The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: mad science

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 028

    These guys use science for crime and evil, for which we excoriate them, but they also make entertaining villains, for which we celebrate them. 

    Dr Stone:

    Dr Elijah Stone has a calling and it is in creating and disseminating deadly plagues upon mankind. This, however, is the kind of passion that society frowns upon and Stone is locked away in the State Mental Hospital. Unfortunately for mankind, the State Mental Hospital seems to be one of those places that contracts its security out to the lowest bidder, because Stone escapes in no time flat.

    Sure enough, there is soon a hot new Dr Stone plague ravaging humanity. This quiet New England Town is absolutely screwed, and the rest of the world is soon to follow if someone doesn’t do something soon.

    Enter time/space explorer Whiz Wilson, who pops into the future to a time when there simply must be a cure and is referred to the Medical Center on Mars. His quest hits a small speedbump when the Martian doctor turns out to actually be Dr Stone in disguise – it seems that when not making plagues Stone has dabbled in chronal physics and has independently developed Futurescope technology. He has been using the future as a home base to culture up enough plague germs to wipe out 1941 humanity in one fell swoop, after which he will enjoy some alone time on an unpopulated planet. 

    Whiz Wilson smashes Stone’s Futurescope and makes off with his personal supply of anti-plague serum but is forced to let the man himself escape. Both Stone and the text boxes set up Dr Stone as an upcoming recurring nemesis for Whiz to deal with, presumably in different time periods, but his evil plans are foiled by the fact that this is the final Whiz Wilson story. (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)

    Professor Hanley:

    Professor Hanley is one of the many comic book scientists whose development of a means of making artificial diamonds is seen as dangerous and/or criminal by a super-hero. Hanley is at least attempting to pass artificial diamonds off as natural ones so I guess this counts as selling counterfeit good, but I still think that this is not worth your time, the Angel. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 014, 1940)

    Howland:

    Howland, the second and final foe faced by Sky Wizard, has been causing mass chaos by sending out his army of humanoid robots to loot and kill. He also has a real “evil Vulcan” look that I appreciate.

    In addition to the extremely nifty robots (called the Robot Terrors by one and all, though I suspect that Howland just adopted the very cool name after he heard Sky Wizard use it), Howland is notable for creating these deathtraps that kill their victims by dropping slats out from under their feet at a rate of one per five seconds and then leaving them to dangle and strangle thanks to the tight neck shackle. This is pretty gruesome, but it’s also very quick, and Howland still manages to be out of the room when Sky Wizard and his aide Keeshan manage to escape. 

    Let’s be clear: I was already worked up about this before I noticed that he says how many slats there are because even at, say, one hundred slats that’s only eight and a half minutes, but no, it’s six slats. That’s thirty seconds, Howland. You’re too busy to wait thirty seconds for a super-hero to die? I don’t even feel sorry for you that you eventually die at the cold metal hands of your own robots, because I only feel contempt. (Miracle Comics 004, 1941)

    Captain Kiddlaw:

    Captain Kiddlaw, the Wizard-Pirate, is a scientific scoundrel who vexes the Super Police of the far-flung year 2023. His scheme involves dragging passing cruise ships to the bottom of the ocean for loot and slaves and is never technically foiled due to the cancellation of the “Super Police 2023” serial. They probably get him eventually, though. (New Fun Comics 002, 1935)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 028

    MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 028

    These guys use science for crime and evil, for which we excoriate them, but they also make entertaining villains, for which we celebrate them. 

    Dr Stone:

    Dr Elijah Stone has a calling and it is in creating and disseminating deadly plagues upon mankind. This, however, is the kind of passion that society frowns upon and Stone is locked away in the State Mental Hospital. Unfortunately for mankind, the State Mental Hospital seems to be one of those places that contracts its security out to the lowest bidder, because Stone escapes in no time flat.

