Daring Mystery Comics (1940 series) #7

Jerry Carstairs, an F.C.C. listening-station technician in Washington, D.C., spends his evenings at his home ham radio setup alongside his dog, Mike. He is also the masked hero The Thunderer, who opens the story by crashing a gathering of German agents at the city's German Embassy, flattening the assembled spies in a brief brawl and leaving a note for the F.B.I. identifying them as thieves of the Garlin airplane plans.

The next day Jerry runs into Eileen Conroy, a Washington newspaper columnist fixated on the fifth-column threat. That evening, while tuning his ham set, Jerry intercepts a broadcast from station WWLX — run by enemy operative Franz — in which coded Morse messages are being embedded in piano music. Using tuning forks resonating at the notes C and F, Jerry deciphers an order to silence Eileen by exposing her to the Thunderer. Realizing she is in immediate danger, he dons his costume and races to the Capitol press room, where Eileen works late. Two gunmen — Franz and a partner — are waiting outside the door. The Thunderer fires his lightning gun to blind them, then beats them both down, but Eileen has slipped out with photographs she snapped during the fight. The next day she delivers the pictures to her editor for a front-page scoop, while Jerry, unable to reveal himself, can only read the coverage with silent exasperation.

Introducing the Fin

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

A U.S. Navy submarine on wartime maneuvers in the Atlantic crashes into a submerged derelict. As the hull floods, a lone cadet engineer dives into the tool locker and seals himself in, but is knocked unconscious when the dying vessel lurches. Regaining his senses, he uses a rescue lung and acetylene torch to cut through the hull and reach the sea floor, only to find his crewmates already dead. Unable to rise to the surface — something in the water pins him down — he discovers air bubbling from a grotto and follows a passage inside, emerging in a vast phosphorescent cavern filled with fresh water. Returning through the wreck for tools, he drills through the cavern rock into a second great chamber and, exploring further, is shot through a whirlpool into a cavernous room inhabited by winged, fish-like amphibians.

One of the creatures, Ikor, identifies himself as Sub-Ruler of the underwater kingdom of Neptunia. When the cadet, Lt. Peter Noble, refuses to submit, Ikor attacks and drags him underwater; Peter shoots him dead and discovers he can now breathe beneath the surface. Surrounded by the vengeful flock, Peter bluffs them by claiming to be the reincarnation of their ancient ancestor, the Fin. The ruse works on most — though one skeptic is silenced by a shot from Peter's automatic — and Peter is proclaimed their new Sub-Ruler. Slipping away, he returns to the wreck, assembles a makeshift costume from salvaged gear, and dives back toward Neptunia to consolidate his control.

Origin of the Blue Diamond

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

On an Antarctic expedition, Professor Elton Morrow discovers a massive diamond-like rock of unprecedented size and brilliance. The expedition loads it aboard a supply ship and heads for the United States. Weeks into the voyage through the North Atlantic, a Nazi submarine torpedoes the vessel. As the ship goes down, Morrow clings to the sealed wooden box containing the diamond, which keeps him afloat; the Nazi crew machine-guns survivors and shells the wreckage. A shell detonates the box, blasting the diamond to fragments — many of which penetrate Morrow's unconscious body. A British seaplane, responding to the S.O.S., sinks the submarine and rescues Morrow and one other survivor.

Aboard a U.S. steamship hospital, doctors inform Morrow that diamond fragments are lodged throughout his body, including one large piece at the base of his skull that cannot be safely removed. Back in New York at the university, Morrow notices he feels no pain and his body has grown extraordinarily hard. His physician confirms that the embedded fragments are causing the effect. Days later, Morrow synthesizes blue diamonds in his laboratory — matching the Antarctic stone — and wonders whether the particles in his body might grant superhuman power. That afternoon he stops a runaway truck with his bare hands, wrapping the truck around himself without injury. That night, spotting burglars in the university museum, he confronts them; their bullets ricochet off his body. He subdues both men, locks them in a closet, and calls the police anonymously. Resolved to fight crime, Morrow constructs a costume and declares himself Blue Diamond.

It's a Crime He's an Officer

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Cappy assigns bumbling patrolman Officer O'Krime to capture Kokey Flo, a notorious woman spy. Hearing a cry for help in the street, O'Krime charges in and finds a blonde woman being pestered by two men; he floors both and congratulates himself on a fine arrest. The next morning Cappy reveals that the two men were G-Men who had Kokey Flo in their sights — O'Krime has let the spy escape and assaulted federal agents. Cappy hurls O'Krime out of his office. Bruised and swearing off women forever, O'Krime is carted away by ambulance, only to be back on the beat moments later, where a woman immediately flags him down claiming a mouse is in her room.

