Marvel Mystery Comics (1939 series) #9

The Sub-Mariner (also called Namor), still waging his war of destruction against humanity, is warned by Betty Dean, a policewoman and his only human friend, that the Human Torch — now an official member of the police department — has been assigned to stop him. The Sub-Mariner scoffs at the threat, and the two clash near the George Washington Bridge, where the Torch's heat drives Namor into the water. The Sub-Mariner retreats to his aerial submarine, retrieves a high-pressure air tank, and lures the Torch to the Statue of Liberty, where he uses the compressed air to extinguish the Torch's flame and knocks him unconscious with a single punch. He hauls the Torch underwater into the aerial sub, intending to study and exploit his ability to control fire. When the Sub-Mariner goes to work on the air tank motor, a loose hose blasts the reviving Torch into a rising air bubble, which carries him back to the surface despite Namor's frantic efforts to hold it back.

Back on land, the Torch reports to the Police Commissioner, who insists the Sub-Mariner must be destroyed. Betty pleads for a peaceful solution, but the Torch flies to Radio City, burns through the roof, and confronts the Sub-Mariner, who had forced a television studio technician to broadcast his ultimatum. The two trade blows and fire before the Sub-Mariner escapes. The chase leads to a city reservoir, where the Torch covers the water's surface with flame, trapping Namor in chlorinated water that saps his strength and causes him to lose consciousness. Army planes summoned by the Torch bomb the reservoir, blasting Namor out — but he recovers, smashes through the Torch's ring of fire using a water sprinkler system built into his body, and when an army pilot attacks him, Namor boards the plane and ejects the pilot, then opens the pilot's parachute out of a sudden humane impulse. The Torch, now free to fight in earnest, hurls fire balls at the stolen plane, cutting it in half — but Namor dives into the river before the flames can reach him. Both combatants regroup, and the Torch visits the police department's chemical laboratory, where Mr. Frasier identifies sulphuric acid as a weapon capable of burning through the Sub-Mariner's tough skin, directing him to the Torpey Chemical Works across the river for a large supply. At the plant, the Torch and the Sub-Mariner converge independently: the Torch to collect the acid, Namor to find a new weapon. The Torch hurls two decanters of sulphuric acid that Namor dodges; the second decanter severs the ropes suspending a painter's scaffolding above a vat of nitroglycerine, triggering an explosion that Namor barely survives by diving into an indoor water reservoir. While the Torch battles the resulting fire, the Sub-Mariner slips away, finds a massive two-ton translite cylinder in the plant's laboratory, and drops it over the Torch, sealing him inside. The rubber-like tube cannot be burned through; when Namor lifts it to drag the Torch away, the Torch ignites, forcing Namor to clamp the cylinder shut again. The story ends in deadlock — the Torch is helpless inside the translite tube, and the Sub-Mariner cannot release him without being destroyed by fire — with a "to be continued" appeal to readers to devise a solution.

The Mad Doctor of Carlburg

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Near the village of Carlburg, terrorized locals bolt their doors each night against what they believe are vampires operating from a glowing castle on the hill. A young American visiting the town's inn dismisses the superstition, but when a girl's scream splits the night and the innkeeper reports that the vampires have taken someone, the American races outside — stripping off his outer clothes to reveal himself as the Angel. He spots a figure leaping across rooftops while carrying a girl, intercepts him, and drops the frightened but unharmed victim to the innkeeper's care. The Angel then follows tracks in the mud up to the castle, fights his way past a guard at the entrance, and climbs the ivy to an upper window. Looking down into the main hall, he discovers that the "vampire" activity is actually a cover for a secret electrical laboratory run by a white-haired mad doctor, who has had a young woman dragged in alongside a caged gorilla, intending to interchange their minds as a revolutionary medical experiment.

