The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: good henchmen

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 673: THE UNHOLY ONE

    (Miracle Comics 001, 1940)

    The Unholy One is the major antagonist of scientist-hero the Sky Wizard for three of his four appearances, although for the first two of those appearances he is present only as a voice on the radio directing his American agents Hawk Armand, Vera the Tigress and Butch (a fourth crook, Spud, doesn’t make it past the first encounter with Sky Wizard). And here I must lay out my major problem with the Unholy One: he is a bad boss. He has set his agents a task – to acquire the plans to the Sky Wizard’s new stratospheric jet plane – and no matter what progress they report toward that goal he yells at them and threatens to kill them. And they always have progress to report! If these three were managed well then I have little doubt that they could do the job set to them but the Unholy One does nothing but sow dissent and stress among his underlings.

    The other big problem with the Unholy One is that he’s just a boring Yellow Peril criminal mastermind who just kind of sits around in a secret Himalayan city telling his much more interesting henchmen (note the winged Himalayan Snow Man in the above image) to do things and threatening people with the Death of a Thousand Slashes, which ultimately turns out to be a room with a spiked ceiling that lowers and squashes/impales you.

    The Unholy One ends his run by falling off of the Sky Wizard’s flying island after an unsuccessful attempt to stab him to death and good riddance, I say.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 669: ARCO

    (Jungle Comics 011, 1940)

    Arco, aka “the immortal mummy of Ancient Egypt! Old Arco, the super-scientist of long ago!” comes to the attention of Fantomah when he begins blinding the inhabitants of her home jungle using a ray with the fairly awesome name of the Scarlet Shadow. His ultimate goal – like so many Fantomah foes – is to conquer the jungle and establish an empire for himself.

    (Arco is also, somewhat surprisingly, our first actual mummy. The current ratio of fake to real mummies stands at 5:1)

    While an ancient mummy attempting to take over a quasi-mystic omnijungle using a blindness ray might be relatively normal as far as comic book plots go, Arco’s next move is amazing. In order to finalize his conquest he requires a population, and what better subjects for a mummy emperor than more mummies? What seems like most if not all Egyptian mummies in the world are reanimated and flown in on the wings of Arco’s ancient magics. Presumably he also protects their dry, dry bodies from the jungle humidity, perhaps using another ray to do so.

    Arco of course rejects Fantomah’s ritual attempt to warn off her foe. In his defense he is riding a justifiable high based on the fact that he and his followers are all already dead – how could he know that his mummy troops, so effective at attacking blind and confused people, would prove easy prey to the most powerful beasts of the jungle?

    (I can’t imagine what a blow this must have been to the fields of Anthropology and Archaeology in the world of Fantomah. Museums all over the world must be full of little plaques saying “this sarcophagus formerly held the mummy of Amenhotep III, preserved from 1353 BC until the Great Mummy Reanimation of 1940. Recent expeditions have brought back evidence that the mummy was subsequently dismembered and partially consumed by a lioness (see bone fragments in case to your left)”)

    Arco attempts to blind Fantomah in revenge for the defeat of his forces but finds himself on the receiving end of sequentially, his own ray, a fall, and a river full of crocodiles. What an end for an immortal mummy man.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 667: ANGEL EYES

    (Jungle Comics 010, 1940)

    It’s a c-c-c-combo breaker! Ordinarily Fantomah swans around observing the villains of her comic adventures and periodically telling them that they should stop what they’re doing before it’s too lat, ie, before she delivers unto them an ironic punishment. This issue features one of the few foes to catch her completely flat-footed and she is as surprised as anyone when giant flaming hands start tearing through the jungle, indiscriminately murdering both people and animals. Who or what could be behind this?

    The culprit turns out to be a scientific prodigy called Angel Eyes, who has the Batman origin except his parents were killed by a jungle and so he has vowed to destroy all jungles. He has created artificial life forms out of chemicals and known as the Flaming Claws for the simple reason that they are completely invisible except for their huge flaming clawed hands.

    I really appreciate Angel Eyes’ design! He really captures the look of a person who would be extremely attractive if they didn’t constantly wear their foul mood in their facial expression.

    Not that Fantomah ever has much of a hard time dealing with guys like this, but Angel Eyes is an especially easy one: she just hangs him from a tree and has his own creations attack him until he has a heart attack and dies. As for the Flaming Claws, why, they get melted back into the constituent chemicals that they were made of.

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 016

     Bless ’em, they’re trying.

    The first few adventures of Hydroman, a character I have an inexplicable affection for, are concerned with what at first seems like some real standard Yellow Peril bullplop (“Oriental invaders” and so forth) but then there are gangsters involved and the two factions variously mention a higher-up named “the Great One” and “the Big Boss”, respectively. Still later, the whole operation seems to be run by this collection of pseudo-Nazis on a yacht in New York Harbor. It looks like the bald guy in the monocle might be in charge but the whole issue of just who exactly the Great One is is ultimately rendered moot by Hydroman blowing up the yacht and killing them all before their org chart is fully conveyed. 

