Mystic Comics (1940 series) #4

Deep in the Balkan mountains, between the fictional countries of Borsia and Gratzia, stands a sinister fortress the peasants call Horror Hall — headquarters of the Trustees of Hate, a criminal organization led by the ruthless Dr. Vortex. Lor, the Hall's hulking hangman, is transporting a victim to the lime pits when a hand bursts from the caustic mire: the Blue Blaze, alias Spencer Keen, rises from the pit and sends Lor fleeing in terror. Vortex, meanwhile, briefs his henchman Weasel on a scheme to foment war between Borsia and Gratzia so the Trustees can seize both countries when they have destroyed each other. The Blue Blaze, nosing around the castle gates, intercepts Weasel, but a shot from inside kills Weasel before he can talk. Vortex then dispatches his agent Lara to escort the intruder to Borsia — ostensibly to observe their operation, but actually to deliver him to his death.

In the Borsian senate, Lara uses a ray ring to bombard Senator Coyne with a hate ray, twisting his pro-Gratzia speech into a xenophobic tirade; Vortex's spies reinforce the message on the weaker-minded senators. Blue Blaze realizes the same operation is running simultaneously in Gratzia. Lara then produces a gun and drives him back to Horror Hall, where Dr. Vortex takes custody, drags him to a dungeon, and attempts to shoot him on the spot. Blue Blaze smashes Vortex across the room, then breaks free and pursues him upstairs into the hate-ray laboratory. The thugs follow; Vortex, unwilling to let Blue Blaze escape, detonates the lab with a switch. Recovering in the wreckage, Blue Blaze finds himself chained — Vortex gloatingly announces he will be drawn and quartered. Blue Blaze produces a cigarette lighter from his belt, triggers a burst of blinding blue flame, snaps his chains with his superhuman strength, and hurls Vortex over the castle wall into the lime pit. The Borsian papers subsequently report a treaty with Gratzia and Senator Coyne's recovery from a strange mental illness. Both men descend into the murky lime pit, the narration noting that only one will return.

Earthquake

Synopsis

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

A circus matinee is thrown into chaos when the ground beneath the big top begins trembling violently, cracking the center pole. Hercules, performing in the ring, leaps forward to hold the collapsing canvas with his bare hands; he rips open the side of the tent to free the stampeding crowd, then helps replace the broken pole. Investigating the quake with a companion, Hercules spots a massive tank-like machine clawing its way up through the earth. He follows it to a country estate, vaults the spiked fence, and kills three guard dogs before Lemo, the machine's inventor, summons a mob of thugs. Hercules hurls them aside, but Lemo fires earth-shaking bolts from his machine and knocks Hercules senseless.

Carried inside, Hercules is strapped to an operating table — Lemo intends to perform brain surgery and make him a slave. Hercules' physiology proves too powerful for the anesthetic; he snaps awake, breaks free, and the surgeon and guards flee in terror. As Hercules moves to escape, Lemo triggers his machine and brings tons of masonry crashing down on him. Hercules shoves the wreckage aside unharmed and pursues Lemo into the city. Lemo fires electrical bolts from a rooftop, tossing Hercules off a building, but Hercules spots a street-level manhole, drops into it, reasons the machine cannot fire downward without blasting the ground from beneath itself, and punches his fists through the hull from below. With one mighty swing he hurls the entire machine into the air; it explodes in a blinding flash, destroying Lemo with it. A grateful bystander thanks Hercules, who replies that using his strength to help others is simply his duty.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Hercules
(Varen David)

Antagonists
Lemo.

Origin of the Thin Man

Synopsis

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

American scientist Bruce Dickson becomes lost on an expedition to Mt. Kalpurthia in the Himalayas, stumbles through a glowing tunnel, and discovers a hidden utopia called Kalahia. The Council of Elders operates on him with electronic rays, granting him the ability to flatten himself thin enough to pass through any gap; he masters the valley's advanced sciences with the help of Olalla, daughter of the chief elder. Though elected a permanent member of Kalahian society, Bruce turns on the valley's electronic television and shows the Elders that crime rules the outer world — a drive-by shooting, a car bombing. Permission is granted for Bruce and Olalla to leave and fight evil; the two build a stratoplane from a perpetual-motion engine and the metal Duragen, and fly to the United States.

