The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Leader

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 005

    They’re back! They’re insufficiently interesting! They’re costumed! For the fifth time! 

    This fella is just a regular degular Nazi spy, but I like his confidence, even if Super Spy G-5 does wrangle him almost instantly. (Hit Comics 015, 1941)

    These fellas are a rare example of subway pirates, who derail and loot in the New York underground. My delight in this is dampened somewhat by their habit of carrying off ladies for unspoken but surely unpleasant reasons – happily the Human Torch gets ’em pretty quickly. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 013, 1940)

    This here fellow is another Nazi, operating out of London. His plan to simultaneously turn the US against England by pinning the murder of a movie star on an Englishman and also enrich himself by making that Englishman his wealthy cousin is overturned by reporter ‘Headline’ Hunter. I do appreciate how grotesque his weird mask makes him look. 

    If I was feeling a bit more generous some of these guys would get entries of their own under the name the Leader, but low-effort Nazi spies can be happy with a tag and go screw. (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

    This trio of bank robbers might not have made the cut if they weren’t constantly hamming it up like this while battling Father Time. Mike, Mugsy, Other Guy: welcome to the club. (Captain America Comics 008, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 005

    GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 005

    They’re back! They’re insufficiently interesting! They’re costumed! For the fifth time! 

    This fella is just a regular degular Nazi spy, but I like his confidence, even if Super Spy G-5 does wrangle him almost instantly. (Hit Comics 015, 1941)

    These fellas are a rare example of subway pirates, who derail and loot in the New York underground. My delight in this is dampened somewhat by their habit of carrying off ladies for unspoken but surely unpleasant reasons – happily the Human Torch gets ’em pretty quickly. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 013, 1940)

    This here fellow is another Nazi, operating out of London. His plan to simultaneously turn the US against England by pinning the murder of a movie star on an Englishman and also enrich himself by making that Englishman his wealthy cousin is overturned by reporter ‘Headline’ Hunter. I do appreciate how grotesque his weird mask makes him look. 

    If I was feeling a bit more generous some of these guys would get entries of their own under the name the Leader, but low-effort Nazi spies can be happy with a tag and go screw. (Captain America Comics 007, 1941)

    This trio of bank robbers might not have made the cut if they weren’t constantly hamming it up like this while battling Father Time. Mike, Mugsy, Other Guy: welcome to the club. (Captain America Comics 008, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 158: THE LEADER

    (All-Star Comics 004, 1941)

    What makes them a super-villain? Sheer scale! The Leader AKA Fritz Klaver is the top spy for the “dictator nations” in America, commanding units of his subversive Grey-Shirts as well as other less blatant agents in numbers estimated at 30 000. They come real close to saying he’s a Nazi, too, but it’s about a year out from comics folks being willing to actually do that.

    What makes them interesting? The real deal interesting thing about the Leader is that he’s the first foe that the Justice Society tackle as a group, establishing the split-up-to-take-on-all-of-the-minions-before-coming-together-to-fight-the-overboss paradigm that would rule team super-hero books for decades to come. Other than that he’s your typical fascist spy chief.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 158: THE LEADER

    (All-Star Comics 004, 1941)

    What makes them a super-villain? Sheer scale! The Leader AKA Fritz Klaver is the top spy for the “dictator nations” in America, commanding units of his subversive Grey-Shirts as well as other less blatant agents in numbers estimated at 30 000. They come real close to saying he’s a Nazi, too, but it’s about a year out from comics folks being willing to actually do that.

    What makes them interesting? The real deal interesting thing about the Leader is that he’s the first foe that the Justice Society tackle as a group, establishing the split-up-to-take-on-all-of-the-minions-before-coming-together-to-fight-the-overboss paradigm that would rule team super-hero books for decades to come. Other than that he’s your typical fascist spy chief.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 147: THE LEADER

    (All American Comics 025, 1941)

    A masked man running a gang of saboteurs to ruin production of war goods as a US steel plant in the name of a vague Cause – at this time most likely fascism – is pretty run-of-the-mill for 1941, but it turns out that the Leader’s real scheme is to drive down the steel mill’s stock price so that he can gain a controlling interest and make big bucks! He’s just duping the fascists-or-maybe-anarchists-or-communists into doing his bidding! The real villain was capitalism all along!

    Sadly for the Leader, his tale of villainy ends like so many that take place in steel mills: with him plummeting into an open vat of molten metal.