The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Lt Drake of Naval Intelligence

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 004

    More mad science than criminal science or vice versa? You be the judge! 

    This guy, who seems to be neither bald nor ironically hairy enough for his name of Baldy Fluger to make sense, has a hypnotic ray and a plan: to use that hypnotic ray for crime. The Green Mask and Domino the Miracle Boy have something to say about that. (Mystery Men Comics 021, 1941)

    If there was any more to these three (respectively named Boris, Oscar and Unnamed Man) than what happens in the four panels above then I would be writing hundreds of words about them, but this is about it: three mad scientists, one of whom has one of the top lines in comics history (“They said I was a mad scientist but when I blast their children with my electron gun they won’t call me mad anymore!”) attack a steel mill for unclear reasons, possibly madness. The rest of the story involves them battling Lieutenant Drake of Naval Intelligence and Miss X. There’s a lot of electron gunning but no children are involved. (Mystery Men Comics 021, 1941)

    Renowned transplant surgeon Dr Moru just so happens to also be the mysterious person murdering people and stealing their hands, and all so that he can make beaucoup bucks giving gangsters brand new hands with brand new fingerprints. Until the Green Mask gets involved, of course. (Mystery Men Comics 029, 1941)

    Dr Murdo here had a death ray, an underground lair and a small army of goons but had the misfortune of crossing paths with Flexo the Rubber Man and being subdued with robot gas. (Mystic Comics v1 001, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 444: FRAU IZAN

    (Mystery Men Comics 023, 1941)

    Our story begins in media res as Lieutenant Drake of Naval Intelligence cleans up the goons of Nazi crypto-fascist (they get real close to calling her a Nazi in this one but she works for the Opatseg instead of the Gestapo, so I guess she’s just another Izan) femme fatale spy named Frau Izan.

    Izan gets away and is subsequently given an injection by sinister Nazi Izan scientist Doktere von Shnyder that turns her into my favourite kind of shrunken person: one with the proportional strength of a regular person. BONUS: they go to the trouble to establish that she made a little teeny dress for herself ahead of time. 

    The shrinking treatment, by the way, is supposed to last for two hours but in a surprise power play von Shnyder reveals that it’s permanent and that he’s taking over as head of the regional Opatseg. Just goes to show: you can’t truust a Nazi, even when they have a thin film of plausible deniability.

    (von Shnyder does get his, never fear)

    In a surprising turn, Frau Izan is forgiven her espionage activities due to being too small. I suppose it’s a hard-to-replicate defence but there’s going to be hell to pay if this establishes precedent and a lot of people start taking advantage of it using bootleg shrink rays and so forth.

    They tease Frau Izan becoming a regular part of the team (called Miss America for some reason) but she in fact never reappears again – probably they made Miss X take care of her and that’s where she is now.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 048: MISS X

    MINOR SUPER-HERO 048: MISS X

    (Mystery Men Comics 019, 1941)

    Miss X is a pretty good example of the Female Guest Star Hero, an infrequent heroic archetype with a clearly identifiable arc: start out mysterious and hypercompetent and become less competent as the hero learns more about them. Our only other example so far is Clock ally the Orchid, but Miss X here is helpfully providing us with a three-issue speedrun of the archetype as illustration:

    Issue 1, Mystery Men Comics 019: When her sister is killed by foreign spies (after helping them a little but not a lot) and unnamed honours chemistry student sets out to help Lieutenant Drake of Naval Intelligence round them up. Hero knows nothing; Miss X saves the day basically on her own.

    Issue 2, Mystery Men Comics 020: Miss X returns in the next issue to help Lt Drake battle a trio of spies. Drake still knows little about her but her major contribton is now being the one who smacks around the lady spy. 

    Issue 3, Mystery Men Comics 021: Captured and unmasked by a trio of weirdos, Miss X loses all mystery. She does get to deck the fourth, lady weirdo but this is it for her crimefighting career.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 117: THE SKULL

    (Mystery Men Comics 015, 1940)

    Yet another crypto-Nazi spy/saboteur with a skull face operating in the US, but this one has an electron-gun!

    SKULL SCORE: 5/5 full skull; full marks.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 117: THE SKULL

    (Mystery Men Comics 015, 1940)

    Yet another crypto-Nazi spy/saboteur with a skull face operating in the US, but this one has an electron-gun!

    SKULL SCORE: 5/5 full skull; full marks.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 115: THE LIGHT

    (Mystery Men Comics 011, 1940)

    I just really appreciate the low-effort mystique that can be generated by sitting behind a bright light in a dark room. Of course, nothing prevents a foe from shooting into the light at roughly leg-height, as Lt Drake of Naval Intelligence demonstrates in this story, so perhaps the bright light shouldn’be your only line of defense should you choose to use it.