{"id":241,"date":"2023-12-28T08:36:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T12:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=241"},"modified":"2026-09-27T15:31:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:31:29","slug":"minor-super-villain-409-the-sphinx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 409: THE SPHINX"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Mystery Men Comics 018, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The Sphinx is (somewhat appropriately) a bit convoluted? Or maybe disjointed? It’s hard to put into words but there is a weird dreamlike quality to some Golden Age comic books and the Blue Beetle stories from Fox Features often have it.<\/p>\n

To begin: the Sphinx is a mysterious figure who causes subway accidents and then utters threats and pronouncements in a booming voice, seemingly from nowhere. The Blue Beetle swiftly discovers that one of the Sphinx’s minions is in fact crouched nearby with a phonograph, and after some shenanigans and booby traps manages to track down the man who purchased the phonograph’s needle: Mr Ivan.  <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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But Mr Ivan is dead, according to his burly identical sister who drives like a maniac. He can’t<\/i> be the Sphinx!<\/p>\n

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Or can he?<\/i> Yes he can, because Mr Ivan and Miss Ivan are in fact the same person! A person who is getting revenge on the subway company for firing them. And look, I know that reading into past media can be a rocky road but… this cemetery fight sequence rules<\/i>. If the Sphinx’s whole deal was being a crossdressing man or a trans woman seeking revenge on a former employer for wrongful dismissal I would love it and in my little heart I will believe that that is the case rather than that this is a standard comic book trope of a large man dressed up as a woman for larfs.<\/p>\n

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Gender nonconforming icon or no, the Sphinx proceeds with the attempted ruination of the subway company while dressed in a moderately cool set of Sphinx-themed armour. I’m honestly not sure how the story resolves – the gruesome caption about the Sphinx melting inside his armour is followed by some discussion of his being captured by the Blue Beetle. Is “captured” a euphemism for “horribly killed”? Maybe!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Mystery Men Comics 018, 1941) The Sphinx is (somewhat appropriately) a bit convoluted? Or maybe disjointed? It’s hard to put into words but there is a weird dreamlike quality to some Golden Age comic books and the Blue Beetle stories from Fox Features often have it. To begin: the Sphinx is a mysterious figure who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,35,361,3,23,20,345,362,7,360],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-14","category-blue-beetle","category-crossdress","category-fox-features","category-minor-super-villain","category-murderer","category-saboteur","category-sphinx","category-the","category-wrongful-dismissal-revenge-killer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","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=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}