The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: kidnapper

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 942: THE SERPENT

    (Silver Streak Comics 015, 1941)

    The Serpent, a well-established and powerful crimelord, has been laying low due to the threat posed by the Daredevil, but all that is at an end now because as far as she can tell the Daredevil isn’t around any longer. She puts in a call to her men, and I really like the sequence that follows. Nothing can stop these guys from getting to work, not prison, not pool, not partying with babes.

    The Serpent’s plan is both simple and audacious: kidnap the children of the wealthy simultaneously in at least thirteen cities across the US, relying on the mass confusion of the event to hinder law enforcement long enough for her to collect the 10 million dollars ransom and skedaddle.

    It turns out that the Serpent was right to fear the Daredevil as he had not retired or been killed but had instead been lying low specifically to draw her out. Now that she has revealed herself, he jumps into action and, barring a brief spell in the Serpent’s dungeons (from which she has the audacity to try to ransom him back to the police!), he breaks up her operation in no time flat.

    The Serpent herself is captured after an attempt to assassinate the Daredevil at his home because he a) didn’t check to see if anyone was following him and b) walked back in uniform. Terrible secret identity hygiene, Daredevil!

    Though she is jailed (and makes a great face while being captured!), the Serpent joins the ranks of one-off characters who are just kind of out there with full knowledge of their enemy’s secrets. Luckily for the Daredevil, he existed in a less continuity-obsessed time than later heroes and so the Serpent never comes back to bite him for his carelessness.

    Categorized in: Animals (Snakes), Kidnappers (Ransom), Villains Who Know Their Heroic Foe’s Secret Identity

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 925: THE IRON-JAW

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 925: THE IRON-JAW

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The US is being rocked by a series of explosions targeting munitions factories and other facilities contributing to national defense, and not even the speed of the Silver Streak is enough to combat the organizational skills and coordination of the mysterious mastermind behind them. It is only by sheer coincidence that he happens upon an imperilled security guard from a plant in Georgia and learns from him that the men who blew up his workplace were under command of a mysterious figure called “Iron-Jaw” and that they all work for the “Axes Government”.

    Even with this information under his belt, the Silver Streak still loses two more factories to the Iron-Jaw before finally running down some of his men in Boston and discovering the secret of their great organizational abilities: a super-miniaturized (for the 40s) radio set used to relay orders to the Axes forces in America. By following the instructions coming from a captured unit, the Streak and Whiz are finally able to get the jump on the Iron-Jaw’s men and prevent the destruction of a plant in Pittsburgh, though the mastermind remains on the loose.

    The Iron-Jaw returns in Silver Streak Comics 010 with a new set of goals – the focus is now on shutting down media criticism of the Axes. To that end, the Silver Streak is drawn away via a report of a potential bombing in Chicago while Iron-Jaw is grabbing the real target, broadcaster Kitty Doyle, in NYC.

    This is Silver Streak we’re talking about here, so he returns in time to interrupt the kidnapping in progress. the mysterious Iron-Jaw is revealed to be a moderately cool-looking/ moderately goofy-looking/ fairly spiky humanoid robot. With a gold finish, no less – so much for thematic consistency.

    Though Iron-Jaw briefly gets the upper hand, even a super strong, very pointy robot is no match for the world’s fastest man and it takes a fatal header onto the streets of Manhattan below.

    Here’s something about the Iron-Jaw: in its first appearance, all it does is talk, while in its second it is completely mute. This dovetails interestingly with something that Kitty reports after its defeat, that investigation of the robot indicates that it was controlled by trans-oceanic radio waves originating from the Axes government. Which seems to indicate that the Iron-Jaw was merely operating as the mouth and hands of one or more spymasters in some comic book pastiche of Germany, which in turn means that this is one of the few times in Golden Age comics in which the villain gets away at the end!* Neat!

    *excluding all of the recurring villains who get away all the time, of course. 

    Finally, Silver Streak and Whiz get to meet FDR to get his congratulationss, plus a Congressional Medal of Honor!