Monitoring the city from the air, Bruce spots the sedan of racketeer Clip Walton about to murder a taxi driver; the stratoplane dives and fires heat bullets, destroying the car. Working by night to avoid attention, Bruce leaves Olalla with the plane and goes after Clip Walton on foot. He uses his ray belt to stall a truck carrying Walton's men, slips through the bars of Walton's fence, and infiltrates the house — only to be slugged from behind and tied up. He escapes his ropes by going thin, battles Walton's gang alongside a captive named Jim, and is recaptured and loaded into a car for execution. Olalla, watching through the electronic television, dives the stratoplane and strafes the kidnappers; Bruce knocks out the remaining gunmen while Olalla covers him. Clip Walton is left bound in a chair with incriminating evidence for the Police Commissioner, who awakens to find a note reading "Compliments of the Thin Man and Olalla."

The Teutonian Agents

Synopsis

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

Eminent scientist Prof. Winston arrives at the home of inventors Joel and Joshua Williams, creators of Flexo — a rubber man with the strength of an ox who can fly through the air. Winston warns that his formula for a supremely powerful explosive has been stolen by an agent of the dictator of Teutonia; in enemy hands it could destroy whole cities, but Winston refused to sell it and his house was ransacked. The Williams boys agree to help and fly to Teutonia with Flexo, but Teutonian anti-aircraft guns shoot down their plane. Flexo grabs both brothers and carries them safely to a clearing outside the capital city.

That night the three fly to the window of the Dictator's office; Flexo bends the bars open while Joel and Joshua crack the safe and locate the formula. Guards burst in and capture the brothers, who are thrown into a prison cell. Brought before the Dictator and sentenced to death as spies, Joel contacts Flexo by remote control just as the firing squad takes aim. Flexo arrives and dismantles the soldiers; Joel and Joshua seize the Dictator's secretary, who reveals under threat that the formula is being transported in a convoy to a munitions factory at Leitsborg. The brothers strap themselves to Flexo and fly in pursuit. Flexo lands ahead of the convoy and braces himself in the road; the armored car slams into him, stretching him backward like a slingshot, and he snaps forward to hurl the vehicle through the air. Joshua pulls the formula from the wreck. The story closes with the group celebrating and declaring that another dictator has been done away with.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Flexo
(Rubber Man)

Plus: Dr. Joel Williams (Joel Williams), Dr. Joshua Williams (Joshua Williams).

Antagonists
Teutonians.

Introducing the Black Widow

Synopsis

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

Spirit medium Madame Claire Voyant conducts a séance when a supernatural force seizes control of her and compels her to pronounce the Curse of Satan upon the Wagler family. That same night the Waglers' car skids and plunges over an embankment; the mother is killed instantly and daughter Patricia dies in her brother James's arms. Grieving and enraged, James tracks down Claire Voyant at her home and shoots her. Dying, she whispers that she will return. Satan himself appears, goads James on, and then claims Claire Voyant's body, dragging her soul through eternal fire to the depths of Hades.

In Hell, Satan shows Claire Voyant the torments of the damned — sinners boiling in rivers of suffering, suicides transformed into trees of pain — and then performs a mystic rite, commanding her body to transform. Flames envelop her and she emerges reborn as the Black Widow, dressed in black and endowed with supreme supernatural power. Satan sends her back to the upper world with a mission: to seek out mortals whose hearts are blackened with wickedness and bring their evil souls to him. Her first act is to return to the docks where James Wagler stands grieving; she touches his brow, a flame blazes forth, and James falls dead with a black widow spider branded into his forehead. A passing policeman finds the body and is baffled. Back in Hades, the Black Widow reports her mission fulfilled, and Satan hints at far larger plans for his immortal agent.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Black Widow
(Claire Voyant)

Antagonists

 

Satan

Suicide Mystery

Synopsis

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

The body of actress Janet Wayne is pulled from the water — officially a suicide, but Dr. Gade, invisible and watching unseen from the crowd, suspects murder. Riding undetected in the car of Mary, Janet's friend, Gade follows her to a rendezvous with Fatty, the crime boss responsible for hounding Janet to her death. Gade reveals himself long enough to rough Fatty up in his hideout, but Mary's companion — an acquaintance in a red circus outfit whom the gang brands a snooper — is slugged by Fatty's enforcer Slade, and Gade is captured, bound, and left to burn in a locked garage. Working patiently while the fire grows, Gade burns through his ropes, spots a wallet in the garage office containing a photograph of a motor sailer, and deduces Fatty has taken Mary aboard. He turns invisible as firemen arrive and drives off in an unseen car.

