The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Thor God of Thunder

  • CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 014

    I’ve finally caught up on all the backlogged wounds! Only new wounds for the catalogue going forward.

    the Dart:

    The Dart has come all the way from Ancient Rome to the present day (1940) only to be shot in the left arm. (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

    Doc Strange:

    Though the text box says that Doc Strange is “riddled with bullets” in this exchange, the subsequent first aid suggests that his left arm bore the brunt of the damage. (Thrilling Comics 001, 1940)

    the Falcon:

    The Falcon gets a classic head creasing. (Human Torch v1 002, 1940)

    Ferret:

    Despite the fact that these crooks manage to capture Ferret and force him to remove his bulletproof vest, they not only then choose to shoot him in the head but fail to actually shoot him in the head fatally and instead do a classic skull crease. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 008, 1940)

    the Flame:

    The Flame gets in on the classic skull crease game. (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940)

    the Masked Rider:

    Not to be left out, the Masked Raider sustains a head crease, classic. (Startling Comics 001, 1940)

    And again a few issues later. (Startling Comics 004, 1940)

    the Spirit:

    The Spirit (who I’m sure will be a frequent visitor to the Catalogue of Wounds) is shot in the left shoulder by Dr Cobra. (Spirit Section, June 9, 1940)

    A few months later: shot in the right shoulder. (The Spirit Section, September 22, 1940) 

    And a few months after that, the right shoulder again, this time by the Black Queen. (The Spirit Section, November 10, 1940)

    Thor, God of Thunder:

    Thor’s alter identity of Grant Farrel is shot in the back, wounding him badly enough that it takes weeks for him to recover. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)

    Yarko the Great:

    Even Yarko’s great magic cannot save him from occasionally being shot in the right arm. (Wonderworld Comics 004, 1940)

  • CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 014

    I’ve finally caught up on all the backlogged wounds! Only new wounds for the catalogue going forward.

    the Dart:

    The Dart has come all the way from Ancient Rome to the present day (1940) only to be shot in the left arm. (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

    Doc Strange:

    Though the text box says that Doc Strange is “riddled with bullets” in this exchange, the subsequent first aid suggests that his left arm bore the brunt of the damage. (Thrilling Comics 001, 1940)

    the Falcon:

    The Falcon gets a classic head creasing. (Human Torch v1 002, 1940)

    Ferret:

    Despite the fact that these crooks manage to capture Ferret and force him to remove his bulletproof vest, they not only then choose to shoot him in the head but fail to actually shoot him in the head fatally and instead do a classic skull crease. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 008, 1940)

    the Flame:

    The Flame gets in on the classic skull crease game. (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940)

    the Masked Rider:

    Not to be left out, the Masked Raider sustains a head crease, classic. (Startling Comics 001, 1940)

    And again a few issues later. (Startling Comics 004, 1940)

    the Spirit:

    The Spirit (who I’m sure will be a frequent visitor to the Catalogue of Wounds) is shot in the left shoulder by Dr Cobra. (Spirit Section, June 9, 1940)

    A few months later: shot in the right shoulder. (The Spirit Section, September 22, 1940) 

    And a few months after that, the right shoulder again, this time by the Black Queen. (The Spirit Section, November 10, 1940)

    Thor, God of Thunder:

    Thor’s alter identity of Grant Farrel is shot in the back, wounding him badly enough that it takes weeks for him to recover. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)

    Yarko the Great:

    Even Yarko’s great magic cannot save him from occasionally being shot in the right arm. (Wonderworld Comics 004, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 848: DR HSIN

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 848: DR HSIN

    (Weird Comics 005, 1940) 

    There are exactly two reasons why I gave Dr Hsin his own entry rather than sticking him in the next Mad and Criminal Scientist Round-Up, and the first one is his creation/henchman Mako, aka the Perfect Man. I just can’t resist a man with a tube coming out of his head, especially when that man is some sort of cyborg frankenstein.

    The second reason is that Hsin’s plan – to steal the blood from hundreds of great men and women (up to and including Thor, God of Thunder!) and use it to create superhumans – is delightfully wackadoo. Is this how he created Mako? Is that what the tube is for? The mind boggles.