    Sure enough, there is soon a hot new Dr Stone plague ravaging humanity. This quiet New England Town is absolutely screwed, and the rest of the world is soon to follow if someone doesn’t do something soon.

    Enter time/space explorer Whiz Wilson, who pops into the future to a time when there simply must be a cure and is referred to the Medical Center on Mars. His quest hits a small speedbump when the Martian doctor turns out to actually be Dr Stone in disguise – it seems that when not making plagues Stone has dabbled in chronal physics and has independently developed Futurescope technology. He has been using the future as a home base to culture up enough plague germs to wipe out 1941 humanity in one fell swoop, after which he will enjoy some alone time on an unpopulated planet. 

    Whiz Wilson smashes Stone’s Futurescope and makes off with his personal supply of anti-plague serum but is forced to let the man himself escape. Both Stone and the text boxes set up Dr Stone as an upcoming recurring nemesis for Whiz to deal with, presumably in different time periods, but his evil plans are foiled by the fact that this is the final Whiz Wilson story. (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)

    Professor Hanley:

    Professor Hanley is one of the many comic book scientists whose development of a means of making artificial diamonds is seen as dangerous and/or criminal by a super-hero. Hanley is at least attempting to pass artificial diamonds off as natural ones so I guess this counts as selling counterfeit good, but I still think that this is not worth your time, the Angel. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 014, 1940)

    Howland:

    Howland, the second and final foe faced by Sky Wizard, has been causing mass chaos by sending out his army of humanoid robots to loot and kill. He also has a real “evil Vulcan” look that I appreciate.

    In addition to the extremely nifty robots (called the Robot Terrors by one and all, though I suspect that Howland just adopted the very cool name after he heard Sky Wizard use it), Howland is notable for creating these deathtraps that kill their victims by dropping slats out from under their feet at a rate of one per five seconds and then leaving them to dangle and strangle thanks to the tight neck shackle. This is pretty gruesome, but it’s also very quick, and Howland still manages to be out of the room when Sky Wizard and his aide Keeshan manage to escape. 

    Let’s be clear: I was already worked up about this before I noticed that he says how many slats there are because even at, say, one hundred slats that’s only eight and a half minutes, but no, it’s six slats. That’s thirty seconds, Howland. You’re too busy to wait thirty seconds for a super-hero to die? I don’t even feel sorry for you that you eventually die at the cold metal hands of your own robots, because I only feel contempt. (Miracle Comics 004, 1941)

    Captain Kiddlaw:

    Captain Kiddlaw, the Wizard-Pirate, is a scientific scoundrel who vexes the Super Police of the far-flung year 2023. His scheme involves dragging passing cruise ships to the bottom of the ocean for loot and slaves and is never technically foiled due to the cancellation of the “Super Police 2023” serial. They probably get him eventually, though. (New Fun Comics 002, 1935)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 993: ZOMAX

    (Jungle Comics 014, 1941)

    Zomax, the “demonized marine scientist,” has a very over-the-top, Fletcher Hanks villain goal: to kill every animal in the jungle. And he isn’t afraid to say it.

    I won’t say that Zomax has a good reason for wanting to destroy all jungle life, but he does have some justification, stemming from a big game hunt he went on that involved, in order:

    1. being mauled by a fatally wounded lion. Once the lion died, Zomax wandered away, only to…

    2. be grabbed by a man-hating elephant and tossed into a stagnant pond where…

    3. swarms of poisonous gnats shredded his skin. Zomax crawled out of the muck in torment, only to be…

    4. crushed by a boa constrictor, but not killed, because he was…

    5. pulled away by the Hannibal Lector of gorillas, who then proceeded to take Zomax home to his nest and inflict months of psychological torture on him.

    Though one might see all of this as a kind of ironic punishment for going on a big game hunt in the first place, Zomax does not in fact see it that way, and concludes that the jungle is an evil place fit only for destruction. And since he is a “marine scientist,” what better tool of that destruction than the ocean itself?

