Mystic Comics (1940 series) #3

Dr. Gair, the head of a crime syndicate, meets with a robed Star-Gazer who claims to have a method capable of stopping the Blue Blaze. Using a ray device focused on a chemical tray, the Star-Gazer summons a massive yellow creature he calls the Star-Monster — an entity powered by the rays of a particular star, described as invulnerable as long as that star shines at night. Dr. Gair orders the monster to destroy the Blue Blaze. Meanwhile, the Blue Blaze, in his own observatory, detects unusual ray vibrations nearby and goes out to investigate, walking straight into the villains' lair. A first confrontation ends with the Star-Monster overpowering the Blue Blaze and hurling him from a window; he barely saves himself by grabbing a storefront awning below.

When dawn breaks, the Star-Monster loses its power and goes limp, giving the Blue Blaze time to escape and study the problem. He deduces that lead can block the star-rays and heads to the Ace Printing Co., where a furnace holds molten lead. The Star-Monster and the criminals pursue him there. The Blue Blaze lures the creature under the furnace's spout and releases a torrent of molten lead onto it, encasing it in a solid shell and immobilizing it instantly. He then forces Dr. Gair and the Star-Gazer to reveal how the star-ray lens works. When the Star-Gazer secretly aims the crystal lens at the Blue Blaze as a killing ray, the Blue Blaze deflects it with a mirror, turning the beam back on the two criminals and killing them both. The story closes with a caption noting the Blue Blaze will seek new adventure in the next issue.

The Origin of Hercules

Synopsis

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

Dr. David, a scientist who has abandoned civilization, raises his infant son on a remote Arctic island, training him from childhood in physical hardship, science, and labor. By the time the boy — named Hercules — has grown into a towering young man, his father is dying. The doctor expresses pride in his son before passing away, leaving Hercules alone on the island. Two circus promoters, Garton and Millok, read reports of a wild giant on Snow Island and sail north to investigate. Spotting Hercules on the shore, they ambush him with a gas bomb, chain him in the ship's hold, and haul him back to America. Hercules agrees to join their show when Millok explains the arrangement.

Billed as the biggest man on earth, Hercules becomes an instant sensation. Bobbie Drew, a reporter for the Daily Globe, interviews him and is dismayed to learn he earns only his keep. When a wild bull escapes the circus menagerie, Hercules wrenches the animal's neck with his bare hands, killing it instantly. Inspired by Bobbie's suggestion that he deserves better than circus life, Hercules decides to leave. Garton and Millok try to stop him at gunpoint, but Hercules disarms and floors them both. Walking away with Bobbie, he spots a broken dam releasing a catastrophic flood and springs into action — heaving a tree across the torrent to slow it, then hauling boulders to block the breach while emergency crews assist. The grateful townspeople thank him, and Hercules, reading a newspaper headline about crime waves the police cannot stop, resolves to put his strength to use against evil.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Hercules
(Varen David)

Plus: Bobbie Drew.

Antagonists
Garton, Millok.

The Cold-Blooded Iron Duke

Synopsis

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

The Iron Duke, the head of an arson racket, pressures a landlord into signing over insurance papers, then has one of his men torch the tenement building. Brothers Joshua and Joel Williams arrive at the blaze and deploy Flexo, a remote-controlled rubber robot they have created, who plunges into the burning building and carries trapped occupants to safety. Suspecting the Iron Duke is behind the fires, Joshua plants a secret microphone at the Duke's hideout and confirms it. The Duke's gang next targets a ship at the docks, beating and tying up the vessel's owner when he refuses to cooperate. Flexo bursts through the cabin door, scatters the gang, and drives them off — but the Duke escapes.

Determined to eliminate the brothers and their robot, the Iron Duke lures Joshua and Joel out with a fake emergency phone call. Gunmen ambush them on a dark road, and the Duke shoots out their rear tire, sending the car crashing into a boulder in flames. Joshua leaps free and summons Flexo; Joel is captured by the Duke's men on the road. Flexo arrives, takes heavy gunfire without effect, and wades into the gang. He uses the arson leader as a club to knock out the last of the thugs, then crushes the Iron Duke himself. With all the arsonists defeated, Flexo and the brothers head back to the laboratory.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Flexo
(Rubber Man)

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

Antagonists
Iron Duke.

