The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: All-Star Comics

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 153: KULAK

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Kulak is the High Priest of Brztal, which is originally implied to be an ancient lost civilization but I believe is later defined as extra-dimensional in some way. His deal is ostensibly that he is upset that his tomb was disturbed so he is going to destroy humanity, but I don’t know that he wasn’t just looking for an excuse to flex his magical muscles. He gets up to a lot of fun stuff with disasters – worldwide flooding and riots, plagues of lucusts etc – and summons armies of ancient Brztalan dead to smite his enemy but ultimately is put down again by the Spectre.

    In what is going to be an ongoing theme with these one-off All-Star villains, he eventually gets Roy Thomased into the pages of All-Star Squadron to mix it up with the Spectre one more time.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 152: NYOLA

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Nyola is an Aztec priestess of Yum-Chac, the god of rain. As you might expect, the indigenous religions of the Americas are treated with utmost dignity and she is not portrayed as a fanatic who, for example, would kidnap a woman for human sacrifice based on tangential offense done to her faith. Also, Hawkman doesn’t then follow her back to Mexico and bring the might of the authorities down on an indigenous religious group that is, yes, killing people but still doesn’t quite seem like the right call. Or wouldn’t if he had. Which he didn’t.

    Despite her seeming death at the end of her first appearance she later shows up in the Roy Thomas version of the Monster Society of Evil in All-Star Squadron with actual powers! Guess Yum-Chac is on the list of legit deities in the DCU!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 151: THE GREAT REMEMBO

    (All-Star Comics 001, 1940)

    100% included here because I enjoy his name. A Vaudeville memory expert turned spy, captured by minor Golden Age adventure guy Biff Bronson.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 150: BELDAME GAFFY & TRYGG

    (All-Star Comics 001, 1940)

    A couple of magic users, Beldame Gaffy (curse-caster) and Trygg (necromancer) team up to steal the lands that rightfully belong to Trygg’s niece and nephew so that he could get rich via a zombie-staffed mining operation. Things go well until Hawkman shows up to explode them to death. Also, these are the first (only?) Welsh super-villains we have (will ever?) encountered!

    Ordinarily in a two-person set-up like this I would designate one as the boss and the other as a lieutenant or minion but Gaffy and Trygg really do seem like an equal partnership. Sadly however, only Trygg has made any subsequent appearances, specifically in the 2000s-era Hawkman series. I guess it makes sense that the necromancer would be the one to return from the dead but one must nonetheless mourn the dearth of Beldames in this modern world.

  • TROPHY ROOM – FLASH

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Not terribly fantastic as trophies go – a run-of-the-mill political boss tries to kill a newspaper publisher – but if the Flash wants a filthy old bullet, he can have it.

  • TROPHY ROOM – FLASH

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Not terribly fantastic as trophies go – a run-of-the-mill political boss tries to kill a newspaper publisher – but if the Flash wants a filthy old bullet, he can have it.