    Specifically, Zomax has built a machine that can create and control a bespoke tidal wave to to wash over the entire continent of Africa (or that portion of it that contains jungle animals) and destroy all of his tormentors. Other than the gnats, I reckon: I bet they do just fine in a landscape covered in brackish ponds. 

    As violence against any jungle is violence against the universal Jungle that Fantomah protects, she is out to get Zomax as soon as he actually initiates the tidal wave engine (though please note the silhouettes that indicate that Zomax gets revenge against one representative of each animal species that wronged him, gnats excepted).

    Having been given an unusual number of chances to repent and stop his machines by Fantomah, Zomax instead decides to flee in a plane, leaving her not choice but to destroy him with his own tidal wave, or, as Fantomah (and the second Paul Karasik collection of Hanks comics) puts it “YYou shall die by your own creation!”

    Categorized in: Generica (Ends in -x), Origin (Vengeance Quest), Supercrime (Disaster Causers)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 993: ZOMAX

    (Jungle Comics 014, 1941)

    Zomax, the “demonized marine scientist,” has a very over-the-top, Fletcher Hanks villain goal: to kill every animal in the jungle. And he isn’t afraid to say it.

    I won’t say that Zomax has a good reason for wanting to destroy all jungle life, but he does have some justification, stemming from a big game hunt he went on that involved, in order:

    1. being mauled by a fatally wounded lion. Once the lion died, Zomax wandered away, only to…

    2. be grabbed by a man-hating elephant and tossed into a stagnant pond where…

    3. swarms of poisonous gnats shredded his skin. Zomax crawled out of the muck in torment, only to be…

    4. crushed by a boa constrictor, but not killed, because he was…

    5. pulled away by the Hannibal Lector of gorillas, who then proceeded to take Zomax home to his nest and inflict months of psychological torture on him.

    Though one might see all of this as a kind of ironic punishment for going on a big game hunt in the first place, Zomax does not in fact see it that way, and concludes that the jungle is an evil place fit only for destruction. And since he is a “marine scientist,” what better tool of that destruction than the ocean itself?

    Specifically, Zomax has built a machine that can create and control a bespoke tidal wave to to wash over the entire continent of Africa (or that portion of it that contains jungle animals) and destroy all of his tormentors. Other than the gnats, I reckon: I bet they do just fine in a landscape covered in brackish ponds. 

    As violence against any jungle is violence against the universal Jungle that Fantomah protects, she is out to get Zomax as soon as he actually initiates the tidal wave engine (though please note the silhouettes that indicate that Zomax gets revenge against one representative of each animal species that wronged him, gnats excepted).

    Having been given an unusual number of chances to repent and stop his machines by Fantomah, Zomax instead decides to flee in a plane, leaving her not choice but to destroy him with his own tidal wave, or, as Fantomah (and the second Paul Karasik collection of Hanks comics) puts it “YYou shall die by your own creation!”

    Categorized in: Generica (Ends in -x), Origin (Vengeance Quest), Supercrime (Disaster Causers)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 987: WILLIAM SCOTT

    (Jackpot Comics 002, 1941)

    William Scott is your textbook mad scientist delving into the mysteries of life and death that man was not meant to comprehend, and in fact is so clearly going to be a problem that Mr Justice shows up to tell him off in advance, just based on a feeling. Despite this, Scott signs up condemned gangster “Rod” Dugan (and whether the Rod part is short for Rodney or the now-somewhat obscure slang for a gun is impossible to know. Probably the gun, though) as a candidate for post-execution reanimation. Prison officials! You have to stop releasing bodies to men with crazed looks in their eyes who stink of ozone!

    Scott’s plan is successful, and he soon has his very own science revenant that he sends out to loot and plunder for him. Please not the multiple dentition-based signifiers in the above: while Dugan’s tusk-like canines are one of the signifiers of the monstrous in Mr Justice comics, Scott’s missing teeth are a mark of his derangement, like his long messy hair and the deep circles around his eyes.

