The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Detective Comics

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 098: THE INVISIBLE MAN

    (Detective Comics 041, 1940)

    What makes them a super-villain? He’s an espionage guy with an invisibility formula.

    What is interesting about them? Invisible guys are often pretty dull comic book villains, but I will give the Invisible Man/ Dr Ellis this: his cover identity is as a scientist in the team that is trying to catch him, and he’s evidently arrogant enough that he actually developed a formula for a gas that would render him visible again but assumed that investigator Cliff Crosby would not have the chemical knowhow to synthesize it. He was wrong!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 094: THE GOLDFISH

    (Detective Comics 046, 1940)

    Love this guy. The head of a gang of smugglers who looks like a goldfish and is sensitive about it and tortures his foes by imprisoning them in a huge goldfish bowl where they have to stand for days or drown and the only thing to eat is what raw goldfish they can catch and they eventually go mad? Terrific.

    All that but it’s actually a mask and the Goldfish is actually a frustrated former actor? So much better.

    UPDATE: In a rare callback, a remnant of the Goldfish’s gang is the antagonist of the ‘Spy’ story in Detective Comics 048. Neat!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 093: THE SKULL

    (Detective Comics 043, 1940)

    A skull-faced propagandist operating out of the Belgian Congo, presumably Nazi but it’s pre-Pearl Harbor so he works for a “hostile power” or “the dictatorships” etc.

    The really intriguing thing about the Skull is his choice of themes – rather than go with an obvious skeleton motif like your average skull-faced goon would do, he instead opted for a Medieval theme, complete with sword-wielding henchmen and a jungle castle. I would praise him for making good and interesting choices but he’s probably a Nazi, so never mind.

    RETROACTIVE ADDENDUM: got a lot of guys named the Skull coming up so I’m going to start scoring them on how appropriate their nom de crime is. This guy is obviously SKULL SCORE: 5/5

    UNPRECIDENTED SECOND ADDENDUM: I messed up! this guy is pro war but he’s just a munitions profiteer! Sorry, skull-headed creep!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 092: THE PAINTER OF DEATH

    (Detective Comics 042, 1940)

    The Painter of Death (never actually called that in-comic, sadly) engaged in a campaign against the subjects of paintings by up-and-coming portraitist Antal. He first attacked the painting of the person and then killed them in the same manner: via dart, arrow, gunshot etc. Eventually, Bruce “Batman” Wayne commissioned a painting from Antal and used it to set a trap which netted Wylie, an art collector who had invested heavily in Antal’s work and saw the murders as a way to raise the value of his investment via morbid publicity.

    Though Wylie bumped himself off at the end of the adventure, the bullet-riddled Antal portrait of Bruce Wayne sticks around to become one of the minor stock trophies in the Batcave. The Painter of Death or Prophetic Portraits Case is also mentioned a couple of times as Batman and Robin’s “first big case” and the reason for their fame. Does this reflect some attitude of the creators about the story itself or is it just a plot contrivance? I have no idea!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 092: THE PAINTER OF DEATH

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 092: THE PAINTER OF DEATH

    (Detective Comics 042, 1940)

    The Painter of Death (never actually called that in-comic, sadly) engaged in a campaign against the subjects of paintings by up-and-coming portraitist Antal. He first attacked the painting of the person and then killed them in the same manner: via dart, arrow, gunshot etc. Eventually, Bruce “Batman” Wayne commissioned a painting from Antal and used it to set a trap which netted Wylie, an art collector who had invested heavily in Antal’s work and saw the murders as a way to raise the value of his investment via morbid publicity.

    Though Wylie bumped himself off at the end of the adventure, the bullet-riddled Antal portrait of Bruce Wayne sticks around to become one of the minor stock trophies in the Batcave. The Painter of Death or Prophetic Portraits Case is also mentioned a couple of times as Batman and Robin’s “first big case” and the reason for their fame. Does this reflect some attitude of the creators about the story itself or is it just a plot contrivance? I have no idea!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 091: THE MASKED MAN

    (Detective Comics 041, 1940)

    A common or garden-variety masked counterfeiter, the Masked Man operated out of an all-boys’ school, leading to him being the first solo foe of an undercover Dick “Robin” Grayson. Mostly. Batman shows up at the end for a punch or two.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 090: THE SPIDER

    (Detective Comics 036, 1940)

    The Spider, a notorious jewel thief, is in reality nightclub owner Durand. But Durand is in reality (shocked gasp) suburbanite Roberta Roberts!

