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Mystic Comics (1940 series) #1

Mar 1940 on-sale: Jan 15, 1940

Will Harr
writer
 |  Jack Binder
penciler

Mystic Comics (1940 series) #1 cover

Story Name:

Introducing Flexo the Rubber Man


Synopsis

Mystic Comics (1940 series) #1 synopsis by reviewer J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating: 3.5 stars

Doctors Joel and Joshua Williams, two scientists who have built Flexo, a remote-controlled rubber robot filled with a secret gas, make arrangements to borrow a supply of radium from the local hospital for their experiments. On the way home from collecting it, they are deceived by a young woman who lures them into a house, where an interne named Beezle ambushes them at gunpoint, binds them, and takes the radium. Beezle reveals he is acting on behalf of a criminal known as the Professor, who needs the radium to power a death ray machine. Left tied back to back, the brothers maneuver until Joshua manages to fish the remote control device from Joel's pocket, and they activate Flexo for the first time at a distance.

Flexo rises in the laboratory, zooms over the city, crashes through a second-story window, and frees his masters. When Beezle returns, Flexo pounces on him, and the brothers extract the Professor's location. Flexo prevents the getaway car from escaping by stretching his body across it and subduing the thugs. The group then charters a plane with a radium locator to track the stolen element to the Professor's headquarters — identified as Dr. Murdo. Inside, Flexo defeats two electrically charged guard robots, squeezes through an iron gate, absorbs gunfire harmlessly, and when Murdo attempts to destroy him with corrosive acid, Joel triggers a gas burst from Flexo's chest that disables the criminals. Joel orders Flexo to wreck the death ray machine, the radium is recovered, and the gang is handed over to the police.

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Characters
Good (or All)
FLEXO  
Flexo
(Rubber Man)
Plus: Dr. Joel Williams (Joel Williams), Dr. Joshua Williams (Joshua Williams).

Antagonists
Dr. Beezle, Dr. Murdo.


Story #2

The Origin of the Blue Blaze

Writer/Penciler/Inker: Harry Douglas.

Synopsis

In 1852, at the laboratory of Doctor Keen of Midwest College, the scientist shows his son Spencer Keen a substance called the Blue Blaze, which he intends to destroy after discovering it revives dead insects many times stronger than before. Before he can act, a tornado devastates the campus, wrecking the laboratory and knocking Spencer into the path of the Blue Blaze. With 85% of the population killed and burials conducted hastily, Spencer is interred in his costume — but he has not died. Energized by substrata dermatic rays during his years underground, he gains strength a thousandfold and grows conscious of the creeping domination of evil in the world, patiently waiting until the time is right.

In 1940, eighty-eight years after his burial, the Blue Blaze rises from his grave to terrify two body-snatching ghouls. Bullets bounce off his resurrected body. He interrogates the thug "Killer" Skehan, who reveals the location of their employer: Professor Maluski, operating from a hidden inn called The Green Lamp. At the inn, the Blue Blaze is placed in a hidden elevator and sent miles below the surface into Maluski's vast underground empire, where he witnesses poison gas and germ laboratories and storage vaults full of advanced weaponry. Brought before Maluski, he also sees the professor's army of fifty brain-drained monsters — former corpses re-animated and controlled by a deductor ray. When the Blue Blaze asks who will operate the machines after Maluski eliminates his own henchmen, the professor attempts to kill him, but guns are useless against the Blue Blaze's hardened body. He knocks Maluski into his own control tube, destroying it; the monsters immediately run amok and tear the underground empire apart. The Blue Blaze escapes through a subterranean stream and surfaces in a quiet rural lake, while a New York seismograph records the resulting earthquake as insignificant.


Characters
Good (or All)
BLUEBLAZE  
Blue Blaze
(Spencer Keen)
Plus: Dr. Keen.

Antagonists
Killer Skehan, Professor Maluski.


Story #3

Journey to Cygni

Writer: Joe Cal Cagno.
Penciler/Inker: Fred Schwartz.