    Mr Justice has no trouble tracking down Scott as the source of the trouble, having already pegged him as a troublemaker. He proves to be more than a match for the the resurrected Dugan, but is unable to fully defeat him fully. The reason for this is simple: though Scott brought Dugan’s body back to life, his soul is condemned to wander in torment until it is laid to rest. This is all set-up for a Mortal Shell vs. Immortal Soul fight to the death, and the Immortal Soul is not playing around.

    Meanwhile, Scott takes the classic mad scientist’s way out and blows himself, along with his lab, to high heaven. Hopefully he gets to reconnect with his old friend Rod Dugan when he gets there.

    Categorized in: Supercrime (Monster Making)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 987: WILLIAM SCOTT

    (Jackpot Comics 002, 1941)

    William Scott is your textbook mad scientist delving into the mysteries of life and death that man was not meant to comprehend, and in fact is so clearly going to be a problem that Mr Justice shows up to tell him off in advance, just based on a feeling. Despite this, Scott signs up condemned gangster “Rod” Dugan (and whether the Rod part is short for Rodney or the now-somewhat obscure slang for a gun is impossible to know. Probably the gun, though) as a candidate for post-execution reanimation. Prison officials! You have to stop releasing bodies to men with crazed looks in their eyes who stink of ozone!

    Scott’s plan is successful, and he soon has his very own science revenant that he sends out to loot and plunder for him. Please not the multiple dentition-based signifiers in the above: while Dugan’s tusk-like canines are one of the signifiers of the monstrous in Mr Justice comics, Scott’s missing teeth are a mark of his derangement, like his long messy hair and the deep circles around his eyes.

    Mr Justice has no trouble tracking down Scott as the source of the trouble, having already pegged him as a troublemaker. He proves to be more than a match for the the resurrected Dugan, but is unable to fully defeat him fully. The reason for this is simple: though Scott brought Dugan’s body back to life, his soul is condemned to wander in torment until it is laid to rest. This is all set-up for a Mortal Shell vs. Immortal Soul fight to the death, and the Immortal Soul is not playing around.

    Meanwhile, Scott takes the classic mad scientist’s way out and blows himself, along with his lab, to high heaven. Hopefully he gets to reconnect with his old friend Rod Dugan when he gets there.

    Categorized in: Supercrime (Monster Making)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 927: THE HIGH ONE

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The High One is a fascist spy chief cum mad scientist who has been using an advanced poison to wage a surprisingly successful campaign to kill of the upper echelons of the US government. This has brought him into conflict with Bart Benson, aka Secret Agent X-101, who is soon captured by the High One’s agents and bundled off to his HQ in the small town of Newburgh to be gloated at and then executed.

    Though the High One is clever, he ultimately falls prey to pride: X-101 is able to lure him close enough by insulting him to get ahold of him, get free and chuck him out one of his ostentatiously huge windows. After that it’s a simple matter of bringing down a planeload of poison before it gets to Washington DC and the whole operation is over.

    I would like to note that before the High One is taken out he does manage to kill the US Secretary of State, which is a bit more of an impact than even super-villains are usually able to pull off. Is this in fact Henry L. Stimson or just some generic comic book man? Impossible to say unless we treat the Lev Gleason Comics Universe as a coherent thing and he shows up in, like, a Daredevil story some day.

    The High One is also notable for having employed a femme fatale spy named Sandra who served as a recurring foil for Secret Agent X-101 and who is a part of that rarefied sisterhood of recurring female villains who ultimately get away with it because the feature that they appear in has been cancelled. So long Sandra; have fun hanging out with Fraulein Doktor’s Daughter and Illyria, Queen of Spies.

