The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Fire-Men

  • DIVINE ROUND-UP 035

    DIVINE ROUND-UP 035

    Time to revise the Comparative Religion curriculum again because we found some new gods.

    Adobi:

    Just to what extent these Molemen worship the god Adobi is impossible to say. This particular Moleman hold him in high enough esteem to implore him to sanctify a forced political marriage, if that counts for anything much. I really wish we had a better angle on Adobi’s front side so I could see the big gems in his chest and forehead better.

    God Style: Idol (Lightning Comics v2 002, 1941)

    Vango:

    After escaping the lands of the Adobi-worshipping Molemen, Congo Jack encounters the worshippers of the multi-armed Vango. We don’t learn too much about Vango himself, alas, as the bulk of the narrative is taken up with a religious schism between pro- and anti-human sacrifice Vango worshippers. He looks good!

    God Style: Idol (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)

    Fire:

    The Fire-Men (aka the Fire-Cult) are a weird bunch to categorize. They are initially antagonists to the Human Torch, and give him a run for their money with their flame control powers while they hunt down and kill a former member. Then, however, they reveal that he was not merely an apostate but someone who was planning on using the cult’s teachings to profit while causing great destruction, and that he had a partner who is still at large. The Torch is left with to choice but to team up with his former adversaries.

    Though the Fire-Men presumably worship or at least pay fealty to the flame that they control, the real focus of the group is less religious than practical, as they work to contain the rampaging Flame Monsters of Tibet, giant green humanoids who emit flame from their pores. 

    (the second traitor to the cult turns out to be a man named Culflam, who later passes on the Fire-Men’s teachings to the Torch’s enemy the Parrot)

    God Style: Animist (Real?) (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 014, 1940)

    Flamosa the Fire God:

    God of the people of the volcanic Inferno Isle in the Pacific, who appear to have been manipulated into practicing human sacrifice by a group of Nazis in order to dispose of Allied scientists in the area. The Angel semi-accidentally blows up half the island and sets off the volcano, and the worship of Flamosa is abandoned.

    God Style: Idol (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941)

  • DIVINE ROUND-UP 035

    Time to revise the Comparative Religion curriculum again because we found some new gods.

    Adobi:

    Just to what extent these Molemen worship the god Adobi is impossible to say. This particular Moleman hold him in high enough esteem to implore him to sanctify a forced political marriage, if that counts for anything much. I really wish we had a better angle on Adobi’s front side so I could see the big gems in his chest and forehead better.

    God Style: Idol (Lightning Comics v2 002, 1941)

    Vango:

    After escaping the lands of the Adobi-worshipping Molemen, Congo Jack encounters the worshippers of the multi-armed Vango. We don’t learn too much about Vango himself, alas, as the bulk of the narrative is taken up with a religious schism between pro- and anti-human sacrifice Vango worshippers. He looks good!

    God Style: Idol (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)

    Fire:

    The Fire-Men (aka the Fire-Cult) are a weird bunch to categorize. They are initially antagonists to the Human Torch, and give him a run for their money with their flame control powers while they hunt down and kill a former member. Then, however, they reveal that he was not merely an apostate but someone who was planning on using the cult’s teachings to profit while causing great destruction, and that he had a partner who is still at large. The Torch is left with to choice but to team up with his former adversaries.

    Though the Fire-Men presumably worship or at least pay fealty to the flame that they control, the real focus of the group is less religious than practical, as they work to contain the rampaging Flame Monsters of Tibet, giant green humanoids who emit flame from their pores. 

    (the second traitor to the cult turns out to be a man named Culflam, who later passes on the Fire-Men’s teachings to the Torch’s enemy the Parrot)

    God Style: Animist (Real?) (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 014, 1940)

    Flamosa the Fire God:

    God of the people of the volcanic Inferno Isle in the Pacific, who appear to have been manipulated into practicing human sacrifice by a group of Nazis in order to dispose of Allied scientists in the area. The Angel semi-accidentally blows up half the island and sets off the volcano, and the worship of Flamosa is abandoned.

    God Style: Idol (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 760: THE FIRE-MEN

    (Speed Comics 004, 1940) 

    The Fire-Men make an impressive debut: dressed in bulletproof suits and wielding powerful flamethrowers, they carve a path of destruction through both New York City and the tank division that is sent to bring them to heel. Nothing seems able to stop these mysterious marauders!

    Nothing, that is, until Landor, Maker of Monsters emerges from the shadows to offer his creature-based services to the US government. He’ll fight on the side of law and order for once, but only in exchange for his hated enemy, Tony Torrence. It’s a triumph of negotiation, in that there is absolutely no way that a patriotic fellow like Torrence could fail his country in its hour of need, even at the cost of his own life, the rube.

    To his credit, Landor follows through, and while up to this point I thought that the Fire-Men might have secretly been more of his creatures under those suits the whole time, they are in fact what will eventually be a comics staple: the minor villain that exists only to be utterly trounced as a demonstration of the prowess of another character. Whatever the Fire-Men’s goals might have been will never be revealed due to their grisly deaths at the claws of a giant fireproof cyborg.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 760: THE FIRE-MEN

    (Speed Comics 004, 1940) 

    The Fire-Men make an impressive debut: dressed in bulletproof suits and wielding powerful flamethrowers, they carve a path of destruction through both New York City and the tank division that is sent to bring them to heel. Nothing seems able to stop these mysterious marauders!

    Nothing, that is, until Landor, Maker of Monsters emerges from the shadows to offer his creature-based services to the US government. He’ll fight on the side of law and order for once, but only in exchange for his hated enemy, Tony Torrence. It’s a triumph of negotiation, in that there is absolutely no way that a patriotic fellow like Torrence could fail his country in its hour of need, even at the cost of his own life, the rube.

    To his credit, Landor follows through, and while up to this point I thought that the Fire-Men might have secretly been more of his creatures under those suits the whole time, they are in fact what will eventually be a comics staple: the minor villain that exists only to be utterly trounced as a demonstration of the prowess of another character. Whatever the Fire-Men’s goals might have been will never be revealed due to their grisly deaths at the claws of a giant fireproof cyborg.