In New York’s Chinatown,
the citizens plan a festival to raise money to support the war effort against
the Japanese in their homeland. Axis agent Matsu
plans to sabotage the festival so the night before the event, the warehouse
where the fireworks are stored catches fire. The Human Torch and Toro, who were
passing by, manage to contain the blaze but the fireworks are a total loss.
Torch and his young pal volunteer to put on a show in place of the destroyed
entertainment. The amazing display of pyrotechnics inspires the guests to give
generously but the bad guys burst in and make off with the chest of cash. Torch
and Toro trail the getaway car to the crooks’ hideout where they are trapped in
a gas chamber and rendered unconscious. While dazed, Matsu
hypnotizes them into stealing a gold shipment (also earmarked for China)
from the local bank. Returning to the hideout, Torch tumbles down the stairs
and the spell is broken. Matsu orders Toro to attack his mentor but a smack in
the face snaps him out of it too and they mop up the gang, stopping Matsu from
setting off an explosive charge that would have destroyed the building in the
nick of time.“The Order of the Hood”
Writer: Stan Lee. Pencils: Al Avison.
Inks: Al Gabriele. Colors: ?
Synopsis: Members of the sinister
Order of the Hood, a gang of crooks who wear purple robes, are robbing banks in
Los Angeles in
an armored car. Young playboy Dan Lyons excuses himself from his pals Pat Casey
and Mary Nash to change into his secret identity as…the Black Marvel! He heads
to the reserve bank where a gold shipment is expected today and waits for the
Hoods to arrive. Sure enough, the gang makes a play for the gold and Black
Marvel launches himself into action and overpowers them, then vanishes as
mysteriously as he came. The Hood leader has henchmen break into the newspaper
office and plant a phony item about a jewelry display at a local shop to set a
trap for the hero. Black Marvel arrives on the scene and is conked on the head
and taken prisoner. Back at the hideout, the helpless hero is trapped in a ray
machine so his death by slow burning can be televised to the nation. Instead
Black Marvel uses the ray to burn through his bonds and overpowers his foes,
pursuing the leader to a nearby mountain where, after a battle, the villain
tumbles to his death in a rockslide.
“The Case of the Hollow Men”
Writer: Jack Kirby, Joe Simon. Pencil:
Kirby, Al Avison. Inks: Joe Simon, Al Gabriele, Syd Shores.
Colors: ?
Synopsis: Late one night in the
Bowery, a zombie stalks and kills a police officer; this is the final test for
the Lord of Death that his zombie-making experiments are a success. He contacts
Adolf Hitler directly (!) and offers his services to the Third Reich; Der
Fuhrer orders him to sabotage ships carrying Lend-Lease material to the
British. At the docks Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are on guard duty when an
army of the living dead arrive to burn the ships. They change into Captain America
and Bucky to assist the troops in driving the zombies into the sea. The heroes
recognize one of the monsters as a panhandler they saw earlier in the day so
they go undercover as Bowery bums to get a lead on the villains. The Lord of
Death’s next assignment is to destroy trucks carrying Lend-Lease materials and
the bridge to the docks; the truck-driving zombies cause a massive pileup on
the bridge and begin attacking vehicles and pedestrians. Again, Cap and Bucky
arrive and use grenades to drive away the monstrous hordes but a stray bomb
ignites a cache of explosives and the bridge is blown up. Later, the Lord of
Death approaches the disguised Steve and Bucky and takes them back to his mad
laboratory where they discover how he can turn living men into unkillable
zombies. Steve and Bucky change into their hero costumes and defeat the
villain. When Hitler phones for a progress report, Bucky blows him a raspberry!
4. “All Winners”
Writer: Stan Lee. Art: Ed Winiarski
Synopsis: After reading his comic
books, young Johnny Blake wishes he could meet the superheroes from the
stories. Suddenly his wish comes true as the Human Torch and Toro fly in the
window then summon Captain America
and Bucky, the Black Marvel, the Sub-Mariner, and the Angel! After he gushes
about reading their adventures, they reward their loyal fan with a show: Bucky
and Toro do some flaming acrobatics, then Namor and the Torch play catch with a
ball of fire. Finally Cap, Angel, and Black Marvel have a three-way wrestling
match on the roof—until they all tumble over the edge…at which point Johnny’s
mother awakens him from his dream.
“The
Torpedo Boat Terror”
Writer: Bill Everett. Art: The Torpedo
Boat Terror. Colors: ?
Synopsis: Swimming off the Atlantic Coast, Namor the Sub-Mariner heads in to
a cove near Virginia
for a rest. There he discovers a secret Nazi base where they are building
torpedo boats to attack American ships. Namor boards a boat and sabotages the
weapons and tosses the crew overboard and takes the boat to ram another. He
falls overboard though, and decides to head back to the base and mop up the
Nazis, then he goes after the boat that was running free. As he comes upon it,
the boat rams a pleasure craft causing a blaze. Namor dives to rescue a sinking
woman but he is hit by the propeller and knocked unconscious. The woman ends up
saving him and he places her safely on an island, seizes the last remaining
Nazi boat, and returns to take her to shore, stopping off to warn the
authorities.
“The Case of the Mad Gargoyle”
Writer: ? Art: Paul Gustavson.
Synopsis: American passenger planes
have been disappearing over the Yucatan
Peninsula so the costumed
adventurer known as the Angel decides to look into the matter. Chartering a
plane to take the same route, the craft is seized by a magnetic ray. Angel
parachutes overboard and watches as the plane is taken inside a huge pyramid.
Angel enters and is captured by the natives who are led by the brutish Gargoyle.
Locked in with prisoners from the earlier flights, Angel learns that on the
nights of the full moon, one of the prisoners is catapulted over a volcano to
slam into a native as part of a sacrifice. Angel fights with the guards to make
sure he is the next chosen one to provide a distraction while the others
escape. Launched over the volcano, Angel manages to land safely and engages the
Gargoyle (who was capturing the planes to prevent the Americans from converting
them into warplanes) in battle which ends with the villain falling to his death
from the top of the pyramid. He then joins the prisoners as they take the
planes back to the USA.