Marvel Mystery Comics (1939 series) #13

New York City is rocked by a string of subway wrecks — split rails, passenger murders, and robbery — with no suspects. The Mayor assigns Captain Rawlins to investigate, who in turn enlists the Human Torch. At police headquarters, a knife thrown through the window carries a warning to abandon the case; the Torch pursues the thrower's escape car, melts its roof until the driver crashes, and interrogates a bystander who lets slip the gang's next target: the 5:30 southbound express. The Torch barely boards the departing train before it plunges into a river tunnel, where the lead car is derailed by a sabotaged rail. Masked gunmen emerge from hidden tunnel chambers, machine-gunning passengers and abducting female riders into the tunnels.

The Torch fights the gang but is overpowered and knocked unconscious, waking in chains beside Morton, the elderly subway builder who masterminded the wrecks to avenge two sons killed during the subway's construction. Morton reveals that Reiss hijacked his scheme and turned it into a kidnapping racket. Heating his body without igniting his flame, the Torch melts his chains, frees Morton, and the two rout the gang — Morton standing guard over the captives while the Torch pursues Reiss up an escape tube to the river. A fog-blanketed boat chase follows; the Torch crashes into a bridge girder but relocates Reiss on the dock. Reiss spills gasoline and lights it as a firetrap, but the Torch subdues the blaze and encircles Reiss in a ring of fire until a police boat arrives. Captured, Reiss is turned over to the authorities, and Morton declares his willingness to answer for his crimes.

Smashing the Island Invasion

Synopsis

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

Following the escape of his American prisoners, Namor grows restless in the ice-castle. His mother encourages him to resume his adventures, and he invites his cousin Dorma to accompany him to Europe. They visit the royal tailor Toro, who outfits them in metal-cloth armor and gas-filtering masks of his own design. A day into their undersea crossing, the two surface near an unidentified island and go ashore to rest. Island soldiers immediately detain them on suspicion of espionage, but the island's Commander recognizes Namor from newspaper accounts and releases them after Namor declares his intention to help end the war. As they prepare to leave, an air-raid siren sounds and German bombers descend on the island, dropping bombs and deploying parachute troops.

Namor and Dorma split up to fight: Dorma drives off the parachutists with her steam-pistol while Namor leaps among them bare-handed, then seizes a German bomber, ejects the crew, and uses the aircraft's guns to shoot down two other planes before ditching the craft at sea. Returning to find a straggling bomber threatening to crash into the town, Namor grabs its landing gear mid-air and guides it safely down. The parachute troops are rounded up as prisoners of war, and the island's lieutenant thanks Namor for the intervention. The story closes on Namor alone, reflecting grimly that war consumes the world and fools kill each other endlessly.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Lady Dorma

 

Sub-Mariner
(Namor)

Plus: Fen (Princess Fen).

Antagonists
Nazis.

Enter: The Vision

Synopsis

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

In his Lincoln City laboratory, Doctor Enoch Mason demonstrates his "Dimension Smasher" to three skeptical colleagues, including Markham, claiming he can blast an entrance through the force film separating the material world from adjacent dimensions and draw a hyper-dimensional being across. Simultaneously, crime boss "Brains" Borelli — who holds a promissory note on Mason's equipment and nurses a class-resentment grudge against intellectuals — dispatches two gunmen to either collect Mason's debt or steal his apparatus. When the thugs invade the lab and threaten Mason at gunpoint, one of them unwittingly supplies the trigger element the machine requires: smoke from his cigar. The Dimension Smasher tears open the barrier, and a being calling itself Aarkus — the Vision — crosses into the material plane. The Vision seizes the gunman in an icy grip, killing him by contact, then declares it will pursue the second man.

The fleeing thug, blinded by the Vision's eyes, runs into a car and is killed. Mason calls the police to report the death; the Vision reappears in material form to explain to an Inspector that the refrigerator coils in the Dimension Smasher caused the freezing. Later, Borelli sends his full mob to kidnap Mason and his daughter Sheila Mason. The Vision, returning through cigarette smoke, vanishes behind a cloud and reappears physically to hurl Borelli through a door and subdue his gangsters, trussing them with their own trousers. The Vision phones the police to report Borelli at Dykeman's Wharf, then fades back to his dimension as officers arrive. Borelli and his mob are arrested, and Mason tells Sheila he expects the Vision to return.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Vision
(Aarkus)

Plus: Dr. Enoch Mason, Shiela Mason.

Antagonists
Brains Borelli.

Case of the Counterfeit Paintings

Synopsis

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

Terry Vance, the young detective, accompanies his newspaperman friend Deadline Dawson to the opening of a fine art exhibition, where Terry notices a suspicious smudge on one of the oil paintings. He secretly photographs it with a concealed candid camera, then compares his photo against an authenticated old print of the same work — the smudge is absent on the original, suggesting the displayed painting is a fresh forgery. That evening Terry returns to the exhibition with his trained monkey Dr. Watson, who touches the canvas and confirms it is wet paint. A guard ejects them, but Terry spots a man leaving with fresh oil paint on his sleeve. He and Dr. Watson tail the suspect's car to an office building, then climb twelve flights of stairs to suite 1204, where Terry uses a skeleton key to slip inside and eavesdrop via the interoffice phone system. He overhears the gang's leader explain the scheme: an elderly painter produces exact copies of the Old Masters, a corrupt exhibition guard switches them overnight, and the originals are sold off.