    Categorized in: Alphanumeric (One), Espionage (Crypto-Fascist Spies), Real Folk (Henry L. Stimson)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 927: THE HIGH ONE

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The High One is a fascist spy chief cum mad scientist who has been using an advanced poison to wage a surprisingly successful campaign to kill of the upper echelons of the US government. This has brought him into conflict with Bart Benson, aka Secret Agent X-101, who is soon captured by the High One’s agents and bundled off to his HQ in the small town of Newburgh to be gloated at and then executed.

    Though the High One is clever, he ultimately falls prey to pride: X-101 is able to lure him close enough by insulting him to get ahold of him, get free and chuck him out one of his ostentatiously huge windows. After that it’s a simple matter of bringing down a planeload of poison before it gets to Washington DC and the whole operation is over.

    I would like to note that before the High One is taken out he does manage to kill the US Secretary of State, which is a bit more of an impact than even super-villains are usually able to pull off. Is this in fact Henry L. Stimson or just some generic comic book man? Impossible to say unless we treat the Lev Gleason Comics Universe as a coherent thing and he shows up in, like, a Daredevil story some day.

    The High One is also notable for having employed a femme fatale spy named Sandra who served as a recurring foil for Secret Agent X-101 and who is a part of that rarefied sisterhood of recurring female villains who ultimately get away with it because the feature that they appear in has been cancelled. So long Sandra; have fun hanging out with Fraulein Doktor’s Daughter and Illyria, Queen of Spies.

    Categorized in: Alphanumeric (One), Espionage (Crypto-Fascist Spies), Real Folk (Henry L. Stimson)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 022

    The Ethic Committee is going to have a field day.  

    Dr Belos is a single-issue mad scientist: he wants to turn men into birds, and to that end he has set up camp in a place called the Valley of Terror and gotten to work creating surgical chimeras called Vulture Men. His downfall comes about because he kidnaps surgeon Dr D’arne to act as his unwilling assistant, thus causing D’Arne’s daughter to bring in the Flame to help rescue him. 

    Please also note that Belos has a single long fang in place of one of his lower incisors. 

    Despite looking more like human-reptile than human-bird hybrids, the Vulture Men are some classic examples of monstrous humanoid henchmen. They also get mercilessly slaughtered by the Flame instead of perhaps being captured and restored to human form, like so many of the monstrously transformed in comics are. I guess next time they shouldn’t be transformed into bird guys against their wills.

    Though the Flame really wrecks up his operation, Dr Belos’ true nemesis turns out to be the pitching arm of Dr D’Arne, when he flings what is presumably a Vulture Man skull with sufficient force to kill the mad scientist outright. Then the Flame destroys Belos’ dam and floods the Valley of Terror for good measure. (Wonderworld Comics 015, 1940)

    Dr Grant was kicked out of the Scientist’s Society for his theories, and while I always have some sympathy for the villains who are reacting to hidebound thinkers and their ways, one must consider that his response to this slight is to start collapsing bridges with his friction-neutralizing ray. If this is the way that Grant typically escalates conflict, maybe it wasn’t his theories but his interpersonal skills that got him kicked out of the Society in the first place. 

    Grant’s comes into conflict with newsreel camerawoman Patty O’Day and eventually gets shot by Patty’s assistant Ham. (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940)

    Zarhov is what I would call a pretty mad scientist, who has transformed a lady into a huge apelike creature called Zozo and is now looking to do the same to the daughter of his enemy Dr Carr. Luckily for Carr, he is friends with Yarko the Great (comics are full of older scientists with no wife and one beautiful adult daughter, and they seem to make up 100% of Yarko’s social circle), who manages to baffle Zozo long enough for her monster rage to turn on Zahrov. Zozo gets off lightly compared to fellow transformees like the Vulture Men, because Yarko the Great has the means and inclination to turn her back into a human being. (Wonderworld Comics 020, 1940) 

    Godfrey Calkins, described as a “retired millionaire business man” has an interesting idea that he seems to want to employ for normal, non-criminal means: he wants to freeze people so that they can better withstand the rigours of space travel. A noble goal! The problem lies in his experimental methodology: instead of starting out with animal testing and then perhaps moving on to volunteers, Calkins has decided to move straight to human trials on some kidnapped teenagers. And what’s worse is that he acquires those teenagers by derailing an entire train full of football boosters into a river with the expectation that there would probably be a survivor or two. Truly a wretched man! 

