The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Human Torch

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 280: PRINCE ITOR

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 021, 1941)

    I like Prince Itor because he’s a weenie. Not enough of those in the Golden Age. He’s not even really the focus of this story, which ain’t called “The Idol of Death” for nothing.

    So: Morrison here owns the titular Idol and is loaning it to the Egyptian Museum, but the transfer process and time was leaked in the papers, which leads to at least half of he story being taken up with a heist that Prince Itor has absolutely no involvement in.

    Itor himself doesn’t get a lot of backstory: his family are presumably like those deposed European royals who are always mooching around high society, but for thousands instead of hundreds of years. Unless of course there is an ancient prophecy about the power of the pharaohs awakening in a completely unrelated family. Either would be good!

    Itor does eventually get ahold of the idol, by the simple method of having his men take it off of the crooks who went to the hard work of actually stealing it. That pharaonic power turns out to have a kick to it, in the form of a bad case of monster-face. 

    Whatever powers the ancient monster-Pharaohs wielded do not get a full exploration, as Itor discovers pretty quickly that he can control the people around him. What follows is a pretty brief and unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Human Torch using a subwayful of commuters that ends when  the Torch melts the idol and a fleeing Prince conveniently flings himself onto the third rail – no fuss, no muss.

    But why did I call Prince Itor a weenie? Very simply it’s because he’s the kind of villain who hangs back and lets his employees do all of the work, whether it’s stealing the idol or marching in mind-controlled lockstep against a man of living flame. He’s the kind of bumbling aristocratic oaf who can’t even escape without accidentally electrocuting himself – I love to loathe him. And as with every other good aristocratic oaf, he has a highly-competent aide to take care of all of the nitty-gritty for him

    Nalda! The Jeeves to Itor’s Wooster, if Jeeves was a pistol-wielding femme fatale in a cape and a pair of buccaneer gloves. Nalda! The kind of second-in-command that is clearly the power behind the throne. Nalda!

    I was going to say that it’s sad that Nalda only appears on a single page but no, I’m glad. That means that she survived the adventure and likely got away to empty Itor’s bank accounts and set herself up in Madripoor or the like. She’s probably still there, something like 105 years old, running her underground casino/ assassination service/ chain of cat cafes like a ruthless raisin. Godspeed, Nalda.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 277: THE MASKED CHIEF

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941)

    This here is the Masked Chief, at least according to the caption boxes (welcome to the unofficial name club, fella), a fairly standard masked gang boss enhanced by several factors of variable wildness. First and least: he is yet another in the long line of Human Torch foes who choose to use arson as their  modus operandi. Sure he’s not specifically challenging the Torch, but he must know that he’s employed by the city, right? The Jim Hammond identity is basically unused – even his partner on the police force calls him Torch for heaven’s sake.

    Secondly, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, though unnamed, is a major secondary character in this story. Fun in and of itself, but La Guardia is convinced (with some encouragement from the Masked Chief) that the attempt to ransom the city via arson is the work of recently eliminated corrupt NY politicians. Which means, unless this was a very specific reference that I couldn’t find, that Tammany Hall is the suspect? Whee!

    Thirdly, and more perplexing than fun, the Human Torch is insanely mean to Toro throughout this story. Just a complete asshole. I’m not the world’s foremost Golden Age Human Torch expert but it seems wildly out of character for him – I guess we’ll see if I’m right about that going forward.

    And finally: the Masked Chief is not, in fact, the 1941-era successor to Boss Tweed but rather the escaped convict that the Human Torch and Toro were hunting when the story began, a man with the fairly excellent name of Hawk Rivers.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 275: THE HAG

    (Marvel  Mystery Comics v1 019, 1941)

    I don’t have to go into how wild it is that this woman is called a Hag, right? The wild misogyny of it all? Great, thanks.

    Aside from her name, the Hag is a gang boss, and one who dreams big. Her plan involves causing a citywide power outage in NYC so that her men could  tamper with the Stock Exchange and then clean up the next day while everyone panics about a nonexistent stock crash that she engineered. And also for some reason she takes over a radio station to get access to incoming news? The motivation behind that one is weird to me.

    The real flaw in the Hag’s plan is that while she accounts for the presence of the Human Torch and Toro, she doesn’t really deal with them. Her men are equipped with flame-resistant clothing and fire-suppressing chemicals, but they just serve to help in avoiding the Torch. Ultimately, he catches up, there is an explosion (inevitable), and the Hag is no more.

    This adventure also features the concept of Toro needing a “flame transfusion” after being severely hurt, which is very terrific, and which seems to be a convoluted way for Carl Burgos to canonically establish that Toro’s powers are a little weaker than the Torch’s? For some reason? It’ll be interesting to see if this is ever referenced again, frankly.

