The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Leader

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 035

    GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 035

    Not every villain is super and they must learn to accept that.

    Miguel Greeze: 

    He may just be a regular style crooked gambler looking to murder Golden Arrow in order to win a bet, but Miguel Greeze here is decked out in too good a costume to just ignore. Plus it’s impressive that he can make his legs go like that. (Whiz Comics 023, 1941)

    Konrad Schtienker: 

    Fascist assassin Konrad Schtienker is all-in on a tobacco product theme: he uses a tobacco shop as his HQ, kills government agents via packets of the ominously-named Blood-Tipped brand cigarettes (not that the cigarettes do the killing – they just serve as a way to release a mosquito containing a serum that compels fatal bouts of sleepwalking into the targets’ rooms) and even employs single-shot cigar guns to get out of jams. Too bad for him that Spy Smasher doesn’t smoke. (Whiz Comics 023, 1941)

    Black Rufus: 

    There are three things to note about this fellow:

    1. His name is Black Rufus. It’s much more charming than menacing.

    2. I like his look. The hunched posture combined with the mantle/poncho/thing give him a real vulture-like air.

    3. He is the only villain faced by one-hit wonder the Rainbow, which I always find endearing. Did he ever get out of jail and take his revenge? We shall never know. (The Arrow 003, 1941)

    the Leader: 

    It’s time for yet another Nazi spymaster named the Leader! This Leader is a fellow named Phil Rogers, and he’s after a new super-bomb developed by one Professor Andrews for the US military, while wearing what I would describe as a charmingly homemade-looking hood if it didn’t have a swastika on the forehead. He fails of course, because he is entirely unprepared to deal with a completely invisible Solar, Master of Magic. (Captain Aero Comics 001, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 830: ROBERT W MARSH

    (Thrilling Comics 010, 1940)

    Fifth column activities are wreaking havoc on the US! Why, it’s so bad that the new National Defense Building has been bombed! Doc Strange is called in along with a crack team of industrialists to help solve the problem, and is pointed toward fellow committee member Henry Dallas by yet another member, Robert W Marsh. Could this be so easy a problem to solve?

    Henry Dallas kills himself rather than own up to working with the Nazis against American interests, but Doc Strange is able to trace his business dealings to the defunct Mammoth Automobile factory in the South, where he discovers a fascist tank-manufacturing setup. He also takes an explosive anti-tank shell to the back of the head, which is immaterial to the story, but it is fun to occasionally highlight just how powerful a super-hero is.

    Strange finally comes face to face with the leader of this operation (conveniently called the Leader) after both he and Virginia Thompson are captured by them, and unmasks him within minutes, revealing him to be… Robert W Marsh, who is coincidentally also the only other named character in the comic. I gotta say, I wish that the Leader facade had been maintained for longer, both because I always prefer referring to a guy by a codename rather than by what’s on his birth certificate, but also because that mask is a pretty sweet little number and I wish that Marsh had a reason to keep wearing it.

    Doc and Virginia of course escape from Marsh and prevent his bid to take over the US by bombing Washington DC into dust, but the former Leader is pretty conspicuously not among the casualties of that battle. And well he shouldn’t be, because he is also the antagonist of the next Doc Strange story:

    In Thrilling Comics 011, Marsh takes over the… Central?… American nation of Panamela to use as a staging area for another attempt to take over the US.

    (side note: it is pretty remarkable that Marsh is just a straight-up Nazi in 1940, albeit one with a reversed swastika. I suppose it’s possible that this is a small-n nazi, as a stand-in for fascist) 

    Marsh’s plan revolves around attacking the US using the Panamelan fleet and some new super-explosive artillery shells, but he is foiled when Doc Strange sabotages the explosive at the production stage. Pop! Plink!

    Though his fleet is blasted into oblivion by the US Navy, Marsh lives to fight another day. 

    I’ll be honest, I’m tired of the guy and I almost included his third appearance here to get him out of the way, even though it takes place in 1941. But when I started reading it to do just that I was startled to find out that it’s fun! There isn’t even any naval combat! Thus, I’m going to leave it as a treat for myself in the future.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 830: ROBERT W MARSH

    (Thrilling Comics 010, 1940)

    Fifth column activities are wreaking havoc on the US! Why, it’s so bad that the new National Defense Building has been bombed! Doc Strange is called in along with a crack team of industrialists to help solve the problem, and is pointed toward fellow committee member Henry Dallas by yet another member, Robert W Marsh. Could this be so easy a problem to solve?

    Henry Dallas kills himself rather than own up to working with the Nazis against American interests, but Doc Strange is able to trace his business dealings to the defunct Mammoth Automobile factory in the South, where he discovers a fascist tank-manufacturing setup. He also takes an explosive anti-tank shell to the back of the head, which is immaterial to the story, but it is fun to occasionally highlight just how powerful a super-hero is.