The Angel watches as the girl is strapped to a table, the gorilla is brought out, and the doctor prepares to throw the switch. Unable to wait for the townspeople he had urged to arm themselves — who remain hidden behind bolted doors — the Angel dives from the window and strikes the doctor, sending him crashing into the electrical apparatus. He quickly frees the girl, then turns to beat back the doctor's henchmen. One of the men is knocked into the gorilla's cage, releasing the animal, which charges the machinery. The Angel snatches the girl, grabs a dangling cable, and leaps for a tree outside the window just as the gorilla collides with the equipment and the castle explodes. Landing safely in the tree, the Angel tells the rescued girl she can inform the townspeople that the so-called vampires will trouble them no more.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Angel
(Tom Halloway)

The Stagecoach Bandits

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Gold shipments from a miners' camp have been robbed twice in quick succession, prompting the miners to appoint Pecos Bill as special guard for the next stage. The coach is ambushed anyway halfway to Lawson City: the driver is mortally wounded, Pecos Bill takes a glancing blow to the head and falls unconscious, and the panicked horses bolt with the driverless coach. The Masked Raider, having heard the gunfight, rides to intercept; his sudden appearance scatters the bandits, and he leaps onto the runaway coach, takes the reins, and brings the horses under control, delivering the gold safely to its destination. Afterward, the Raider meets his friend Mexican Pete, who reveals his suspicion that Shep Mason and his gang are behind the robberies — Mason has been spending heavily in the saloon and boasting of a rich new mine strike, yet refuses to reveal its location. The Raider takes Pete to the sheriff's office and devises a plan: the miners will lace the next gold shipment with lead filings, and the assayer will alert the sheriff the moment Mason's gang brings in gold that matches.

The Raider instructs the miners not to send a guard on the next shipment and to surrender the gold without a fight if held up. The plan works — Mason's gang robs the stage, then walks straight into the assayer's office to cash in the stolen gold. The sheriff confronts them, but one of Mason's men knocks him unconscious from behind and the gang ties up the assayer and flees. Pete and the Masked Raider spot them escaping and give chase. In a running gunfight both sides exhaust their ammunition; Pete lassos one bandit from horseback and brings him down, while the Raider leaps from his horse onto Shep Mason and drags him to the ground. Mason is subdued after a hard fight, and the Raider delivers the two remaining bandits to the sheriff. From his cell, Mason demands to know how they were identified — the Raider explains that the lead filings mixed into the stolen gold gave them away the moment it reached the assayer's scales.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Masked Raider
(Jim Gardley)

Plus: Lightning (horse), Mexican Pete.

On the Planet Ligra

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Electro and his creator, Professor Zog, have been taken prisoner by the Dragon-Men and transported by rocket-ship to the planet Ligra. Before Jago, King of the Dragon-Men, Zog refuses to use Electro to help Jago seize dictatorship over all of Ligra, and is dragged to a torture chamber, where he endures agony in silence before finally losing consciousness and yielding. Jago, declaring victory, dispatches a messenger to Queen Nara — ruler of the Lion-People of Ligra and the daughter of the first Earth-man ever to reach the planet — demanding she surrender her crown. Nara refuses and summons her armies. Jago unleashes his forces, with a reluctant Electro brought up in the rear and ordered to attack the Lion-Men. The robot proves impervious to the Lion-People's Q-ray guns and tears through their ranks, smashing pillars and destroying scores of warriors. The Dragon-Men's air-mounted eagles swoop down on Electro, but he hurls them to their deaths. While Electro clears the battlefield, Jago and his bodyguard Zoor break into Queen Nara's chamber and take her captive, escaping on Jago's giant war-eagle as news arrives that his armies are winning.

Jago imprisons Queen Nara in his castle dungeon and demands to know the location of the royal treasures. When she refuses, he threatens her with a giant octopus and opens a sliding door into the creature's pool. Meanwhile, in another part of the castle, Zog tricks his Dragon-Men guards by tossing a light bulb into the hall; when they rush to investigate, he slams the metal door, locks it, and immediately redirects Electro against the Dragon-Men. Electro uproots a tree and wields it to destroy scores of the enemy. Zog then orders Electro to rescue Queen Nara; the robot smashes into the dungeon just as the octopus is closing in, deploys a dagger from a slot in its hand, and stabs the creature in a vital spot, killing it. Jago and his henchmen attempt to flee but Electro overtakes them and sends them to a watery grave. With Ligra freed, Queen Nara bestows upon Professor Zog the title of Honorary Knight of Ligra, and Zog informs her that he and Electro will now return to Earth, but will come again if she calls.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Electro
(Robot)

Plus: Philo Zog (Philo Zogolowski), Queen Nara (Nara Gale).