    Categorized in: Body (Jaws), Elements (Iron), Origins (Robots) 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 925: THE IRON-JAW

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    The US is being rocked by a series of explosions targeting munitions factories and other facilities contributing to national defense, and not even the speed of the Silver Streak is enough to combat the organizational skills and coordination of the mysterious mastermind behind them. It is only by sheer coincidence that he happens upon an imperilled security guard from a plant in Georgia and learns from him that the men who blew up his workplace were under command of a mysterious figure called “Iron-Jaw” and that they all work for the “Axes Government”.

    Even with this information under his belt, the Silver Streak still loses two more factories to the Iron-Jaw before finally running down some of his men in Boston and discovering the secret of their great organizational abilities: a super-miniaturized (for the 40s) radio set used to relay orders to the Axes forces in America. By following the instructions coming from a captured unit, the Streak and Whiz are finally able to get the jump on the Iron-Jaw’s men and prevent the destruction of a plant in Pittsburgh, though the mastermind remains on the loose.

    The Iron-Jaw returns in Silver Streak Comics 010 with a new set of goals – the focus is now on shutting down media criticism of the Axes. To that end, the Silver Streak is drawn away via a report of a potential bombing in Chicago while Iron-Jaw is grabbing the real target, broadcaster Kitty Doyle, in NYC.

    This is Silver Streak we’re talking about here, so he returns in time to interrupt the kidnapping in progress. the mysterious Iron-Jaw is revealed to be a moderately cool-looking/ moderately goofy-looking/ fairly spiky humanoid robot. With a gold finish, no less – so much for thematic consistency.

    Though Iron-Jaw briefly gets the upper hand, even a super strong, very pointy robot is no match for the world’s fastest man and it takes a fatal header onto the streets of Manhattan below.

    Here’s something about the Iron-Jaw: in its first appearance, all it does is talk, while in its second it is completely mute. This dovetails interestingly with something that Kitty reports after its defeat, that investigation of the robot indicates that it was controlled by trans-oceanic radio waves originating from the Axes government. Which seems to indicate that the Iron-Jaw was merely operating as the mouth and hands of one or more spymasters in some comic book pastiche of Germany, which in turn means that this is one of the few times in Golden Age comics in which the villain gets away at the end!* Neat!

    *excluding all of the recurring villains who get away all the time, of course. 

    Finally, Silver Streak and Whiz get to meet FDR to get his congratulationss, plus a Congressional Medal of Honor!

    Categorized in: Body (Jaws), Elements (Iron), Origins (Robots) 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 894: BLUEBEARD

    (Wow Comics 004, 1941) 

    The piratical Bluebeard and his gang of fake sea dogs crash the costume ball of the wealthy van Hoffs and make off with Mrs van Hoff, demanding a ransom of one hundred thousand dollars for her return.

    Since Bluebeard had already tried to do extortion on the van Hoffs by sending them threatening notes, Mr Scarlet and Pinky were already on hand to swiftly track down the kidnappers and beat them senseless. 

    The post-beating unmasking reveals that Bluebeard is in fact Tom, possibly van Hoff, cousin to one or the other of the couple (or… both? Are the van Hoffs that kind of rich?), who has fallen on hard times and turned to costumed kidnapping as a means to scare up some quick cash. Some notes for Cousin Tom:

    – It is a bold choice to choose a false chinstrap beard when you have a real mustache.

    – Running around going “THEY’RE PROBABLY NOT IN THE CASTLE” when they are, in fact, in the castle is a really good way to draw suspicion down on yourself. Better to not mention the castle at all.

    – It is very annoying to call yourself Bluebeard and hang out in a castle while sticking to a strict pirate theme when there is in fact a character called Bluebeard, famously castle-based, who is a direct threat to women, and who I personally think would make for a better theme.

    In other words: make better choices next time. 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 888: THE SCORPION

    (Wow Comics 002, 1940)

    The Scorpion is mostly a regular gang boss, but with just enough extra oomph to take him over the edge into super-villainy. First thing: he is a very Bad Boss in that particular “execute under-performing employees as an example to the others” kind of way that all corporate overlords wish that HR would let them be.

    Secondly, he is perhaps the closest thing to a super-villain was faced by Allan Lanier, aka the Hunchback, seen here in his civilian guise rushing to investigate the defenestration of the Scorpion’s poor minion and inadvertently getting his fiance Betty kidnapped in the process.