    Good costumes on those henchmen, though. (Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

    I quite like “the Snarl,” the nom de crime that this fellow has chosen for himself, and he gets up to all sorts of classic villainy to boot: bank robbery, deathtraps, sending taunting notes to the police, mass murder, etc, but he gets caught with ease by semi-comedic actor/detective Fuller Spunk in just a couple of pages so there’s not quite enough meat for a full entry. (Hyper Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

    Jungle comics are crawling with guys like Zan Marzov, a crook who murders and pillages with the aid of a gang of men dressed in leopard skins. Few can match his look, however. Between the leopard scar, haunted eyes, shrunken head necklace and horrible goatee, Marzov may have achieved the pinnacle of the Evil Explorer aesthetic. He ultimately gets blown up by virtuous explorer Buck Barton, by the way. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

    This guy calls himself Mr X and he has stolen a sacred mask from a temple in the jungle dimension that Fantomah calls home, thus invoking a curse that threatens to flood the entire land with boiling mud. Needless to say, Fantomah does not look kindly on that sort of behaviour and he is rounded up post haste and sent to a weird cavern to “eat mud and fire for the rest of your days.” Tough but fair, Fantomah! (Jungle Comics 008, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 016

     Bless ’em, they’re trying.

    The first few adventures of Hydroman, a character I have an inexplicable affection for, are concerned with what at first seems like some real standard Yellow Peril bullplop (“Oriental invaders” and so forth) but then there are gangsters involved and the two factions variously mention a higher-up named “the Great One” and “the Big Boss”, respectively. Still later, the whole operation seems to be run by this collection of pseudo-Nazis on a yacht in New York Harbor. It looks like the bald guy in the monocle might be in charge but the whole issue of just who exactly the Great One is is ultimately rendered moot by Hydroman blowing up the yacht and killing them all before their org chart is fully conveyed. 

    Good costumes on those henchmen, though. (Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

    I quite like “the Snarl,” the nom de crime that this fellow has chosen for himself, and he gets up to all sorts of classic villainy to boot: bank robbery, deathtraps, sending taunting notes to the police, mass murder, etc, but he gets caught with ease by semi-comedic actor/detective Fuller Spunk in just a couple of pages so there’s not quite enough meat for a full entry. (Hyper Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

    Jungle comics are crawling with guys like Zan Marzov, a crook who murders and pillages with the aid of a gang of men dressed in leopard skins. Few can match his look, however. Between the leopard scar, haunted eyes, shrunken head necklace and horrible goatee, Marzov may have achieved the pinnacle of the Evil Explorer aesthetic. He ultimately gets blown up by virtuous explorer Buck Barton, by the way. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

    This guy calls himself Mr X and he has stolen a sacred mask from a temple in the jungle dimension that Fantomah calls home, thus invoking a curse that threatens to flood the entire land with boiling mud. Needless to say, Fantomah does not look kindly on that sort of behaviour and he is rounded up post haste and sent to a weird cavern to “eat mud and fire for the rest of your days.” Tough but fair, Fantomah! (Jungle Comics 008, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 016

     Bless ’em, they’re trying.

    The first few adventures of Hydroman, a character I have an inexplicable affection for, are concerned with what at first seems like some real standard Yellow Peril bullplop (“Oriental invaders” and so forth) but then there are gangsters involved and the two factions variously mention a higher-up named “the Great One” and “the Big Boss”, respectively. Still later, the whole operation seems to be run by this collection of pseudo-Nazis on a yacht in New York Harbor. It looks like the bald guy in the monocle might be in charge but the whole issue of just who exactly the Great One is is ultimately rendered moot by Hydroman blowing up the yacht and killing them all before their org chart is fully conveyed. 

    Good costumes on those henchmen, though. (Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

    I quite like “the Snarl,” the nom de crime that this fellow has chosen for himself, and he gets up to all sorts of classic villainy to boot: bank robbery, deathtraps, sending taunting notes to the police, mass murder, etc, but he gets caught with ease by semi-comedic actor/detective Fuller Spunk in just a couple of pages so there’s not quite enough meat for a full entry. (Hyper Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

    Jungle comics are crawling with guys like Zan Marzov, a crook who murders and pillages with the aid of a gang of men dressed in leopard skins. Few can match his look, however. Between the leopard scar, haunted eyes, shrunken head necklace and horrible goatee, Marzov may have achieved the pinnacle of the Evil Explorer aesthetic. He ultimately gets blown up by virtuous explorer Buck Barton, by the way. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

    This guy calls himself Mr X and he has stolen a sacred mask from a temple in the jungle dimension that Fantomah calls home, thus invoking a curse that threatens to flood the entire land with boiling mud. Needless to say, Fantomah does not look kindly on that sort of behaviour and he is rounded up post haste and sent to a weird cavern to “eat mud and fire for the rest of your days.” Tough but fair, Fantomah! (Jungle Comics 008, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 657: THE SCIENTIST

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 657: THE SCIENTIST

    (Jungle Comics 004, 1940)

    The Scientist (no other name given) is a man with a very comic book plan: develop a serum capable of giving gorillas superhuman intelligence, do so to a population of the particularly huge Gorgon Gorillas, and use the resulting army to conquer the world, presumably after a period of rapid gorilla breeding.

