The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: names

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 438: THE GLOVE

    (Tip-Top Comics 054-056, 1940)

    The Glove here is the head of a gang of international criminals that come to the attention of super-hero brothers the Triple Terror when they make off with a load of radium. Why the radium, you ask? Why, so that the Glove and his pal Mr Mario (good name) could run their death ray cannon.

    Unfortunately for the Glove he only ever managed to capture 2/3 of the Triple Terror. The final confrontation does reveal the reason that he is called the Glove: like our old friend the Hook he has a prosthetic hook hand covered by a false plastic one. The hook proves to be his ultimate undoing, as a fumbled grab for a light switch ends in his electrocution (and, through some literary contrivance, that of most of his men. Only Mr Mario survives).

    But who are the Triple Terror? They are triplets Barton, Richard and Bruce Brandon, who operate respectively as Chemix, Lectra and Menta, the masters of chemistry, electricity and men’s minds. Though they are technically nonpowered they are sufficiently adept at their specialties that they effectively are. Chemix has for instance created what is essentially Spider-Man’s webshooter while Menta has access to hypnotic powers that are tantamount to mind control. All three are of course physical paragons capable of bursting chains and scaling walls with ease

    The only real weak point in the Brandons arsenal of abilities is in their faculty for naming: “Triple Terror” and “Chemix” are okay but “Lectra”? “Menta”? Even the family estate is called “Brandwell” which is frankly mid-tier.

    I do enjoy their Platonic Ideal super-hero outfits, complete with dumb logos and a variable number of pouches depending on how many accessories each uses as part of their role in the team. I will be starting a pool to bet on how long the belt thing lasts.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 436: THE HEAD

    (Shadow Comics v1 004, 1940)

    Yo, it’s the Head! The Head is a mystic oracle that takes the form of a spooky head in a box and uses his position as a popular upper crust medium to gather info on crime targets, then sends out gangsters (named things like Squint, Chipmunk and Beak Thungle) to plunder them.

    The Head is also Zovex, a bulletproof cube-man who is supposedly just a servant of the Head but is mostly just a pile of armour plating.

    The way the Head operates both as Zovex and as the head-in-a-box oracle is that he is in actuality just a tiny little guy who probably didn’t pose enough of a threat for the Shadow to have to gun him down like he does, even if he was wearing tiny little curly shoes.

    This is all pretty standard fare as far as the comic book fake medium racket goes, but I appreciate a villain in a traditionally hands-off role getting out there in a suit of armour and mixing it up, you know?

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 436: THE HEAD

    (Shadow Comics v1 004, 1940)

    Yo, it’s the Head! The Head is a mystic oracle that takes the form of a spooky head in a box and uses his position as a popular upper crust medium to gather info on crime targets, then sends out gangsters (named things like Squint, Chipmunk and Beak Thungle) to plunder them.

    The Head is also Zovex, a bulletproof cube-man who is supposedly just a servant of the Head but is mostly just a pile of armour plating.

    The way the Head operates both as Zovex and as the head-in-a-box oracle is that he is in actuality just a tiny little guy who probably didn’t pose enough of a threat for the Shadow to have to gun him down like he does, even if he was wearing tiny little curly shoes.

    This is all pretty standard fare as far as the comic book fake medium racket goes, but I appreciate a villain in a traditionally hands-off role getting out there in a suit of armour and mixing it up, you know?

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 401: THE MASKED MAN

    (More Fun Comics 073, 1941)

    This is not a new development but having Johnny Quick and Green Arrow’s debuts so close together made me realize that a minor sea change had happened some time in 1941: whereas the earliest super-heroes would start out collaring regular crooks we’re entering an era in which super-villains are the norm! (that said, Aquaman’s debut is in this issue as well and he just blows up a few Nazis).

