The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: MLJ

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 834: THE KNIGHT OF THE GRIFFIN

    (Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940) 

    Tasked with finding the two-days-overdue Sir Gawain, Galahad discovers him being set upon by ruffians in the employ of the Knight of the Griffin, a dastardly character who hates King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

    Galahad proceeds to confront the Knight himself, where we find that he is based on Sir Turquine, a villainous knight who had both the knight-summoning bell and tree full of defeated knights’ shields as seen above, but who critically hated Lancelot, Galahads father, and battled knights as part of a long-term plan to kill him, whereas the Knight of the Griffin is more of an anti-Knights of the Round Table guy.

    Thanks to an exposure to a Choose Your Own Adventure version of this story in my youth, I think I have an inflated sense of how iconic the tree of shields is, but I love it. It’s very ominous! 

    The Knight of the Griffin is also aided and abetted by his wife, Morgana le Fay, who hoodwinks knights into getting her a drink of water and then swaps their good swords for ones that will shatter during the cut and thrust of knightly combat. This is not a part of Sir Turquine’s story – though Morgan le Fay has plenty of evil knights in her roster of exes, she and Turquine don’t seem to have been an item.

    Between the broken sword and the home field advantage, the Knight of the Griffin has Galahad on the ropes, and might have emerged victorious if Merlin the Magician hadn’t been lurking nearby to bring the tree of shields crashing down to unhorse him. Given a more even contest, Galahad is able to employ some Arthurian judo and heave tKotG off of a cliff to his doom.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 833: THE MASTER

    (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) 

    The Mosconians, stand-ins for Nazi-allied Russia (or possibly just Russian-flavoured stand-ins for Nazi Germany) have a lot more stick-to-itiveness than your typical gang of foreign espionage agents, to the extent that they manage to not only bedevil the Wizard for three whole issues but also the Shield over in Pep Comics, leading to what is touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics (as previously seen here). The Master is the shadowy figure behind the Mosconian schemes and as seen above he even managed to kidnap the Wizard’s brother Grover! A decent showing for a crypto-fascist, considering how ephemeral they usually are.

    The actual crossover-precipitating plan is an attempt to blow up the military academies at Annapolis and West Point, thus shutting off the supply of officers to the US armed forces and incidentally killing off a portion of the country’s political officials as they attend a ceremony at the latter. The actual crossovers between the Wizard and the two students is fairly ships-in-the-night – he basically waves at them as he leaves to beat up Mosconians at a second location.

    The Mosconians and their Master return in Top-Notch Comics 006 with an attempt to blow up Boulder Dam*, which is one of those plots that would be pretty horrifying in real life but is not so exciting or unusual in a comic book. This is also the point at which the Mosconians start to get really German.

    *Hoover Dam, which I just learned was in a state of naming limbo for years and only officially became Hoover in 1947! 

    The Mosconians next plot, in Top-Notch Comics 007, involves an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Wizard manages to track them down to their staging area in British Columbia, where the Master is finally unmasked and revealed to be the Mosconian ambassador to the United States (not much of a surprise). This is also the point at which the Wizard is chemically blinded, leading him to change his costume to a more standard super-heroic one with no noticeably different eye protection. So attired, he rounds up the plotter in San Francisco with the aid of the Shield.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 833: THE MASTER

    (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) 

    The Mosconians, stand-ins for Nazi-allied Russia (or possibly just Russian-flavoured stand-ins for Nazi Germany) have a lot more stick-to-itiveness than your typical gang of foreign espionage agents, to the extent that they manage to not only bedevil the Wizard for three whole issues but also the Shield over in Pep Comics, leading to what is touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics (as previously seen here). The Master is the shadowy figure behind the Mosconian schemes and as seen above he even managed to kidnap the Wizard’s brother Grover! A decent showing for a crypto-fascist, considering how ephemeral they usually are.

    The actual crossover-precipitating plan is an attempt to blow up the military academies at Annapolis and West Point, thus shutting off the supply of officers to the US armed forces and incidentally killing off a portion of the country’s political officials as they attend a ceremony at the latter. The actual crossovers between the Wizard and the two students is fairly ships-in-the-night – he basically waves at them as he leaves to beat up Mosconians at a second location.