The Silver Scourge of the Underworld

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Greggs Hansen, caretaker of Woodline Cemetery, spots what he takes to be a ghost and phones private detective Dan Hurley in a panic. Hurley dismisses the call, but his secretary Betty Barstow — already dressed in her Silver Scorpion costume for a masquerade ball — decides to stop by the cemetery on her way. At the grounds she finds Hansen fleeing in terror; a figure in a sheet jumps at her from the dark, and she throws it with a judo hold before noticing a light inside a mausoleum. Two men burst from the tomb's basement. Betty leaps down, knocks both out, but a third grabs her from behind; she flips him as well. A gunman then draws on her, but an arriving police siren distracts him long enough for Betty to kick him unconscious. She slips out a rear exit before the police enter. The next day the papers report a counterfeiting ring broken up by a mysterious girl in a silver scorpion costume. At the office Hurley asks how the ball was; Betty says she had a headache and never went.

Friend of the Poor and Protector of the Weak

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Mr. Million rides through a slum district when he spots street toughs shaking down a young newsboy named Nickie for protection money. Nickie refuses to pay and is beaten; Mr. Million steps out and chases the thugs off. He offers Nickie money to cover his ruined papers, but the boy flatly refuses charity, saying his father taught him the only good money was money earned. Impressed, Mr. Million sends his chauffeur home and follows Nickie on foot as the boy finishes his route and returns to a tenement apartment, where his mother lies sick in bed and his little brother waits. Nickie has just enough medicine for one more night, and the family clearly has nothing to spare.

That evening a visitor arrives at the apartment — Mr. Wilson, the district circulation manager, sent by Mr. Million — and offers Nickie a prime corner on Fifth Avenue. The next day Nickie works his new corner in the rain; Mr. Million checks in and quietly buys papers to keep sales moving. A customer overpays with a large bill and walks away; Nickie trails the man to an office building to return the change, and follows him through a door marked Mr. Million — Private, discovering that Wilson and Mr. Million are the same person. Nickie refuses the money again and demands a real job; Mr. Million hires him as office boy. Nickie goes home with groceries and good news.

In the Underground Empire

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

In a vast underground castle beneath America, two figures — a robed elder and a red-armored general — have spent years building a tunnel city in preparation for an assault on the United States. With word from the Führer to strike, their armies surge through secret passages and lay waste to farms and suburbs. An emissary demands immediate American surrender before U.S. diplomats. Captain Daring of the U.S. Army and Secret Service agent Susan Parker observe the carnage through a giant telescope, and that night Daring dispatches a squad in his specially built sun-powered underground rocket planes. They destroy the enemy's massive warship and return with a crucial insight: sunlight, unknown to the underground forces, can be weaponized against them.

Daring converts the sun engine into an offensive weapon, arms a workforce of civilian factory men, and launches a two-pronged assault. His rocket squadron blasts underground border forts and mountain outposts while Susan leads an overland regiment that captures the enemy's giant war dogs. The underground General rallies his remaining troops for a last stand inside the fortress, but Daring's fleet smashes the walls and his ground troops charge in. The underground Führer flees; Daring kills him with a thrown war axe. A surviving officer named Frano surrenders and agrees to withdraw the army. Susan is proclaimed queen of the now-peaceful underground empire, and the story closes with Daring declaring his love for her.

Master of a Thousand Weapons

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

The Challenger interrupts a bodyguard threatening a young woman in Boss Dram's study, hurling the man across the room before issuing him a sword challenge — his "first challenge." The bodyguard lunges; the Challenger disarms him with a flick of the blade, delivers a humiliating slash, then pins the man's trousers and sends him scrambling. The rescued woman regains consciousness and asks who saved her. The Challenger declines to give his name but explains his origins in a lengthy flashback.

As a law student he was a weakling, routinely beaten by street toughs. His father — a lawyer who had uncovered evidence of a criminal alliance between crooks and corrupt politicians — showed the evidence to the District Attorney, not knowing the D.A. was in the boss's pocket. On his way to deposit a copy in a mailbox, the father was ambushed, shot, and killed; his son, arriving moments later, was beaten unconscious. Waking in a hospital to news of his father's death, he resolved to fight back. He quit law school, sold everything, and spent years training globally — jiu-jitsu in Japan, chemistry in Tibet, marksmanship in Germany, aerial combat in England, nerve control in India, and swordsmanship in Paris. Returning to America, he took a clerk's job in the city record room to learn the names of local criminals and politicians, then donned a costume and declared himself the Challenger.

Back in the present, the Challenger confronts Dram directly, accusing him of ordering his father's murder. Dram draws a gun; the woman deflects his aim and the Challenger grapples him, dangling him off the balcony. Dram chooses guns as his weapon for the "second challenge" and fires from the stairs — the Challenger dodges all three shots and knocks the gun from his hand. Dram's bodyguard calls the police. The Challenger sends the woman out the back while he draws police fire from the roof, then slips away. The police find only an empty car and no trace of the masked man.