The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: names

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 240: PROFESSOR KITZOFF

    (Flash Comics v1 008)

    Professor Kitzoff makes me sad because he is categorically not the Sunspot Wizard. Oh sure, someone at DC or in the fan community went back and assigned titles to all the untitled Golden Age stories and they called this one “the Sunspot Wizard”, but that’s nothing. I love an unofficial name as much as (probably more than) the next guy, but they have to a) come from the text of the story itself and b) can’t just be replacing the actual name by which the character is actually referred!

    So, yes, sad. Professor “Boring Name” Kitzoff has followed the popular criminal scientist path of making an astonishing breakthrough based on junk science – in this case the idea that sunspots affect world events. He has a cool ray that supposedly allows him to affect these sunspots and thus the fate of humanity, but luckily for humanity, Hawkman and his pal Doctor French are on the case and Kitzoff is hounded from New York to the Andes until being accidentally shot by one of his own henchmen. Ho hum.

    My depression is only lifted by the fact that this is the adventure in which Hawkman is seemingly killed and his seeming corpse is nailed up in a coffin with lots of gaps between the boards for some reason, leading to one of the best images of the Golden Age:

  • NOTES – FEBRUARY 2023

    The Whip is an okay character aside from the brownface bit but one thing I absolutely love about him is that although he does a credible job at the Ineffectual Secret Identity act he also just travels from town to town with an enormous black horse.

    (Flash Comics v1 005, 1940) 

    Names:

    This old dude shares his name with Kurt Busiek’s Astro City character Samaritan! The tally of comics characters named Asa Martin stands at 2! (Flash Comics v1 010, 1940)

    Same issue’s Hawkman story features a (bad) guy named John Denver!

    I’m usually pretty good at catching allusions and so forth in these old comics but I have no idea why Joe Magee = “always bungling something” (Flash Comics v1 015, 1941)

    Places: It’s a bit hard to make out but the flash on this armoured car seems to place Seguro in “New Texirona” rather than New Mexico, which might just be the most egregious example of 40s comics writers avoiding real place names that I’ve ever encountered. (Flash Comics v1 016, 1941)

    This is how I order in restaurants, too. (Flash Comics v1 017, 1941)

    Number of references to “the Third Degree” aka the cops torturing someone as a positive thing this month: 3

  • NOTES: JANUARY 2023

    Names:


    Bulldog Teeters. (Feature Comics 044, 1941)


    Zero the Ghost Detective getting straight-up punched by a ghost. (Feature Comics 051, 1941)

    Dates: Johnny Thunder born 7th July, 1917 (Flash Comics v1 001, 1940)

    Calling Cards:


    He only ever used ’em a couple of times but the Flash had metal lightning bolt dart calling cards.

    Costumes:


    Absolutely the best Hawkman costume variant is the brief period in which he wore a big hat in the shape of a sassy hawk’s head (Flash Comics v1 003, 1940)

  • NOTES: DECEMBER 2022

    (Detective Comics v1 058, 1941)

     

    Comic book character of the year Claudia Carol, folks.

    Names: (Doc Savage Comics v1 003, 1941)

    Bit of nominative determinism going on. The protagonist of this piece is Brad Marshall:

    Marshal Brad Marshall:

    Crook name of Bat Crawley (Feature Comics 040, 1941)

    I’m only mostly certain, but I think that “Fasdick” here might be subbing in for “fascist”. The government in question does bear all the hallmarks of being a stand-in for one of the Axis powers, but it’s a wild stretch, even so. (Feature Comics 040, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 201: THE WEREWOLF

    (Crack Comics 015, 1941) 

    I love the Werewolf, and here’s a list of the things I love about him:

    -His name: He has the unlikely handle of Prescott Taunton. A minor point but a good one.

    -His motivation: Prescott is a writer. Specifically, he wrote a book about lycanthropy and then shopped it around enough to get rejected at least seven times. And then he started murdering the people who rejected his work.

    -His ambiguous lycanthropy: Is he a werewolf or just nuts? In the real world the answer would be the latter, but in a comic book universe there’s room for the kind of low-grade feral human style of lycanthropy that appears to be on display here, which I love. He does seem to have undergone some minor physical changes so I’m inclined to believe that he’s the real deal.

    -His ease of capture: Though he puts up a bit of a fight and manages to flee his penthouse lair when the Clock and his pal Pug show up, it’s a very short reprieve as he doesn’t even make it to a proper second location, being knocked out in one punch on the street below.

