The annual barbecue always gets out of hand when the booze comes out.
Mystery Men Comics #4
Fox Publications, Inc (November, 1939)
For those of you just joining us, I already reviewed the first three issues. Back when the Blue Beetle movie was coming out I thought it would be fun to track the pre-DC versions of the line of Blue Beetles. I stopped this title at issue #3 because I didn’t want to read the anthology that buried Dan Garret’s adventures. So I jumped right to The Blue Beetle…which put Dan Garret’s adventures front and center, THEN put all the anthology behind it. Oh, you are a tease, Golden Age comics.
So now for Golden Friday at “Yesterday’s” Comic, Mystery Men Comics returns to the reading library, which means if you missed our favorite Vitamin 2X using hero and his bevy of gadgets and chain-mail armor, he’s back with all his friends. This issue also starts a new character. Let’s check back in with this title.
The Green Mask by Walter Frame
A criminal scientist invents a paralyzing ray, allowing he and his men to go on a crime spree. The Green Mask and News Doakes, reporter, go undercover to foil his plans. There are a couple of odd dialog choices as someone repeats what a previous character told the audience, and the narrator tells us what we can obviously see. Also…I know it’s the 1930s but maybe don’t let the drunk guy drive the car. A good start overall, and the event on the cover does not happen. So we did the jungle stereotype bit for nothing?
Rex Dexter Of Mars by Dick Briefer
Leaving Earth and returning to his home on Mars with new wife Cynde (I forgot how weird names are in this comic), Rex’s ship is hit by an asteroid and must land on the nearest planet…which somehow isn’t Mars or Venus. Even the moon is closer than whatever this Ursis place is. Unless they got a new planet in the solar system in the year 2039 (one century after his parents left for Mars in 1939–math is not my strong suit so I asked Google). Turns out the villain rules Ursis and brought Dex here on purpose. I can only imagine he wanted his mad scheme to rewrite the solar system to fail Maybe that’s where Ursis comes from. Luckily Dex’s dad didn’t pay attention to who he sold robots to, and that saves the day. All I know is this comic was not interesting to me. Neither did kid detective Billy Bounce, a two page gag comic I’m ignoring due to bad comedy.
Chen Chang by Cecilia Munson
Our title villain is upset that a power plant is being built in China because…Tuesday? No answer given but neither is there a reason for him to spontaneously force one of his men to eat a poisoned cake he’s using to kill the directors. Since one of them is our pal Kendall, he keeps our hero delayed until he can poison the directors, and after a failed attempt to get rid of Kendall, fakes his death again. By now you’d think the hero was suspicious considering the man’s “died” in every story. He’s like a fusion of Fu Manchu and The Conqueror from Dean Deaton’s adventures. This was kind of lame.
Wing Turner: Air Detective by Floyd Kelly> “Among The Headhunters”,
Ok, our unknown cover artist goofed. The Green Mask isn’t the one dealing with jungle natives, it’s Wing Turner. When a volcano in South America cuts off villages in the area, Wing joins the relief effort but also needs to find the missing planes that went before him. When his plane stalls he’ll have to fight the jungle people to stay alive long enough for the “devil-bird” airplane to chase them off. I have…so many questions. Why did the other plane stall in the same spot? Sabotage? Not on the jungle stereotypes’ part. Seems like an ignored mystery there. Why attack the pilots if they’re scared of their planes? It’s half a story, and I want to see the other half they didn’t tease.
Lt. Drake Of Naval Intelligence by F. Klaus
Drake does more investigating than Wing did, and even starts during the investigation. Yachts have been disappearing, but for some reason the next one just has the owner poisoned by spider. (Have to wait a few decades until radioactivity shows up in high schools for those superpowers, pal.) Might be interesting if they turned out to be separate cases, but I won’t spoil anything since I linked to this comic, other than Drake gets a hot date at the end. It’s not a bad story.
Captain Savage: Sea Rover by Arthur Peddy
Ignoring the next attempt at “comedy” we come to our new series. The crew of the Danger, including Captain Savage and his first mate Hardtack, are tired of a band of pirates and come up with a plan to do what the authorities can’t. It’s a good introduction to the new story. I wonder if they can sneak in a crossover with Lt. Drake?
Blue Beetle by Charles Nicholas
And here I thought torturing Mike at the end just to torture him was a later comic problem. A criminal has a sure-fire plan for success…force kids to give up half their newspaper delivery pay. Surely that will lead to riches untold when you have to hire thugs at $500 each in 1939 money or…$11,304.61 in today’s money according to the Federal Reserve Bank Of Minneapolis’ inflation calculator? Really? Damn, how much did newspaper boys make every week just to stand on a street corner screaming headlines? This might be an okay story if the crooks weren’t so weak.
Inspector Bancroft Of Scotland Yard by Art Franklin
The short version is Bancroft is charged with exposing a dope ring. I’m becoming amazed how easy it is for our heroes to get jobs with the bad guys in this issue. I know there’s not a huge vetting process for the smaller crime rings in 1939, but it’s way too easy for a cop to pull a sting. Although the hardest thing to believe is British cops having a shoot-out with crooks on the water. The story makes good use of its short run time.
Secret Agent D-13 by S.R. Powell
Our secret agent happens to be onboard a dirigible that a foreign power wants, and must foil the skyjacking attempt. A lot of action in this one, and it works for the short page count.
Denny Scott Of The Bengal Lancers by L. Mayor
Two tribes in India join forces to force the British out of India and end their rule. Wait, who am I supposed to be rooting for here? It’s like they’re protecting India from their government or a foreign government, but the alleged villains are killing people. Can I have them both lose?
Zanzibar The Magician by Geo. Tuska> “In The Underworld Of Paris”
Oh, I forgot how insane these adventures are. Ok, Zanzibar is wondering about a series of murders near the river and finds a friend is the latest victim. Taking on his appearance to trick the bad guys into exposing themselves? I can buy that. Turning the woman in charge (who orders her men to get money “in the usual way”) into a skeleton and forcing her to get her men to kill each other via suicide? The hell? Then she turns her back to turn her over to the authorities (which he actually apologizes for, not turning her into a skeleton) and she realizes crime doesn’t pay and wishes she didn’t have her men commit murders in the sewers. No, I don’t know if they dragged them down there or if a bunch of rich Parisians just like walking around sewers. It’s Zanzibar The Magician so I’m ruling nothing out.
OVERALL
Even the weakest comic this issue had some reading enjoyment. A few notes on a couple of stories, Zanzibar is still insane, Mike is still a butt monkey for no reason, Chen’s still lame, but overall I’m glad I can start reading these in the rotation again.
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