The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: bring ’em back

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 382: THE MAN

    (More Fun Comics 066, 1941) 

    Out of nowhere one day, giant monsters attack Cliffland, New Jersey!

    After driving them off a couple of times, the Spectre manages to follow them back to their base of operations, a weird painting of unknown provenance hanging in a Cliffland museum. There he finds that the monsters reside in a metal city ruled over by a man referred to only as the Man.

    The Man is clearly modeled after the fascist dictators of the day and spends his time whipping his monstrous subjects into a frenzy prior to a wholesale invasion of the real world. While I don’t appreciate the attempted-destruction-of-humanity of it all I must admit that he has some wonderful turns of phrase. Maybe being a fictional entity allows you to tap into a poetical mindset more easily.

    The Man‘s schemes all come to nothing as the Spectre invades his world and decimates his forces, then overcomes the Man himself (despite the Man deploying not only a variety of magical powers but a surprise eleventh-hour monster transformation) and destroys both the painting and the world it contains.

    I have to say that despite not particularly loving the monster designs here I do love the idea of an outsider artist putting so much of themself into a work that it gains a life of its own. BRING BACK the Man, I say, whether in another work by the same artist or as a fictional parasite who appears in other paintings until he can find one that he can use as a portal to the real world. He would be a great addition to the ranks of the DCU’s magical weirdos.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 381: NYARL-AMEN

    (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

    Okay, so the guy on the throne is Nyarl-Amen, AKA the Ancient One AKA the Lost Wisdom AKA the Wonder Wisdom. Fifty thousand years ago he ruled the world from beneath the waves as head of the Nyarl-Amen Dynasty.

    Nyarl-Amen has lived in the City of Nyarl-Amen for one hundred thousand years…

    His arsenal includes the Magic Eyes of Nyarl-Amen…

    And together with his minions the Fish Men of Nyarl-Amen he seeks to reconquer the world and presumably establish a Second Dynasty of Nyarl-Amen. Whatever you say about this civilization, “It has too many names,” can’t be one of them.

    The thing is, all this repetition has left me unsure just whether we’re dealing with an immortal fish-man sea-wizard attempting to reclaim his glory after 500 centuries or a city with an upstart ruler and bad imagination. I suppose whether it’s Nyarl-Amen the First or Nyarl-Amen the Six Hundred and Fifteenth doesn’t really matter since Dr Fate ends up blowing up every single Nyarl-Amen mentioned thusfar.

    These guys should 100% be BRUNG BACK for one simple reason: the best thing about Aquaman stories is the weird collection of pulp novel civilizations that coat the DCU seafloor and these fish-head weirdos would enhance that immeasurably.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 381: NYARL-AMEN

    (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

    Okay, so the guy on the throne is Nyarl-Amen, AKA the Ancient One AKA the Lost Wisdom AKA the Wonder Wisdom. Fifty thousand years ago he ruled the world from beneath the waves as head of the Nyarl-Amen Dynasty.

    Nyarl-Amen has lived in the City of Nyarl-Amen for one hundred thousand years…

    His arsenal includes the Magic Eyes of Nyarl-Amen…

    And together with his minions the Fish Men of Nyarl-Amen he seeks to reconquer the world and presumably establish a Second Dynasty of Nyarl-Amen. Whatever you say about this civilization, “It has too many names,” can’t be one of them.

    The thing is, all this repetition has left me unsure just whether we’re dealing with an immortal fish-man sea-wizard attempting to reclaim his glory after 500 centuries or a city with an upstart ruler and bad imagination. I suppose whether it’s Nyarl-Amen the First or Nyarl-Amen the Six Hundred and Fifteenth doesn’t really matter since Dr Fate ends up blowing up every single Nyarl-Amen mentioned thusfar.

    These guys should 100% be BRUNG BACK for one simple reason: the best thing about Aquaman stories is the weird collection of pulp novel civilizations that coat the DCU seafloor and these fish-head weirdos would enhance that immeasurably.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 379: THE BLUE FLAME

    (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

    A fairly simple one, this. The Blue Flame is an eerie cloaked figure sheathed in, yes, blue flame, that embarks on a crime spree in Cliffland, New Jersey. His crimes are not quite but almost exclusively aimed at the attendees of shows by stage magician Dr Mephisto and there is even some indication that the Blue Flame is attempting to frame Mephisto.

    Unfortunately for the Blue Flame, Cliffland is home to the Spectre, and he is fairly swiftly revealed to actually be… Dr Mephisto! That’s right, the whole thing about the frame-up was a moderately clever ruse! That failed to take into account the fairly well-documented super-powered ghost-man constantly capturing costumed crooks, sure, but a plan is a plan and deserves acknowledgement.

