Today he’d get called out for littering the ocean.
Pep Comics #3
M.L.J. Magazines (April, 1940)
We’re at issue #3. Outside of its history for the sadly little known Archie heroes I haven’t been impressed. It hasn’t been terrible. I’ve read worse anthologies. I think. I’m going by my reviews because so far the only memorable characters are memorable for Archie’s attempt to bring them back and that one time DC tried to make a couple of revival attempts on their own. And for this comic it’s just been The Shield and The Comet. History won’t save you in my now reduced rotation, as Uncle Sam over at Quality found out. (Speaking of DC revivals.) So let’s see if they’ve gotten any better or at least interesting enough to continue on with.
The Shield by Irving Novick
We have another villain who wants to get the US into the war to weaken it along with the other nations fighting, planning to take over. The subs in the story, unlike the cover, aren’t Nazis and it’s the bad guys using the parachuting mines. I’d say the way they make the mines go off is clever if not for the Shield’s solution not being how vibrations should work compared to the mine’s triggering system. Not an amazing story, but a decent one.
The Comet
So the costume is just for show and to keep the glass in place so he doesn’t disintegrate everyone he looks at, because the cops know his identity. Satan (no, not that one, the guy from the previous issue) manages to hypnotize the Comet into committing crimes, including murder because we know he has no qualms about killing his targets. When he stiffs the hypnotist, he sends the Comet after Satan, but they both end up getting blasted and the Comet is free of the trance because that’s how hypnotism works in this story. Now the Comet must clear his name. So we have heroes seen as villains, a hero willing to murder…how did this end up at DC and not Marvel? It’s a dry read, frankly, but still not terrible. Or I personally don’t like seeing heroes murder innocent people, hypnotism or not. Could make me biased.
The Press Guardian by Mort Meskin
Turns out the main baddie from last issue (and Marvel gets credit for the ongoing universe?) survived, and he’s barely out of the drink before taking his next shot at the newspaper. He kidnaps the daughter of a bank owner who owns the Daily Express building. A bunch of innocent dead people in this story, while the Guardian himself kills the villain for suresies this time. Also, the daughter ends up learning his identity, which the teaser at the ends suggests will matter in the next story. A few bad narration caption box placements don’t really hurt this story. It’s actually quite good for the period.
Fu-Chang: International Detective by Lin Streeter
Chinatown is in the grip of a man whose drug is overpowering and must be taken or die from the last dose. Essentially he has created slaves, and when Fu-Chang is brought into this situation, his fiance Ty-Ming is forced to become another victim. Fu-Chang’s chessmen do most of the work, but the odd part is that he and Ty-Ming are the only Chinese people not colored fully yellow. Even the statue of the god he calls upon to bring the chessmen to life–and yet not the chessmen themselves (and I have to wonder what kind of chess is played with these figurines), nor due they look Arabian for the “Chessmen Of Aladdin”. Unless they mean the thermos company or something. It’s a good story, but these are oddities I have to bring up as a reviewer.
Sergeant Boyle by Brio & Sundell
It’s sad that I remember this story for how bad this one, reminding me it’s pretty much the same. Boyle and his team are captured by Nazis, they escape, Boyle tries to get back to his own lines and ends up taking over a zeppelin, takes out Nazi planes with grenades and an apple (that makes more sense in the story)…in short it’s an American barely out of college beating up most of the Nazis by himself when, as the Shield’s story demonstrated, we aren’t in the war yet. This is when we went downhill last time.
The Midshipman
This is kind of the same problem, only it looks like the lack of a proper page count just makes Lee look like he’s plowing through a networks of spies trying to steal the formula tied to Naval submarines. The only thing holding him back is not being able to tell his superiors that he’s helping the rear admiral protect those plans and being dumb enough to grab then instead of his term paper, exposing their location to the spies. (The formula. I don’t think they care about his term paper.) The ending ends up rushed as a result. Too bad, because it was starting okay.
The Rocket & The Queen Of Diamonds by Lin Streeter
I wonder who’s dumber: our…protagonists for not telling people they were going to take the Rocket’s rocket for a little fun trip or the soldiers for immediately assuming he was kidnapping the queen, or the queen for not telling them to knock it off? Let’s just say all three, as the ship ends up damaged by the solders and ends up in an underground world where bat men live. Of course the evil leader wants to marry the queen and Rocket has to stop them. The city burns like it’s a planet from The Acolyte and our title characters escape. To what? Sadly the comic threatens to tell us next issue.
We also get an ad for this comic and Top Notch Comics where the Shield and the title character of The Midshipman meet the Wizard and West Pointer from that other comic. Sadly we don’t get a story like that, but it’s more beating both Marvel and DC to the punch. Not quite a shared universe yet.
Kayo Ward by Phil Strum
It’s another “gambler tries to fix the fight” story, but at least kidnapping the loved one to force him to forfeit isn’t the “A” plan. It’s what they come up with when Connie exposes the original plan to trick Kayo into throwing the fight. Did he have to get shot in the arm to add drama to the fight itself after Connie is freed? No, but it doesn’t hurt. Well, it hurts Kayo, but not the story.
Bentley Of Scotland Yard by Sam Cooper
A World War I group is trying to decide whether or not to enlist in World War II, but a spy wants to kill them all off before they can. Why? I don’t know. They didn’t seem anything special outside of past war experience. You’re pretty much watching guys die until Bentley can figure out which of them is the spy in disguise that apparently they can’t tell very well is a fake. It’s a bland story until you think about it and realize the parts that make no sense.
overall
Some bland stories, some meh stories, and even some good stories. No really terrible stories because even watching Boyle run through Nazis is at least cathartic. Yeah, I’ll keep this on the reading list for now.
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