    Luckily for the teens in question, they are Dusty Davis and Janey Smart, classmates and pals of Atom Blake, Boy Wizard, and he soon shows up to beat the tar out of Calkins and his goons and to retrieve and thaw out Janey from the Venus-bound rocket she was already setting out on. No word on what subsequently happened to Calkins – perhaps he had to pay a small fine. (Wow Comics 001, 1940) 

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 022

    MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 022

    The Ethic Committee is going to have a field day.  

    Dr Belos is a single-issue mad scientist: he wants to turn men into birds, and to that end he has set up camp in a place called the Valley of Terror and gotten to work creating surgical chimeras called Vulture Men. His downfall comes about because he kidnaps surgeon Dr D’arne to act as his unwilling assistant, thus causing D’Arne’s daughter to bring in the Flame to help rescue him. 

    Please also note that Belos has a single long fang in place of one of his lower incisors. 

    Despite looking more like human-reptile than human-bird hybrids, the Vulture Men are some classic examples of monstrous humanoid henchmen. They also get mercilessly slaughtered by the Flame instead of perhaps being captured and restored to human form, like so many of the monstrously transformed in comics are. I guess next time they shouldn’t be transformed into bird guys against their wills.

    Though the Flame really wrecks up his operation, Dr Belos’ true nemesis turns out to be the pitching arm of Dr D’Arne, when he flings what is presumably a Vulture Man skull with sufficient force to kill the mad scientist outright. Then the Flame destroys Belos’ dam and floods the Valley of Terror for good measure. (Wonderworld Comics 015, 1940)

    Dr Grant was kicked out of the Scientist’s Society for his theories, and while I always have some sympathy for the villains who are reacting to hidebound thinkers and their ways, one must consider that his response to this slight is to start collapsing bridges with his friction-neutralizing ray. If this is the way that Grant typically escalates conflict, maybe it wasn’t his theories but his interpersonal skills that got him kicked out of the Society in the first place. 

    Grant’s comes into conflict with newsreel camerawoman Patty O’Day and eventually gets shot by Patty’s assistant Ham. (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940)

    Zarhov is what I would call a pretty mad scientist, who has transformed a lady into a huge apelike creature called Zozo and is now looking to do the same to the daughter of his enemy Dr Carr. Luckily for Carr, he is friends with Yarko the Great (comics are full of older scientists with no wife and one beautiful adult daughter, and they seem to make up 100% of Yarko’s social circle), who manages to baffle Zozo long enough for her monster rage to turn on Zahrov. Zozo gets off lightly compared to fellow transformees like the Vulture Men, because Yarko the Great has the means and inclination to turn her back into a human being. (Wonderworld Comics 020, 1940) 

    Godfrey Calkins, described as a “retired millionaire business man” has an interesting idea that he seems to want to employ for normal, non-criminal means: he wants to freeze people so that they can better withstand the rigours of space travel. A noble goal! The problem lies in his experimental methodology: instead of starting out with animal testing and then perhaps moving on to volunteers, Calkins has decided to move straight to human trials on some kidnapped teenagers. And what’s worse is that he acquires those teenagers by derailing an entire train full of football boosters into a river with the expectation that there would probably be a survivor or two. Truly a wretched man! 

    Luckily for the teens in question, they are Dusty Davis and Janey Smart, classmates and pals of Atom Blake, Boy Wizard, and he soon shows up to beat the tar out of Calkins and his goons and to retrieve and thaw out Janey from the Venus-bound rocket she was already setting out on. No word on what subsequently happened to Calkins – perhaps he had to pay a small fine. (Wow Comics 001, 1940)