    By far the best part of the story, at least for my money, is the Spectre’s encounter with Blue Flame henchman Jimmy “Knife” Groggins. Contrary to his no-nonsense buzzkill modern characterization, the Golden Age Spectre really seemed to have fun with his job and letting Knife throw his namesake only to turn it into a little necklace charm is a fairly good illustration of that. 

    Even better is this “monster of space” that the Spectre lets eat both himself and Knife as an advanced interrogation technique. Just look at that guy! A real top-notch monster! The Blue Flame can go kick rocks but BRING BACK this magnificent beast!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 379: THE BLUE FLAME

    (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

    A fairly simple one, this. The Blue Flame is an eerie cloaked figure sheathed in, yes, blue flame, that embarks on a crime spree in Cliffland, New Jersey. His crimes are not quite but almost exclusively aimed at the attendees of shows by stage magician Dr Mephisto and there is even some indication that the Blue Flame is attempting to frame Mephisto.

    Unfortunately for the Blue Flame, Cliffland is home to the Spectre, and he is fairly swiftly revealed to actually be… Dr Mephisto! That’s right, the whole thing about the frame-up was a moderately clever ruse! That failed to take into account the fairly well-documented super-powered ghost-man constantly capturing costumed crooks, sure, but a plan is a plan and deserves acknowledgement.

    By far the best part of the story, at least for my money, is the Spectre’s encounter with Blue Flame henchman Jimmy “Knife” Groggins. Contrary to his no-nonsense buzzkill modern characterization, the Golden Age Spectre really seemed to have fun with his job and letting Knife throw his namesake only to turn it into a little necklace charm is a fairly good illustration of that. 

    Even better is this “monster of space” that the Spectre lets eat both himself and Knife as an advanced interrogation technique. Just look at that guy! A real top-notch monster! The Blue Flame can go kick rocks but BRING BACK this magnificent beast!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 377: MAYOOR

    (More Fun Comics 064, 1941)

    Mayoor is an ancient evil god with no in-comic-defined portfolio but if I had guess I would venture that he’s the God of Disappointment. Here’s the sum total of his plots and plans: enthrall a society adventurer named Bill Credon, who then lure Dr Fate chum Inza Cramer to Mayoor’s Yucatan Peninsula temple-cum-prison. Then there’s a bit about using her to spread Mayoor’s message and worship but unfortunately for Mayoor that’s the point at which Dr Fate shows up and kills him.

    It’s not even a challenge! And Mayoor should have known that he was outclassed, because Dr Fate* is the one who imprisoned him in the first place. About the only good thing about this guy is that because he was such a nothing villain he could probably be BRUNG BACK as a regional threat without a lot of baggage, just bedeviling the heroes of Central America for decades – it’s not as if there were any piece of fiction in which it was easy to kill a god, after all. Worldbuilding!

    *this story is a few issues prior to the Dr Fate’s origin story, so while retroactively it was probably Nabu or someone else wearing the Helmet of Fate who imprisoned Mayoor, in-story it’s still Dr Fate being treated as an immortal wizard.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 366: THE SCAVENGERS

    (Military Comics 005, 1941) 

    The Scavengers are an interesting bunch, but all of the most interesting things about them are implied rather than stated. As seen above, they show up to loot and murder in the aftermath of WWII battles. The fact that they all look the same, like little rat-men, is probably meant to be a metaphorical signifier of their moral degradation but I like the implication that this is what happens to battlefield looters, like the the transformation of a ghoul or other cannibal. This of course means that there could be Scavengers throughout human history – fun!

    The Scavengers don’t actually get to do much scavenging in-story, sadly. Instead, they are captured by the Nazis and enlisted in their capacity as weird little creeps to dispose of the Blackhawks. And they do pretty well at it! Their downfall comes due to the interference of the excellently-named femme fatale Red Laura, who somewhat predictably falls for Blackhawk’s nobility and shirtlessness.

    Despite having a heroic last stand, pictured above, Red Laura actually manages to survive the issue. One hopes that she was a bit more picky about who she worked for going forward, because I am inordinately fond of her. It’s just such a good name!

