Bloody Talons of the Feathered Fiends!

With a series of mysterious fires at various munitions factories across the city caused by the Vulture, one of his agents Boris begins to talk to the authorities. When the Vulture learns of this he sends his pet vulture Nikki to kill him. The bird attacks the man as he leaves a local bar. His screams of pain are heard by the Human Torch and Toro who find the bird gouging out the man’s eyes. When the bird flees, the Torch sends Toro to follow after it while he can see what he can learn from its victim. Fatally wounded, Boris warns the Torch about the Vulture and his flaming eggs before dying. With no idea what Boris was talking about the Torch can only wait for Toro to return.

Toro meanwhile, follows Nikki back to the Vulture's hideout where the bird warns its master that it was followed. When Toro enters the building, the Vulture knocks him out. Just then, the Vulture's assistant Mongo enters telling him that the scientist named Novall they kidnapped refuses to make more incendiary eggs. The Vulture orders Mongo to bury Toro alive while he goes to deal with Novall.

Confronting Novall, the Vulture explains to the scientist that he has learned how to duplicate his process of creating incendiary eggs and has no use for him. He prepares to kill Novall by pushing him head first through a grinding stone, but the scientist begs the Vulture to stop promising to do whatever he asks.

Meanwhile, the Torch begins to worry about Toro and begins looking for him. At that time, Toro awakens and finds himself buried alive. Although the air in his shallow grave is limited he tries to flame on to melt his way through. Although his flame is too weak to do so, it does make the ground begin to glow red hot alerting the Torch to his location and allowing the hero to free his partner.

The two then race to the Vulture's lair where they attack him and Mongo. During the fight, the Vulture tricks the Torch into flying into a mixture of cement and asbestos. With his flame snuffed out the hero is easily knocked out by the villains. Elsewhere, Toro frees Dr. Novall and fends off Nikki with his flame powers.

Looking for the Torch, Toro believes his hero to be dead, but the Torch is really just stunned and soon comes out of it. The two then follow the Vulture to the uppermost part of his hideout and find it is filled with birds of prey that he has sent off with incendiary eggs to blow up more defense plants. While Toro goes off to stop the birds, the Torch chases after the Vulture and Mongo, causing the villains to fall into their own cement/asbestos mix where they sink and drown. Shortly after Toro returns after killing all the birds, thus ending the threat of the Vulture.

Recurring Characters

Human Torch, Toro

Kioto, the Mad Jap!

On a Japanese occupied island on the South Pacific, Captain Kioto is in charge of keeping American soldiers who are prisoners of war. He tortures them and then has their dead bodies air dropped over a nearby American military outpost. When one of the natives complains about the Japanese ringing on a promise to provide them with guns, Kioto shoots him dead. As the sixth body lands on the American base the source of these bodies is a mystery to military command who estimate it will take months to locate which island the soldiers are being held prisoner on.

While on guard duty, Steve Rogers witnesses as a spear strikes a tree and finds a crudely drawn map pointing out which island the Japanese are on. Steve goes and wakes up James Barnes and the two change into Captain America and Bucky to investigate in order to insure that American soldiers are not being led into a trap.

Arriving by boat, Captain America and Bucky find the natives waiting for them and learn that they were the ones who informed them of the islands location. Captain America and Bucky then lead the natives on an attack on the Japanese soldiers, but they are soon overpowered and taken prisoner. Cap and Bucky are brought before Kioto who decides to kill them outright and float their bodies back to the American base as a warning and then has them tied to a tree by their arms to await execution. Left alone, Cap tells Bucky to start screaming for help. When a Japanese soldier comes to see what all the commotion is, Cap wraps his legs around the soldier and snaps his neck. Removing a knife, Cap uses it to cut himself and Bucky free from their bonds.

Hiding out in an ammunition hut, they soon find that the captured American soldiers are hidden beneath it. When all Japanese soldiers leave the area, the two go down to tell the soldiers to allow the Japs to take their next victim so that their guard is down when they stage a jail break. When the Japanese take the next American soldier to be tortured, Cap and Bucky return with weapons for the others and they stage a break. They save the American soldier and when Kioto arrives in his car, Cap and Bucky take it and flee with the soldiers to one of the other huts. There they radio the American base and order an air strike while they fight their way through the Japanese.

They load up Kioto's car with explosives and sends it running into the Japanese soldiers causing a massive explosion. While the American soldiers flee in a boat, Captain America and Bucky flee in a Japanese bomber while the Americans air strike the island killing all the Japanese. When Captain America and Bucky land at the American base they are thanked for their efforts. They then slip away to change back to their civilian identities and run right into Sgt. Duffy who for a moment believes they are Captain America and Bucky, but quickly dismisses the idea as too ridiculous to consider.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky, Sgt. Duffy, General Haywood, Imperial Japan

Alibi For Grim Deceit!

At Nazi headquarters in Berlin, Marshall Kronin tells an assemblage of high ranking Nazi officials that if they wanted to defeat the Sub-Mariner the key to victory was to capture his female companion, the New York police woman named Betty Dean.

