{"id":3824,"date":"2025-03-30T10:49:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T13:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=3824"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:13:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T21:13:55","slug":"minor-super-villain-755-stradivous-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=3824","title":{"rendered":"MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 755: STRADIVOUS"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Smash Comics 017, 1940)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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There are a lot of comic book characters who derive their powers from or express them through music, but Stradivous here is the only one I know of who does so using a clarinet. This is going to be huge if we ever want to draft an all-star comics orchestra someday. He also has a really terrific look, with an eccentric choice in every single aspect of his head and facial hair – I’ll even grudgingly admit that he pulls off a fu manchu, traditionally my least favourite mustache.<\/p>\n

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Like many other super musicians, Stradivous specializes in mind control: he can make the people dance and caper as he pleases with but a toot.<\/p>\n

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More importantly to the plot, Stradivous can also enthrall the entire crew of a ship by broadcasting his music over the radio, and he and his employer Dock Commissioner Jennings have been doing just that from a nearby lighthouse. Jennings gets the info on valuable incoming shipments and Stradivous wrecks the ships and then the gather up the loot.<\/p>\n

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The Ray is of course none too happy about all of this wanton wrecking and looting and steps in to put a stop to it. He approaches as Happy Terrill for some reason, and is thus vulnerable to Stradivous’ hypnotic music. This doesn’t stop Happy\/the Ray for long, of course, but as he proceeds to beat the ass of every goon in the lighthouse a secondary drama plays out: two cops, drawn to the island by the hypnotic broadcast, spot Jennings and Stradivous fleeing the scene and summarily execute them for running. It’s like a dog with a ball – if they see someone moving fast enough they just can’t help themself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Smash Comics 017, 1940) There are a lot of comic book characters who derive their powers from or express them through music, but Stradivous here is the only one I know of who does so using a clarinet. This is going to be huge if we ever want to draft an all-star comics orchestra someday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,383,44,113,111,23,56,948,2051,7,26,1287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5","category-cops-shoot","category-dead","category-henchman","category-mind-control","category-minor-super-villain","category-quality-comics","category-ray","category-stradivous","category-the","category-thief","category-wrecker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3824","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=3824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3827,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3824\/revisions\/3827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}