The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: fifth columnist

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 364: THE BLACK DRAGON SOCIETY

    (Master Comics 021, 1941)

    The Black Dragon Society is nothing new: a bog standard Yellow Peril spy and sabotage ring that has a couple of weeks of success before being trounced by Minute-Man.

    The one interesting thing about them is that they were based on an actual Japanese secret society that was still extant at the time the comic was published. Despite the fact that the story is just as disseminating as pre-Pearl Harbor comics usually are about the exact country of origin of the Society, the fact is that this is our first Japanese super-villain, even if it’s a bunch of spies and even if it’s a technicality. History!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 364: THE BLACK DRAGON SOCIETY

    (Master Comics 021, 1941)

    The Black Dragon Society is nothing new: a bog standard Yellow Peril spy and sabotage ring that has a couple of weeks of success before being trounced by Minute-Man.

    The one interesting thing about them is that they were based on an actual Japanese secret society that was still extant at the time the comic was published. Despite the fact that the story is just as disseminating as pre-Pearl Harbor comics usually are about the exact country of origin of the Society, the fact is that this is our first Japanese super-villain, even if it’s a bunch of spies and even if it’s a technicality. History!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 216: DR DEKER

    (Detective Comics v1 055, 1941)

    Dr Deker is a spy chief and a fifth columnist from the heady days before the US entered WWI, so of course he’s from an unnamed Fatherland and no further clarification is needed. He has the not-uncommon plan to kidnap prominent American scientists and steal their secrets, abetted by his very first acquisition: the Truth Machine, a device which unsurprisingly forces one to truthfully answer all questions.

    All of this is pretty comics-regular and poor ol’ Dr Deker would be consigned to the pile of discarded also-rans if not for two things: 1. the face that he is pulling in the third panel above and 2. the plan that he is detailing while making that face. Surely it is the mark of a true super-villain that when a method for causing insanity at range falls into his hands Deker’s sole thought is to use it on his own men, that installing an entire factory worth of fifth columnists and then rendering them into violent madmen would be a more desirable end than simply having complete control over a factory in the first place. 

    If you have the means to drive men insane then what other course is available? None, says Dr Deker, and that’s why he’s our Minor Super-Villain 216.