Wait, isn’t that an actual torch? As in lit with real fire? Dude’s dead.
Police Comics #2
Comic Magazines, Inc (September, 1941)
I’ve already reviewed the first issue thanks to DC’s “Millenium Edition” reprint. I was going to just do an issue or two and then move to Plastic Man’s solo series, but I forgot two other heroes in the book who never got their own comic (or at least Comic Book Plus doesn’t have them) are also here: The Human Bomb and Firebrand. I haven’t heard of #711 or The Mouthpiece showing up, but those weren’t total losses, while the Human Bomb was part of Uncle Sam’s Freedom Fighters if memory serves and Firebrand would get replaced with a woman taking up his name and cause after he died, again if memory serves. So we’ll see all of these characters in their formative years along with the stretchy fellow.
The Firebrand by Reed Crandall
As a reminder, Rod Reilly is the Firebrand, a hero who carries a lit torch as a weapon and thus wears a see-through asbestos shirt. This is what the cover calls “sensational” and “different”. Judging on a curve, I’d say. He also has a fiance named Joan and a manservant named Slugger. Only one of them knows Rod runs around like that and it isn’t the one he’s marrying. In this story the Mexican country of Liberdad is taken over by a general, his troops, and even the police. Firebrand decides the people should be free…while his future father-in-law is worried about his stock in Liberdad sugar and Joan is disappointed they’ll have to cancel their yacht trip. Nice family you’re marrying into, Rod. I can see why you don’t tell them you’re identity. With Firebrand on the ground and Slugger in the air, the country is freed. It’s a good story to start the comic off with.
711 by George E. Brenner
Dan Dyce is in prison for life, taking his friend’s identity so he could help his pregnant wife only to die anyway. So Dan, unable to prove his identity, just sneaks out now and then to fight crime under the imaginative alias of his friend’s prison number. A young man is framed for a gangster’s crimes…because the kid took milk and rolls from his lacky’s doorstep. Okay, I know milkmen were a thing back then, but they did rolls, too? Anyway, 711 breaks out to beat the bad guys up so much they’ll gladly go to prison. If only they knew. probably safer for him if they don’t. This is as basic a story as you can get. Dan learns about the frame-up, uses his tunnel to sneak out and beat on bad guys for a while, end of story.
Eagle Evans: Flyer Of Fortune by Clark Williams
I completely forgot this guy existed. Maybe because his photographer partner Snap Smith does the heavy lifting this time. Overhearing that British forces in Singapore could use some help spotting the enemy forces attacking their boats kamikaze style, our heroes volunteer their services and end up rescuing a British agent from the bad guys. I think they’re supposed to be from Singapore as well, or some other Asian country (might be the right time for Japanese, but one dude says “ja”, which is usually from a German accent). It’s another basic story without any real spark to it, at least for me.
Chic Carter by Vernon Henkel
I’m not sure why the comic is named for the Daily Star reporter (geez, how many different comic companies were using that name at the time…it was even a former name of the Daily Planet in DC) and not his superhero alter-ego, the Sword. (Because he carries a sword. Somehow that’s still better than 711 or The Mouthpiece.) Chic gets involved in a murder plot against a Mexican leader’s daughter, even getting framed for another murder. This story really suffers from how little time they have to develop it. How did The Sword learn all of the info about who wanted the woman dead? This comic started strong but it’s really falling off.
Plastic Man by Jack Cole
I’m just going to assume you already know Eel O’Brien’s backstory but at this point he’s still pretending to still be a bad guy to capture his old comrades Green Hornet-style. Plastic Man wants to join the police force, probably so somebody will actually be a police officer in a comic called Police Comics. This means breaking up an opium ring and allowing his criminal alter-ego to be found by the cops. Sure, it’s just Plastic Man breaking up the gang at various pick-up spots but the operation and the hero show off how clever they are, so it gets to rise above basic, and they also make good use of the available panel space.
Steele Kerrigan by Al Bryant
Another character I completely forgot about. He goes after bad guys after getting out of prison early due to saving the warden during a break attempt. Apparently he was also framed. Sure, why not? Makes as much sense as 711’s story. Steele gets a job with a trucking company and then gets caught up in a plot to steal the truck’s cargo. There are some interesting twists but the story doesn’t have enough time to keep from having a rushed ending. Plus Steele gets a former girlfriend out of nowhere, kind of literally. With more time this could have been a good story.
The Mouthpiece by Fred Guardineer
Probably not the best masked crimefighter identity for a district attorney, but why should Bill Perkins be any different from most of the superheroes in this comic? When Plastic Man is the best you can come up with, and plastic doesn’t actually work that way, what can you expect? Our hero sees a couple of thugs try to drown a witness to their crimes in a well with a lot of odd junk in it. Someone want to explain the tire in the well that still has water in a farmhouse that looks like it could use clean water? Anyway, the Mouthpiece rescues the woman and the come up with a plan to trick and capture the bad guys. We’re back to working in a good story in limited time.
Phantom Lady by Arthur Peddy
Oh, I forgot she was in this one. Debutante and senator’s daughter Sandra Knight uses her black light to fight crime, so long as it keeps them from recognizing her because she doesn’t wear a mask. Another fiance who doesn’t know about their future spouse’s double life, only this time the dame’s the hero and the guy’s the patsy. Nice way to bookend the comic, I guess, except there’s one more story. I hope it makes more sense than this one. If this is supposed to be Phantom Lady investigating an embassy attack and stopping war from happening, what with the bit with the idols tied to one of the would-be enemy country that the senator happen to own? (The idols, not the enemy country.) It all falls apart at the end, but it wasn’t connected very well to begin with.
The Human Bomb by Paul Carroll
So Roy Lincoln swallows his dad’s explosive formula so villains can’t get it and turns himself into a human explosion machine. Somehow Plastic Man’s origins are better science. The Army wants that explosive formula, since it was them Roy’s dad was working on. When vaguely German agents attack the general and steal the formula, the Human Bomb works to take them down. This felt rushed but it tried harder than some of the others in this comic with the same problem in trying to fit it in. Certainly better than Chic Carter.
overall
A mixed bag. A couple of stories didn’t make sense, some didn’t have time to really explore the idea, but the good ones were enough to make up for those shortcomings and none of them were completely terrible. Just a few bland ones really. I do hope this improves. There’s enough pre-DC characters for us to follow in this review slot.
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