    The Mosconians and their Master return in Top-Notch Comics 006 with an attempt to blow up Boulder Dam*, which is one of those plots that would be pretty horrifying in real life but is not so exciting or unusual in a comic book. This is also the point at which the Mosconians start to get really German.

    *Hoover Dam, which I just learned was in a state of naming limbo for years and only officially became Hoover in 1947! 

    The Mosconians next plot, in Top-Notch Comics 007, involves an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Wizard manages to track them down to their staging area in British Columbia, where the Master is finally unmasked and revealed to be the Mosconian ambassador to the United States (not much of a surprise). This is also the point at which the Wizard is chemically blinded, leading him to change his costume to a more standard super-heroic one with no noticeably different eye protection. So attired, he rounds up the plotter in San Francisco with the aid of the Shield.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 832: SIR GILBERT, THE SUN KNIGHT

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 832: SIR GILBERT, THE SUN KNIGHT

    (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)

    Sir Gilbert is the evil knight who Galahad sets out to vanquish on his first official Knights of the Round Table mission. He’s got all the requisite qualities of an evil Arthurian knight: a cool name, a rakish attitude toward kidnapping and menacing women, and designs on the lands near his castle. And like most if not all non-Mordred evil knights in comic book Arthuriana, he’s a completely original character, which is always a bit confusing because there are ever so many villains and scumbags to choose from in the source material.

    Canonicity aside, Sir Gilbert is a good first foe for any character. He’s got a good name and a bit if a reputation, and he provides just enough challenge to be a credible threat before being defeated so thoroughly that he can be repurposed into an improvised missile.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 057

    Two MLJ Round-Ups in a row! They’re just churning out the heroes! 

    Galahad:

    Hey, it’s Galahad! Or rather a version of Galahad who is standing in for a pretty wide array of different Knights of the Round Table with lesser name brand recognition. It’s some clean-cut knightly action. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)

    Shanghai Sheridan:

    Jack “Shanghai” Sheridan, aside from having a sounding like a cheeky nickname for a POW camp, is notable mostly for the fact that he is one of many characters who have “the Batman origin but for…”, in this case, the Batman origin but for the Japanese invasion of China. His adventures are nothing particularly special, alas. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)

    Firefly:

    Oh hey, it’s the Firefly, wearing one of the great super-hero costumes of the Golden Age!

    The Firefly is really Harley Hudson, a young biochemist who sought to understand the tremendous proportionate strength possessed by insects and found that it was as a result of their “muscular coordination,” and further managed to unlock that same power within himself! Now he’s on an anti-crime crusade, and I’m not sure if he’s able to glow because of his muscular coordination abilities or he just has some phosphorescent paint slapped onto the front of his costume – the brief appearance of the character in the 60s Mighty Crusaders comic suggests the former, but they were also trying to make him some sort of equivalent of the Fireball and Inferno, so I don’t know if I’m going to take that as canon. (Top-Notch Comics 008, 1940)

    The Firefly also gets around in a “combination airplane and glider” called the Fireflier (or Fireflyer), which is an objectively great name for a subjectively terrible-looking vehicle. (Top-Notch Comics 009, 1940) 

    the Black Hood: 

    The Black Hood is perhaps the Archie/MLJ super-hero with the greatest number of different versions, both legacy and reboot-style. He also bumps the Wizard out of the top spot in Top-Notch as soon as he appears – someone at MLJ clearly really liked this guy from the start.

    This original Black Hood (and a pretty decent percentage of his successors) is named Kip Burland, and he was a New York cop until he attempted to arrest super-villain the Skull while he was doing some crime and ended up framed and then murdered for his troubles. Except the murder didn’t take, and Burland was found by an old hermit who nursed him back to health.

