“Yesterday’s” Comic> Police Comics #5

Plastic Man is good at finding keys. He just becomes one.

Police Comics #5

Comic Magazines Inc (December, 1941)

Here’s a fun game for you. Count how many times the enemy is a Nazi or part of the Axis versus a regular crook. We have our first costumed villain, though proper supervillains are still a ways off in this series. And of course the cops are still not the main heroes of the story, but at least they show up in the story.

[Read along with me here]

The Firebrand by Reed Crandall

Nazish spies frame Firebrand for their sabotage acts in America, which happens more in fiction than it ever did in reality. I’ve never even heard of Nazi spies operating in the US and people were only (wrongly and stupidly) scared that Japanese Americans were “Jap spies”. Not that any of that matters, seeing as it has nothing to do with a story of Joan’s friends having their island estate used as a hideout until Firebrand saves them and stops the spies. I’m not sure why they decided to set Firebrand up as falsely accused, but his name isn’t cleared at the end of the issue. We might find out next time. Otherwise it’s an unnecessary addition to a pretty good story.

711 by George E. Brenner

Our hero gets his first costumed criminal, the Brick Bat. If you think that’s lame, I should tell you he’s a man who wears a knockoff Batman cowl and throws fake bricks that unleash a poison gas. He’s also kind of an idiot. The story’s okay but the villain is not.

Eagle Evans by Clark Williams

Eagle and Snap heard about some news at a cave, which we won’t learn about until the end. If it wasn’t for that end you’d end the story wondering what they were looking for, which turns out to be Nazis. So that’s Nazis 2, criminals 1, but the heroes keep winning. Curious how they stole a US bomber. A lot of people falling to their should-be deaths in this story.

Chic Carter by Vernon Henkel

Chic has a plan to get the mob to expose their own illegal gambling operation after Monahan gets railed by the temperance movement. When it leads to Gay getting captured, Chic breaks out his Sword identity to free her and make the villain confess. I’m not sure a forced confession will hold up in court. Also, Chic’s kind of an idiot for this plan. Not Brick Bat level idiot, but still an idiot.

Plastic Man

Madam Brawn is back and out for revenge against Plastic Man. She sets a trap where he gets knocked out, drugged up, and turned into famed crook Eel O’Brian to get him in trouble with the police. She doesn’t know he is Eel, and apparently hasn’t figured out he was bulletproof. But she’s dead so it doesn’t matter, and neither does she. It’s an okayish story but not that great.

Steele Kerrigan by Al Brant

Anne might have talked Steele out of being a private investigator (hope he didn’t have a long lease on the office) but trouble finds them anyway when the both end up working for a frail old woman who turns up dead. This is the third frame-up this issue. Good story, though a bit short.

The Mouthpiece

Our hero investigates when a series of car accidents with missing occupants happens near a famous tree. What follows…it’s not confusing but I’m still not sure what the villain’s motivation was outside of some vague mention of “experiments”. Also, add to the falling body count.

Phantom Lady by Arthur Peddy

Sandra and Don meet with a man who is secretly working for the Axis. I don’t know why he brings Sandra to the boat he’s sabotaging, but it gives Phantom Lady an excuse to be there. Good action but not enough room for a solid plot.

The Human Bomb by Paul Gustavson

We go from maybe-Nazis, to definitely Nazis, to the Axis, and now Japan, as an ambassador is killed to find out what America’s response to the “Japanese situation” is. That makes more sense in context. The Pearl Harbor bombing is still a ways off (cover dates on comics don’t match the month they came out, unless they actually did in the Golden Age, in which case the stories still had to be written and drawn prior) and not being a historian I don’t know people in the US were even considering what Japan was doing until then so I don’t know how prophetic this is given that only the head baddie looks even barely “oriental”. Also curious where Roy hides his Human Bomb outfit. The action was okay and the surprise was nicely done, but was it worth a guy basically committing suicide? There’s just a lot of questions here.

overall

Not a great comic but a good one. It’s the time it takes me to review these Golden Age comics that make me wonder if I’ll finish the series here or wait for the proper spot in Friday’s rotation.