    The Scorpion also has a true super-villain’s lack of subtlety, seen here as he successfully fools Lanier into believing that Betty has gone to visit her uncle by means of a simple telegram but then is unable to resist sending a more explicit threat (signed with a cute lil’ scorpion!) and undoing his previous work. 

    Finally, the Scorpion has a cool hideout: just like the Ninja Turtles he lives in an abandoned subway station, to which he is tracked by the vengeful Hunchback.

    After that, it’s all over. The Hunchback doesn’t play around, he just breaks the Scorpion’s neck. I would say that this is a case of someone choosing their enemies poorly, but the Scorpion didn’t actually know he was dealing with the Hunchback until it was too late. I guess the lesson is “don’t kidnap women.”

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 021

    None of this science is mad or criminal peer reviewed. 

    This fellow attempts to blackmail Dynamo’s unnamed home city by various methods, including Causing and then threatening further widespread destruction with his “liquid air” freeze cannon and kidnapping city council members and then subjecting some of them to a frankly horrific bone liquefying ray. 

    The main problem with him is honestly the fact that he has no established name. He does go by “Miss Monda” while he is posing as the mayor’s secretary in order to get the inside scoop on how his extortion attempts are going, which turns out to be his downfall when he is dewigged by Dynamo. Also, I just realized that in that last panel you can see that he is in fact wearing a full suit under the Miss Monda dress, making this the most improbable disguise in comics by my reckoning. (Weird Comics 009, 1940)

    Dr Z here has long been working on a mind-reading device, to no avail. He arranges for psychologist Larry Hunter to arrive at his isolated mansion in the hopes that forcing him to collaborate on the invention will lead to some sort of breakthrough, and it does! Alas for Dr Z, as s is so often the case in such stories the new technology is then turned on its villainous facilitator, as Hunter uses Dr Z’z own thoughts to show him how to eliminate the murderous scientist using his own deathtrap. 

    Hunter was probably supposed to go on to use the Thought Receiver to fight more crime in future adventures but as with so many of the denizens of Wham Comics he was never seen again. (Wham Comics 002, 1940)

    The mad Dr Chow operates a wax museum at the New York World’s Fair that he stocks with living humans who he has frozen with a weird drug. Why is he doing this? It’s unclear, but the top three answers that I can think of are : 1. for kicks, 2. for cash and 3. as a way of testing out the formula. He is captured by private detective Dan Dare, and unsettlingly there is no nod to the idea of thawing out the doctor’s victims, even though they are implied to still be alive in some way. (Whiz Comics 006, 1940)

    I had a lot of rising expectations as the character of Dr Lleh was introduced. Firstly, he was pretty clearly telegraphed to be a former member of a Tibetan archaeological expedition who was consumed by revenge after being dismissed for theft and was now haunting the countryside with his horde of experimental subjects. Secondly, his name is “Hell” backwards.

    The good times continue, as Dr Lleh derails the Orient Express (a train that historically did not travel through Tibet) in order to acquire more experimental subjects, only to find that Professor Davis – the very man who wad fired him! – was aboard, along with his daughter, plus indomitable detective Dr Fung and his assistant Dan Barrister. All four are away not just to the Temple of Hades but under it, to “Dr Lleh’s Kingdom of Hades” (no I do not know what a temple to Hades is doing in Tibet).

    All my hopes are dashed once Dr Lleh’s actual style of experimentation is revealed. Bribing two big dudes with llama steak (no I do not know how this guy is getting llama steak in Tibet) to pull a woman’s arms off is not research that would be publishied in even mad science journals, Dr Lleh. I hate to say it but I’m glad that Dr Fung blows you up.  (Wonderworld Comics 014, 1940)

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 021

    None of this science is mad or criminal peer reviewed. 

    This fellow attempts to blackmail Dynamo’s unnamed home city by various methods, including Causing and then threatening further widespread destruction with his “liquid air” freeze cannon and kidnapping city council members and then subjecting some of them to a frankly horrific bone liquefying ray. 