    In an amazing coincidence, the hermit in question turns out to be a former sheriff who was also framed by the Skull, and who took so long in training for his revenge/redemption that he grew too old for the job. This turns out to be a perfect combination: the Hermit teaches Kip all that he knows, and the Black Hood sallies forth to mete out justice to the Skull. (Top-Notch Comics 009, 1940) 

  • ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 007

    Streak Chandler, a football player at State University, is kidnapped by gangsters in order to prevent him from playing in a key game. This almost never works but these particular gangsters might just be the fist comic book characters to successfully fix a sporting event this way, because rather than stash Streak in an easily-escaped-from cabin close enough to the stadium to show up for the final crucial minutes of the game, they make rocket scientist Professor Finlay and his daughter Vola take Streak to Mars with them in an unfinished rocket ship. Of course they have many adventures with various aliens while there, and here they are:

    the Ferrugas:

    The Ferrugas are the first Martian inhabitants that Chandler and his companions encounter, and while they don’t get a lot of page time, they sure do make an impression: hostile, big-headed red guys in wrestling singlets who can shoot heat rays out of their index fingers will do that. 

    The Ferrugas prove to be vulnerable to oxygen blasts thanks to the fact that they evolved in Mars’ thin atmosphere. When last seen, they were being driven off by fellow martians the Lokis. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940) 

    Lokis: 

    The Lokis are a race of blue, birdlike humanoids who fly and are also amphibious – a rare combo! They are also slavers who capture Streak and his companions on sight and are all set to press them into service when they are interrupted by…

    THE DREADED BRONTAURIS! Let me tell you: I have been struggling with my own impulse to start a series of Monster and Beast Round-Ups to go with all of the others and it’s only the fact that it would be an even more endless and Sisyphean task than I have already set myself that is stopping me… the Brontauris here is the kind of amazing alien beast that is really bad for my resolve. It’s so beautiful and weird. 

    Streak kind of accidentally tames the Brontauris and turns it into a faithful mount, which so impresses the Lokis that they adopt the trio instead of enslaving them – very good for the Earthlings involved, sure, but we’re left with a real lack of information about the general state of slavery in Lokidom. Is Streak Chandler problematic? (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)

    the Gas Men: 

    Volcano-dwelling blue humanoids who are able to transform into semi-solid gas beings at well. The Gas Men are the deadly enemies of the Lokis and constantly hinder their efforts to terraform Mars via canal-building. That is, until Streak Chandler and his brontauris allies depose the tyrant King Kalox and reinstall his imprisoned rival Rega. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) 

    Jovians:

    An unnamed Jovian scientist who is working for Rega, the rightful Gas Man king, falls afoul of his deposed rival Kalox. Note the change in artists that has rendered the Gas Men into regular white guys. Lura, the daughter of the scientist, makes a surprise heel turn in an unresolved cliffhanger of Top-Notch Comics 008, but other than that these Jovians are just green humans. (Top-Notch Comics 006, 1940)

    Venusians: 

    Only one representative of this brand of Venusian actually shows up on panel: King Quantus, a space pirate and a real creep. Let’s give the species as a whole the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is an outlier and does not represent them. Some real Star Trek alien makeup-level design work here, which is fun to me. (Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940) 

    Ionians: 

    King Quantus has his HQ on the Jovian moon Io, and the bulk of his forces are drawn from the Ionian population, who are basically big blue ogres. Hopefully their society will be able to shake off the nefarious influence of the space pirate/ sex pest after his defeat and they can all get together and try not to be such doofuses. (Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940)

  • ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 007

    Streak Chandler, a football player at State University, is kidnapped by gangsters in order to prevent him from playing in a key game. This almost never works but these particular gangsters might just be the fist comic book characters to successfully fix a sporting event this way, because rather than stash Streak in an easily-escaped-from cabin close enough to the stadium to show up for the final crucial minutes of the game, they make rocket scientist Professor Finlay and his daughter Vola take Streak to Mars with them in an unfinished rocket ship. Of course they have many adventures with various aliens while there, and here they are:

    the Ferrugas:

    The Ferrugas are the first Martian inhabitants that Chandler and his companions encounter, and while they don’t get a lot of page time, they sure do make an impression: hostile, big-headed red guys in wrestling singlets who can shoot heat rays out of their index fingers will do that. 

