The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Phantom Rider

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 064

    MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 064

    Oh my gosh! It’s more minor super-heroes! 

    the Phantom Rider: 

    The Phantom Rider is Tex Maxon, who was already a wandering cowboy who meted out justice for a while before getting into the masked vigilante game. Where a lot of masked cowboy vigilantes are doing a classic secret identity or concealing their identity for more specific reasons like being wanted for a crime they didn’t commit, the Phantom Rider thing honestly just seems like a fashion choice on Maxon’s part, like he found a big black cloak one day and decided to roll with it.

    The above speculation is undermined somewhat by the fact that the Phantom Rider outfit changes to this yellow cowboy shirt/jeans/mask combo pretty quickly, but maybe Maxon just found the cloak too cumbersome (or the artist found it too annoying to draw).

    Far more annoying is the fact that this strip that was clearly set in the Old West from long before the Phantom Rider identity was established switches to a Modern West setting in Wonderworld 015. Have some consistency, people. (Wonderworld Comics 011, 1940)

    **UPDATE** the Flame:

    Once again we have the origin of the Flame, and as I suspected the previous version of this that we had encountered was cut down from this one. Notably, this is the first time that the Flame is given any sort of name, Charteris, and the lack of a first name is even kind of textually supported: he is washed away in the flood immediately after being born – his parents might not have had time to name him yet. He is made Grand High Lama as a baby in this one too, which is still weird to me. (Wonderworld Comics 011, 1940)

    **UPDATE** Yarko the Great:

    In a bit of Silver Age “give everything a significant origin” style storytelling, the jewel on the front of Yarko the Great’s turban is revealed to be the Ada-La-Hoda, one of the Twin Jewels of Blood required for this one Chosen One to become ruler of all India, in a mystical sword-in-the-stone way. Unfortunately for him, his choice to wantonly murder anyone who might get in the way of his acquiring the gem leads Yarko to determine that he is unfit for the role and keep the dang thing in hopes that the next Seventh Son of the Seventh Son of the Order of Aribah might be more reasonable. (Wonderworld Comics 011, 1940)

    the Secret Band of the Purple Hood: 

    The Secret Band of the Purple Hood are a vigilante organization that operate in the city of Shanghai and who induct super-detective Dr Fung into their ranks mid-case as both he and they are attempting to battle the worshippers of Khwass, Great God of Vengeance. Sadly, as this adventure ends in a cliffhanger that is as far as I can tell never resolved, we don’t get to see the Secret Band do much more than beat up a couple of priests, but I’m just so chuffed to find a vanishingly-rare example of non-title-character masked vigilantism that I simply had to include them. (Wonderworld Comics 016, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 029

    You’ll never believe how close these guys get to being name-brand super-villains! 

    The Great-Great-Grandson of Lafitte is a flamboyant character who runs a protection racket on coconut plantations on the US Virgin Islands. Is he really a descendant of the great pirate captain? Who can say, but what is certain is that he puts on a good show before getting his block absolutely knocked off by US Navy goofs Spark Stevens and Chuck Lawson. (Wonderworld Comics 009, 1940)

    Some classic fake haunting shenanigans by a group of spies assigned to disrupt the work of US government scientist Dr Sloan. Punched and apprehended by K-51. (Wonderworld Comics 013, 1940)

    The Killer is head of a gang of extortionists and kidnappers who target rich men around an indeterminate US metropolis. True to his name, the Killer murders his targets whether they pay up or not, which I personally think might be a poor long-term strategy. We shall never know, because in the short term the Flame gets involved and roasts the entire gang before delivering the Killer to the authorities. (Wonderworld Comics 014, 1940)

    Professor Z has so many villainous accessories – an eye patch, a castle, a tiger, terrible hair, henchmen dressed in colour-coded, vaguely sci-fi uniforms – that it may surprise you to learn that his entire operation is set up so that he can commit insurance fraud. Perhaps the out-of scale trappings are what attracts the attention of the Phantom Rider.

    This adventure is personally annoying to me because while the Phantom Rider was previously absolutely set in the Old West, at the end of this one he calls for the authorities and two regular cops rock up. It’s yet another time that the line between the past and present in a Western comic is so blurry that you could ride a horse through it and I will never stop grumbling about this when it happens. (Wonderworld Comics 015, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 017

    Another fresh hot basket of also-rans, just for you.

    the Mask:

    Scoop Cody, society reporter, is secretly vigilante crimefighter the Mask. He’s not terrific at concealing this fact – both love interest Elaine and villain Carlos figure it out during the course of the one extant Mask story – but he gets the job done. Of mild interest is that Scoop Cody is also the name of the Marvel’s reporter pal. (Star Comics v1 013, 1938*)

    the Phantom Rider: 

    The Phantom Rider is your standard masked cowboy, identity unknown. Given their similar names and that they are both Centaur Comics characters it is equally likely that he is a renamed Phantom o’ the Hills as it is that he is a separate creation. His horse is named Thunder. (Star Comics 016, 1938*)

    Air Man:

    Air Man is Drake Stevens, an ornithologist who embarks on a vigilante career after his father is murdered in an insurance scam on the high seas. He only makes a handful of appearances before Centaur folds, and here are the salient things about him:

    -Air Man is a “realistic” version of Hawkman, i.e., not realistic but in a slightly more plausible way than an antigravity belt. His wings are filled with helium and he has a little jet engine for propulsion (at least, as of his second appearance. Maybe he’s just very slowly gliding around in his first). He also has egg-shaped bombs, which isn’t relevant to the flying but is fun.

    -Air Man is not a generic bird-themed hero but in fact an albatross-themed protector of the seas, which is a niche that I have not encountered before and the closest that I can think of is the Marvel hero Stingray, and that’s just because they both fly and are ocean-based.

     -Air Man believes in protecting the high seas so much that he breaks up with his fiance rather than just… living in a lighthouse with her or whatever. Super-heroes love breaking up with people and then feeling noble about it. (Keen Detective Funnies 023, 1940)

    TNT Todd:

    TNT Todd had been a regular FBI agent having FBI agent adventures in Keen Detective Funnies for about a year when he became if not the earliest then certainly our first example of a non-super character getting a super-heroic makeover to fit comic trends (I tell a lie Tex Thomson/ Mr America has come up before but he made the switch in 1941). While overshadowed by fellow explosion-based hero the Human Bomb a year or so later I must admit to enjoying TNT Todd more on a conceptual level. Just a guy careening through a city via a series of explosions, theoretically helping people. (Keen Detective Funnies 021, 1940)

    *there are several issues of Star Comics from this time that are not readily available, including issues 012, 014 and 015. This means that both the Mask and the Phantom Rider could have earlier first appearances.