You can’t have too much fire to burn these things with…but we gonna try!
Science Comics #3
Fox Publications, Inc (April, 1940)
I guess this one has been doing okay so far, given that it’s on the continue reading list. Not that any of these characters are all that memorable, going back to a discussion earlier this week on why some characters make it and why they’re worth defending. Should any of these forgotten heroes gotten a second chance? Let’s find out.
The Eagle by Lester Raye
What better foe for the guy who flies than a group of pickpocketing gangsters? Actually, I could think of a few, but at least the Eagle has a full costume now. Still not wearing any kind of mask with his headgear, but outside of a couple of confused bits of dialog on a panel or two it’s not a bad story.
Dynamo: Dynamic Man Of Electricity by Harold Weber
Looks like we’ve given Dynamo a weakness in that he can use up his electrical power. However, he accidentally sticks his finger in an electrical socket, gets electrified, and then his powers return. Probably not the best messaged to send to kids, but that’s the Golden Age for you. He also doesn’t eat food anymore…I think, which is kind of silly. Then again, science is BS across the board as Dynamo frees a police diver looking for sunken evidence but ends up snagging the guy they want the evidence on. Then one of the remaining flunkies goes to a guy just called Genius to come up with a machine to sap Dynamo’s powers, welches on the agreed to payment, gets shoved into his own trap, and Genius just happened to set up a way for Dynamo to get his powers back. The whole story is kind of off, the panels don’t have the best flow, and Dynamo could use a new suit designer (not the worst outfit I’ve seen but it doesn’t work for me), but that only drops it to “okay”.
Also, the Comic Book+ notes point to accidentally referencing his old name of Electro and thinks him being called a “wonder man” is a reference to the superhero that got caught in National’s sue-happy ways if anything was remotely like Superman, the same thing that hit Captain “Shazam” Marvel. Not sure if it actually was.
Cosmic Carson by Michael Griffith
Carson and Roland go into rescue mode when a scientist and his daughter disappear on a mystery planet. Captured by the planet’s “hoofmen” (all red with hooves instead of feet), the rather sadistic leader first tries to turn the scientist into a bug, then wants to stab the daughter with an electric prod that will burn her blood but when he commits suicide later by the same tool, explodes. There was no thought put into this story. It’s just whatever the writer came up with next. Also, poor Roland doesn’t get a kiss from the pretty girl, and he did almost as much as Carson. Guess it helps to have your name on the title.
Perisphere Payne by Arnold Hardy
This story suffers from the same problem, just the writer doing whatever pops into his head. Martians use a wind tunnel to capture bombers to use the pilots as slaves. Somehow, using your enemy to clean your guns sounds like a really dumb idea. Payne gets back to Earth…somehow, comes back with a fleet, avoids the wind tunnel because where everything is makes less sense than the geography in Paw Patrol, and the day is saved. Too bad the story isn’t.
Something I haven’t seen before in these comics are paper model patterns for a tank and an arctic schooner. Neat. Nowadays we wouldn’t have to cut the page out of the comic between carbon paper, tracing paper, or just using a scanner, though it would mean having to color everything in ourselves and only the last option wouldn’t damage the comic.
Marga The Panther Woman by James T. Royal
Unchukcu or however that’s spelled isn’t giving up taking Marga, even after losing a plane battle. His forces go into the city, capture her, take her out on the back of a tiger, which is not the strangest thing in this issue, and toss her down a pit. Ted rescues her, Unchukucu is killed by the snakes in the pit and we’re three for three on the random thoughts as writing system. Also, is this in the same vein as the space cop stories, because they use the same vehicle design ideas.
Dr. Doom by Richard Crater
The ranting loon has a sonic weapon and Agent Steele is able to follow a plane that is at each of the attack locations for some reason (maybe to report in on the effectiveness but it’s never explained), beats up all the baddies, and destroys the weapon. The story is as childish as the art and I’m not impressed. At least the story isn’t pulling random ideas out of nowhere but the gun is just there so our hero can track Doom (Victor would be insulted) and destroy it. Kind of lame, really, but it’s unintentionally funny to read so I’ll give it that.
Navy Jones: “Underseas” by Frank Pineley
Take out one of those stories and Navy could have ended with more than a plot. The undersea people want to trade some gold they found for supplies to rebuild the city, but the fisherman they make contact with makes the mistake of telling a villain who tries to steal the gold. With a little more time this could have been a good story instead of a barely okay one.
overall
The bad stories are maybe good for a laugh, but the good or almost good stories were enough to make me come back for another issue. As to our opening question: The Eagle, Dynamo, and Navy Jones had potential but the Flash Gordon wanna-bes and crazy mad scientist have nothing of value to them. Maybe future issues will fix those problems. We’ll see.
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