    Though the Scientist is a compelling villain in his own right (he is a world-class asshole, for example, like all the best bad guys), the stars of this adventure are absolutely the Gorgon Gorillas, who for example respond to a gorilla call by marching single-file through the jungle beating their chests until they just kind of topple into a pit trap.

    The post-enhancement gorgons are even better, as they exhibit a range of amazing facial expressions from “benignly intelligent” to “absolutely fucking mental” depending on input from the Scientist.

    As is her prerogative, Fantomah waits to step in to the situation until the crisis point, in this case the Scientist ordering his gorilla army to scour human life from the face to the jungle. Alas, he learns too late that the old adage is true: you live by the army of demonized gorillas, you die by the army of demonized gorillas.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 638: THE BLACK HOOD

    (Fantastic Comics 013, 1940)

    Yank Wilson, Super Spy Q-4 (who started out as a near-future character and maybe isn’t any more but until I see a clear sign otherwise still is to me) is after Prusslandic spies Karl Wolff and the Black Hood down in Florida and is going about his search with all the subtlety of a character in a point-and-click adventure game. It’s his bad luck that the first person he asked was an agent of Prussland Intelligence but it was only a matter of time given his tactic of asking everyone he saw if they had seen any espionage going on.

    Lucky for Wilson, the Black Hood is incredibly gullible and accepts him as a fifth columnist named Bruno Schmidt without question (don’t worry: Yank crossed his fingers while swearing allegiance to the Fatherland – no need for a court marshal). I was going to make a crack about how even though it was nice to see the Black Hood dressed in what would become the conventional super-villain ensemble unlike so many of our recent entrants it was in fact completely unnecessary because he is obviously Karl Wolff, but I say was because Yank Wilson does not in fact put two and two together until he is told directly that it is four.

    Yank is pretty swiftly uncovered as a US intelligence agent by Count von Heindorff, the one spy in the entire story who bothered to pay attention in espionage school, leading to a whole lot of malarkey and gunplay and a final airplane chase that spells the end of both von Heindorff and the Black Hood.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 637: CHANG

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 637: CHANG

    (Fantastic Comics 013, 1940)

    It finally happened: Flip Falcon told the world that travel between Earth and the Fourth Dimension was possible (I haven’t been highlighting it because there aren’t super-villains etc but a fair few of his adventures have just been commissions from randos to go back in time and find out where pirates hid some treasure and whatnot. Everyone knows about the Fourth Dimension, Billy.) and someone has finally replicated his findings. Too bad for the world in general and Flip Falcon in particular that that person was Chang.

    Chang is a Tibetan Lama for some reason (the reason is that Tibet is far away and Tibetan Buddhism was exotic so virtually any secret knowledge could be ascribed to them. And also Tibetans are Asians, so racism) and is notably more cautious than Flip. Rather than dive headfirst into what could reasonably be called a Hell Dimension, Chang has chosen to communicate with the various spirits and demonoids who reside there. Details are sparse but it seems that he was attempting to recruit them as an invasion force before Flip Falcon cottoned onto him.

    The real stars of the adventure are the creeps and ghouloids that slither out of the landscape to take Chang up on his offer. For such a fun and diverse collection of creepos they certainly get little enough page time in favour of a guy in a robe and a widow’s peak.

    Chang’s caution proves to be his ultimate undoing, however, as while he has not been placing himself into the same danger as Flip Falcon, he has also not been charged up with the same extradimensional energies that Flip is when he does and which allow him to, for example, easily escape from a deathtrap and then fly off after blowing up Chang and his entire lamasery. A valuable lesson, learned too late.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 637: CHANG

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 637: CHANG

    (Fantastic Comics 013, 1940)

    It finally happened: Flip Falcon told the world that travel between Earth and the Fourth Dimension was possible (I haven’t been highlighting it because there aren’t super-villains etc but a fair few of his adventures have just been commissions from randos to go back in time and find out where pirates hid some treasure and whatnot. Everyone knows about the Fourth Dimension, Billy.) and someone has finally replicated his findings. Too bad for the world in general and Flip Falcon in particular that that person was Chang.

    Chang is a Tibetan Lama for some reason (the reason is that Tibet is far away and Tibetan Buddhism was exotic so virtually any secret knowledge could be ascribed to them. And also Tibetans are Asians, so racism) and is notably more cautious than Flip. Rather than dive headfirst into what could reasonably be called a Hell Dimension, Chang has chosen to communicate with the various spirits and demonoids who reside there. Details are sparse but it seems that he was attempting to recruit them as an invasion force before Flip Falcon cottoned onto him.

    The real stars of the adventure are the creeps and ghouloids that slither out of the landscape to take Chang up on his offer. For such a fun and diverse collection of creepos they certainly get little enough page time in favour of a guy in a robe and a widow’s peak.

    Chang’s caution proves to be his ultimate undoing, however, as while he has not been placing himself into the same danger as Flip Falcon, he has also not been charged up with the same extradimensional energies that Flip is when he does and which allow him to, for example, easily escape from a deathtrap and then fly off after blowing up Chang and his entire lamasery. A valuable lesson, learned too late.