All-Select Comics #7

Masters of Evil

Captain America and Bucky have found the hideout of "Terrible Tom" Garrett and his gang. While the two heroes are busy fighting Garrett's men, Tom slips out the back way and when Cap and Bucky chase after him he manages to escape in a stolen car. Driving outside of town, Tom's getaway car runs out of gas and it starts to rain. Seeking shelter in what appears to be an abandoned house, Tom is greeted by a sorcerer named Terdu who offers to help Tom destroy Captain America.

When Tom explains that he lost his entire mob, Terdu uses his magic cauldron to summon criminals from out of the past. Terdu then summons forward Captain Kidd, Jack the Ripper, Jesse and Frank James, Bluebeard and Gyp-the-Blood. With these criminals fully under Terdu's control, he orders them to steal and kill until they find Captain America and are ordered to destroy him.

Within days reports of the once-dead criminals crimes hit the papers, and when yet another bank robbery is in progress, Captain America and Bucky are able to catch up to it. There they fight off the robbers and find that they are being led by Jesse and Frank James. When Cap and Bucky attempt to fight the two criminals they find that some force prevents them from knocking out their enemies. Not far away, the other time displaced criminals watch on and then attack, knocking Cap and Bucky out. The two heroes are then taken back to Terdu's lair to be eliminated.

When Terrible Tom attempts to shoot the two heroes before they revive, Terdu stops him, demanding that they die in a fair fight. Tom reluctantly agrees to follow orders, warning Terdu that he could be asking for trouble. It turns out that Tom's warnings are warranted, as when Captain America and Bucky revive they are able to defeat Tom and all the other criminals in one-on-one combat. When the crew of criminals fail, Terdu angrily banishes them back to their own time and charges at Cap. Ducking out of the way, Captain America witnesses Terdu trip over and fall into his cauldron, which incinerates his body. With the battle over, Tom surrenders to Captain America and Bucky.

Recurring Characters

• Captain America

• Bucky

• Masters of Evil

  • Jack the Ripper

  • Jesse James

  • Frank James

The Swanky Swindlers

On a Sunday afternoon Jim meets with his fiancee Mary Simpson who tells him that their engagement is off, and that she no longer loves him and quickly departs from the confused serviceman. Witnessing this, the Torch and Toro become interested in the situation and follow after Mary as the Torch finds it suspicious.

Elsewhere in the back-room office of nightclub owner Slash Collins meets with his minions. They wonder how they intend to obtain the property owned by Mary's father if he is trying to marry her. Slash is content to get the girl, confident that it will eventually lead to the ownership of the property eventually. Later that evening, while the Torch and Toro wait outside Mary's apartment building, they follow after her when she leaves in the evening. They follow her to the Scorpion Club, and when they follow after her, they have to use forceful tactics in order to get past the bouncers. Inside the club they spot Mary sitting next to Slash Collins at a table. When they attempt to get permission to sit at the table with Slash and Mary, the bouncers suddenly catch up to them, and while the Torch and Toro fight them, Slash grabs Mary and pulls her away from the scene.

The Torch and Toro flame on and follow after them, seeing the pair escape by car. The Torch grabs Mary from out of the car and they take her back to their apartment. There she explains that Slash has been attempting to force her father off the property where he runs the family store. Hoping to keep the store running, Mary is attempting to appease Slash by calling off her engagement to Jim and marrying Slash instead. She thanks the two flaming heroes for their concern but asks them to stop following her.

The Torch however is not ready to give up and he and Toro race off to try and find a way to help her. They are called down to the ground by Mark Mankin, who is the head of the Slum Clearance Commission and says he witnessed the fight down at the Scorpion Club. He warns the two heroes against going after Slash, because he is a dangerous person, leaving them to wonder why Mankin is so concerned about the issue.

The following day the Torch places an add in the paper suggesting that he has evidence against Slash Collins, and soon the pair are knocked out from behind by Slash's men. They are taken out to the country where they are tied up and suspended within a truck with asbestos rope. They learn that Mankin and Collins are working together, in that Collins is buying up all the property slated for the Slum Clearance Commission dirt cheap and then selling them to the city for clearing and then splitting the profits with Mankin.

Before Collins and his men can eliminate the Torch and Toro, the pair flame on and make the heat too hot for anyone to come close enough to harm them. With a stalemate and a police dragnet descending down on them, Collin, Mankin and their men surrender to the authorities. With the situation resolved, Mary is told that she is released from her situation and she goes off to tell Jim that they can be married.

Recurring Characters

• Human Torch

• Toro

The Discs of Death

At a local FBI office, a trio of agents receive a package from Death Head Scott, a wanted criminal they are after. Opening it they find a copper disc in side. One of the agents, George, calls in his friend Jack Robinson -- aka the Whizzer -- to come by and take a look at the object. As the Whizzer is examining it he suddenly realizes it is beginning to collect an electric charge and drops it on the ground. When the Whizzer explains that it was a lethal trap, he changes into costume and races off to follow a hunch.

Outside, he sees where the electrical currents in the copper disc are coming from. While within the secret hideout of Death Head Scott, Scott gloats to his men how the authorities will never be able to pin the FBI agents deaths on him. The Whizzer suddenly enters the room and quickly knocks out Death Head Scott's men, but falls prey to a trap door into a room that spins with sufficient speed to pin the Whizzer to the wall. While the Whizzer is down in the pit, Scott gloats how he intends to send two more discs out to FBI agents Rogers and Harris. Fearing for his friends lives, the Whizzer manages to run in counter speed to the spinning room and jump to freedom. He then grabs the two discs and tosses them away into a nearby lake before their electrical charges can reach him.

He then races off and saves Roges and Harris from their own discs. Believing that he has succeeded in his mission, Scott is shocked when the Whizzer arrives and easily knocks out Scott and his men, then turns them over to the authorities.

Recurring Characters

• Whizzer