Synopsis

Zephyr Jones and his pal Corky Grogan launch their rocket-ship on a second attempt to reach Mars, only to discover two stowaways: Professor Reagan Lexico, the self-described "Mad Astronomer," and his daughter Tasi. At gunpoint, Lexico demands Jones redirect the ship toward the star Cygni, where Lexico believes a miraculous substance called Stardust exists — capable of curing every illness on Earth. Jones agrees, and devises a method of "star-hopping" by igniting the star's gaseous envelope with the ship's exhaust to generate enough explosive momentum to reach the next star. After narrowly passing through a roving planet, the ship lands on Cygni, where Jones applies a secret formula to protect the crew from the star's intense heat and gases. Leaving Lexico and Tasi aboard, Jones and Corky scout the surface but are ambushed by evil Cygnian dwarfs — short, stocky beings whose bodies have been hardened by Cygni's extreme heat, making bullets useless against them. Jones grabs fire extinguishers from the ship, using cold spray to stun the heat-hardened creatures, but the effect is temporary. When he returns for the Lexicos, he finds them already captured; the Professor and Tasi manage to escape into strange caves on their own, but are cornered on a narrow ledge above a bottomless pit by pursuing Cygnians. Corky arrives with a rope, he and Jones stretch it across the ledge behind the dwarfs, and together they pull — sending the entire group of Cygnians plummeting into the abyss and freeing the Lexicos.


Characters
Good (or All)
ZEPHYR  
Zephyr Jones
(from 1940)
Plus: Professor Reagan Lexico (the Mad Astronomer), Tasi Lexico.

Antagonists
Cygnian Dwarfs.


Story #4

The Green Terror

Writer: Robert Erisman.
Penciler/Inker: Newt Alfred.

Synopsis

Maisie Leeds and her friend Carol Carson are walking home from the office when a green car tears past, its masked occupants snatching Maisie off the street and leaving a cloud of green fumes behind. The police are baffled, as the Green Terror has struck repeatedly without leaving a trace. That evening Carol and her fiancé Ted go to the commissioner, who informs them he has already called in the Three X's — the greatest crime-busting team in the country, led by 1X and assisted by 2X (a walking encyclopedia) and 3X (the strong-arm). The only clue left at the scene is an unmarked glove; back at their secret sanctum, the Three X's identify pollen from a rare South African orchid woven into its fabric, deducing that the last ship carrying that orchid arrived in New York one week before the Green Terror's first kidnapping — and that the next vessel bound for the same region leaves at midnight.

Before the Three X's can act, Green Terror raiders break into the sanctum to steal the glove back, but 3X drives them off in a brawl. The team, Ted, and Carol all board the ship S.S. Caribou at the dock — only to be taken captive at gunpoint by the very henchmen they were tracking. Aboard ship the following morning, the Three X's allow themselves to be captured deliberately, reasoning it will lead them straight to the Green Terror's master. They are brought before the villain himself: a green-skinned, ancient creature who declares he has come from darkest Africa to drain the blood of healthy young Americans to extend his own immortal life. The Three X's refuse to be cowed, 1X punches the Green Terror, and a shipboard melee breaks out. The captain of the Caribou — revealed as a Green Terror operative — confesses and forces the ship back to New York. Three days later the commissioner thanks the Three X's for ridding the world of the Green Terror, who is condemned to the electric chair.


Characters
Good (or All)
1X (Dr. Jerome Hamilton), 2X (Dr. Carlo Zota), 3X (Dr. Maris Morlak), Police, The Three X's.

Antagonists
Green Terror.


Story #5

The Deep Sea Demon

Writer: Norman Daniels.
Penciler/Inker: Fred Guardineer.
Letterer: Fred Guardineer.