    The main problem with him is honestly the fact that he has no established name. He does go by “Miss Monda” while he is posing as the mayor’s secretary in order to get the inside scoop on how his extortion attempts are going, which turns out to be his downfall when he is dewigged by Dynamo. Also, I just realized that in that last panel you can see that he is in fact wearing a full suit under the Miss Monda dress, making this the most improbable disguise in comics by my reckoning. (Weird Comics 009, 1940)

    Dr Z here has long been working on a mind-reading device, to no avail. He arranges for psychologist Larry Hunter to arrive at his isolated mansion in the hopes that forcing him to collaborate on the invention will lead to some sort of breakthrough, and it does! Alas for Dr Z, as s is so often the case in such stories the new technology is then turned on its villainous facilitator, as Hunter uses Dr Z’z own thoughts to show him how to eliminate the murderous scientist using his own deathtrap. 

    Hunter was probably supposed to go on to use the Thought Receiver to fight more crime in future adventures but as with so many of the denizens of Wham Comics he was never seen again. (Wham Comics 002, 1940)

    The mad Dr Chow operates a wax museum at the New York World’s Fair that he stocks with living humans who he has frozen with a weird drug. Why is he doing this? It’s unclear, but the top three answers that I can think of are : 1. for kicks, 2. for cash and 3. as a way of testing out the formula. He is captured by private detective Dan Dare, and unsettlingly there is no nod to the idea of thawing out the doctor’s victims, even though they are implied to still be alive in some way. (Whiz Comics 006, 1940)

    I had a lot of rising expectations as the character of Dr Lleh was introduced. Firstly, he was pretty clearly telegraphed to be a former member of a Tibetan archaeological expedition who was consumed by revenge after being dismissed for theft and was now haunting the countryside with his horde of experimental subjects. Secondly, his name is “Hell” backwards.

    The good times continue, as Dr Lleh derails the Orient Express (a train that historically did not travel through Tibet) in order to acquire more experimental subjects, only to find that Professor Davis – the very man who wad fired him! – was aboard, along with his daughter, plus indomitable detective Dr Fung and his assistant Dan Barrister. All four are away not just to the Temple of Hades but under it, to “Dr Lleh’s Kingdom of Hades” (no I do not know what a temple to Hades is doing in Tibet).

    All my hopes are dashed once Dr Lleh’s actual style of experimentation is revealed. Bribing two big dudes with llama steak (no I do not know how this guy is getting llama steak in Tibet) to pull a woman’s arms off is not research that would be publishied in even mad science journals, Dr Lleh. I hate to say it but I’m glad that Dr Fung blows you up.  (Wonderworld Comics 014, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 863: KARNO THE CHESS MAN

    (Wonderworld Comics 009, 1940)

    Detective Dr Fung’s pal Dan Barrister racks up one of the swifter “this information is impossible/ the impossible thing is right behind me” turnarounds in comics history when he and Dr Fung are kidnapped by a Moth Man about 1.5 seconds after he expresses disbelief in the existence of Moth Men who kidnap people. It turns out that the Moth Men in question work for a super-villainous type named Karno the Chess Man (sometimes Chessman) who lives in what I would call an excessively stair-filled cave considering the tiny little wheels on his mobility aid.

    And just why is Karno sending moth-themed henchmen to kidnap people? Why because he doesn’t have a full chess set yet and so he must transform moderately thematically-appropriate people into the pieces he is missing. Yes, Karno is an obsessive criminal of the sort that we usually getting punched out by Batman in the 1960s and he thinks that Dr Fung would make a distinguished king.

    Dr Fung is no slouch, however, and while the Moth Men are subduing Dan Barrister he slips off into the shadows and starts blasting henchmen with their own ray rifles. In short order he, Dan and Irene Jonson (previously destined to be turned into a chess queen) are winging their way home courtesy of the Chess Man’s own ray-powered person launcher, though Karno takes a page from Dr Fung’s playbook and escapes in the commotion.

    Karno returns in Wonderworld Comics 010, as Dan and Dr Fung return to capture him once and for all, and he is not only easy to track down but almost shockingly easy to disarm, as Dr Fung demonstrates using a moist handkerchief.

    The big confrontation between Fung and the Chess Man, as exciting and action-packed as it is, is interrupted by some unfortunate activity in the depths of Karno’s lair, proving once again that the coolness factor of living inside an active volcano always comes at a price.

