Story #2Meet the Fang
Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Joe Simon.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Steve Rogers and
Bucky are assigned to guard a pair of Chinese emissaries on their way to Washington to ask for a loan to their war-torn country. The
Japanese have arranged with Chinese crimelord
Fang to kill the emissaries. As he stands guard over his charges Steve is gassed allowing Fang and his men to murder one of the emissaries and take the other and Bucky hostage. The dying man manages to contact the
FBI and tell them where the villains are going.
Betty Ross revives Steve who dons his
Captain America gear and head to the address where Betty too is now a prisoner. Cap arrives in time to prevent Bucky’s beheading and he and his partner make short work of the ganglord and his henchmen.
Story #3The Grim Reaper Deals with Crime
Writer: Stan Lee. Penciler: Al Avison. Inker: Al Gabriele.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
John Scott has been convicted of murder and sentenced to hang; his son
Larry knows that he was framed by mobster
Chips Brant. Larry confronts the crook but is overpowered by a henchman and tied up. As the minutes on the clock tick by, drawing closer to the time of execution, Larry escapes and rushes to the prison with the proof that his father is innocent—but he is too late. Brooding over how time always seems to be on the side of evil, Larry decides to change that: he adopts the costumed persona of
Father Time and heads back to Chips Brant’s hideout. There he captures the gangster and his thugs and secures them for the police before heading off into the night.
Story #4The Strange Case of Who Killed Dr. Vardoff
Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Joe Simon.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
After months of hassles,
Dr. Vardoff perfects his super-silk, an incredibly strong artificial fiber. He is threatened first by a monocle-wearing foreign agent who wants the formula for his country, and a gun moll trying to rope him into a mob protection racket. That night,
Steve Rogers and
Bucky are sent to pick up a sample of the super-silk for Army testing and discover that Vardoff has been strung up by the masked
Hangman, using the doctor’s own silk. Changing into
Captain America and Bucky they try to rescue Vardoff from the burning lab but it’s is clear the hanged man is dead. Outside, a mob mistakes them for the arsonists and attempts to lynch them but they escape. Investigating the crime scene later, Cap and Bucky meet
Ludwig, Vardoff’s assistant who tries to tell them about the man with the monocle but he is strangled with a silk noose. They discover the gun moll, who denies knowledge of the crime and soon she too is a victim of the Hangman. Examining Vardoff’s burned body at the morgue, they discover the corpse has a glass eye, meaning it is not Vardoff! Cap and Bucky are captured by the Hangman and take to his hideout where the villain plots to kill them with an acid gun. Cap and Bucky get free, beat the henchmen and unmask the Hangman as…Doctor Vardoff! He explains how he found the monocled man trying to steal his formula, went mad and killed him, then decided to use the body to fake his own death so he could be left alone to do his work. He turns the formula over to Cap, then uses the acid gun to destroy himself.
Story #5Trap for a Traitor
Writer: Stan Lee. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Inker: Joe Simon.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
On his way home from school,
Bucky Barnes notices he is being followed by tough guy. He recognizes the man as
Bill Haynes, whom he and
Captain America had sent to prison for attempting to murder
Colonel Stevens. Realizing the baddie has recognized him as
Captain America’s sidekick and is hoping Bucky will lead him to Cap, the boy hero thinks fast. He writes a message to Cap using the
Sentinels of Liberty secret code as drops it where a Sentinel (named
Larry David!) will find and deliver it. As night falls, Haynes realizes Bucky is leading him in circles and he attacks the young hero but Captain America comes to the rescue and defeats the thug.
Story #6The Engine of Destruction
Writer: Stan Lee. Penciler: Jack Binder. Inker: Jack Binder.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In
England, American correspondent
Headline Hunter becomes curious about a large building. Discovering it is a top-secret weapons factory owned by the fascist sympathizer
Lord Wotonby, Headline sneaks into the building at night and makes a shocking discovery. The factory is a secret
Nazi base containing a monster tank. As Wotonby takes the tank out on a destructive rampage through London, Headline swipes a plane from a nearby airfield and tries to bomb the Nazi marauders. When that proves ineffective he flies the plane directly into the tank (leaping into a river at the last minute) causing it to explode. Headline is awarded a medal—and catches a cold.
Story #7The Boarding House Murders
Writer: Stan Lee. Penciler: Charles Nicholas. Inker: Charles Nicholas.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
On a visit to New York, the
Hurricane rescues a girl from a mad dog. Asking her if she knows of a boarding house, he is warned away from the one on the corner, the scene of two unsolved murders. As
Harry Kane (ha ha!), our hero takes a room from
Mrs. Hagor, the landlady, and is introduced to the other lodgers. That night, another boarder is killed and a note left warning Harry to leave. Hurricane avoids the police who come to investigate (and who leave almost immediately, unwilling to explore any further) and questions the landlady about why someone would want to drive out the occupants. Mrs. Hagor reveals that a fortune in bonds is said to be hidden in the house. Hurricane lays a trap for the mystery killer and follows him through a secret passage in the wall where he overpowers the villain and unmasks him as Mrs. Hagor’s long-lost brother, who had been disguised as one of the other lodgers. No one (i.e
Stan Lee) seems to notice that the bonds are still missing, though.