    The Ferrugas prove to be vulnerable to oxygen blasts thanks to the fact that they evolved in Mars’ thin atmosphere. When last seen, they were being driven off by fellow martians the Lokis. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940) 

    Lokis: 

    The Lokis are a race of blue, birdlike humanoids who fly and are also amphibious – a rare combo! They are also slavers who capture Streak and his companions on sight and are all set to press them into service when they are interrupted by…

    THE DREADED BRONTAURIS! Let me tell you: I have been struggling with my own impulse to start a series of Monster and Beast Round-Ups to go with all of the others and it’s only the fact that it would be an even more endless and Sisyphean task than I have already set myself that is stopping me… the Brontauris here is the kind of amazing alien beast that is really bad for my resolve. It’s so beautiful and weird. 

    Streak kind of accidentally tames the Brontauris and turns it into a faithful mount, which so impresses the Lokis that they adopt the trio instead of enslaving them – very good for the Earthlings involved, sure, but we’re left with a real lack of information about the general state of slavery in Lokidom. Is Streak Chandler problematic? (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)

    the Gas Men: 

    Volcano-dwelling blue humanoids who are able to transform into semi-solid gas beings at well. The Gas Men are the deadly enemies of the Lokis and constantly hinder their efforts to terraform Mars via canal-building. That is, until Streak Chandler and his brontauris allies depose the tyrant King Kalox and reinstall his imprisoned rival Rega. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) 

    Jovians:

    An unnamed Jovian scientist who is working for Rega, the rightful Gas Man king, falls afoul of his deposed rival Kalox. Note the change in artists that has rendered the Gas Men into regular white guys. Lura, the daughter of the scientist, makes a surprise heel turn in an unresolved cliffhanger of Top-Notch Comics 008, but other than that these Jovians are just green humans. (Top-Notch Comics 006, 1940)

    Venusians: 

    Only one representative of this brand of Venusian actually shows up on panel: King Quantus, a space pirate and a real creep. Let’s give the species as a whole the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is an outlier and does not represent them. Some real Star Trek alien makeup-level design work here, which is fun to me. (Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940) 

    Ionians: 

    King Quantus has his HQ on the Jovian moon Io, and the bulk of his forces are drawn from the Ionian population, who are basically big blue ogres. Hopefully their society will be able to shake off the nefarious influence of the space pirate/ sex pest after his defeat and they can all get together and try not to be such doofuses. (Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 056

    Some hot Archie/MLJ super-hero action. 

    **Hero Update** Bob Phantom:

    Perhaps in honour of his making the jump from Blue Ribbon Comics to Top-Notch Comics, Bob Phantom gets two hitherto-unseen powers: super-breath powerful enough to turn aside oncoming bullets and the ability to summon cyclones by flapping his cape. (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940) 

    Bob Phantom also demonstrates super strength sufficient to tear an airplane to pieces in mid air. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940)

    And not content with three new super powers, in Top-Notch 010, Bob is shown to be completely bulletproof.

    Bob Phantom’s modus operandi, to reveal crimes and taunt both police and criminals in his gossip column as Walt Whitman and then bust things up as Bob Phantom, has never been particularly kind to the police of his corner of MLJ New York, and at this point they openly hate him in both of his identities. (Top-Notch Comics 009, 1940) 

    **Hero Update** the Wizard: 

    The Wizard’s powers also get expanded once 1940 rolls around: not only can he now hypnotically mind control people with a mere glance but he can mentally contact his thralls across distances of at least 500 miles (the above message was broadcast from somewhere in the vicinity of Dallas to somewhere in Mexico). 

    1940 is also the year that the Wizard’s already-formidible strength was rounded up to full-on super, seen here as he is bodily heaving an entire u-boat Bundonian submarine out of the water with only the power of his little kicking feet to hold him up.

    The Wizard’s arsenal of weapons and gadgets also gets a fair few additions this year, including:

    – more rays guns than one would assume could fit in a suit with such clean lines: death rays, two different engine-killing rays (the vibra-ray gun and the neutronic ray gun), an explosive ray (the destructo-ray), a metal-melting ray (the VB-ray gun), a paralysis ray (the electrolysis ray), a rainmaking ray (the H2-VX-0 ray), fire-extinguishing ray (the Hydra Gun), and the dynamagno saw ray projector, a cutting ray which can be tuned to selectively destroy mechanical parts such as the wires that hold a plane together.