    As for the Masked Man (our fifth! Even if more than half of them are unofficial), he’s another themed deathtraps guy, killing members of the extremely tryhard History Club (members must have the same last name as a famous historical or mythological figure, but sometimes it’s the figure’s first name as their last name and also there’s a member named Frank d’Arcy who is a member under the extremely slim pretext of sharing a name with Joan of Arc AKA Jean d’Arc. Maybe it’s a club for guys too uninteresting to belong to any of the other weird themed organizations in comics). Needless to say my interest was piqued: themed deathtraps are a classic villain trope! These, however, are extremely perfunctory – shooting a guy named Lincoln but not in a theatre, stabbing a Caesar in his sleep… a little more theatricality would have gone a long way.

    More halfassed deathtraps: Ezra Samson is tied up next to a bomb that will collapse a building on him, Frank d’Arcy is tied up in a burning building, Amos Socrates is forced to drink poison at gunpoint and Leonard Achilles (great name!) is warned about his heel being targeted so he wears metal boots and is then killed via electrified mat. It’s all moderately thematic but feels perfunctory.

    And it is, in fact, perfunctory! The Masked Man is not killing the members of the History Club out of hatred or because of a weird compulsion but as a distraction! He’s actually club treasurer Ezra Samson attempting to cover up his long-term embezzlement of club funds by murdering everyone who would care, culminating in a fake attempt on his own life and a staging of Amos Socrates’ poisoning so that he would look like a guilty suicide. And he might have gotten away with it if Green Arrow and Speedy hadn’t been there to kill him with a car wreck at the end of the story.

    BONUS TROPHY ROOM

    Green Arrow and Speedy add the Masked Man’s fake round bomb to their already overstuffed trophy case.

  • FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 003

    More goons. Fascist goons? Yes.

    The Anti-American Party operated in the South American country of Santa Palos, home of the Red Gaucho, and got up to a lot of malarky at a fancy dress ball. Crucially, they disguised one of their agents as the Red Gaucho, leading to a lot of mixups between the agent, the Gaucho and a clueless dope who also came dressed as the hero (Nickel Comics 006, 1940)

    The Black Guard, agents of the Germany-analog country of Nordicha operating in neighbouring oil-rich country Ruina and foiled by Secret Agent X-5 (later G-5) (Hit Comics 002, 1940)

    Now that I’m revisiting them I reckon that the Green Gloves should have been a regular entry but it’s too late now. In contrast to all of the other fascist groups represented here so far, the Green Gloves are devoted to a guy amazingly named Glover Green with no allegiance to any foreign power. Green seems to be your garden variety megalomaniac with a real glove fixation, down to traitors to the group getting a green glove brand on their foreheads (Detective Comics v1 045, 1940)

    The Nastonian-American Society is just another German-American Bund analog (Adventure Comics 051, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 354: THE MASKED MAN

    (Master Comics 015, 1941)

    This really illustrates how the life of a mysterious adventurer is different from that of the rest of us: while driving through Florida, Zoro the Mystery Man stops at a random mansion, is rebuffed when he seeks admittance, and decides to snoop around. While you or I might discover, say, a private birthday party or merely a normal family who don’t particularly want to entertain every stranger who knocks on their door, Zoro instead finds a masked figure who is busily mutating the mansions inhabitants into ape-men. I guess once it happens to you a couple of times you just get an instinct for it?

    Hi-jinks of course ensue, culminating in the revelation that the culprit is Garvey, the black sheep of the family who presumably chose the ape-man route of seeking revenge because it was cooler than merely shooting up the joint. The point is, his name is Garvey Rantrill.

  • NOTES – MAY 2023

    Folk:

    Luther Robinson and Lynne Harris! These folks are hard to categorize! They’re not villains, despite being antagonists to Namor the Sub-Mariner, because Namor is very much a villain at least half of the time. They’re not heroes, despite eventually allying with Namor to fight Nazis, because they definitely attempt to commit at least one genocide against the people of Atlantis. 

    They’re adventurers, they’ve both been surgically modified by Atlantean scientists to be amphibious, and Lynne is one of a long line of women to be abducted by Namor with romantic ill-intent (and she’s, like, third one, in a mere handful of stories). They’re interesting artifacts of the way comic book universes come together, and that’s great.

