The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: space pirate

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 701: FELON

    (Planet Comics 003, 1940)

    In his first appearance Felon is a fairly ordinary space pirate captain, terrorizing the spaceways with a fleet of cool black delta-shaped ships and a device that intercepts and disrupts communications across the Solar System.

    In this capacity, Felon gets absolutely trounced by Captain Nelson Cole: his men are beaten up and then blown out of the sky by Cole and the Solar Force. The survivors are taken into custody – Felon is not specifically mentioned but he either crashed somewhere or ended up in jail.

    Whatever happened,  the defeat must have really stuck with Felon, because he returns for revenge in Planet Comics 004, blasting a ray gun wildly into a ballroom occupied by celebrating Solar Force officers, killing at least twenty people but completely failing to achieve his goal of murdering Captain Nelson Cole.

    It’s shaping up to be another extended narrative of space cops vs space crooks when Felon, Cole and the entire Solar Force fleet just kind of blunder through a time portal (well, a time beam, technically) into the 20th Century. What a twist!

    While Cole and his crew are taking in the historical sights, Felon weighs up his options and immediately allies himself with the Nazis the Axis the Aggressor Nations, leading a surprise attack on the US that destroys half of New York City but crucially yet again completely fails to kill Cole or his men.

    Once it’s no longer a matter of humans vs aerial bombardment but futuristic space fleet vs 1940s aircraft, things quickly turn against Felon and the Aggressor Nations. Cole and his men force a global peace by the simple expedient of paralyzing all of the armies until the treaties are signed, and then chase Felon around until he hops back through the time beam ex machina vulcano to the relative safety of the future.

    Now the comic turns into an extended outer space chase but honestly it was all over for Felon once the bombing of NYC failed to take out Cole. The two have a final confrontation in Felon’s old bombed-out asteroid base that ends with Felon in the hoosegow.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 580: BLACK MICHAEL

    (Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940)

    Black Michael is the leader of a band of space pirates based on Pluto and beginning in the year 2140 he terrorizes the solar system, killing and plundering at will.

    It’s unclear in the original story how long this state of affairs persists for, but a later installment of “the Solar Legion” takes place in 2260, suggesting that Black Michael and his crew might have been going strong for upwards of 120 years. That’s a lot of piracy!

    All good things must come to an end, however. Black Michael and his entire crew (and a decent chunk of the Plutonian surface) are blown to smithereens by Adam Starr, founder of the Space Legion and real hard-ass.

    OR WAS HE? In Crash Comics Adventures 003 Adam Starr searches Mars for a missing heiress and finds not only her but his old enemy Black Michael in a new base under the famed canals of Mars (and of course Jack Kirby loved the concept of the Martian canals – it’s evocative!).

    Black Michael attempts to feed Starr (and his hostage, for some reason?) to the great Martian god/monster/fish Gansha but makes the fatal error of leaving him armed and both he and the Gansha meet their ends via the muzzle of Starr’s extremely over-powered ray gun. Do not take this man target shooting, folks.

    Bonus image of the Gansha, the real star of the adventure.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 580: BLACK MICHAEL

    (Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940)

    Black Michael is the leader of a band of space pirates based on Pluto and beginning in the year 2140 he terrorizes the solar system, killing and plundering at will.

    It’s unclear in the original story how long this state of affairs persists for, but a later installment of “the Solar Legion” takes place in 2260, suggesting that Black Michael and his crew might have been going strong for upwards of 120 years. That’s a lot of piracy!

    All good things must come to an end, however. Black Michael and his entire crew (and a decent chunk of the Plutonian surface) are blown to smithereens by Adam Starr, founder of the Space Legion and real hard-ass.

    OR WAS HE? In Crash Comics Adventures 003 Adam Starr searches Mars for a missing heiress and finds not only her but his old enemy Black Michael in a new base under the famed canals of Mars (and of course Jack Kirby loved the concept of the Martian canals – it’s evocative!).

    Black Michael attempts to feed Starr (and his hostage, for some reason?) to the great Martian god/monster/fish Gansha but makes the fatal error of leaving him armed and both he and the Gansha meet their ends via the muzzle of Starr’s extremely over-powered ray gun. Do not take this man target shooting, folks.

    Bonus image of the Gansha, the real star of the adventure.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 457: THE BLACK HAWK

    (Mystic Comics v1 002, 1940)

    Scourge of the year 2300, the Black Hawk and his Mercurian space pirates loot the spaceways of radioactive plinium in a bid to take over the entire Solar System. He’s also a pretty bad father, a fact that comes back to bite him (fatally) when his daughter Alyse teams up with the Space Rangers to take him down.

    Kids, amirite?

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 203: BLACKBEARD

    (Crack Comics 016, 1941)

    I keep saying that space pirates are too thick on the ground to include every one despite my inclinations but Blackbeard here overruled me on several fronts, including:

    -Overall look: that’s basically a perfect look for a futuristic pirate (it’s not obvious from this image but I reckon that he’s shirtless under the coat, btw). Maybe swap the beret out for a more traditional hat but that would be the only thing I’d change.

    -Name: can’t go wrong with a classic.

    -Henchmen:

    Blackbeard’s crew are the Outlaws of Jupiter, and their names are things like One-Arm Ganz, Patch-Eye Tork and Half-Face McGurk. And Gilene, of course, who seems not to have suffered any sort of nickname-worthy injury.

    It’s all great stuff, even though Blackbeard’s only attempted crime – hijack a shipment of ray guns – is foiled immediately by the Space Legion.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 197: CAPTAIN X

    (Crack Comics 012-013, 1941)

    It doesn’t take much to push a space pirate over the line into super-villain status, and Captain X’s name and costume are more than enough to do so for me. Plus, she has two whole appearances! What’s that? Yes I said “she” because you see…

    CAPTAIN X IS A WOMAN!

    Yes, it’s the ol’ gender switcheroo, which is perhaps not as mind-blowing in 2022 as it was in 1941. Evidently, though, it’s almost unthinkable by 2441.