Land of the Missing Rockets

Synopsis

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

In the year 2300 A.D., a series of newly built space rockets has been mysteriously vanishing on test flights. On the planet Glakor, a scientist named Carl Formes is revealed as the culprit: he uses a magnetic ray to pull each ship off course and capture its crew, intending to learn Earth's secrets and then destroy it. When the latest ship is dragged to Glakor, its crew is led away by Formes's soldiers. At Space Rangers headquarters on Earth, Bob Raleigh and his partner Nibbs are ordered to fly to Glakor as decoys to find what happened to the missing craft. Their ship is caught by the same magnetic ray, and upon landing they are immediately set upon by Glakorian bandits. Though they fight hard, the two rangers are overwhelmed and brought before Formes, who orders them thrown into a cell with the laboratory's monstrous fire dragon.

Bob deliberately provokes the fire dragon into charging, and the creature's fiery breath melts through the cell bars, allowing the rangers to escape. Bob kills the dragon with a sword found nearby, and the two make their way to Formes's chamber of science, where Nibbs smashes the magnetic ray machine. When Formes and his men pour in to stop them, Bob and Nibbs fight through the crowd and chase the fleeing Formes to an iron room sealed with explosives. Nibbs fails to catch him before the door slams shut. Noting the high-explosive barrels stored throughout the complex, Bob detonates them, and the rangers sprint for their ship as the entire section of the planet blows up. They blast off and head back to headquarters.

The Ring of Saboteurs

Synopsis

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

Earl Everett, a society playboy who secretly operates as a naval intelligence agent known as Excello, uses his extraordinary mental powers to perceive events at a distance. He senses that a series of infrastructure disasters are being plotted by enemy saboteurs, and specifically visualizes a plan to plant dynamite in a subway tunnel. Racing to the site, he climbs atop the tunnel entrance and leaps onto the train as it enters, then forces the motorman to halt the train and locates and destroys the explosives. When the saboteurs discover the bomb has not gone off, they return to the tunnel and beat Excello severely before fleeing. Recovering, Excello uses his mental powers to locate their car and clings to the roof to infiltrate their meeting. Their leader, Borovich, a Kussian agent, reveals a plan to wire every major railroad and subway line in America to a single power house switch, which he will throw to create nationwide chaos.

Borovich spots that Excello lacks the official government ring worn by all Kussian agents, exposes him as an impostor, and has him bound. Excello bursts his ropes by expanding his chest muscles and overpowers the room. He sets his auto-piloted plane on a collision course with Borovich's headquarters, then leaps to the wing of an enemy car to intercept two fleeing agents named Otto and Fritz. The agents split up; Excello subdues Fritz by turning the man's own gun against him. Using his mental powers again, he foresees Borovich's next move and flies his plane directly through the spy headquarters window, unleashing a triple-propeller gun on the agents inside. Borovich reaches the power switch but Excello shoots him down. The police arrive at the wreckage and report it to naval intelligence; the only trace of the attacker is a calling card signed "Excello."

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Master Mind Excello
(Earl Everett)

Antagonists
Russians.

The Pool of Nordu

Synopsis

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

Dakor, a magician detective, is visiting his friends Lord Twisdon and his daughter Anna when, that night, agents of a tribe called the Nordus steal into Anna's room and abduct her. The next morning Lord Twisdon finds a ransom note signed by Balus, ruler of the land of Nordu. Dakor sets out alone to find her. A Nordu guard left behind to kill him ambushes Dakor with a spear, but Dakor knocks him down with his fists and then conjures a cobra to force the man to reveal that Balus rules Nordu. Dakor immediately sails there, disembarks in native disguise, and follows a vendor's mention of earrings for a "goddess" as a lead to Anna's location. A party of Nordus captures him in the jungle and delivers him to Balus, who has Anna in a hypnotized state serving as a white goddess. Under Balus's influence, the entranced Anna orders Dakor thrown into the drugged Pool of Nordu, which strips him of his magical abilities entirely.

Helpless and barely able to stand, Dakor is dragged to the Flame of Bajah to be burned alive. He is hurled into the pit — but the heat of the fire dries the drugged water from his body, restoring his powers just in time. He leaps out of the pit unharmed, to the terror of the assembled tribe. When Balus hurls a spear at him, Dakor transforms it into a spectral hand that seizes Balus by the throat and flings him into the flaming pit, killing him. With Balus dead, Anna wakes from her trance and recognizes Dakor. He reassures her the spell is broken, conjures a stone idol to satisfy the watching tribe, and the two depart for home.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Dakor
(Bajah)

Plus: Anna Twisdon, Lord Twisdon.

Antagonists
Balus, Nordus.