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 010-026 (sporadically), 1940-1941) 

    Vision foe Rhamu Rondi is your bog standard crooked mystic character and will make no further appearances here, but the Buddha Signal is objectively great – even early Jack Kirby knew what was up with regard to villainous décor.(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 015, 1941)

    Names:

    Fella name of Barney Bailey here, which is a pretty great moniker for an exhibiter of curiosities to have. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, 1941)

    Panel fun:

    Sub-Mariner x Human Torch (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017, 1941)

    Whether this is Namor’s personal flag/ crest or a more general Atlantean symbol, this bit of regalia must be noted. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 018, 1941)

    Biographical Details: Namor the Sub-Mariner weighs 198 pounds, according to the ring announcer during his foray into the world of boxing (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 004

    They’re back! They’re costumed! They’re generic!

    Shorty Jones/ Generic Mummy: 

    It’s a sad day for me but I fear I have to classify this fake mummy as a generic costumed villain, even though he has a shortsword, one of the top swords. Ultimately, he’s just a thief named Shorty Jones who robs the museum every night and even with the power of the fake mummy on his side Shorty just isn’t interesting enough to qualify as a minor super-villain. (Detective Comics v1 053, 1941)

    Gritter: 

    Doc Savage battled this guy (real name the pretty good Gritter; posing as the amazingly-named Captain Blackstone Toy) who had a very complicated plan to blackmail the US Armed Forces. Also his chief henchman was named Fuzzy. (Doc Savage Comics 004, 1941)

    Deputy Cal: 

    This lady bandit is in fact Deputy Cal of the Twin Forks Sheriff’s office. His idea to crossdress as a major part of his holdup persona totally pays off, but unfortunately for him he completely fails to disguise himself in any other way – same distinctive horse, same clothes, a very confrontational attitude to anyone looking into the holdups rather than keeping his head down – and he swiftly gets run in by the Fargo Kid. (Feature Comics 048, 1941)

    Unnamed Killer: 

    This unnamed stablehand is that most banal of killers, a jilted suitor going after the romantic rival. But he goes to such effort! It takes two tries – with a remote-controlled sailboat and a sniper rfle – to get the guy, at which point the Red Bee impersonates him and is attacked with battleaxe, scythe, pitchfork and trap door.

    Plus he dresses up as Death for one attempt! Truly this man was as close to non-generic as it’s possible to be while still being completely forgettable. (Hit Comics 014, 1941) 

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 251: BOMB-BABY SATHAN

    (Flash Comics v1 020, 1941)

    An absolutely ordinary criminal scientist villain completely overshadowed by his criminal rival Big Frenchy in this adventure. Sathan has at-the-time fantastically futuristic guided missile tech, as well as one of my personal favourite bits of super-villain utility tech: the communications cut-in, via which he extorts money from banks lest they get hit by guided missiles.

    The only reason Sathan hasn’t been relegated to the Criminal and Mad Scientist Roundup queue is this here henchman’s inspired nickname game. Bomb-Baby Sathan is a Grant Morrison Making Up a Sixties Villain in the Nineties-style name and it’s genuinely joyful to encounter it in a Golden Age comic.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 251: BOMB-BABY SATHAN

    (Flash Comics v1 020, 1941)

    An absolutely ordinary criminal scientist villain completely overshadowed by his criminal rival Big Frenchy in this adventure. Sathan has at-the-time fantastically futuristic guided missile tech, as well as one of my personal favourite bits of super-villain utility tech: the communications cut-in, via which he extorts money from banks lest they get hit by guided missiles.

    The only reason Sathan hasn’t been relegated to the Criminal and Mad Scientist Roundup queue is this here henchman’s inspired nickname game. Bomb-Baby Sathan is a Grant Morrison Making Up a Sixties Villain in the Nineties-style name and it’s genuinely joyful to encounter it in a Golden Age comic.