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Month: June 2025

DIVINE ROUND-UP 001

DIVINE ROUND-UP 001

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As long as we’re dipping into the aliens of comics, we might as well go all the way and dig out all the various gods etc that people have made up too. Comic book divinities fall into a few broad styles: -real objects or creatures worshipped animistically but which do not display any real divine power -idols, verbal invocations or other trappings of religious worship without any indication that the being being represented is really real -actual supernatural beings, including:…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 804: THE MAD SCIENTIST OF HELL’S KITCHEN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 804: THE MAD SCIENTIST OF HELL’S KITCHEN

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(The Flame 003, 1940) The Mad Scientist of Hell’s Kitchen is a, you guessed it, mad scientist who has developed one of the classic serums, giving him the option to turn into a huge and super strong ape-man with a simple injection. Of note is the fact that this is not a Jekyll and Hyde situation, as the Mad Scientist and his alter ego the Beast appear to be merely physically and not mentally distinct. Also of note: though the…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 018

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 018

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I’m not sure that these guys all have degrees.  This fellow is known only as the Professor, and he conducts experiments in long- and short-range mind control on Lost Hope Island until Secret Naval Agent Spike Marlin shows up in search of a missing ship’s crew. (Speed Comics 009, 1940)  This unnamed scientist has developed a drug that puts people into indefinite comas and has used it to kidnap and store ten millionaires, presumably with the intent of ransoming them…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 803: THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN GANG

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 803: THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN GANG

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(The Arrow 002, 1940) It’s an occupational hazard for the costumed adventurer: eventually someone is going to dress up like you so that they can do crimes and get away with it while you take all the blame. And when the hero in question is a mysterious and half-legendary figure like your typical masked cowboy tends to be, why, it must be all the more tempting, as Betty aka the Headless Horseman learns to her dismay when she learns that…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 051

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 051

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It’s Day Three of Round-Up Week here at the Curse of Skeleton Munroe.  **UPDATE** the White Streak: Novelty Press is back at it again, exercising their compulsion to tone down the “fantastic” in their comic book stories. The White Streak has gotten a job as an FBI agent, and so he gets plastic surgery in order to make his inhuman face into that of a square-jawed white guy. Now instead of being the utterly fantastical ancient android in a bright…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 002

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 002

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It’s back-to-back round-ups this week! Moon People:  Spacehawk seems to make friends easily, and wherever there is an evil alien space menace he must battle there is seemingly a friendly alien species nearby to help out. In this case, the space menace is on the Moon, and the friendly folk are the Moon People or Moon Men, barrel-chested fellows with the faces of cartoon mice. I like them, even if their eyes do freak me out. (Target Comics v1 008,…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 001

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 001

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I’ve highlighted some particular aliens before but what is this blog but an exercise in making note of every dang thing I come across. And so: aliens! We’re going to stick to our old familiar way of dealing with things that will have a lot of examples with little info: the round-up, and since I’ve been reading Target Comics recently, we’ll be seeing all of the alien weirdos that Basil Wolverton designed for Spacehawk to encounter! As time goes on…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 802: HAMMERFIST

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 802: HAMMERFIST

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(Target Comics v1 011, 1940) Hammerfist is a good old-fashioned gang boss-with-a-gimmick, in his case an iron ball in place of his missing right hand. He’s on a mission to take over the night club scene in New York City by the simple expedient of shooting up clubs until business gets so bad that everyone is willing to sell cheap rather than go bankrupt. More importantly, Hammerfist is the person responsible for framing Niles “the Target” Reed’s brother Bill for…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 015

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 015

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Time for another round! Of round-up! Adolf Hitler:  When time traveller Whiz Wilson journeys to the far future world of 1960 CE he gets mixed up in a scheme hatched by agents of this fellow, ruler of “the dictator realms of Europe.” Is he meant to be Hitler or merely evoke him? Hard to say, but I for one think he’s supposed to be Old Hitler. (Sure-Fire Comics 001, 1940) He’s not that much of a Hitler, but Don Ruizen,…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 050

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 050

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Novelty Press character round-up, more like. the Chameleon: An unnamed master of disguise (throughout his 1940 appearances, at least) who dispenses vigilante justice on an ad hoc basis, the Chameleon’s major distinction is that his name is always written in cursive. Other than that: he’s got a chauffeur/sidekick (Slim) and a bumbling police nemesis (Inspector Parks) and somehow manages to simultaneously be one of those heroes who is wanted by the law and whose identity and address are just kind…

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