    – secret chemicals including: Secret Chemical L-77 (solidifies liquids), Ethyl Formula 2X-Y-BZ (superfuel additive) and Super-Caloric Capsules and Secret Formula Ho Mg 4, which put pep back in a weary Wizard’s step.

    – special vehicles, the greatest of which is the Contra-Gravity Flask, pictured above, which allows the Wizard to float harmlessly to the ground from a height or run through the air, merely by virtue of being in his pocket.

    (Top-Notch Comics 002, 1940) 

    I somehow also failed to note in the original Wizard entry that he is not only a calling card guy but an obnoxiously patriotic one. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939) 

    After being blinded by his enemies the Mosconians, the Wizard changes out his tuxedo costume for a more super-heroic one with even less room for ray guns. This is supposedly to protect him from getting acid splashed in his eyes again, but since the Mosconians don’t actually get a chance for a second try the actual mechanism by which the same mask but a different shirt might help in that situation is not explored. (Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940)

    Finally, Blane Whitney abandons the life of the wealthy playboy to become a crusading newspaper publisher with ex-fiance Jane Barlowe as his star reporter, though he of course does not get a break for this. (Top-Notch Comics 008, 1940)

    Roy the Super-Boy: 

    He’s not quite the Sensational Character Find of 1940, but Roy the Super-Boy is the Marvel of 1940 and that has to count for something. He’s also our first Archie/MLJ sidekick (yes, yes, Tommy the Super-Boy, but he was a reference to Roy and we only covered him first because of the alphabet and its tricks). Does he suffer the “just running around without a mask calling yourself by your own name” problem common to a lot of Golden Age sidekicks? Sure he does, but at least he has a partial code name. And I was wrong: he totally wears a mask most of the time! 

    As is often the case, Roy is just a scrappy young orphan making his way in the world as a bootblack, when he ends up in a fight with some grown-ass men and impresses the Wizard with his sweet moves and devotion to justice. He soon finds himself with an invite to a rich man’s private gymnasium!

    Thanks to an intensive training regimen, Roy is quickly developed into an impressive physical specimen. The Wizard claims that they are equivalent barring the Wizard’s mind-powers, but I haven’t seen Roy bench-press a submarine yet. (Top-Notch Comics 008, 1940) 

    Kardak the Mystic: 

    There is a general consensus online that Kardak the Mystic is the same character as the Mystic, who appeared in Top-Notch Comics 001 and 002, but I ain’t buying it. For one, where the Mystic was an ordinary stage magician who used his skills at slight-of-hand to battle crime, Kardak has actual magical power. For another, where the Mystic was already engaged to an unnamed woman in his first adventure, Kardak’s adventures are all set in motion when a girl he just met on a cruise to India is kidnapped by undersea creatures. Certainly, relationships break up all the time, but not the Mystic and Unnamed Woman! Their love is forever!

    Kardak’s adventures take him and his gal-pal Lorna from the bottom of the Indian Ocean to Louisiana, where they enter a series of extra-dimensional lands populated by hostile weirdos. It’s a pretty good setup to showcase the power of a magical hero without having story after story of him just destroying regular gangsters.

    Kardak also acquires the services of Balthar, a huge dude with a magic turban, and he’s just as annoying as Tong and the other members of the Shirtless Broken English Magicians’ Assistants Collective. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940) 

  • ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 006

    Martians aplenty, plus more! 

    Martians: 

    Time traveller Scott Rand and his companions stumble into a Martian invasion of Earth during a jaunt to the far-distant future world of 2000 CE, and they immediately get in on the planet-defending action. Featuring a Viking vs Martian battle, for all those fans of classic 2010s mashup humour.

    These particular Martians aren’t anything special, but I must say that I appreciate their minimalist, doorstop-shaped spacecraft. (Top-Notch Comics 002, 1940)

    Martians: 

    Scott Rand soon makes his way to Mars proper, where he encounters this very human-looking Martian wearing an outfit that is as jam-packed with retro-futuristic fashion elements as it is possible to be. His particular style of Martians just so happened to have been under attack by the reason for Rand’s trip to Mars… (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940) 

    Martians: 

    … Kruzzo, the Ice King of Mars, aka the “Master Pirate of Time,” leader of this considerably more goblinoid type of Martian, who he leads on raids from their hidden city at the Martian South Pole. Kruzzo has captured 2/3 of Rand’s companions, and has messed with the wrong time traveller and the wrong Viking and the wrong scientist and the wrong Ancient Egyptian princess this time, because their entire city ends up getting blown to kingdom come.