Boarding Fatty's motor sailer invisibly, Gade finds Mary held prisoner and plans to be thrown overboard at Cape May. He tears out the distributor wires to kill the engine, then disables the sails, methodically dismantling Fatty's operations panel by panel while the baffled crew blames a jinx. When Fatty orders Mary killed, Gade throws the gangsters overboard one by one into the shark-filled water, declaring it bitter justice for Janet Wayne's murder. He then touches his belt and becomes visible to Mary, advises her to tell no one what she witnessed, and blows up Fatty's yacht — with Fatty in it — giving Mary the chance at a new life.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Invisible Man
(Leonard Gade)

The Train Wreck

Synopsis

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

A saboteur derails a train in the night; among the survivors at the wreck site are Merzah the Mystic and his companion Diana. Using his clairvoyant powers, Merzah instantly identifies the culprit and the time of the next strike. In a distant city, spy chief Matsu — an international agent — learns that Merzah was on the train and orders his network into action. A mysterious phone call tips Merzah to go to 98 Pearl Street; he sets out with Diana, leaving his driver Jose behind with instructions to monitor a telepathic recorder and stand by for a mental summons. At 98 Pearl Street an ambush is waiting, and both Merzah and Diana are captured by Matsu's gang.

Bound and held prisoner, Merzah projects his mind telepathically to Jose, whose car suffers a blowout en route. While Jose frantically changes the tire, Matsu moves the prisoners to a Long Island mansion. Merzah signals Jose's location by activating a hidden flashlight in his clothing, and Jose fights his way past the guards and up to the bedroom where Merzah and Diana are held. The crash of a knocked-over lamp alerts the gang downstairs; Merzah reads the tactical situation telepathically and directs Jose and Diana through the ensuing brawl — Merzah guarding one exit, Diana covering the other with a gun. When Matsu flees in a car, Merzah gives chase; reading Matsu's thoughts to anticipate his turns, he shoots out a tire and sends Matsu's car into a fatal crash. Diana rounds up the remaining gang members and delivers them to police headquarters. The story closes with a Western Union telegram congratulating Merzah for keeping America safe for democracy.

The Jewelry Store Robbers

Synopsis

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

Jewelry stores across the country are being systematically looted, the thieves always escaping in stolen cars. Curt Cowan — the Dynamic Man, secretly an FBI special agent — is summoned by his superior, who explains that the use of stolen vehicles across state lines gives federal jurisdiction. Investigating the crime scenes, Cowan deduces that the thieves must possess a machine that works like a magnet but attracts only gold. Deep in a mountain range in the Northwest, Professor Monti and his financier Prentiss celebrate the success of their "black box" gold-attracting device aboard a purpose-built dirigible disguised to resemble a British airship. Cowan plays a hunch, flies to Fort Knox, Kentucky, and arrives just as the dirigible hovers overhead and its tremendous magnetic force tears gold bars up through the roof of the Federal Gold Depository. He soars in pursuit, follows the craft to its mountain hangar cave, and enters — but is ambushed by guards, wrapped in a rubber sheet that neutralizes his electrical powers, and buried alive under a dynamite blast.

Immobilized in the rubble, Cowan gnaws through the rubber wrapping in desperation and fires electrical charges from his own body, rocketing himself through the earth like a projectile. Emerging from the cave, he grabs a surviving technician and forces out the information that the dirigible has departed for the Bank of England. Meanwhile, disguised under a British flag and using a stolen code book, Monti radios ahead to British military command presenting the craft as a friendly American airship — securing an escort rather than opposition — and the dirigible descends over London. Cowan overtakes it, lands on its hull, and plans to wait until it passes over the Thames before destroying it. British anti-aircraft fire, however, having detected the fraud, opens up without warning and a series of explosions blasts Cowan off the craft and sends him plummeting unconscious into the Thames. Revived by the cold water, he soars up and discharges a thunderbolt of electrical energy into the dirigible's hydrogen gas, igniting it and destroying the craft above London. He then makes multiple flights to retrieve the stolen gold bars and return them to Fort Knox. Back in his civilian identity, Cowan's superior marvels at the inexplicable results; Cowan cheerfully advises him to forget about it.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Dynamic Man
(Curt Cowan)

Plus: Chief Hopkins.

Antagonists
Prentiss, Professor Monte.