    Dr Fung, Dan and Karno make their escape just ahead of a wave of flowing lava – no word on whether any of the Moth Men made it out – and Karno is so grateful for their efforts in saving him that he resolves to turn over a new leaf and turn himself in. A surprisingly wholesome end to the tale, for once!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 863: KARNO THE CHESS MAN

    (Wonderworld Comics 009, 1940)

    Detective Dr Fung’s pal Dan Barrister racks up one of the swifter “this information is impossible/ the impossible thing is right behind me” turnarounds in comics history when he and Dr Fung are kidnapped by a Moth Man about 1.5 seconds after he expresses disbelief in the existence of Moth Men who kidnap people. It turns out that the Moth Men in question work for a super-villainous type named Karno the Chess Man (sometimes Chessman) who lives in what I would call an excessively stair-filled cave considering the tiny little wheels on his mobility aid.

    And just why is Karno sending moth-themed henchmen to kidnap people? Why because he doesn’t have a full chess set yet and so he must transform moderately thematically-appropriate people into the pieces he is missing. Yes, Karno is an obsessive criminal of the sort that we usually getting punched out by Batman in the 1960s and he thinks that Dr Fung would make a distinguished king.

    Dr Fung is no slouch, however, and while the Moth Men are subduing Dan Barrister he slips off into the shadows and starts blasting henchmen with their own ray rifles. In short order he, Dan and Irene Jonson (previously destined to be turned into a chess queen) are winging their way home courtesy of the Chess Man’s own ray-powered person launcher, though Karno takes a page from Dr Fung’s playbook and escapes in the commotion.

    Karno returns in Wonderworld Comics 010, as Dan and Dr Fung return to capture him once and for all, and he is not only easy to track down but almost shockingly easy to disarm, as Dr Fung demonstrates using a moist handkerchief.

    The big confrontation between Fung and the Chess Man, as exciting and action-packed as it is, is interrupted by some unfortunate activity in the depths of Karno’s lair, proving once again that the coolness factor of living inside an active volcano always comes at a price.

    Dr Fung, Dan and Karno make their escape just ahead of a wave of flowing lava – no word on whether any of the Moth Men made it out – and Karno is so grateful for their efforts in saving him that he resolves to turn over a new leaf and turn himself in. A surprisingly wholesome end to the tale, for once!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 853: GOBI, SUPER-WIZARD OF THE DESERT

    (Weird Comics 009, 1940)

    The Sorceress of Zoom is enjoying herself by tormenting people in the desert one day when she is suddenly confronted and challenged for possession of her victims by Gobi, Super-Wizard of the Desert! Is he some sort of heroic magic-user looking to free the people from their torturous servitude? Of course not! He’s looking for food for his pet vultures! 

    (aside: the Sorceress of Zoom is never the good guy in these situations, but this might be the one in which she is the most the bad guy. Sure, Gobi wants to feed the people to his critters, but here’s a list of just what the SoZ gets up to in the first few pages of this comic:

    -harness a bunch of guys to a platfrom (definitely not a sled) covered in treasure and force them to haul it through the desert while whipping them

    -when they complain about being thirsty, create an illusory oasis to tempt them into greater effort

    -once they realize the trick, abandon them in the desert to die

    -ambush and enslave a caravan to replace the first bunch of guys

    -petrify most of those who fight back and leave others trapped in a circle of eternal flame

    -make the rest haul that platform through the desert and when someone complains of thirst, turn him into a skeleton

    -force another complainer to climb a ladder to nowhere, while whipping him

    -turn everyone else into camel centaurs

    It’s all a bit much) 

    (2nd aside: though Gobi is of course named after the famous Asian desert, I’m pretty sure that this comic takes place somewhere in North Africa) 

    Gobi manages to get the upper hand early on with a surprise shrink spell, but just before his vultures start to chow down she reappears at full size and max strength to initiate an old-fashioned  magical duel.

    As always, there is a best part to any such duel, and in this case it is when Gobi completely dissolves the Sorceress of Zoom with magical acid. This of course does not kill her, but does leave her as a disembodied spirit for a while.

    As usual, the duel eventually turns into something closer to a child’s game in which the Sorceress merely goes “nuh-uh” in response to every attack by Gobi. This supports my theory that all of this is in aid of alleviating her boredom. Was she tormenting those guys in an area that Gobi was known to haunt in order to pick a fight? It’s entirely possible! All good things must come to an end, however, and once the Super-Wizard of the Desert ceases to entertain he is unceremoniously transformed into a desert spring.