{"id":1170,"date":"2023-12-26T08:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T12:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=1170"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:07:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T19:07:54","slug":"minor-super-villain-407-dr-clever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=1170","title":{"rendered":"MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 407: DR CLEVER"},"content":{"rendered":"

(More Fun Comics 074, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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I have taken an immediate liking to Dr Clever. I mean, just look at the guy: the classic tuxedo-and-cape combo, the rictus grin, the bald pate with two little hair-horns, the tiny skull-and-crossbones pin… he’s really a triumph of design when you think about it. Lucky for us he’s a recurring foe of Johnny Quick so we’ll be seeing him again.<\/p>\n

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Somewhat strangely for a man with such an overall villainous look, Dr Clever’s major line is in con artistry: he manages to pull off three schemes in short order in this issue and the only impediment to their success is the involvement of Johnny Quick. Maybe people just love a smiling man. In order then:<\/p>\n

1. Under a fairly flimsy pretense he gives away free food that contains a chemical that turns the eater blue, then sells an antidote for big bucks. This one might be a warm-up as he only seems to get about ten people.<\/p>\n

2. He advertises his new invention: a machine for extracting gold from seawater. Dr Clever sells the gold from this machine for 50 cents on the dollar, but really it’s just a way to launder stolen gold.<\/p>\n

3. He creates a service whereby he will register your patent for you but really he just keeps them for himself.<\/p>\n

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It’s all almost wholesome, crime-wise. Don’t worry though: Dr Clever is actually an evil wretch of the highest order as evidenced by the above panel in which he murders two henchmen for essentially no reason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(More Fun Comics 074, 1941) I have taken an immediate liking to Dr Clever. I mean, just look at the guy: the classic tuxedo-and-cape combo, the rictus grin, the bald pate with two little hair-horns, the tiny skull-and-crossbones pin… he’s really a triumph of design when you think about it. Lucky for us he’s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,637,17,1131,266,23,28,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-14","category-con-artist","category-dc-comics","category-dr-clever","category-johnny-quick","category-minor-super-villain","category-multiple-appearances","category-murderer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}