Days later, Namor is spending a lull in the war in Europe at home in Atlantis when he is told by one of his subjects that they received a radio report that Betty Dean had been kidnapped by the Nazis. The Sub-Mariner then swims to Germany in order to rescue his longtime friend. Arriving in Berlin, the Sub-Mariner boldly walks into Nazi military intelligence to the surprise of all the Nazis he passes. Entering Mashall Kronin's office. Kronin is shocked to see the Sub-Mariner and is shocked when Namor pretends like he hadn't heard of Betty's capture. When Kronin tells him, Namor then shocks him further by telling him he doesn't care that they have her prisoner.

Betty is brought into the room and is shocked when Namor tells Kronin that he is no longer helping the Americans and is now offering his aid to the Nazi cause. Convincing Kronin of his change of allegiance he then suggests that Nazi forces converge near Murmansk, Russia, as there is a convoy that is scheduled to pass through there, telling them that he intends to ruin the rudders on the ships to make them easier targets.

However, this is all a trick and Namor intends to warn the allies. However, this plan backfires when he approaches an American P.T. Boat and it begins to fire upon him. Namor realizes that the Nazi propaganda machine has worked faster than him and the news about his "defection" has been broadcast and proliferated in the news. With nobody believing his warnings, the Sub-Mariner quickly changes his plans. Catching up with the Nazi raiding party, he boards the ship and begins directing the captain of the vessel. However, he tricks them into getting blasted out of the water by Allied battleships.

Namor is knocked out in an explosion, and the escaping crew takes him prisoner and brings him back to Marshall Kronin. Realizing that the Sub-Mariner has tricked them, Kronin has come to Namor's cell to personally execute him. However, the Nazi gets too close and Namor manages to break out of his cell and take Kronin prisoner. He then forces the Nazi commander to lead him to Betty's cell. Freeing Betty, Namor then fights their way out of the Nazi base. They flee to an airfield where Namor steals a Nazi fighter plane. Flying out to sea he tells Betty that he was with the Allies the whole time. Namor then has Betty parachute onto an American vessel waiting to pick her up and then sends the Nazi fighter crashing into a Nazi U-Boat while he dives safely into the ocean.

Recurring Characters

Sub-Mariner, Betty Dean, Nazis

The Rescue of the Partisan's Sister

Along the French-Swiss border in the small town of Blanc, Free French resistance fighter Frank Piraud and his men attempt to free their town from the Nazis and the martial law imposed by their commander Colonel von Bitters.

In order to try and stop Piraud's attacks on his men, von Bitters has his sister Ruth brought to him and forces her to write a letter to her brother to be delivered to his camp in the hills and then forces her to prepare a feast for his men. Von Bitters sends one of his men to deliver the message under the flag of truce, however the soldier is jumped by the Destroyer who steals his uniform and takes the note up to Piraud's camp.

Arriving at the resistance camp, the Destroyer reveals himself to them and delivers the letter. It is a distress from Ruth that the Nazis intend to wipe out their town and kill her if he does not surrender himself immediately. However, the Destroyer does not allow Frank to surrender himself as he has a plan as to how to defeat the Nazis as he overheard the Colonel mention that he was throwing a party that night.

Sneaking their way to Ruth's home, they knock on the back door and present themselves to Frank's sister. Then, the Destroyer, Frank and some of the resistance fighters pose as waiters for the party and deliver meals to Von Bitters and his men. They then take the Nazi soldiers by surprise by throwing the entrees at the Nazis and then gunning them down. Learning that Von Bitters is upstairs with Ruth, they rush up there. The Destroyer enters first, attacking Von Bitters, but allows Frank to knock the Nazi commander out.

The Destroyer then disguises himself as Colonel von Bitters and after rigging the resistance base with explosives orders the the Colonel's troops to attack it. While the Nazis are raiding the abandoned base, Frank sets off the explosives killing them all and allowing the resistance fighters to take back the village of Blanc.

Recurring Characters

Destroyer, Nazis

Continuity Notes

• Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3 this Destroyer appearance is attributed to Kevin Marlow.

The Terror of Triple Destruction!

The United States has been terrorized by a Nazi agent calling himself the Triple Destruction. The authorities are stumped at trying to stop the Nazi from destroying more munitions plants. When Triple Destruction radios a threat that he will destroy all three war plants in Bellville at the stroke of midnight. As a mocking jester, the Triple Destruction tells the authorities that it will be using Western Union time adding precision to their attacks.

With no clues as to the Triple Destruction's true identity, the authorities call in the Whizzer to try and help crack the case. Not knowing who the Triple Destruction is, the Whizzer orders the three defense plants under lock down provisions with only necessary staff on call. Despite this, the Triple Threat and his minions manage to take all three plants and begins setting their explosives, confident that despite the Whizzer's speed, he could not disarm all three bombs at once.

However, the Whizzer manages to capture Triple Destruction and his two accomplices before they could set off their bombs at midnight. When the Triple Destruction asks the Whizzer how he managed to pull off this feat, the Whizzer tells him that they used time against him: In that they set the clock ahead in each of the munitions plants five minutes ahead of one-another giving the Whizzer the added time needed to stop all three bombers.

Recurring Characters

Whizzer