    Strange finally comes face to face with the leader of this operation (conveniently called the Leader) after both he and Virginia Thompson are captured by them, and unmasks him within minutes, revealing him to be… Robert W Marsh, who is coincidentally also the only other named character in the comic. I gotta say, I wish that the Leader facade had been maintained for longer, both because I always prefer referring to a guy by a codename rather than by what’s on his birth certificate, but also because that mask is a pretty sweet little number and I wish that Marsh had a reason to keep wearing it.

    Doc and Virginia of course escape from Marsh and prevent his bid to take over the US by bombing Washington DC into dust, but the former Leader is pretty conspicuously not among the casualties of that battle. And well he shouldn’t be, because he is also the antagonist of the next Doc Strange story:

    In Thrilling Comics 011, Marsh takes over the… Central?… American nation of Panamela to use as a staging area for another attempt to take over the US.

    (side note: it is pretty remarkable that Marsh is just a straight-up Nazi in 1940, albeit one with a reversed swastika. I suppose it’s possible that this is a small-n nazi, as a stand-in for fascist) 

    Marsh’s plan revolves around attacking the US using the Panamelan fleet and some new super-explosive artillery shells, but he is foiled when Doc Strange sabotages the explosive at the production stage. Pop! Plink!

    Though his fleet is blasted into oblivion by the US Navy, Marsh lives to fight another day. 

    I’ll be honest, I’m tired of the guy and I almost included his third appearance here to get him out of the way, even though it takes place in 1941. But when I started reading it to do just that I was startled to find out that it’s fun! There isn’t even any naval combat! Thus, I’m going to leave it as a treat for myself in the future.

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 013

    Here come the also-rans.

    We’ve got another Leader, and this time he’s not a generically-fascist spy but the head of a gang looking to extort the New York World’s Fair via a series of bombings. Of course the Fantom of the Fair cannot let this stand and quickly tracks them down to a small island base.

    If the first reason I included the Leader aka Relmar here is because I enjoy a monocled man with a high opinion of himself then the second is the fact that the Fantom, without ever actually saying a word, lays such complete waste to Relmar, his men and his entire island. Don’t mess with the World’s Fair, is the message I’m getting. (Amazing Adventure Funnies 001, 1940)

    A masked saboteur of no clear allegiance, Biff Durgo aka the Masked Man is the poorly-disguised sole foe faced by Pack Morgan, Super Detective. (Detective Eye 002, 1940)

    Lead by the mysterious “One”, gangsters Face Greer and Shiv Scarpino are bleeding the city of Midtown dry. That’s why Mayor Kurt Piersole calls in trigger-happy detective Gunner Thompson, only it’s not, because when it all shakes out it turns out that Mayor Piersole was indulging in the old trick of establishing his innocence by being the one to call in the forces of order. It was a cliche in 1940 and continues to be to this day and then as now it ends one way: the One wasn’t quite as clever as he thought he was and ends up on the wrong side of his own hired gun. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

    John Blodgett kills his partner Samuel Forbes in order to make off with his claim on a lucrative gold mine but fails to reckon with the fact that Forbes’ daughter Caroline might just wonder what happened to her father and so has to don a mask and engage in some truly half-assed attempts to bump both her and private eye Dan Williams off before they uncover his dumb secret. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 013

    GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 013

    Here come the also-rans.

    We’ve got another Leader, and this time he’s not a generically-fascist spy but the head of a gang looking to extort the New York World’s Fair via a series of bombings. Of course the Fantom of the Fair cannot let this stand and quickly tracks them down to a small island base.

    If the first reason I included the Leader aka Relmar here is because I enjoy a monocled man with a high opinion of himself then the second is the fact that the Fantom, without ever actually saying a word, lays such complete waste to Relmar, his men and his entire island. Don’t mess with the World’s Fair, is the message I’m getting. (Amazing Adventure Funnies 001, 1940)

    A masked saboteur of no clear allegiance, Biff Durgo aka the Masked Man is the poorly-disguised sole foe faced by Pack Morgan, Super Detective. (Detective Eye 002, 1940)

    Lead by the mysterious “One”, gangsters Face Greer and Shiv Scarpino are bleeding the city of Midtown dry. That’s why Mayor Kurt Piersole calls in trigger-happy detective Gunner Thompson, only it’s not, because when it all shakes out it turns out that Mayor Piersole was indulging in the old trick of establishing his innocence by being the one to call in the forces of order. It was a cliche in 1940 and continues to be to this day and then as now it ends one way: the One wasn’t quite as clever as he thought he was and ends up on the wrong side of his own hired gun. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

    John Blodgett kills his partner Samuel Forbes in order to make off with his claim on a lucrative gold mine but fails to reckon with the fact that Forbes’ daughter Caroline might just wonder what happened to her father and so has to don a mask and engage in some truly half-assed attempts to bump both her and private eye Dan Williams off before they uncover his dumb secret. (Exciting Comics 001, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 007

    The hits keep on coming:

    This Fellow’s name is Becker and he and his wife run a gang while pretending to be among its victims. An okay scheme, but not really up to foiling Bulletman and Bulletgirl. (Master Comics 014, 1941)