Discovered before he can slip away, Terry is seized by the gang and thrown down the elevator shaft, barely catching the greasy cable on the way down and riding the descending car to the pit below. Trapped and unable to call for help, he whistles for Dr. Watson, who responds through the shaft. Terry instructs the monkey to operate the elevator controls, freeing him. He phones Deadline Dawson, rallies a group of newsmen, and ambushes the gang as they return to the exhibition to make the switch. The crooks are caught red-handed, and a police captain commends Terry at headquarters.

Mystery of the Moon Robots

Synopsis

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

Wealthy scientist Dr. Simon Crane, his daughter Betty, and Professor Zog — Electro's creator — board a rocket-ship bound for the Moon, intending to use the wonder-robot Electro as a remote-controlled advance scout. After a six-hour flight, Zog activates the gravity-repulsor ray to hover over the lunar surface and releases Electro. The robot finds no air or water on the Moon's rocky plains, but stumbles upon a ruined city — and is promptly attacked by a larger Moon-Robot. Zog doubles Electro's power remotely and the Moon-Robot is demolished, but a second wave of mechanical soldiers overwhelms Electro by sheer numbers and carries him, helpless, into the ruins. Inside, Electro is brought before Gnorr, Emperor of the Moon, a fearsome alien who reveals himself as the last of an ancient race, thousands of years old. Gnorr's thought-receiving sets have monitored Earth's greatest minds for centuries, and he declares his intention to invade and conquer the planet with his robot armies, sending Electro back as a messenger of doom.

Zog manages to surge power to Electro, who charges Gnorr — only to be repelled by an electrical energy screen and imprisoned beneath a transparent shell. Cut off from remote control, Zog declares himself powerless. Dr. Crane resolves to land on the Moon's dark side and attempt a rescue in person. The three don space-suits and armored tanks, but are ambushed crossing the day-night boundary by Moon-Robots hurling boulders; their tank topples into a ravine. Escaping on foot, Zog tosses a high-explosive bomb that obliterates the pursuing robots. The trio advances on Gnorr's palace and, sheltered behind a zello-shield against the flame-guns, lobs bombs into the stronghold. The palace is destroyed, Gnorr's forces are scattered, and Electro is recovered unharmed. Zog declares the threat ended, while Electro expresses relief and longing to return to Earth.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Electro
(Robot)

Plus: Betty Crane, Dr. Simon Crane, Philo Zog (Philo Zogolowski).

Antagonists
Gnorr (Emperor of the Moon).

The Murder of Happy Norton

Synopsis

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

Walking through a crowded street, the Angel witnesses the shooting of Happy Norton, a former member of Limpy Savoy's gang who had gone straight and was helping the district attorney build a case against Savoy. The Angel spots Savoy's finger-man ducking into a nearby drugstore and intercepts him in a telephone booth, beating a confession out of him: Savoy ordered Norton killed to prevent his court testimony. The Angel calls Savoy directly to announce he is coming after him. Savoy dispatches his full gang to find and kill the Angel, but the men have never seen him before. The Angel slips into Savoy's apartment-house cellar, lures the thugs in after him, and picks them off one by one in the dark corridors — six men down in quick succession. The last surviving thug bolts for Savoy's private penthouse elevator; the Angel rides up alongside him and cold-cocks him on the way in.

Upstairs, the Angel confronts Savoy, who draws a gun. Before Savoy can fire, the Angel tackles him and the two struggle across the penthouse terrace. Savoy presses the Angel over the building's edge; the Angel shifts his grip at the sound of arriving police sirens and Savoy plunges to the pavement below. The Angel's shadow falls over the body as police find it. Unbeknownst to either man, the penthouse telephone had been knocked off its hook during the fight, and a police operator has been listening to the entire conversation on an open wire — Savoy having incriminated himself before his death. The story closes with police headquarters summoning the riot squad, noting that Savoy said enough to hang himself.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Angel
(Tom Halloway)

Antagonists
Savoy Gang.

In the New York Jungle

Synopsis

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

Ka-Zar, having arrived in the United States aboard a steamship with his lion Zar, is arrested by police after attempting to free caged animals at a circus. To protect Zar from harm, Ka-Zar surrenders, instructs Zar in jungle language to submit quietly, and is taken to police headquarters. In his cell, a guard mentions a nearby Brooklyn circus with a large collection of wild animals; Ka-Zar seizes the guard through the bars, takes his gun, forces him to unlock the cell, and orders him to drive to the circus at gunpoint. The officer uses his car radio to alert headquarters. Meanwhile, a young woman named Ruth Wilson — whose father Ka-Zar once rescued from death in the African jungle — presents herself at police headquarters and volunteers to handle Ka-Zar, convincing the captain to let her accompany the pursuing squad cars. She intercepts Ka-Zar as police surround the car, and he recognizes her. Ruth persuades the police to release Ka-Zar into her and her father's custody.

Ruth takes Ka-Zar home to her father, Mr. Wilson, who welcomes him and insists he stay. Ka-Zar, unimpressed by city customs, is taken to a tailor and barber and dressed in proper clothes, which he finds absurd. He and Ruth visit Zar at the zoo, and Ka-Zar promises the lion he will free him and get them both back to Africa. That night, unable to sleep and still in his ill-fitting shoes, Ka-Zar slips out of the house, discards the shoes, and uses his jungle instincts to navigate through the dark city to the zoo. He locates Zar's cage and begins bending the iron bars apart — but as he does, a police squad alerted by his lion-call arrives and orders him to stop, threatening to shoot to kill.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Ka-Zar
(David Rand)

Plus: Dr. Wilson, Ruth Wilson, Zar (lion).