Where do I start with this cover?
Pep Comics #2
MLJ Magazines, Inc (February, 1940)
No, really, where do I start with this cover? Not coloring in the mouth makes him look like he has a flesh colored Sentai/Power Ranger facemask color (or maybe the headgear is closer to Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills but I don’t want to insult the artist any more than I am). He’s shooting some kind of gas with both his facial expression and the response of the bad guys in the tank looking like there’s about to be some corpses. We still haven’t gotten into actual war stories with the US involved. This just looks wrong. Okay, let’s see what the comic itself gives us.
The Shield by Irving Novick
Is Porto Rico a made-up country, or did they misspell Puerto Rico? Whatever the case, oil tankers are disappearing from there and the Shield is going to find the party responsible and punch their lights out. I think some of the comic writers were already hoping the US would get into World War II given Germans are the enemy here based on their occasional accents. I’m kind of disappointed the Shield’s “set myself on fire and throw myself at the enemy boat” plan didn’t work. That would have been cool, unlike coming up with a lame excuse why the Shield is affected by a paralysing ray when dry despite taking blows to the head like he does the parts where his invulnerable costume actually covers but somehow being wet makes the same ray useless. Did they have some extra pages to fill? This is before parents thought all their kids were that stupid and would try it…and before kids were actually that stupid. Still, not a bad first story for the issue.
The Comet
You know, his powers still confuse me. The gas injected into him (instead of inhaling it like most gas origins) makes him lighter than air. Fine. Why the laser eyes that only normal glass can stop? I don’t see the connection. Apparently the underworld knows about him but the rest of the world doesn’t if I follow what’s going on. A gang uses a projected monster on artificial clouds from their blimps to scare companies into not telling anyone about their being robbed. Yeah, I think a few clients will get suspicious of something eventually. Florida is known for being nuts, not stupid. The Comet investigates but they actually seal his visor. Actually, the whole plan is pretty clever in a superhero world sort of way. So when he broke his visor to disintegrate his way out, did our hero replace it with new glass somehow or is he flying around with his eyes shut so he doesn’t disintegrate everything? Either way, not a bad story.
The Rocket & The Queen Of Diamonds
One of the queen’s subject is jealous of the Rocket’s growing relationship with the Queen and tries to frame him for an attempted murder while he sneaks off with the kingdom’s diamonds…and the queen herself. We still don’t know what the Rocket’s deal with coming here to protect the queen. Otherwise it’s not a bad sci-fi story of the period.
“Kayo” Ward by Bob Wood
Ward’s girl, Connie, isn’t happy about her man boxing, but it’s his mom that lets him know why she’s not writing. Deciding she’s more important, Ward decides to give up boxing just before a scheduled fight. When she learns everyone thinks he’s scared and ragging on him about it, she convinces him to return to the ring while also investigating a fake letter trying to break his spirit. I’m not a sports guy, including boxing, so it’s not my kind of story but from a technical level it’s still not a bad story.
Are you noticing a trend?
Sergeant Boyle by Bird
Someone is picking off messengers and Boyle must track the sniper in the woods. Then he has to deal with one messenger being a spy for the Germans (he’s an American who decided to sign up with the British army…and allegedly has no superpowers) and stop a fake message from leading to the British army’s demise. Continuing the trend, it’s not a bad story.
The Press Guardian by Mort Meskin
We actually get a secret identity from our hero and they stuck to one name. I don’t know. I kind of wish he stayed mysterious like the Fantom Of The Fair. So meet Perry Chase, son of the owner of the Daily Express, who wants a story investigating a spy ring (I think). His dad and one of the other reporters tell him to stick to the society pages, but he goes undercover at their base, foils their plan to blow up the paper, and then gets the whole gang captured by the cops. He also has a valet named Baldwin we don’t see this issue who is his only confidant. He also seems to be bulletproof and can jump really high or something. I’m wondering if we’re going to get bits and pieces of his story as the comic goes on, and whether that’s intentional or Meskin is making it up as he goes along. It’s…say it with me, kids…not a bad story. However, this has some potential if this is how we’re learning about the Press Guardian’s story. Given that nobody remembers him and he didn’t even get used by Red Circle in later years to my best knowledge, I’m guessing he didn’t live up to them.
Fu Chang: International Detective
Our rare Chinese crimefighter instead of international criminal who hates the white man. Not sure why he has an Arabian genie lamp, though. Unless Aladdin is Chinese now, also has a magic chessboard that Fu Chang uses…oh, no. We aren’t getting another magic occult comic, are we? Those always get weird. Like our hero going up against a Chinese cult of three who want to get rid of our scholarly magician so they can summon their devil master. (Not him, though one of the men in a previous story did get called “Satan”.) Chang still speaks in stunted words, though not broken English, and now he has a pretty young assistant, Tay Ming. It’s actually those chessmen (I don’t remember an angel, but maybe it’s one of those novelty chess boards, like the ones with Star Wars characters–or some alleged Chinese thing that isn’t–it’s the 1940s) that save the day. Still…well, you know by now. Admittedly I’ve come to expect something weirder from these magic crimefighting stories.
The Midshipman
Lee really wants to beat the best runner of the Army academy in an Army/Navy joint marathon. However, he’ll learn a lesson of what’s really important. This is a bit different from the other stories, which makes it stand out a bit more but it’s still the same as the others. Not a bad story, but nothing is really wowing me in this book. I blame how many stories they have to fit in the allotted time. It’s a bunch of events without having the time to focus on character moments and drama some stories seem to want to and others don’t care about.
Bentley Of Scotland Yard by Sam Cooper: “The Terror Of Rocky Pool”
An actual story title and not just a series title. Someone kills a man while Bentley is on vacation, because you don’t get time off when you’re the title character of a story. The suspects are his uncle, a cousin, and a fiance who actually loved the cousin (so why are you engaged to the future dead guy?). The answer to the mystery is really not satisfying…and a bit creepy, not going to lie. This is not how you break the trend or end the comic. This kind of IS a bad story.
overall
I kept saying (until the last one) that these aren’t bad stories, and they’re not. They’re just not very interesting or memorable, a very “by the numbers” approach, and those numbers didn’t add up to anything outstanding. Hopefully later issues will fix this. This was just barely interesting enough to give another chance.
BW Media Spotlight 