    It’s been a while since I said that a villain should be BRUNG BACK but I’m saying it now – homicidal sensitive-to-rejection possible werewolf writer is a fun villain hook! Lift the story entirely and give it to the Creeper or someone!

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 002

    Another collection of those middling muddlers who didn’t quite make it to the minor leagues: the generic costumed villains!

    Silas Greer: 

    Tried to kill his own nephew to get his fortune but was walloped by the Clock (and the Orchid!) for his troubles. (Crack Comics 002, 1940)

    Trag: 

    A gentleman with the unlikely name of Trag dressed up in this unusual mask in an attempt to frame a guy with the only slightly less unusual name of Doctor Prowl before Madam Fatal put the kibosh on him. (Crack Comics 008, 1940)

    Natas: 

    This here fella was the secret head of a protection racket shaking down all of the laundries in town. Scientific sleuth Wizard Wells knew it was one of the laundry owners behind the mask but not which one. Surprising nobody, it was the one named Natas. (Crack Comics 009, 1941)

    General Korn: 

    Behind this mask is one General Korn, who responded to the US government not buying his remote bomb detonator by first blowing up part of Washington DC and then trying to explode the US Senate itself. But little did he know that Black Condor was on that senate, so he got caught post haste. (Crack Comics 013, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 002

    Another collection of those middling muddlers who didn’t quite make it to the minor leagues: the generic costumed villains!

    Silas Greer: 

    Tried to kill his own nephew to get his fortune but was walloped by the Clock (and the Orchid!) for his troubles. (Crack Comics 002, 1940)

    Trag: 

    A gentleman with the unlikely name of Trag dressed up in this unusual mask in an attempt to frame a guy with the only slightly less unusual name of Doctor Prowl before Madam Fatal put the kibosh on him. (Crack Comics 008, 1940)

    Natas: 

    This here fella was the secret head of a protection racket shaking down all of the laundries in town. Scientific sleuth Wizard Wells knew it was one of the laundry owners behind the mask but not which one. Surprising nobody, it was the one named Natas. (Crack Comics 009, 1941)

    General Korn: 

    Behind this mask is one General Korn, who responded to the US government not buying his remote bomb detonator by first blowing up part of Washington DC and then trying to explode the US Senate itself. But little did he know that Black Condor was on that senate, so he got caught post haste. (Crack Comics 013, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 183: X-1

    (Crack Comics 003, 1940)

    What makes them a super-villain? While X-1 is concerned with that most banal of crimes, insurance fraud, he does it at scale, employing a fleet of pirates in souped-up submarines to steal his own goods and sink his own ships for the sweet cash payout.

    What is interesting about them? Well first off, his real name is Wilhelm Wotan, a true banger of a moniker the likes of which we have seldom seen so far. A real villain’s name that is frankly wasted on this capitalist pigdog.

    The real draw, though, is those submarine pirates! Check out those dreamy mantled masks, that skull-and-crossboned conning tower! It’s hard to go wrong with submarine pirates but by Jove I’ve seldom seen any done more right.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 183: X-1

    (Crack Comics 003, 1940)

    What makes them a super-villain? While X-1 is concerned with that most banal of crimes, insurance fraud, he does it at scale, employing a fleet of pirates in souped-up submarines to steal his own goods and sink his own ships for the sweet cash payout.

    What is interesting about them? Well first off, his real name is Wilhelm Wotan, a true banger of a moniker the likes of which we have seldom seen so far. A real villain’s name that is frankly wasted on this capitalist pigdog.

    The real draw, though, is those submarine pirates! Check out those dreamy mantled masks, that skull-and-crossboned conning tower! It’s hard to go wrong with submarine pirates but by Jove I’ve seldom seen any done more right.

  • NOTES: OCTOBER 2022

    The Clock flatlines himself in order to solve a murder by speaking to the victim in the afterlife. (Crack Comics 010, 1941) 

    Decoration:

    Jaspar Crow’s got a monogrammed wastecan! (Crack Comics 016, 1941)

    Dr Foster’s got a monogrammed lampshade! (Crack Comics 017, 1941)

    Names: Tor the Magic Master encounters a counterfeiter with the unlikely name Phrogg Zaarn.

    One of the victims of Clock foe the Werewolf is named A.B. Ceedee.