    While the original thought process behind the character was likely no more complex than “I bet it would be fun to draw a lady in a bra and false mustache,” a few different narrative jump to the modern mind, the first being that Durand/ the Spider is the true identity of a trans man, with Roberta Roberts being maintained as a convenient cover story. Or perhaps Roberta simply has to adopt these male identities (including, it is mildly implied, a fictional husband) in order to succeed in the worlds of business and crime. Either version of this story could be pretty great in the hands of the right writer. BRING BACK the Spider, I say.

    I also find myself shipping two characters for maybe the first time ever? Speed Saunders is a rare Golden Age lawman character with a presence in (somewhat) modern comics, having been made cousin to the original Hawkgirl and grandfather to the 2000s version of same. There’s a non-zero if very low chance of him showing up in flashbacks to the 40s and 50s and I keep picturing him introducing “my associate, Durand” to people and thinking that it’s adorable. Is this what all the people on Tumblr see in making fictional characters kiss in their minds?

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 028: CARL KRUGER

    (Detective v1 033, 1939)

    Carl here is a scientist who is obsessed with Napoleon, something that people used to be when there weren’t so many fictional characters to be consumed with – heck, he appears only a few months before the Joker begins his slow crawl to being the one a weird loner would be pictured dressing up as while he makes his Important Plans.

    Since Carl was a scientist he recruited a cabal of other scientists to help him make war machines and since he was a Napoleon Head he recruited an army of dudes and together these formed the backbone of his world domination scheme until he was unexpectedly Batmanned.

    The real notable thing about Carl is that he was basically the last villain that Batman fought before he stopped killing people. In fact, Batman (by my count) kills the most people in this incident: at least 14, including Carl himself!

    ADDENDUM: I was wrong about the “stopped killing people” part because I had a Fan Theory about how Batman stopped killing about the same time he adopted Robin. The major flaw in this Fan Theory was that Batman and Robin kept on killing people.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 028: CARL KRUGER

    (Detective v1 033, 1939)

    Carl here is a scientist who is obsessed with Napoleon, something that people used to be when there weren’t so many fictional characters to be consumed with – heck, he appears only a few months before the Joker begins his slow crawl to being the one a weird loner would be pictured dressing up as while he makes his Important Plans.

    Since Carl was a scientist he recruited a cabal of other scientists to help him make war machines and since he was a Napoleon Head he recruited an army of dudes and together these formed the backbone of his world domination scheme until he was unexpectedly Batmanned.

    The real notable thing about Carl is that he was basically the last villain that Batman fought before he stopped killing people. In fact, Batman (by my count) kills the most people in this incident: at least 14, including Carl himself!

    ADDENDUM: I was wrong about the “stopped killing people” part because I had a Fan Theory about how Batman stopped killing about the same time he adopted Robin. The major flaw in this Fan Theory was that Batman and Robin kept on killing people.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 027: SKULL-FACE

    (Detective v1 032, 1939)

    Skull-Face is a villain I love. He looks, predictably, like a guy with a skull-face, yet he runs a “beauty cult” which might just be a very intense spa? Whatever it is, he steals all of his clients’/ congregants’ money and then kills them with a special drug that makes them drown themselves/ have heart attacks. And he’s very proud of his villainy, which I love. Other salient Skull-Face features:

    -caveman butler named Sam

    -underground, partially-flooded castle in Maine

    -leaves tiny ivory skull as a calling card at the scene of his victims’ deaths, thus undermining his own careful planning of natural-seeming causes

    -hunted by the swimsuit-clad sister of one of his victims

    -despite living in a partially-flooded castle, cannot swim and thus drowns at the end of the story

    Just a really good weirdo villain who they should BRING BACK.

    EDIT TO ADD: Hadn’t really thought about what role Skull-Face would fill in the modern DCU but upon 5 minutes reflection you could absolutely make him the head of a beauty product Multi-Level Marketing scheme and keep everything else the same. 

    SECOND EDIT:

    SKULL SCORE: 3/5 Pretty skully but also unsettlingly fleshy.