I see some form of road rage still exists in the future.
Mystery Men Comics #9
Fox Publications, Inc (April, 1940)
I don’t have to look at the old reviews on this one. I know there are enough stories here to keep me reading. It makes me wonder why Fox Publications had to sell off their titles for a while, and it’s a shame that, at least with the Blue Beetle comics, they couldn’t reclaim the same writers. Those stories were terrible, but the original Fox run was darn good. Let’s see if that continues this issue.
The Blue Beetle by Charles Nicholas
The Blue Beetle threatens to kidnap the police commissioner’s daughter for ransom, so Dan Garret is assigned to guard her and her fiance. Confused? You’ll see when you read the comic. At least Mike gets a good showing this time, even if he doesn’t get the real Blue Beetle. Good on you, Mike! You deserve better than these stories often treat you.
Wing Turner: Air Detective by Floyd Kelly
I wonder if this is just a day for kidnapping famous people’s daughters? Now a Hollywood producer’s daughter disappears. Wing decides to help her out as a fellow pilot and volunteers to find her, only to learn she’s been kidnapped. The two work together to escape. It’s all action but it’s nice to see a story properly fit the page count without feeling rushed and getting the full thing out. That seems to be as rare as gold, and pun is intended.
Rex Dexter Of Mars by Dick Briefer
Rex and Cynde search a planet for fuel only to find science take it hard in a story where aliens (well, technically Rex and Cynde would be the aliens) use a natural telescope to look into Earth’s past because that’s how long light wave take to reach them or something. All they see is war and have decided Earth sucks because they never see the good stuff. It’s like Dick predicted the 24 hour news cycle. I didn’t like this story. I’m tired of the good things being ignored because war makes the headlines. War is news BECAUSE it’s the exception rather than the rule. Nobody reports on neighbors helping each other, just when they kill each other. I’m not saying ignore the bad parts of humanity or we’ll never change. I’m saying stop ignoring the good things and pretending that isn’t the norm!
The Green Mask by Walt Frame
Okay, Walt knew what he was doing by naming the leader of the German saboteurs “Von Shlameal“. He had to. The Green Mask steps in when the schmuck tries to sabotage US munitions plants at home. Though calling their boat contact the USS Hamburger among other names and codes is pushing towards comedic level and this is one of the serious stories. Not sure why the two FBI agents want to nab our hero before he convinces them to finally work with him, but otherwise I actually enjoyed this story. Again, good action and fits the panel time like the creator knew what he was doing and what he had to work with.
Chen Chiang: “River Lily & The Feted Guests” by Cecilia Munson
Chen decides to kill a bunch of white yacht guests and sink the yacht because water is wet. I know it’s all “yellow menace” stuff despite the Chinese actually being our allies back then (or maybe they all hate the Mongols) but you’d think he, River Lily, Wong, and whoever else is with this guy could have better motivation than “why not”? Does Chen die in this story? Of course not. He’s got the same luck as the Joker.
Lt. Drake Of Naval Intelligence by F. Klaus
Drake sees a suspicious milkman near a Navy port and gives chase. He says he has to bring special “vitamin D” milk to some invalid, but either he doesn’t know what’s going on and ended up getting himself killed or he’s totally in on it and doesn’t realize milk usually has vitamin D. Though in this case the D stands for dynamite. Sadly, this is that rushed story I keep coming across in Golden Age comics. It breaks the trend this comic’s been doing and that’s too bad.
D-13: Secret Agent by S.R. Powell
Captain Anthony is sent to pick up a new death ray, which seems out of place for a spy story at the time, but agents of…I want to say Japan given the villain’s name, but they aren’t in yellow like they would be back then. Anyway, they try to get it for their government. We’re back to getting a good story in the allotted time, which is nice. It’s a decent action story for the period.
Zanzibar The Magician: “The Phantom of Cadel” by Geo. Tuska
Aww, we got rushed again. Which means the crazy level is kind of low. The phantom plays piano and wears a mask like that opera guy, but it doesn’t matter to anything. He kidnaps a girl come to visit her father in the town of Cadel because she’s there and takes her back to his castle. Zanzibar goes after her, but the only magic he gets to do is a bit of teleporting, forming a large glass bowl, and making a spaceship because why not? I usually remark on how over bizarre this comic is, but this issue we somehow didn’t get bizarre enough.
The Moth by Norton Kingsley
We have a new hero on the block, and a short lived one apparently. DC (then National Comics I think) sued because he was too close to Batman. Unless you thought the whole Captain Marvel/Superman legal drama was a fluke. The Moth has no alter ego, and flies with giant moth-like wings. I’m not seeing the resemblance. Plus, given Batman’s inspirations they had a serious glass house back then. It’s not even a good story. Moth saves a woman from throwing herself off a skyscraper because her child has gone missing. (Way to think about your husband, who lost his daughter too and now almost lost his wife. Maybe lean on each other.) I don’t know how The Moth found the kid, what the mad scientist was up to, or what the point of the story was. I don’t think DC had anything to worry about with this one. It’s a lame story to end on.
overall
Not a good debut, a couple of stories that didn’t fit the “run time”, but for the most part a really good read. At least most of the writers were on the ball that issue, so I’m more than willing to come back for the next issue.
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