The Haunted Forest

Synopsis

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

Jeff Graves, commissioner of the frontier jungle district, pushes alone into a stretch of forest that his servants refuse to enter, reportedly haunted. He is immediately attacked by a giant python, but Zara, the self-described queen of the jungle, swings down and kills the snake with an arrow. Zara insists on helping Graves with his investigation into the slave trade. Graves pushes ahead without her, judging the danger too great for her, but is ambushed by robed figures — slave raiders who use skull-decorated disguises and costumes to make the forest appear haunted. His rifle has no effect on them, he is bound, and he is about to be finished when Zara's hidden arrow cuts his ropes and her appearance scatters the raiders in superstitious fear. Graves captures one raider and unmasks the skull as an armored hollow disguise. He interrogates the prisoner, confirming the slave-traders are camped nearby, and against Graves's objections Zara accompanies him to the stronghold.

At the slavers' camp, Graves spots a caravan of chained captives. He charges in recklessly and confronts the robed chief, but there are too many raiders and he is overwhelmed, shackled, and added to the caravan to be worked on a rubber plantation. Zara, who has secretly followed, slips into camp during the night, silently overpowers a sentry, and steals the key from the sleeping chief. She frees Graves and the other prisoners, arms them with clubs, and on Graves's signal the captives rise up and overwhelm the raiders in a melee. The slavers' chief surrenders. When Graves asks Zara how she managed it, she replies that she did it by disobeying his orders.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Zara
(Zara of the jungle)

Plus: Commissioner Jeff Graves.

The Dreaded Hood

Synopsis

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

A masked criminal known as the Hood has been murdering bankers, and this is the third such killing. At FBI headquarters, agent Curt Cowan discusses the case with Chief Hopkins, who suggests the other targeted bankers may have information. Curt decides to visit banker Willard Thomas for leads. On the way, the Hood's gang ambushes Curt with a machine-gun car; Curt returns fire, blows a tire, and the car crashes into a store window, killing all the occupants. With no one left to identify the Hood's boss, Curt changes into his Dynamic Man costume and flies to Thomas's home. Thomas reveals he has received a death threat and knows that the East Bank will be robbed that night. The Dynamic Man flies to the bank and intercepts the Hood's gang in the act; he wades through the gang single-handedly, but the Hood knocks him unconscious from behind and hauls him back to the gang's hideout cell.

The Dynamic Man breaks free, smashes through the cell door, and shakes the identity of the Hood's next target from one of the gang: banker Lamont Lewis. He races to Lewis's home just as the Hood and his men are dragging Lewis away at gunpoint. The Dynamic Man crashes through the mob, trades blows with the Hood directly, and as the rest of the gang charges on the porch, they are crushed when the roof collapses on them. The Dynamic Man pulls the Hood's mask off and reveals him to be Willard Thomas — the very banker who had fed him the tip about the East Bank robbery. Thomas had been systematically murdering his fellow bankers to seize sole control of a shared trust fund. The Dynamic Man flies off, noting that only a fool values money over life.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Dynamic Man
(Curt Cowan)

Plus: Chief Hopkins.

Antagonists
Hood (Willard Thomas).

The Grave Robber

Synopsis

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

A gang of grave robbers led by Deadpan Louie has been stealing jewelry from burial sites. Dr. Gade, a scientist who can turn himself invisible at will by pressing a button on his person, reads a newspaper account of the latest robbery and resolves to investigate. That night at the cemetery, Louie's men intercept and knock out the watchman while digging up another grave. Dr. Gade, invisible among the headstones, calls out to startle the thieves, then grabs one and hurls him into the others. He turns visible again after they flee, and the rattled gang reports back to Louie, who correctly identifies the culprit as Dr. Gade. Louie vows to eliminate him before morning. Dr. Gade, anticipating a fight, returns to his laboratory to absorb more invisible-ray power before going after the gang leader.

Louie's men burst in and catch Dr. Gade before he can go invisible. He fights them off but Louie knocks him unconscious from behind with a gun butt. They weigh him down and throw him into the river. The cold water revives Dr. Gade, who slips his bonds and swims to safety unseen, staying submerged until clear of the gangsters watching the bank. He then contacts a newspaper, which runs a story announcing his death — and reports that a million-dollar secret was buried with his body. Louie takes the bait and digs up Dr. Gade's freshly staged grave that night, with hidden police following the truck to the gang's hideout. When Louie opens the casket to retrieve the supposed secret document, Dr. Gade rises from inside and turns invisible, throwing the room into panic. He disarms Louie, opens the door for the waiting police, and personally knocks Louie cold. The blabbing gang leader is taken into custody, ending the grave-robbing racket.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Invisible Man
(Leonard Gade)