Marvel Mystery Comics (1939 series) #6

Two spies — one-eyed Patch and his partner Turgo — have learned that the scale drawings for the late inventor Morton's devastating incendiary bomb are stored in a Midtown bank vault. To empty the bank of its police guards, who belong to the town's volunteer fire department, they set a forest fire in the hills above Midtown. The Human Torch, driving to Midtown to investigate the bomb plans, spots the blaze, ignites, and joins the fire crews. Hearing a trapped man's cries, he discovers a fire-fighter named Tomson unconscious beside two man-made torches, deduces the fire was deliberately set, and then receives word that the Bank of Midtown has been robbed and its depositors locked in the time vault. The Torch flies to the bank, melts the steel gate and vault door, rescues the trapped depositors, and is briefed by bank president Barton on the bomb's catastrophic potential. Morton's incendiary bomb then explodes outside as a test — sending fire shells raining over the town. The Torch creates a wall of flame in the sky to detonate the incoming shells in mid-air, traces their source to Patch and Turgo's electric cannon, and melts it. When the pair flee by car the Torch softens the tar road and crashes the vehicle. Knocked unconscious by a falling rock, the Torch revives to find the forest fire spreading again; he halts it with a single shout, corners Patch on a clifftop, and ignites mid-fall, burning him loose. Patch plummets and is killed by his own flames. Barton confirms the bomb plans were destroyed along with Patch, and the Torch departs Midtown.

The Woman Who Knew Tom Hallaway

Synopsis

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

Walking through a slum district, the Angel glances into a café where a hulking thug named Rocco is beating a slight young man. The Angel steps in, levels Rocco with two blows, and is confronted by the arriving gang boss Gabby Harris and his bodyguards. The Angel vanishes before Harris can act. Changing into his costume in the adjacent alley, the Angel investigates Harris's car, which is under armed guard. He cold-cocks the guard and discovers the car's captive — socialite Mary Edwards, who reveals she was kidnapped over a necklace the gang believes to be real diamonds worth half a million dollars, though the piece is actually a dummy. The Angel coaches Mary to hand over the fake jewel so the gang will release her near her home, then shadows the car on its bumper. He ties two of the thugs and deposits Mary safely, then tails Harris to Nichol's Jewelry House, the gang's fence. The Angel watches Nichol expose the necklace as glass and smash it with a hammer; Harris draws on him and the Angel intercepts both men, knocking Gabby's gun away before Nichol's shots hit it, then beating Nichol to the floor. He loads all four criminals into Harris's sedan and drives them to the nearest police station, leaving a note for the officers identifying Nichol as a front for stolen gems. Several days later, while out with Mary, the Angel spots two thugs eyeing her new real-diamond necklace and packs her back into the car before trouble starts.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Angel
(Tom Halloway)

Plus: Mary Edwards.

Antagonists
Gabby Harris, Rocco.

The Execution of the Sub-Mariner

Synopsis

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

Picking up directly from the previous issue, Namor is released from police custody on a special parole from the Commissioner to help at the aftermath of the Treasury heist. The gangsters are herded into a police van with Namor riding up front as driver; en route to headquarters, a black sedan rams the van in an ambush attempt to free the prisoners. Namor leaps into the street brawl, snaps a machine gun in two, lifts the getaway car overhead and smashes it down, and forces the remaining gangsters' surrender. At the station, the Commissioner and policewoman Betty Dean explain that Namor must still stand trial for his prior murders. Weeks pass; a jury finds Namor guilty and the judge sentences him to death. The prison doctor has been secretly drugging Namor's food to suppress his powers, and when Namor attempts to fly through the courtroom window his strength fails. On the morning of his scheduled electrocution, Namor is strapped into the electric chair; the full charge of 2,000 volts neutralizes the drug and restores his powers. He tears the chair apart, batters his way through the prison, vaults its walls, rides a passing express train to New York City, and goes directly to police headquarters to confront Betty. She opens a window to dispel tear gas thrown by arriving officers, and Namor bursts through the net and escapes. He dives into the sea at the Battery, renewing his vow to return and destroy humanity, while Betty watches from shore and hopes she will see him again.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Sub-Mariner
(Namor)

Plus: Betty Dean (Betty Dean Prentiss).

Antagonists
Police.

The Border Dictator

Synopsis

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

In disguise, the Masked Raider rides into El Pinos, a border town just north of the Rio Grande, and overhears a confrontation in the saloon: a hard man named Sam Marvin is demanding rancher Pete Williams sell him the Bar W spread, invoking a mortgage contract Williams has no wish to honor. The Raider intervenes; a brawl breaks out and Marvin's hired gunfighters close in until a well-timed bottle-shattering shot from Williams's sharpshooting friend turns the tables. 

