The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: bring ’em back

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 122: THE GREEN DEVIL

    (Slam-Bang Comics 003, 1940)

    I really like the Green Devil. He has a lot going on! He has an army of the living dead, an island base, and a hurricane generator. He’s conservatively 10 ft tall and looks like the Devil (with green skin, natch)

    His main scheme is to disrupt the laws of magic, which not only weakens his enemy Diamond Jack’s magic ring but also for some reason causes regular stage magic and stuff like snake charming and sword swallowing to turn deadly in some of the more low-key gruesome panels I’ve read recently.

    Finally, in classic magic villain style he meets a pretty ignoble end as he is transformed into a book and then blown up along with his HQ and zombies. A solid showing! I’d love to see the Green Devil BRUNG BACK to vex magic folk again.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 122: THE GREEN DEVIL

    (Slam-Bang Comics 003, 1940)

    I really like the Green Devil. He has a lot going on! He has an army of the living dead, an island base, and a hurricane generator. He’s conservatively 10 ft tall and looks like the Devil (with green skin, natch)

    His main scheme is to disrupt the laws of magic, which not only weakens his enemy Diamond Jack’s magic ring but also for some reason causes regular stage magic and stuff like snake charming and sword swallowing to turn deadly in some of the more low-key gruesome panels I’ve read recently.

    Finally, in classic magic villain style he meets a pretty ignoble end as he is transformed into a book and then blown up along with his HQ and zombies. A solid showing! I’d love to see the Green Devil BRUNG BACK to vex magic folk again.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 017: WARLOCK THE WIZARD

    (Nickel Comics 001-007, 1940)

    Warlock the Wizard, in addition to having a name built to confuse someone familiar with modern D&D classes, is an interesting member of the Magic Guy type of Golden Age super-heroes, in that while he has some innate skill at magic he is much more of a magic item user than a lot of his contemporaries (and yes I am aware that this makes him closer to an Artificer than either a Warlock or a Wizard). This introduces a bit more uncertainty into a Warlock adventure as it is possible that he will be separated from his source of power, something that is quite a bit harder to do in a Zatara story, say

    Warlock’s tools of the trade (pictured above) are:

    -Hugin the raven. Acts as a familiar, scout, fetcher-of-other-tools, messenger and occasional subject of transformation magic.

    -the Hand of Abraxas. Speak the magic word (conveniently, it is Abraxas) and the hand detaches from the stick and grows huge. Acts as transport, muscle etc. Since we’re already talking D&D, it’s basically a wand of Bigby’s Hand spells.

    -the Lamp of the Gods. This is the big gun, which is why it only comes out occasionally and at the end of adventures. It seemingly offers consequence-free favours from the gods of assorted pantheons, including stuff like borrowing the Hammer of Thor to smite someone or petitioning Neptune for rain. 

    One more thing that I appreciate about Warlock is the repeated insistence that most people fear and hate him – a somewhat unusual thing in 40s comics and so a refreshing one.

    As always, my attitude about magic item-using characters is that they should be BROUGHT BACK, preferably as legacy characters. Picture this: some workaday schlub decides to befriend their neighbourhood crows ravens and it just so happens that one of them is Hugin and in return for a generous attitude toward sharing table scraps they get the Lamp of the Gods left on their front steps. Good stuff!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 109: XNON

    (More Fun Comics 060, 1940)

    Xnon is a guy I like. He lives an an extradimensional orb/city and seems to spend his time traveling from world to world looting and conquering, if his behavior on Earth is taken as an example. Then again, he seems to have recruited all of his henchmen from the Cliffland, New Jersey underworld so maybe this was his first outing as a transdimensional overlord.

    What can be said for certain is that Xnon (no idea if it’s pronounced “Znon” or “X-non”, though I prefer the latter) uses his advanced technology to perform a series of daring thefts including an entire train, then briefly mind controls the Spectre into doing his bidding. He almost gets away with it, but the Spectre manages to call for help from what would later be semi-explicitly defined as the Christian God. Xnon is swiftly stuck in a meteor and blasted into interdimensional space.

    I love Xnon. He looks great, has a great orb, is an arrogant jerk which I love in a villain… he has it all. Plus the manner of his defeat makes him someone who could conceivably be BRUNG BACK without any need for a new origin or anything. Just say that throughout all of the retcons and crises and every other dumb thing that DC has done in the last ~30 years, Xnon has been floating around in his meteor and then BAM it lands back in Cliffland (or wherever the Spectre hangs out nowadays) for some reason, and he’s ready to scrap with a Spectre who has absolutely no idea who he is.