Synopsis

Dave Dean, intrepid adventurer, dives in a tropical sea in search of pearls, watched over by his crewman Shorty and a suspicious rival pearler named Wing Po. On a nearby yacht, officer Philip and his passenger Janet observe Dave's dive; Philip is uneasy, as his cousin drowned in these same waters when his ship was sunk. Underwater, Dave encounters a bizarre creature — the so-called water ghost or Deep Sea Demon — which severs his air hose and lifeline. Dave kicks off his weights and races to the surface, suffering the bends from ascending too fast; Janet and Philip haul him into their boat. Dave recovers thanks to his natural strength, and Janet stays at his side. When Wing Po's diver is found dead on deck — apparently killed by the water ghost — Dave dives again, this time allowing the creature to drag him along its line. Underwater he subdues it and hauls it to the surface; the "Deep Sea Demon" is revealed to be Philip in a free-diving suit disguised as a sea monster. Dave deduces that Philip dynamited his own cousin's yacht to claim the family fortune, and used the water ghost disguise to frighten away divers who might find the wreck as evidence.


Characters
Good (or All)
Dave Dean.

Antagonists
Wing Po.


Story #6

The Blooded Ruby of Chung

Writer/Penciler/Inker: Unknown.

Synopsis

Dakor, a detective magician who deals only in unusual crimes, is in his office with his assistant Williams when a wounded man staggers in and dies, his last words revealing he was bringing a priceless gem called the Blooded Ruby to Dakor for protection, and that he was shot by his best friend Tom Denver. Dakor visits the dead man's father, millionaire banker George Hargate, who explains that the ruby — stolen from the eye of the Oriental god Kung — drives everyone who sees it mad with greed, and that he wants it returned to Kung to end the bloodshed. Dakor traces Denver to France, where he has enlisted in the Foreign Legion under an assumed name. Enlisting himself, Dakor spots Denver in a brawl over the ruby, but before he can recover it that night by hypnotizing Denver to sleep, a guard catches him and throws him in the guardhouse. The next day a Tuareg raid frees all prisoners; Dakor spots Denver deserting but loses him when he uses magic to turn an officer's rifle into a snake. Both are captured by the Tuareg chief, who demands Denver reveal where he hid the ruby. When Denver refuses, Dakor materializes out of thin air to save him — but a treacherous Tuareg guard stabs Denver, who dies and takes the ruby's location to his grave.

Using telepathy, Dakor locates the buried ruby and retrieves it, confirming it is as mesmerizing as advertised. He persuades the Tuaregs to let him go by performing an Indian rope trick, then travels by train and camel to the temple of the great god Kung in China. Slipping in by night to restore the ruby, Dakor is spotted by a priest who rouses the worshippers to attack; Dakor uses ventriloquism to make the idol itself command the crowd to stand down. He departs on camel, sending the Tuaregs a farewell snowstorm, and returns the ruby to George Hargate — receiving a fee of $50,000.


Characters
Good (or All)
DAKOR  
Dakor
(Bajah)

Antagonists
Tom Denver, Tuaregs.


Story #7

The Origin of Dynamic Man

Writer: Unknown.
Penciler/Inker: Daniel Peters.

Synopsis

In a remote mountain castle, Professor Goettler brings to life a perfect synthetic being — the Dynamic Man — by sending a million volts of electricity through a lifeless form he has spent twenty years constructing. The professor dies of excitement before he can witness his success, but the Dynamic Man intuits his purpose and his extraordinary abilities: X-ray vision, the power to change his appearance at will, the ability to generate a magnetic field, and flight. Adopting the civilian identity of Curt Cowan, he joins the F.B.I. under Chief Hopkins and aces every written and physical examination. His first assignment is to investigate what Hopkins dismisses as crank letters from a farmer named Tohnson, who claims someone is causing a deliberate drought by keeping rain away from the region. Dynamic Man flies to the area, confirms that powerful dynamos hidden inside a mountain are generating the electric fields that disperse storm clouds, and traces the scheme to King Bascom, a millionaire banker who plans to buy up ruined farmland at collapse prices and control American agriculture.

