Firebrand’s home remodeling company is off to a bad start.
Police Comics #4
Comic Magazines, Inc (November, 1941)
So we have four pre-DC characters: Plastic Man, Firebrand, the Human Bomb, and Phantom Lady. Plus a bunch of other characters. Time being a factor as I try to put my life together I’m not sure how long I can do two of these a week and might end up putting this in Golden Age Fridays in the future. As of this writing I haven’t decided yet so don’t hold me to it. Mostly I’m just trying to pad out the homepage again since for these I keep the credits with the stories, if we have any.
The Firebrand by Reed Crandall
The Nazis steal Rod’s experimental plane, so The Firebrand and Slugger go after it. The Nazis are shown as evil but not cartoonishly evil. One guy bumps off his colleague, which turns out to be his and the villains’ undoing. There’s good action and the heroes don’t come off as ridiculously lucky or overpowered while the Nazis feel like Nazis. Good start to the book.
#711 by George E. Brenner
Dan hears about a jewel robbery attempt and sneaks out as 711 to stop it. He shows up late but manages to take down the mobsters before the cops he alerted show up. Most of the story is 711 beating up bad guys, but it still fits into the allotted page count.
Eagle Evans: Flyer Of Fortune by Clark Williams
Snap wanting to get pictures of a British sea raid on a Nazi facility leads to him and Eagle stealing an RAF plane, getting into multiple aerial dogfights, and joining the raid. Not much story here. It’s just people fighting Nazis, but unlike previous the stories there’s nothing interesting about it.
Chic Carter by Vernon Hunkel
Someone wants the brain of a famous scientist for his “thinking machine”, but his assistant bags the wrong guy. This leads Chic, Gay Nolan, and the police to spoil his plans. It’s slightly better than the last story but it needed more panels to make it work. We don’t even get the Sword, as Chic beats on bad guys as himself. Going to come off as egotistical when you write the story of your own hero action, Mr. Reporter. Also, if you’re making a comic called Police Comics, maybe don’t have a reporter show up the police. Oddly, the henchman here looks like the guy Firebrand was fighting on the cover when none of the guys Firebrand fought did.
Plastic Man by Cole
This starts with the narrator telling which issue has Plastic Man’s origin. Back issues really weren’t a thing back then so that’s kind of cool, but odd. Madame Brawn trains criminal girls into a group to take over the protection racket in Windy City. Plastic Man has to save them from the male goons without bloodshed. And…he fails. The male mobsters are all killed and the best he can do since it was self-defense and he can’t prove her crimes is to get them to leave town for now. It’s interesting how he meets Brawn in a fight when he can’t bring himself to punch a woman, but he still failed to keep anyone from getting killed.
Steele Kerrigan by Al Bryant
Steele opens a detective agency, with Anne hiring herself as his secretary. Waiting is a mobster who wants Steele dead or working as a private investigator for them. What criminals need with PI I couldn’t tell you, but he uses the offer to find a murderer in hiding, who gets killed in the crossfire when the mobster comes after Steele. How DID he get past Anne? Apparently she’ll never tell. It’s the only flaw in what’s otherwise a pretty good story. An ex-con going straight and becoming a private detective has been done but it could still work. Curious to see where this goes.
The Mouthpiece by Fred Guardineer
A boxer loses a fight, and it wasn’t because the other boxer is better. The Mouthpiece investigates. I kind of guessed how it was done, but given where the weapon (at least it wasn’t a murder weapon) was, I’m surprised nobody saw it, even with people focused on the fight. I won’t spoil the rest because it’s a good twist I only figured out because of the types of stories I normally read.
Phantom Lady by Arthur Peddy
Okay, she doesn’t wear a mask or even change her hairstyle between identities, so how does her boyfriend not recognize her? Anyway, Nazis again as they try to sabotage a Navy blimp by replacing the captain and placing a bomb in the control room…where the captain would be. I didn’t think this was the Axis group that had the suicidal ones. Those oddities take away from an otherwise decent story.
The Human Bomb
Roy discovers a liquid that turns nitro levels of explosive after making contact with his own explosive hands. He’ll need it when his plane flies over a…do I have to tell you who’s running the sub trying to sink a tanker at this point? It’s an interesting addition to his arsenal, but the real amazement is that his girlfriend fell for his excuse of what happened to him.
overall
More hits than misses and a whole lot of Nazis. This was a good outing. Hopefully the trend continues.
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