The Trouble at Stacey Cleaners

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Stacey Cleaners, Inc., the city's largest chain of cleaners and dyers, is under attack: store windows are being smashed and trucks stoned. The Ferret, a noted author and crime investigator, drives to the plant out of curiosity, arriving just as a gang crashes a truck through the building and raids the inventory. The Ferret chases them off and trips one of the fleeing men — recognizing him as Frankie, a man he knows. After sending Frankie on his way under fire from the gang's guns, the Ferret introduces himself to Stacey and Brown, the two owners, and to Martin, the plant manager, noting that Martin seems rattled. While Martin takes a phone call, the Ferret slips into Stacey's private office and searches through the wastepaper basket. News arrives that a bomb has been thrown into one of their stores and that Brown has been killed. The Ferret rides with Stacey to the bombed store and, once the fire is out, begins snooping the scene — where he spots Frankie again in the crowd and collars him. Hook, one of Frankie's associates, intervenes at gunpoint, forces the Ferret into a car, and takes him to Hook's apartment, where he is tied up. Hook — an obsessed fourth-time offender terrified of returning to prison — lights a homemade nail bomb and leaves it beside the Ferret. The Ferret kicks the Murphy bed into the wall just before the bomb explodes; the folded mattress absorbs the shrapnel. He then escapes out a window, hurls a rock to crash Hook's waiting car into a wall, and confronts Hook and Frankie in the street. Turning to Martin, who has appeared on the scene, the Ferret exposes him as the real killer: a memo in Stacey's wastebasket showed that old man Stacey wanted to make Martin a partner, but Brown had blocked it. Martin arranged the harassment campaign through Hook, and the blown-out glass at the bomb scene — scattered outward, not inward — proved the bomb was planted by someone inside, not thrown from outside.

Characters

Good (or All)

 

Ferret
(Leslie Lenrow)

Antagonists
Hook.

The Rescue of Rita Grey

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Returning from a gold mine where he freed enslaved natives, Ka-Zar, guardian of the jungle, and his lion companion Zar hear a girl's scream. Ka-Zar swings down to find a young woman cowering before the leopard N'Jaga. He leaps on the beast with his knife, and the two grapple to the ground in a fierce struggle. Zar roars his anger but holds back — the code of the jungle demands Ka-Zar fight alone. Ka-Zar finally drives his knife into the leopard and, wounded, N'Jaga flees. The girl, Rita Grey, explains that she became separated from her father's camp two days ago when a native raft she stepped onto drifted loose on the river; crocodiles snapped at the sides, and she barely escaped by catching a low-hanging branch before the raft plunged over the Kasai River falls. Ka-Zar feeds her fruit to restore her strength, then promises to find her father's caravan.

Meanwhile, Rita's father searches for his missing daughter downstream, finds pieces of the broken raft in the water, and concludes she has drowned. Ka-Zar consults his jungle friends — including a baboon named Chadak — to learn the caravan's location, but as the two set off in that direction they are spotted and pursued by a tribe of savage jungle pygmies called the Wabis. Ka-Zar sends Zar ahead to find Trajah the elephant, then scoops Rita into his arms and sprints through a shower of spears toward a rocky outcrop, where he holds the high ground by dislodging boulders onto the climbing Wabis and hurling rocks down at the rest. A lone Wabi creeps up unseen and raises a spear; warned by Rita's cry, Ka-Zar dodges the throw, seizes the warrior, and holds him over his head as a warning to the others below. At that moment Trajah crashes out of the jungle, trumpeting, and scatters the Wabis in terror. Ka-Zar places Rita on the elephant's back and Trajah carries her to her father's caravan, where the reunion takes place. Rita's father invites Ka-Zar to visit their outpost, but Ka-Zar declines, saying he must remain in the jungle with Zar to guard and protect his friends.

The Underworld

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

A one-page illustrated educational piece about undersea creatures — shrimps, octopuses, and long-legged crabs — with accompanying text captions.