MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 053

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 053

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They really do just keep coming.  **Update** The Arrow: While the Arrow has always been portrayed as a mysterious seven-foot-tall physical prodigy, this particular adventure really goes all in on his being super-humanly strong. This seems significant somehow, even if it is is second-to-last appearance by my reckoning. (The Arrow 002, 1940) **UPDATE** the Flame:  This is the first actual version of the Flame’s origin that I’ve encountered in a comic book, so here it is. It is also the…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 004

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 004

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Now’s the time that we start pulling aliens from the vaults! So look out for a lot of A-names for the next while! Not the first one though, because something has to come up organically. Crillionites: Hailing from the planet Crillon (which boasts the majestic Crillion City, natch), the Crillionites are a caste-based society in which the Lords of Crillon (like from the title of the comic!) rule over a slave population via some sort of divine right. This societal order is…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 805: THE GREAT ONE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 805: THE GREAT ONE

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(The Funnies 042, 1940) I had great hopes for the Great One, a pirate captain so mysterious that he wears a full-face hood (with nostril holes! The rarest hood hole!) even while hanging out on his own South Pacific island inhabited solely by his own fanatical crew. The black skull insignia alone inspired me to hope that there might be some fun mystery behind that hood for Bruce McKay, formerly Sky Master but now Sky Ranger, to solve when he…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 003

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 003

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It’s time for round three of all the various aliens encountered by Spacehawk in his crusade for justice in the year 1940! Neptunian Dog-Men, Plutonians, Jovians, Lunarians:  This gang of space pirates that Spacehawk and his pal Galar beat up are described as “screaming, bloodthirsty Neptunians, Plutonians and Jovians” and this is somewhat vexing because they are an extremely heterogeneous bunch who absolutely come in more than three distinct styles, but I reckon that we can do it. The Neptunians…

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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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