The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: unofficial name

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 190: THE ELECTRICAL WIZARD

    (Crack Comics 007, 1940)

    This is a weird guy. I’m not entirely sure what his deal is, to be honest. He’s developed some sort of revolutionary hydroelectric generator and some sort of lightning projector and claims that they are “useless commercially” but doesn’t really outline why. He extorts men with the last name Garr for some reason. I mean, it seems like it should be that the Garrs all got together and quashed his funding because he threatened their own business and now he’s getting revenge. Or maybe he’s the black sheep of the Garr family and now he’s eliminating everyone else to inherit their monies. The guy needs just a bit more motivation!

    Drowned by Madam Fatal.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 164: THE MASKED MAN

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 164: THE MASKED MAN

    (Batman Comics 008, 1941)

    I got pretty excited when reading this story, as it concerns murders among the cast and crew of a play called the Superstition Murders and there’s a lot of kerfuffle about bad luck and jealousy and drunk has-been actors and I was hopeful that it might boil down to my favourite motive for supercrime: mad art. Just as mad as mad science but it really makes you think, you know?

    Sadly, the real motive for the crimes is simply base capitalism: if playwright Johnny Glim (good name) can tank the production, rights to the script revert to him and he can sell it to Hollywood for beaucoup bucks. But while you know I am all in favour of creator-owned properties I cannot stress enough that multiple homicide is not a good way to go about securing them and his capture by the Batman is a righteous one.

    Number of Episodes of the “Super-Villains of Hollywood” podcast: Part of a poorly-received later season attempt to profile villains who almost got to Hollywood.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 157: THE WIZARD

    (All-Star Comics 003, 1940)

    This is the kind of super-villain that you see magical heroes taking on a lot more often than other types: the preemptive striker. The likely cause of this is the status of so many magical heroes as the de facto head of Earth’s magical security, someone that a bad actor can take out and then be free to act with impunity.

    What’s interesting about this super-villain? The thing that appeals to me about this guy, who is primarily a user of illusion magic, is the variety of things he throws at Dr Fate: you got your crazed unicorns, some undead Egyptian warriors, a weird tentacle monster and the “Three Witches of Endor” who themselves cast spells at him. It’s a nice bit of variety!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 154: THE YELLOW-FACED TERROR

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)


    What makes them a super-villain? He’s a money-mad maniac who murdered his own brother to steal a radiation-orb called the Life-Taker, which he uses to rob by the simple act of lobbing it into an area and waiting until it has killed any resistance. He also has a pretty great look, achieved via a crust of a sulphur/lead compound which shields him from his own orb’s radiations. What he doesn’t really have is a name, so I snitched the one used in the above text box.

    What’s interesting about them? Well, it’s a bit debatable but the Sandman might have murdered him. He discovers Wesley Dodds’ secret in the course of the adventure and then in the final struggle… it kind of looks like the Sandman arranges for him to be shot through the head a bit more enthusiastically than needed. Maybe.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 154: THE YELLOW-FACED TERROR

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)


    What makes them a super-villain? He’s a money-mad maniac who murdered his own brother to steal a radiation-orb called the Life-Taker, which he uses to rob by the simple act of lobbing it into an area and waiting until it has killed any resistance. He also has a pretty great look, achieved via a crust of a sulphur/lead compound which shields him from his own orb’s radiations. What he doesn’t really have is a name, so I snitched the one used in the above text box.

    What’s interesting about them? Well, it’s a bit debatable but the Sandman might have murdered him. He discovers Wesley Dodds’ secret in the course of the adventure and then in the final struggle… it kind of looks like the Sandman arranges for him to be shot through the head a bit more enthusiastically than needed. Maybe.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 119: THE TENAMENT FIREBUG

    (Nickel Comics 003, 1940)

    Spoilers for the end of this writeup: the Tenement Firebug is that most common of comic book villains, the property owner who burns down their own buildings for the insurance money and/or redevelopment. Ordinarily such a foe would be a regular guy with some hirelings and maybe a mask, but since he was set up as a foil to magic guy Warlock the Wizard the Tenament Firebug has been beefed up slightly.

    First off is his pet lizard, which is a salamander. But! Not a real-world amphibian salamander, nor a modern fantasy style fire elemental – this one is the Medieval bestiary denizen that is immune to fire! A very exciting appearance of a discarded beast!

    Secondly, the Firebug is both able to do comic book super-hypnotism and is adept enough at disguise that he manages to frame Warlock for the arsons. Again but!

    He was wearing a rubberoid mask the whole time! Which means that he applied the Warlock disguise over his mask. Which is frankly much more responsible for my interest in and love of him as a villain than any old arson. Commitment to the bit is what I’d call it.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 075: “UNCLE”

    (Adventure Comics 057, 1940)

    As I’ve said before, sometimes a character is very clearly a super-villain but chooses no name for themself, in which case for administrative purposes I pick something that the text boxes or other characters refer to them as and go with that. Scientists are usually easy – they just go by their name. This fellow, on the other hand, is basically only ever referred to as “Uncle,” so Uncle I call him.

    And Uncle is a credible threat! He tries to ransom the world by threatening to destroy it by knocking it off of its orbit, then actually tries to do it in a fit of pique – it’s only the timely intervention of Sandman that saves the day.

    In the last entry, when I was talking about mad scientists as perfect characters to bring back as reformed? This is the kind of guy I had in mind. What a gift to a cast!