    This guy here is why I have such a hard time relegating masked Western bandits to the dregs of the generic costumed villains: he’s as by-the-numbers a bandit as they come, he robs one stagecoach total, he ends up dying because he falls off his horse… but he is frequently and consistently referred to a “Alkali, the Scourge of the Plains” which is as endearing as it is possible to be. (Master Comics 019, 1941)

    I’m overlooking the fact that this bundist-style not-exactly-German spy encountered by Miss America doesn’t actually wear a costume because a) he’s called the Leader, b) he lives in a wax museum and c) he has a pet gorilla named Gargo. (Military Comics 002, 1941)

    Captain Rajah, AKA the Master, was a jewel thief who ran up against Captain Desmo, in a story even more weirdly pro-colonial than Captain Desmo stories usually are – Captain Rajah is immediately suspicious for being an Indian officer in the Bengal Lancers, continued to be suspected throughout and then turned out to be the Master. The story is from before the invention of “defying expectations”. (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 007

    The hits keep on coming:

    This Fellow’s name is Becker and he and his wife run a gang while pretending to be among its victims. An okay scheme, but not really up to foiling Bulletman and Bulletgirl. (Master Comics 014, 1941)

    This guy here is why I have such a hard time relegating masked Western bandits to the dregs of the generic costumed villains: he’s as by-the-numbers a bandit as they come, he robs one stagecoach total, he ends up dying because he falls off his horse… but he is frequently and consistently referred to a “Alkali, the Scourge of the Plains” which is as endearing as it is possible to be. (Master Comics 019, 1941)

    I’m overlooking the fact that this bundist-style not-exactly-German spy encountered by Miss America doesn’t actually wear a costume because a) he’s called the Leader, b) he lives in a wax museum and c) he has a pet gorilla named Gargo. (Military Comics 002, 1941)

    Captain Rajah, AKA the Master, was a jewel thief who ran up against Captain Desmo, in a story even more weirdly pro-colonial than Captain Desmo stories usually are – Captain Rajah is immediately suspicious for being an Indian officer in the Bengal Lancers, continued to be suspected throughout and then turned out to be the Master. The story is from before the invention of “defying expectations”. (More Fun Comics 065, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 006

    MORE! MORE!

    Another Nazi spy-cell headed by a guy in a cloth mask called the Leader, this time in Switzerland for a bit of variety. (Captain America Comics 009, 1941)

    Having just read a year’s worth of Jumbo Comics, I can tell you that this guy here, name of Sam Bradford, is the closest thing to a super-villain in them and it’s mostly because of the decent outfit. He’s an agent who kills a producer or something because of professional reasons – strictly snoozeville. (Jumbo Comics 033, 1941)

    This creep is Mark Giddings, who kidnaps Eve Scott, daughter of NYC Mayor Scott because she turned down his advances. Somehow he thought that extorting the mayor to resign via threats of dismembering his daughter would net him both the job and the girl but in reality he just got socked by Bulletman. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

    This fella answers to the name of Operator G-6, and he’s the very first foe faced by patriotic hero Minute-Man. Also the first person summarily thrown off a train to his death by Minute-Man. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 006

    MORE! MORE!

    Another Nazi spy-cell headed by a guy in a cloth mask called the Leader, this time in Switzerland for a bit of variety. (Captain America Comics 009, 1941)

    Having just read a year’s worth of Jumbo Comics, I can tell you that this guy here, name of Sam Bradford, is the closest thing to a super-villain in them and it’s mostly because of the decent outfit. He’s an agent who kills a producer or something because of professional reasons – strictly snoozeville. (Jumbo Comics 033, 1941)

    This creep is Mark Giddings, who kidnaps Eve Scott, daughter of NYC Mayor Scott because she turned down his advances. Somehow he thought that extorting the mayor to resign via threats of dismembering his daughter would net him both the job and the girl but in reality he just got socked by Bulletman. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

    This fella answers to the name of Operator G-6, and he’s the very first foe faced by patriotic hero Minute-Man. Also the first person summarily thrown off a train to his death by Minute-Man. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 006

    MORE! MORE!

    Another Nazi spy-cell headed by a guy in a cloth mask called the Leader, this time in Switzerland for a bit of variety. (Captain America Comics 009, 1941)

    Having just read a year’s worth of Jumbo Comics, I can tell you that this guy here, name of Sam Bradford, is the closest thing to a super-villain in them and it’s mostly because of the decent outfit. He’s an agent who kills a producer or something because of professional reasons – strictly snoozeville. (Jumbo Comics 033, 1941)

    This creep is Mark Giddings, who kidnaps Eve Scott, daughter of NYC Mayor Scott because she turned down his advances. Somehow he thought that extorting the mayor to resign via threats of dismembering his daughter would net him both the job and the girl but in reality he just got socked by Bulletman. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

    This fella answers to the name of Operator G-6, and he’s the very first foe faced by patriotic hero Minute-Man. Also the first person summarily thrown off a train to his death by Minute-Man. (Master Comics 011, 1941)