    Also, this is what happens when you try to make the Spectre do a crime: pride flag explosion.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 015: THE VOICE

    MINOR SUPER-HERO 015: THE VOICE

    (Feature Comics 032-037, 1940)

    Of the dozen or so heroes and villains named the Voice, this is the best of them all, hands down. Let’s review:

    -shipwrecked on an island in 1790, lives off of special herbs that extend the human lifespan and empower the body

    -finally picked up in 1940, moves to NYC at 150-something years old

    -successfully synthesizes the herb’s properties, ensuring that his life will continue indefinitely. Decides to fight crime

    -learns ventriloquism and close-up magic

    The last is my favourite part: he’s an old man who can pick up a car, for example, but most of his cases are solved with the application of a thrown voice or two. Plus that blonde guy in the second set of panels is his neighbour who just happens to be nearby when Mr Elixer – did I mention that his non-super-hero name is Mr Elixer? – decides to fight crime and is basically conscripted into being his butler.

    Really really good dumb fun comic stuff. BRING BACK the Voice!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 090: THE SPIDER

    (Detective Comics 036, 1940)

    The Spider, a notorious jewel thief, is in reality nightclub owner Durand. But Durand is in reality (shocked gasp) suburbanite Roberta Roberts!

    While the original thought process behind the character was likely no more complex than “I bet it would be fun to draw a lady in a bra and false mustache,” a few different narrative jump to the modern mind, the first being that Durand/ the Spider is the true identity of a trans man, with Roberta Roberts being maintained as a convenient cover story. Or perhaps Roberta simply has to adopt these male identities (including, it is mildly implied, a fictional husband) in order to succeed in the worlds of business and crime. Either version of this story could be pretty great in the hands of the right writer. BRING BACK the Spider, I say.

    I also find myself shipping two characters for maybe the first time ever? Speed Saunders is a rare Golden Age lawman character with a presence in (somewhat) modern comics, having been made cousin to the original Hawkgirl and grandfather to the 2000s version of same. There’s a non-zero if very low chance of him showing up in flashbacks to the 40s and 50s and I keep picturing him introducing “my associate, Durand” to people and thinking that it’s adorable. Is this what all the people on Tumblr see in making fictional characters kiss in their minds?

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 084: BLACKBEARD

    (Batman Comics 004, 1940)

    What makes them a super-villain? I’ve already stated multiple times that pirates get a free pass. Old-timey cosplay pirates get double marks.

    What is interesting about them? Blackbeard is actually a frustrated former actor turned gang boss, and if you don’t think that I don’t want more of that in comics you don’t know me very well. Bring back Blackbeard and make him a method actor.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 083: THE UGLIEST MAN IN THE WORLD

    (Batman Comics 003, 1940) 

    The Ugliest Man in the World, AKA Larry Larrimore, was originally Carlson, a college student who was accidentally injected with a weird fluid during a frat hazing gone wrong. His face mutated and deformed, he lost his friends, fiancé and frat and vowed revenge. Years later, having developed a version of the uglification drug which also rendered its victims’ minds pliant he embarked on a campaign of revenge against both those who had deformed and rejected him and society itself, using his Ugly Mob to destroy beautiful people and works of art alike before being stopped by Batman and gunned down by the cops.

    Neadless to say I think this dude should be brought back. Rejected outsider is great villain fodder and as much as I love this guy smashing Greek marbles at the head of his Ugly Mob a more nuanced take on the relative value of attractive and unattractive people in our society would be aces too.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 083: THE UGLIEST MAN IN THE WORLD

    (Batman Comics 003, 1940) 

    The Ugliest Man in the World, AKA Larry Larrimore, was originally Carlson, a college student who was accidentally injected with a weird fluid during a frat hazing gone wrong. His face mutated and deformed, he lost his friends, fiancé and frat and vowed revenge. Years later, having developed a version of the uglification drug which also rendered its victims’ minds pliant he embarked on a campaign of revenge against both those who had deformed and rejected him and society itself, using his Ugly Mob to destroy beautiful people and works of art alike before being stopped by Batman and gunned down by the cops.

    Neadless to say I think this dude should be brought back. Rejected outsider is great villain fodder and as much as I love this guy smashing Greek marbles at the head of his Ugly Mob a more nuanced take on the relative value of attractive and unattractive people in our society would be aces too.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 075: “UNCLE”

    (Adventure Comics 057, 1940)

    As I’ve said before, sometimes a character is very clearly a super-villain but chooses no name for themself, in which case for administrative purposes I pick something that the text boxes or other characters refer to them as and go with that. Scientists are usually easy – they just go by their name. This fellow, on the other hand, is basically only ever referred to as “Uncle,” so Uncle I call him.

    And Uncle is a credible threat! He tries to ransom the world by threatening to destroy it by knocking it off of its orbit, then actually tries to do it in a fit of pique – it’s only the timely intervention of Sandman that saves the day.

    In the last entry, when I was talking about mad scientists as perfect characters to bring back as reformed? This is the kind of guy I had in mind. What a gift to a cast!