The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: serial killer

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 218: THE LIGHTNING KILLER

    (Detective Comics v1 056, 1941)

    The Lightning Killer is a neat and potentially great concept that was ill-served by being featured in a 6-page middle-of-the-book strip like Cliff Crosby’s. As presented, he’s a mysterious killer who strikes only during thunderstorms and times his shots to lightning strikes so that they go unnoticed by witnesses. Unsurprisingly, he turns out to be the meteorologist Cliff consults midway through the story, as he is the only non-cop/ non-victim/ non-protagonist character featured.

    The Lightning Killer concept is cool enough that it deserves more! BRING him BACK, I say. Have the Lightning Murders play out over a year or two in the background of an ongoing, with thunderstorms being infrequent enough that he flies just under the radar but still leave an entire city on-edge! Or a recent murder could open up an investigation that reveals decades of seemingly unconnected slayings are the work of just one man! Neat stuff!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 014: CHESTER GLASS

    (Detective v1 015, 1938)

    Chester Glass almost accidentally frames Slam Bradley and Shorty Morgan for murder, and that’s the main thrust of the story. As things develop, you learn that he has wooed and then murdered at least two dozen women for their money, which alone is enough to get him on this list, but then he captures Slam and Shorty in his murder dungeon basement, which is filled with “dozens” of bodies! And he has up to this point gone completely unnoticed by the Cleveland police!

    SHOULD THEY BE BROUGHT BACK? I mean, a century-old serial killer probably doesn’t have a place in the DCU, so no. He really should be acknowledged somewhere, though – the real berries would have been if there was a Chester Glass Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cereal Convention in Sandman, but alas and alack that ship has sailed.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 013: MR DEATH

     (Detective v1 015, 1938)

    A serial killer who murders diplomats because without them there would be no wars. Brought in by Bart Regan and Sally Norris, protagonists of the early Siegel and Shuster strip Spy.