    I was initially going to lump these guys and the previous ones together, but there are some obvious phenotypical differences between the two groups. Are they and the Martians who tried to invade Earth all different subtypes of the same species, Basil Wolverton style or did three groups of Martian hominid all make the leap to full sentience around the same time? (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940)

    Arurans: 

    Bob Steele’s whole thing is that he’s got a spaceship and he’s ready to head to another planet at a moment’s notice, to meet alien intelligences and either befriend or befoe them. Despite the chilly reception depicted above, Bob ultimately befriends the Arurans of planet Arura, a civilization with many enemies but no meaningful physiological distinction from any other bunch of white guys. (Funny Picture Stories v1 007, 1937)

  • ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 005

    We got your aliens, plus some so forth. 

    Moon Men: 

    The Moon Men of 2050 CE seem to be just another part of the future Solar System society until they enter an alliance with magic super-crook Sarku so that their Moon King Tan Tan can meet his historical crush Elena. This of course brings them into conflict with Mr Mystic, as Elena is his fiance and he’s just not that into her being kidnapped into the future. 

    The Moon Men also have very upsetting feet. (The Spirit Section, 1 September, 1940)

    the Alligator-Men: 

    A lot of the Earth-based entries on the big list of aliens and such that I refer back to to while make these could best be described as “human offshoots,” little pockets of humanity that have developed in isolation until they are something other than regular. I had a little debate about whether to include the Alligator-Men because they didn’t seem other enough, but then I came to my senses. A whole society of guys who live in a cave somewhere in Brazil and dress in what must be wildly smelly lizard man costumes 24/7? Even if in-story they turned out to be a bunch of cosplaying accountants (spoiler: they didn’t) that’s worthy of comment. (Amazing-Man Comics 017, 1940)

    Ape Men: 

    And speaking of isolated populations of weirdos, ape men/ape-men/apemen and other missing link-style hominids are some of the most common. This particular group are from Malaysia and seem to be reasonably chill until Dr Fung and his pal Dan show up while following rumours pointing to the location of a lost heiress. Things get a bit too macho (and the old question of just what “white” means in 40s comics rears its ugly head once more) and Dr Fung and Dan have to shoot their way out. It’s all very rude, frankly. (Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939)

    Ape-Men & Lizard-Men: 

    The Diamond Empire is a hidden civilization probably somewhere in Asia, located in an improbably large inaccessible region hemmed in by mountains – there’s a reason that so many hidden kingdoms are underground, after all. It’s a bit more plausible to have an implausibly large area underground and hidden than as a conspicuous blank spot on a map.

    In any case, the lands around the Diamond Empire are like most other terrae incognitae in genre fiction, in that they are populated with a variety of humanoid civilizations, including Hawkmen, Batmen, and today’s focus, warring nations of Lizard-Men and Ape-Men. The Lizard-Men sadly get the short end of the stick characterization-wise, being sneaking, cowardly ambushers with a uncomfortably horny king, but at least they have very cool faces – just love a black eye with a white pupil. 

    The Lizard-Men get beaten up and pushed in a river by their ancient foes the much less cool Ape-Men who then themselves capture the the Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds. These Ape-Men are just what they are billed as: apelike humans, though the yellow heads and weird dents on top of their skulls set them apart slightly, even if they look dumb. 

    There’s a lot of malarkey involving the Rocket taking on an Ape-Man named Ungar for the role of tribal chief, and we get a glimpse of the Ape-Men’s idea of how a trial by ordeal should work as the Rocket is made to enter the Cave of Horrors to prove his mettle, but eventually the majority of the Ape-Men just end up dumped into a chasm to their dooms. I assume that the Lizard-Men, merely damp, were very smug about this. (Pep Comics 004-005, 1940)