The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Captain Marvel

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 176: Z

    (Captain Marvel Adventures 001, 1941)

    Z is (spoilers) an android built by Dr Sivana to destroy Captain Marvel. He’s a cool guy and a fun villain: slick, full of attitude, almost powerful enough to do the job. Plus he doesn’t seem to know he’s a robot, which I find to be a fun feature in an android character – it allows for shocking reveals! Z should definitely be BROUGHT BACK, if only as disposable muscle for Sivana. We wuz robbed of a smug android thug slouched over a chair cleaning his nails in the background of every Dr Sivana scene from 1941 on, I say!

    The really interesting thing about Z is the fact that he and Captain Marvel fight three times and each time, Captain Marvel is explicitly trying to kill him. I came into my ongoing “read all comics” project a lot less familiar with the Fawcett end of things so I was pretty bought in to the modern conception of Captain Marvel as some sort of Pure Being of Childlike Innocence and thus it was a lot more jarring to come into the realization that in his early days he was just as likely to resort to deadly force as Batman or Superman, probably a bit less often than the former and more than the latter. Honestly interested to see just when each adopts a code against killing relative to one another.

  • HONOURS – CAPTAIN MARVEL

    (Captain Marvel Adventures 002, 1941)

    Captain Marvel gets a statue!

  • TROPHY ROOM – CAPTAIN MARVEL

    (Captain Marvel Adventures 001, 1941)

    Captain Marvel has a whole-ass spaceship that he took off a guy (though it does get blown up this ish).

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 054: SLAUGHTER SLADE

    (Special Edition Comics, 1940)

    Here is a list of pertinent details about Slaughter Slade:

    -He talks like Swamp Thing for no discernable reason

    -He is stronger and more intelligent than the human norm. Together with the prior point and some general odd behavior throughout the story this kind of leads one to think he might be revealed as a robot or alien or something. He is not.

    -He has three henchmen: a regular gangster named Butch, a weird little freak named Spider and an intelligent gorilla named Doctor Allirog. Oh, and a giant spider:

    -Doctor Allirog is not an intelligent gorilla at the beginning of the story, but his name is Doctor Allirog at the beginning of the story.

    -Slaughter Slade’s plan is to destroy the entire US government and install himself and Doctor Allirog as President and Vice-President, respectively.

    -Part of Slaughter Slade’s plan involves buying a book of knowledge from this man:

    Professor Universe is possibly the single-appearance character whose failure to make a return has hurt me personally the most. Just the idea of this mercenary genius living somewhere near Fawcett City is so delightful to me. Obviously I want them to BRING BACK everyone involved in this story, down to Butch and the two Spiders.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 054: SLAUGHTER SLADE

    (Special Edition Comics, 1940)

    Here is a list of pertinent details about Slaughter Slade:

    -He talks like Swamp Thing for no discernable reason

    -He is stronger and more intelligent than the human norm. Together with the prior point and some general odd behavior throughout the story this kind of leads one to think he might be revealed as a robot or alien or something. He is not.

    -He has three henchmen: a regular gangster named Butch, a weird little freak named Spider and an intelligent gorilla named Doctor Allirog. Oh, and a giant spider:

    -Doctor Allirog is not an intelligent gorilla at the beginning of the story, but his name is Doctor Allirog at the beginning of the story.

    -Slaughter Slade’s plan is to destroy the entire US government and install himself and Doctor Allirog as President and Vice-President, respectively.

    -Part of Slaughter Slade’s plan involves buying a book of knowledge from this man:

    Professor Universe is possibly the single-appearance character whose failure to make a return has hurt me personally the most. Just the idea of this mercenary genius living somewhere near Fawcett City is so delightful to me. Obviously I want them to BRING BACK everyone involved in this story, down to Butch and the two Spiders.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 052: DR DURGAN

    (Whiz Comics 009, 1940)

    Dr Durgan, a respected scientist, develops shrinking tech and of course uses it to force tiny men to steal for him on pain of remaining tiny. All is well until he makes the common mistake of messing with Billy “Captain Marvel” Batson, boy reporter.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 052: DR DURGAN

    (Whiz Comics 009, 1940)

    Dr Durgan, a respected scientist, develops shrinking tech and of course uses it to force tiny men to steal for him on pain of remaining tiny. All is well until he makes the common mistake of messing with Billy “Captain Marvel” Batson, boy reporter.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 051: CAPTAIN DEATH

    (Whiz Comics 008, 1940)

    Fairly generic pirate captain distinguished by the fact that he manages at least two appearances. Maybe three, actually:

    It’s equally possible that this guy – a henchman of Dr Sivana in Whiz 021 – is intended to be the same person with a whole different aesthetic or an unrelated guy with a similar taste in names. What is certain is that he was seemingly kilt stone daid by Captain Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 051: CAPTAIN DEATH

    (Whiz Comics 008, 1940)

    Fairly generic pirate captain distinguished by the fact that he manages at least two appearances. Maybe three, actually:

    It’s equally possible that this guy – a henchman of Dr Sivana in Whiz 021 – is intended to be the same person with a whole different aesthetic or an unrelated guy with a similar taste in names. What is certain is that he was seemingly kilt stone daid by Captain Marvel and the Lieutenant Marvels

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 050: RODNEY STARK

    (Whiz Comics 007, 1940)

    Rodney Stark is a rich asshole who unfreezes some prehistoric men and uses them as a private military force in a bid to take over the world, until Captain Marvel shows up to murder them all.