comics 001, 1939)

    We open on Space Smith and his girlfriend Dianna (sometimes Diana) having a trans-Lunar space-date ruined by Martian Imp Men and I am immediately struck with the dilemma engendered by nearly all Fletcher Hanks stories: follow through on my impulses and post most if not all panels or be judicious for the sake of space and readability? I went with the latter but it hurt.

    So in lieu of my posting every panel that features the great/horrible Martian Imp Men let’s just pause and appreciate how great they are.

    Space Smith and Dianna awaken in the laboratory of the great Martian scientist Skomah and learn that they have been kidnapped by Skomah’s 7th son, also called Skomah, aka the Brain, aka the Central Brain aka the Great Martian Central Brain.

    Really appreciate the detail that the Brain’s head is so big that it has to be held up with two special robot arms.

    Like a lot of big head smart guys, the Brain is convinced that it is his destiny to rule all of creation and is planning to start with Earth. He’s also a huge creep in the same was as a lot of those guys and a lot of super-villains in general, in the “capture a woman and declare that she will be your queen” way.

    Luckily for Dianna, a guy with a head so big he is literally bolted to the ground is not the hardest guy to get away from, even if he has a bunch of D&D 5e kobolds working for him. She and Space Smith get away incredibly easily, in fact, and spend the next few issues trying to get back to Mars to put a permanent end to Skomah the 7th (they never do actually get there. Perhaps they just lost interest when it became clear that the Brain was all talk. Or Fletcher Hanks just forgot).

    BONUS MAN-EATING MARTIAN MOSQUITO

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 533: THORGA

    (Fantastic Comics 001, 1939) 

    Thorga! Exiled from Western society because of his “mad plans”, he emerges from the mountains of Tibet with a high-tech army, intent on conquering Europe!

    Thorga! He fields a mighty airforce of advanced planes, a mechanized infantry of advanced tanks!

    Thorga! He is the first foe faced by Fox Features’ Samson and so his main role is as a demonstration of Samson’s power as he destroys not only the planes and tanks but the regular infantry to boot (who, might I note, are not only dressed in excellent henchman costumes but apparently referred to as “Thorganians”, a top-notch henchman name).

    Thorga, not only defeated by Samson, not only killed by Samson but buried under the wreckage of his lab in a callback to Original Samson’s final hurrah.

    Thorga. He served his purpose.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 532: THE DEVIL

    (Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941)

    This is the same guy as the Dictator but on his time off, I guess? Mr Justice kind of gave up on him after the Green Ghoul incident – maybe he just couldn’t get up the energy to keep running a Nazi Germany analog.

    I think he continues to pop up and empower Mr Justice foes but more importantly he has some very cute little trident-wielding imp goons. No hell-dimension is complete without them!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 510: FARGALL

    (Blue Bolt v1 010, 1941)

    Fargall is a scientist-cum-criminal operating out of Centro, Sub-Zero’s chosen home (well, it hasn’t actually been identified as Centro for about 7 issues or so and I’m afraid that it’s slowly transmogrifying into NYC like all unnamed comic book cities but until I’m told otherwise it’s Centro to me) who has taken up the challenge of operating out of a super-hero town by inventing heat ray guns that effectively counter Sub-Zero’s whole deal.

    If that were all that Fargall had going on he’d be lumped in with all of the other one-trick scientists in the round-up but no, Fargall has something that they lack: Fargall has style.

    When Fargall’s scheme goes off he and his guys put on tuxedos and paint the town red. And unlike his underlings, Fargall keeps on wearing that tuxedo as they set out to rob the Legally Distinct from the New York World’s Fair. Because he has style.

    Heck, even the goggles that Fargall and his guys wear to protects their eyes from heat rays look good.

    At this point it would be quite narratively satisfying for Fargall to be undone by his sense of style in some way but since that’s just something I have built up in my head it wasn’t on Bill Everett’s mind when he plotted the whole thing out. Instead, Fargall falls victim to that most pervasive pattern of super-villain hubris: gloating and sadistically taking so long in finishing the hero off that they are able to escape and beat you up. It’s very common!