    As so often happens when one creates a perfect being, Mako eventually decides that Dr Hsin is surplus to requirements and tries to take over the entire operation. The rest of the issue is a series of punches: Mako punches out Dr Hsin, then Thor uses the Gauntlet of Thor to punch out Mako and then he does the same to Dr Hsin, making him the most punched man of the issue. 

    Dr Hsin gets turned over to the authorities, but poor Mako ends up getting blown up with the rest of Hsin’s experiments when Thor determines that they are too foul to exist. RIP to the Perfect Man. And also RIP Dr Hsin, because nobody thought to see if he had any poison on him.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 848: DR HSIN

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 848: DR HSIN

    (Weird Comics 005, 1940) 

    There are exactly two reasons why I gave Dr Hsin his own entry rather than sticking him in the next Mad and Criminal Scientist Round-Up, and the first one is his creation/henchman Mako, aka the Perfect Man. I just can’t resist a man with a tube coming out of his head, especially when that man is some sort of cyborg frankenstein.

    The second reason is that Hsin’s plan – to steal the blood from hundreds of great men and women (up to and including Thor, God of Thunder!) and use it to create superhumans – is delightfully wackadoo. Is this how he created Mako? Is that what the tube is for? The mind boggles.

    As so often happens when one creates a perfect being, Mako eventually decides that Dr Hsin is surplus to requirements and tries to take over the entire operation. The rest of the issue is a series of punches: Mako punches out Dr Hsin, then Thor uses the Gauntlet of Thor to punch out Mako and then he does the same to Dr Hsin, making him the most punched man of the issue. 

    Dr Hsin gets turned over to the authorities, but poor Mako ends up getting blown up with the rest of Hsin’s experiments when Thor determines that they are too foul to exist. RIP to the Perfect Man. And also RIP Dr Hsin, because nobody thought to see if he had any poison on him.

  • DIVINE ROUND-UP 011

    Lookit’m go!

    Thor: 

    This particular version of Thor, Norse God of Thunder invests mortal man Grant Farrel with his powers, but while most ancient gods who get up to that sort of thing in comics are looking for an agent to fight against or promote a cause or agenda, Thor seems to just seems to want to see his powers being used in adventures. It’s kind of wholesome!

    Please also note the weird discs on Thor’s helmet. What the heck is up with those? 

    God style: real (Weird Comics 001, 1940)

    the Slave Giants’ Goddess: 

    Space-time adventurer Flip Falcon (back when he was called Flick Falcon, before someone realized that “flick” in comic book block lettering is awful close to “fuck”) spent his first few escapades getting in the middle of a conflict between various Martian races and an invading three-armed species. As a part of this, Fli(ck/p) and his companion Adele come up with a scheme to substitute her for the idol that the Three-Arms had been using to control the credulous Martian Giants.

    This works well enough that it causes a minor holy war among the Giants, but I suppose that all’s fair in planetary defense. 

    God style: idol/ fake (Fantastic Comics 003, 1940) 

    the Sun God: 

    A big tree worshipped by a group of hominids known as “flat heads” via human hominid sacrifice. Fortunately for Og, Son of Fire and his companions, they represent a slightly more quick-witted type of hominid and manage to escape this grisly fate. 

    God style: animist (The Funnies 013, 1937)

    Zagu: 

    Source of conflict between a local tribe who insist that he lives in a mine site and the guy who really wants to mine there. Unsurprisingly, the Red Panther shows up to take the mine owner’s side.

    God style: invoked (Jungle Comics 003, 1940) 

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 058

    A number of minor Fox Features characters for your perusal and delight.

    the Bird Man: 

    The Bird Man, descendant of “an ancient Indian god” (no further detail provided) uses his weird demigod wing-flaps to fly around the American Southwest and render aid to people. (Weird Comics 001, 1940)

    In Bird Man’s final appearance, in Weird Comics 004, he has conformed to the heroic norm a bit more by moving to a penthouse apartment in what might be NYC (please note that he keeps a little statue of his divine ancestor on top of his TV). He also has slightly more conventional wings in this appearance, but I have to say that I prefer the flaps.