The arriving sheriff arrests Williams on charges Marvin has manufactured, suspicious that a hold-up at Caleto has left Williams with unexplained money. Williams refuses to name the source. The Raider suspects Marvin wants the Bar W because it borders the Rio Grande, and that night investigates, trailing two of Marvin's men to a hidden tunnel in the hillside. Inside, he discovers they are running rustled cattle through the tunnel and swimming them across the river into Mexico. Caught from behind and knocked unconscious, the Raider is bound with a leather reata and left with a lit dynamite fuse for company. He soaks the thongs in a puddle, loosens them just as the fuse reaches the stick, and extinguishes it. Reunited with his horse Lightning, he rides to the Rio Grande, takes out the border lookouts, and turns the herd back north. Marvin appears and is unhorsed by Lightning; the Raider brings the whole party in to the sheriff. A semiconscious Marvin confesses, Williams names Tedley as the man who gave him the money, and the Raider slips away before anyone can thank him.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Masked Raider
(Jim Gardley)

Plus: Lightning (horse).

Antagonists
Sam Marvin.

The Voice's Dope Racket

Synopsis

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

Professor Zog has been receiving a flood of wires from citizens asking him to deploy Electro against the nation's dope syndicates. He briefs his full staff of operators and dispatches them by plane to every major city, with instructions to locate each ring's leadership and then summon the robot. Electro Operator Bill Dunn, assigned to San Francisco, visits police headquarters and is briefed by narcotic squad detective Riley: the city's drug trade is controlled by a mysterious figure known only as the Voice, who issues orders exclusively through a hidden loudspeaker and has never been seen. Prowling Chinatown, Dunn tackles a drug peddler, coerces the location of the Voice's command room from him, and infiltrates it in disguise. 

Listening at the loudspeaker, he deduces from the sounds of foghorns and ocean waves that the Voice operates from a small island in the bay. He remotely summons Electro, who flies to the island, collapses the broadcasting tower with one swing, tears open the headquarters building, and dumps the Voice and his lieutenant on the steps of police headquarters. Dunn phones Riley that the case is closed. Electro is then summoned city by city — to Chicago to bust a narcotics garage, to Philadelphia to intercept a drug-smuggling plane mid-flight, catching it under one metal arm and hauling it to the police. City after city is cleared of dope racketeering, and the President of the United States wires Zog his personal thanks. Electro returns to his vault to await the next call.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Electro
(Robot)

Plus: Detective Riley, Philo Zog (Philo Zogolowski).

Antagonists
Voice.

Murder of a Cosmetics Queen

Synopsis

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

The Ferret arrives in Fairdale in answer to an urgent call from Lily Saunders, secretary to cosmetics factory owner Cora Waterbury. Lily fears something will happen to her boss, who recently fired a lab technician named Venario and has been receiving threats from him. They find Cora dead in her bedroom, completely bald, and a passing physician, Dr. Jelenko, insists there is no reason to suspect murder. A man claiming to be Cora's brother Rene Waterbury arrives, and Ferret is surprised to find him rifling the vault, which holds sixty thousand dollars in cash. Rene explains Cora kept everything in cash since a bank failure in 1933. 

Ferret visits the local hospital, takes a skin tissue sample from Cora's body, and identifies thallium poisoning through a spectroscope. The thallium, he deduces, was introduced via a new depilatory salve Cora had been testing. The next morning he summons everyone to the house, announces the cause of death, and tricks the man posing as Rene into revealing himself as Ryan, an employee at Cora's sales office who intercepted her telegram to the real Rene, increased the thallium dose in the salve to a fatal level, and came to claim the vault money.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Ferret
(Leslie Lenrow)

Plus: Lily Saunders.

Revenge For a Blind Man

Synopsis

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

In the Congo jungle, N'Jaga the leopard scents a man — an Oman — and stalks him to a tree. The man stumbles and falls, and N'Jaga is about to kill when Ka-Zar's roar freezes the leopard. Ka-Zar stands between predator and prey; N'Jaga retreats at the sight of his knife. The helpless man is blind and mistakes Ka-Zar for his former captor Fenton. He begs Ka-Zar to finish him, then, feeling Ka-Zar's arm, realizes his mistake. He tells Ka-Zar that Fenton is an ivory poacher who blinded him when he protested against the planned massacre of elephant herds, then left him to die. The man dies in Ka-Zar's arms. Ka-Zar calls to Zar the lion and Trajah the elephant, warns them an evil Oman has come to destroy the jungle, and sets off in pursuit. Monkey Nono reports that Fenton's camp was spotted one day's march away. The next day Ka-Zar finds Fenton savagely whipping his native porters to accelerate the hunt. He hurls a rock from the trees, striking Fenton in the head; Fenton suspects one of his own porters. Ka-Zar descends, subdues one of the isolated native workers, learns that the porters are coerced and want no part of the killing, and enlists their cooperation in a plan. When Fenton positions himself to shoot elephants as they pass through a clearing, Ka-Zar rides Trajah at the head of the charging herd directly toward Fenton's position. Too slow to flee, Fenton is trampled to death by the herd. Ka-Zar declares the Oman destroyed and the jungle safe for its people to return home.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Ka-Zar
(David Rand)

Plus: N'Jaga (leopard), Nono (monkey), Trajah (elephant), Zar (lion).

Antagonists
Fenton.