    In conclusion, the Scavengers should be BRUNG BACK. Not only did they not all die at the end of the adventure (as the Blackhawks are about as likely to punch out as to shoot an opponent) but the idea of them cropping up in the aftermath of war throughout history is very cool! We need more types of human monster who wear their spiritual corruption on the outside, if only for greater variety in D&D.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 363: MR H

    (Master Comics 001 (behind the scenes) or Master Comics 007 (first mentioned) or Master Comics 008 (first appearance on-panel)-Master Comics 020, 1940-1941)

     

    Mr H, the mastermind behind all crime in the city of Carterville and its unnamed state, gets up to all kinds of schemes through his proxies. For example:

    -running an illegal casino in a hard-to-catch gambling blimp

    -robbing a munitions plant in order to outfit a small army of gangsters and enact a criminal takeover of Carterville

    -stealing an experimental bomber from the US Army and attempting to sell it to crypto-Nazis

    -having his gang murder random Carterville citizens in order to drive down confidence in the police

    -stealing an experimental paralysis gas in order to disable and rob the entire population of Carterville 

    -attempting to destroy all public transit in Carterville for unclear reasons

    -attempting to blow up the Carterville Dam for unclear reasons

    -sundry murders and robberies

    At first, Carterville’s major crime figure and the inspiration for regional super-hero the Devil’s Dagger is a guy by the name of Jeff Marlowe, but he falls off of a roof in Master Comics 007, necessitating the introduction of his boss, Mr H. Over the course of his 12-odd appearances Mr H has a variable amount of hair and a selection of different cloth masks. The consistent aspect of his adventures (aside from his orange suit) is his habit of getting away in some sort of motor vehicle at the last second.

    Then, in Master Comics 018, Ken “Devil’s Dagger” Wyman gets a new coworker, police reporter Holfax. I won’t beat around the bush: Holfax is Mr H – introduced, I suspect, because the feature was coming to an end and they needed somebody to be the villain. The great thing about this is that Holfax/ Mr H thus becomes an evil equivalent to Wyman/ the Devil’s Dagger, something that I’m always excited to see.

    And the piece de resistance is of course the capture of Mr H and the subsequent retirement of the Devil’s Dagger in Master Comics 020, a rare ending not just for a Golden Age super-hero but for any super-hero ever.

    Mr H might not be terribly exciting in and of himself but I would still love to see a legacy Devil’s Dagger BRUNG BACK and who better to act as his foil than an ancient Holfax, out of prison and running Carterville once again.

    ADDENDUM: I almost forgot to highlight the fact that Mr H employs one of my favourite costume elements: the mask with attached bald cap.

    ADDENDUM II: I just read the long-unavailable Master Comics 006 and in it Mr H, through his proxy Jeff Marlowe, kidnaps the President of the United States for ransom. This is a very big crime not to have been aware of!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 358: THE BLACK HOOD

    (Master Comics 018, 1941) 

    Okay, I am a big fan of the Black Hood. Let’s count down the reasons:

    One: very exciting to see the classic super-suit being worn in the early days of suits and robes. This look won’t take long to become ubiquitous once it catches on but it’s still pretty rare in 1941.

    Two: not only is he a fashion pioneer but he is a thought leader in the field of henchman couture. Dressing your guys in a slightly worse version of your own costume (in this case bright rather than dark blue) is a surefire move in the villain game and it’s going to be a while before we see it with any kind of regularity.

    Three: The Black Hood is introduced as El Carim’s arch-enemy, despite never having appeared before’ and there are allusions to El Carim having broken up “four of his best rackets” etc. Implied lore is admittedly an easy way to build up a story’s interest but I guess I’m a sucker for it.

    About the only real criticism I have for the Black Hood is for all that he has experience battling El Carim (potentially years of experience, depending on the rate at which he sets up rackets) he is entirely unprepared to deal with Carim’s dank majiks. His approach is a completely straightforward trap and kill attempt and it goes very badly. A real shame.

    Nonetheless. regular costumed crooks like the Black Hood are the backbone any supercrime economy and he or his heirs should be BRUNG BACK post haste.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 041: ZORO THE MYSTERY MAN

    (Slam-Bang Comics 006-007, Master Comics 007-022, 1940-1942)

    It’s easy to quantify Zoro because his name says it all: he is a Mystery Man – nobody knows anything about him: nation of origin, real name, nothing. He has an amazing outfit and a sword cane and a pet cheetah named Cheeta. 

    Zoro hangs out a swanky clubs and parties and visits his swanky friends and occasionally gets involved in the mysteries that crop up in such circles. Does he have super powers? Maybe! Or maybe he’s just a gifted illusionist – who knows? He’s a MYSTERY MAN.

    (Zoro should absolutely be BRUNG BACK with absolutely no explanation of what he’s been doing for the last 80 years. I HAVE SPOKEN)