    ADDENDUM: forgot to mention the Hag’s sweet calling card:

    ADDENDUM II: Toro’s reduced fire-power actually came up in the subsequent issue, so I’m going to go ahead and try to note every issue it came up in right here:

    Marvel Mystery Comics v1 019
    Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020
    Human Torch v1 004

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 275: THE HAG

    (Marvel  Mystery Comics v1 019, 1941)

    I don’t have to go into how wild it is that this woman is called a Hag, right? The wild misogyny of it all? Great, thanks.

    Aside from her name, the Hag is a gang boss, and one who dreams big. Her plan involves causing a citywide power outage in NYC so that her men could  tamper with the Stock Exchange and then clean up the next day while everyone panics about a nonexistent stock crash that she engineered. And also for some reason she takes over a radio station to get access to incoming news? The motivation behind that one is weird to me.

    The real flaw in the Hag’s plan is that while she accounts for the presence of the Human Torch and Toro, she doesn’t really deal with them. Her men are equipped with flame-resistant clothing and fire-suppressing chemicals, but they just serve to help in avoiding the Torch. Ultimately, he catches up, there is an explosion (inevitable), and the Hag is no more.

    This adventure also features the concept of Toro needing a “flame transfusion” after being severely hurt, which is very terrific, and which seems to be a convoluted way for Carl Burgos to canonically establish that Toro’s powers are a little weaker than the Torch’s? For some reason? It’ll be interesting to see if this is ever referenced again, frankly.

    ADDENDUM: forgot to mention the Hag’s sweet calling card:

    ADDENDUM II: Toro’s reduced fire-power actually came up in the subsequent issue, so I’m going to go ahead and try to note every issue it came up in right here:

    Marvel Mystery Comics v1 019
    Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020
    Human Torch v1 004

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 274: THE BRAIN

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 018, 1941)

    The Brain is your classic nerd gang boss, of the common subvariety that are almost clever enough to succeed but get in their own way. His core plan this ish is solid as far as supercrime goes: rob an Army payroll and frame the Human Torch for it via the use of what is essentially one of those suits that stuntmen wear in order to set themselves on fire (which as an aside kind of makes me reconsider just how upsetting the Human Torch would be to see). He even has a decent plan to get rid of the Torch is he manages to figure out whodunnit.

    The Brain’s real failing lies in underestimating Toro, the Torch’s teen sidekick and avid shirt avoider. While the Human Torch is afforded an entire elaborate deathtrap of his own, the Brain’s entire plan to deal with Toro is to assume that he can take him in a fight.

    And he can’t! It’s not even close! Toro is basically exactly as powerful as the Human Torch, plus he’s a teen boy, a notoriously wily bunch! This is frankly embarrassing for the Brain.

  • NOTES – MAY 2023

    Folk:

    Luther Robinson and Lynne Harris! These folks are hard to categorize! They’re not villains, despite being antagonists to Namor the Sub-Mariner, because Namor is very much a villain at least half of the time. They’re not heroes, despite eventually allying with Namor to fight Nazis, because they definitely attempt to commit at least one genocide against the people of Atlantis. 

    They’re adventurers, they’ve both been surgically modified by Atlantean scientists to be amphibious, and Lynne is one of a long line of women to be abducted by Namor with romantic ill-intent (and she’s, like, third one, in a mere handful of stories). They’re interesting artifacts of the way comic book universes come together, and that’s great.

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 010-026 (sporadically), 1940-1941) 

    Vision foe Rhamu Rondi is your bog standard crooked mystic character and will make no further appearances here, but the Buddha Signal is objectively great – even early Jack Kirby knew what was up with regard to villainous décor.(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 015, 1941)

    Names:

    Fella name of Barney Bailey here, which is a pretty great moniker for an exhibiter of curiosities to have. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, 1941)

    Panel fun:

    Sub-Mariner x Human Torch (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017, 1941)

    Whether this is Namor’s personal flag/ crest or a more general Atlantean symbol, this bit of regalia must be noted. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 018, 1941)

    Biographical Details: Namor the Sub-Mariner weighs 198 pounds, according to the ring announcer during his foray into the world of boxing (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 262: DR MANYAC & THE GREEN FLAME

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 004, 1940)

    Dr Manyac here is a perfectly fine criminal scientist with a very good name. It’s just too bad for him that he is in the very common position of being completely overshadowed by his henchmen:

    THE GREEN FLAME! Very very cool looking guys who are also some of our first simple examples of evil opposites, as their green flame burns cold to contend with our pal the red-hot Human Torch. Using the threat of the Green Flame’s cold causing buildings to crumble and collapse, Manyac aims to ransom New York for big bux.

    Unfortunately for his plans, and especially for his henchmen, the Green Flame’s suits aren’t quite robust enough to stand up to the Human Torch’s flame. They all end up roasted, while Manyac is carted off to jail, never to be seen again (until he’s brought back and killed off in 2009, natch)

  • DYNAMIC ACTION MARTIANS!

    (Marvel Mystery Comics 003, 1940) 

    These Martian invaders who showed up for one Human Torch story in 1940 are definitely my favourite comic book aliens in a while, if only because of this extremely cool car stunt.