    Typhon: 

    Typhon is a near-future undersea adventurer who not only has access to various super-submarines and ray guns and so forth but also sometimes has a magic ring that allows him to combat the various supernatural threats of the deep ocean. (Weird Comics 001, 1940)

    Thor, God of Thunder: 

    Thor, God of Thunder (the Norse god) gets restless one day in 1940 and decides to invest a mortal man with some of his power, making him Thor, God of Thunder (the super-hero). This is a not-uncommon origin story for a super-hero to have, but the really important thing to note is that the human, Grant Farrel, is not some paragon of virtue or descendant of Thor, and that he isn’t being sent out into the world to combat injustice on Thor’s behalf. No, he’s just kind of a sad sack who just got dumped and Thor hands him the power with a kind of “have fun with it” attitude. Grant seems like he might be the type to get into super-heroics of his own accord but he doesn’t really have any choice because Glenda, the girl who dumped him, is a real magnet for spy rings and secret invasions of France and so forth. They do eventually get back together, don’t worry.

    Like many of his contemporaries, Grant/Thor goes through a lot of different costume variants over the course of a short career, but the thing I really want to highlight is this very weird style of Viking helmet that both he and Original Thor wear in hist first three or four appearances. I mean, what’s with the discs? 

    Thor is of course wildly over-powered, as shown in this pretty awesome sequence in which he lassos an entire Luftwaffe attack on Paris and throws it at Berlin. He can also throw both his hammer and thunderbolts to devastating effect, and kind of alternates between flying under his own power and cartoonishly riding around on a big jagged bolt of lightning.

    In his final appearance, in Weird Comics 005, Thor is sans hammer for no particular reason. This doesn’t really slow him down but even so he gets a bit of divine aid via the gift of Thor’s strength-boosting gauntlet. (Weird Comics 001, 1940)

    Dynamite Thor:

    Dynamite Thor, the Explosion Man, is actually Peter Thor, wealthy mine owner and explosives expert. I was all ready to roast him for including his surname as part of his superhero identity, but on review of his five appearances it appears that the actual name he goes my is merely Dynamite. This also leaves me with no material with which to roast Thor’s fiance Glenda (same as our last Thor – what is it with Thors and Glendas?) for not realizing just who the mysterious man she so idolizes is.

    In his initial appearance, Dynamite Thor is merely a man with a belt-full of explosives and a pretty hammer-and nail approach to problem-solving. Crooks holed up in an old shack? Blow up the shack. Crooks getting away in a vehicle? A controlled explosion will bring a nearby object down and stop their flight. A big fire? Blow it up.

    By his second appearance in Weird Comics 007, someone had evidently decided that Dynamite Thor needed more of a hook or perhaps they just couldn’t figure out a good explosion-themed vehicle for him to fly around, because he gets his signature move which is absolutely the only reason that he is still talked about: he flies by the simple expedient of setting off a series of explosions under his ass. Finally, by his next appearance in Blue Beetle Comics 006, 1941, he is explicitly mentioned to be immune to these explosions, something that must have come as a great relief to him (edit to add: I was mistaken and they do make sure to mention that he is immune to explosions at the same time as he starts flying around on a column of them). (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

  • NOTES – AUGUST 2025

     

    Big Head Futurites:

    Just a fun illustration of the concept of future humans being big-headed weirdos, from the “Brick Bradford” Sunday strip for 5 December, 1937 

    Honours – Thor, God of Thunder: 

    Grant Farrel, aka Thor, God of Thunder, gets a medal in his role in defending the US from invasion by fascist Gratnia. Note that it is Grant and not Thor who gets the medal, because Grant does a lousy job of protecting his secret identity. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)

    Honours – Typhon: 

    Honoured at the Inter-Ocean Congress for stopping the dastardly Menar. (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

    Panel Fun: 

    Just good clean fun with bad spelling as Thor heads to Tibet to warn the Grand Llama about an impending bandit attack. (Weird Comics 004, 1940)