All-Winners Comics (1941 series) #2

The Human Torch and Toro are on vacation at a ski resort when they see a skier killed by a thrown knife; they pursue the killer who creates a small avalanche to engulf the heroes and quench their flames. They return to the lodge to investigate the murder of Mack, carnival promoter; Mack’s partner Howe tells Torch that Mack had a deadly enemy, a knife-thrower named Price who was horribly burned when Mack set fire to a theater for the insurance but Price is in an asylum. A phone call reveals that Price had recently escaped. Then Howe is stabbed but the heroes deduce that Howe is the killer, stabbing himself to divert suspicion. Howe confesses that he killed Mack because his partner wouldn’t go along with his scheme to steal all the carnival proceeds; he kidnapped Price from the asylum, learned how to throw knives, and wore a mask to look like Price. Howe squirts tear gas in their faces and flees. Torch and Toro pursue him to an ice covered lake where they melt enough to trap him. They turn Howe over to the police and rescue the captive Price and return him to the asylum.

The Strange Case of the Malay Idol

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating:

Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are selected to accompany Colonel Carter on a top secret mission to Singapore. Passing over the Malay Archipelago, their plane is forced down by a storm. Washed up on an island, Steve and Bucky see Carter is a prisoner of the natives; they change into Captain America and Bucky and follow but they are captured by the natives and taken to the temple where they discover that the locals’ white god Kuoli is the pilot Conroy (actually a Nazi spy) who deliberately crashed the plane. Kuoli orders Carter tortured to force him to reveal the top secret information he was delivering. Cap and Bucky break free, rescue Carter and fight the natives. Cap knocks Kuoli into the flaming pit and just when the three heroes look done for, a detachment of Navy men arrive, having picked up their SOS, to defeat the natives. Cap and Bucky vanish while Steve and Bucky turn up on the beach, acting all innocent.   

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Bucky Barnes
(Bucky)

 

Captain America
(Steve Rogers)

Bombs of Doom

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating:

(Before the USA entered the War) American Keen Marlow visits his girlfriend Florence von Ward only to find a Nazi officer there, telling him Florence has been sent to a concentration camp as leverage against her scientist uncle who is refusing to aid the Nazis. Keen transforms into the Destroyer, clobbers the Nazi, and heads out to the rescue.

Meanwhile, Professor Berg is a Nazi prisoner, forced to create bombs carrying the black plague germs by threats to Florence. Destroyer arrives, fights the Nazis, but is captured and thrown off a cliff. He catches a branch and heads to the concentration camp where he infiltrates the camp in a Nazi uniform, rescues Florence and some other prisoners and escapes with them all in Nazi garb.

Professor Berg has created a plague bomb and the Nazi commander decides to test it by dropping it on the nearest (German!) village. The Destroyer catches it and throws it back at the Nazis. But a second bomb has been sent to Hitler who orders Rudolf Hess to fly to London and drop the bomb. Destroyer arrives, swaps out the bomb for a dummy and punches Hitler in the face. The fake bomb falls harmlessly on London and Hess is captured.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Destroyer
(Keen Marlow)

Plague of the Poisoned Jewelry

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating:

All over the city, people are dying from poisoned jewelry so Bob “Whizzer” Frank decides to look into it. The source of all the deadly jewels is the Star Department Store where manager Paul Smythe is working with Lens, a Nazi spy, to spread terror around the country so that it falls to the Nazis. Bob gets a job at the store and goes to work in costume, reorganizing the glove department in seconds and terrifying customers who see the gloves moving by themselves. Then Bob confides in Smythe that he is investigating the crimes so Smythe sends Lens to pretend he thinks Bob is one of the gang so he is driven to their hideout, thumped on the head when he realizes it was a trap, and wakes up aboard a ship. He recovers and runs around, defeating all of the baddies and leaving a note for the police. He returns to the store and clobbers Smythe but Lens gets away.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Whizzer
(Bob Frank)

Unsolved Mysteries

Synopsis

By Marvelite Indexer
Rating:

The Ghost Fleet

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating:

Hearing news of a German “ghost fleet” sinking convoys, Namor the Sub-Mariner stows away on a merchant ship on its way to join a convoy. The convoy is attacked and sunk by the ghost fleet; Namor swims to catch up with the Nazis but they see him coming and knock him out with a depth charge, taking him prisoner. German commander Count von Bruckner is an old enemy of Namor’s and takes pride in delivering him to Germany. But Namor easily escapes at Kiel Canal and watches as the German ship heads out to sea and he discovers that the “ghost fleet” is really a motion picture projected on a giant collapsible screen. When an Allied convoy comes in sight, Namor tears down the screens, hijacks a Nazi submarine and torpedos von Bruckner’s ship, leaving a note for the British that the ghost fleet is no more.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Sub-Mariner
(Namor)