Dynamic Man bursts into Bascom's island estate, but is temporarily paralyzed by a spray of liquid lantholum — an insulating and corrosive element — and thrown into a nitrogen cell whose walls his X-ray vision cannot penetrate, where the ceiling slowly descends to crush him. Using superhuman strength he holds the ceiling back, then shatters his way free and pursues Bascom's escaping plane. He changes his appearance to impersonate one of Bascom's scientists, infiltrates the meeting with a Richonian government agent, seizes incriminating papers proving a violation of the Neutrality Act, then traps the remaining gang inside the house with a wall of living electricity. When Bascom bails from the plane and a smoke screen is released, Dynamic Man carries the drifting aircraft to the ground, recovers the papers, and intercepts Bascom mid-air on his parachute. He forces Bascom to sign a release for all the farm options he has acquired, then anonymously tips off the local police, who arrest Bascom and his gang as war smugglers. Curt Cowan reports back to Hopkins with nothing to show — and Hopkins remains oblivious to the arrest he has just read about in the same conversation.


Characters
Good (or All)
DYNAMICMAN  
Dynamic Man
(Curt Cowan)
Plus: Professor Goettler.

Antagonists
King Bascom.



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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Jack Binder
E. C. Stoner
?
Alex Schomburg (Cover Penciler)
Alex Schomburg (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits

Editor: Martin Goodman.



Review / Commentaries


reviewer
Mystic Comics (1940 series) #1 Review by (April 16, 2026)

About the Flexo story: Jack Binder's art makes excellent use of Flexo's rubber abilities — the stretching-car panel and the robot-versus-robot fight are the visual highlights of the issue, conveying the character's unique power set with real energy. The plot, however, is largely a delivery mechanism for action set pieces, and the villain's scheme is explained and then immediately dismantled without much tension.

About the Blue Blaze story: The origin premise — an 1852 scientist's son buried alive in a superhero costume who awakens 88 years later — is genuinely inventive for the period, and the underground empire sequence delivers a satisfying parade of pulp-villain excess. The execution stumbles on pacing, as the transition from graveyard to Maluski's lair is rushed and the final confrontation is resolved in a single panel punch.

About the Zephyr Jones story: The star-hopping travel gimmick and the vividly colored Cygnian cave sequence show real visual imagination from the creative team of Joe Cal Cagno and Fred Schwartz. The story never develops any tension, however — the Cygnian dwarfs are introduced, neutralized, and defeated in rapid succession without the heroes or the Lexicos ever facing a meaningful setback.

About the Three X's story: The story moves at a brisk, almost reckless pace, and the pollen-on-the-glove deduction sequence is a decent attempt at a detective hook amid the usual Golden Age action. The Green Terror himself is wildly underdeveloped — he appears, monologues, takes a punch, and is immediately defeated in the same page, making the villain more of a costume than a character.

About the Dave Dean story: The underwater sequences are the visual standout — the chaotic, vividly colored deep-sea panels give the story a hallucinatory quality that distinguishes it from the issue's other features. The mystery solution, however, is handed to the reader rather than earned: the identity of the killer and his motive are explained in a rapid final-page info-dump with no prior foreshadowing.

About the Dakor story: The globe-trotting structure — New York to France to the Sahara to China — gives the story an unusually ambitious scope for eight pages, and the use of specific tricks like hypnosis, ventriloquism, and conjuring keeps Dakor's magic grounded and inventive. The pacing suffers in the final third, however, with the Kung temple sequence compressed to a single page that rushes through what could have been the story's most visually striking episode.

About the Dynamic Man story: The story's best idea is its closing irony — Cowan reports nothing to Hopkins while the chief reads aloud about the very arrests Dynamic Man just made — which gives the secret-identity conceit an actual payoff for once. At eleven pages the plot sprawls rather than builds, and Bascom's drought scheme, while a relatively original threat for the period, is resolved more through the hero's laundry list of powers than any ingenuity or tension.





Thor

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