Blonde Phantom Comics #12

Skyride to Doom!

It's a quiet day at the office of Mark Mason, so quiet that he asks his secretary Louise Grant out on a date to the baseball game. However, before they can go a call comes in from Colonel Ryder who asks Mark to come to the test of a new radio controlled atomic bomb and prevent any attempts at sabotage and leaves. Louise decides to follow after Mark as the Blonde Phantom.

Meanwhile at the home of Signor Korte, Korte meets with Senator Mushbell to discuss the test of the radio-controlled atomic bomb. He pays Mushbell for the information and then goes to a secret landing site for a plane containing the spy known as False Face. He pays False Face to steal the plans for the radio-controlled atom bomb and then sabotage the test so that the United States scraps the project while Korte sells the plans to the highest bidder. In order to accomplish this, False Face is ordered to take the place of Colonel Ryder.

At the military base, Mark Mason meets with Colonel Ryder when they are suddenly attacked by False Face and his gang. From the building across the street, the Blonde Phantom spots the fight and uses a wood plant to cross the distance between the two buildings to watch from the skylight above. She witnesses as Mark and Colonel Ryder are knocked out, and False Face assumes Ryder's likeness. As the real Ryder is carried out to be disposed of elsewhere, Blonde Phantom decides to follow after the real Ryder, believing it the only way to expose the impostor.

As Blonde Phantom follows after the gang, the False Face revives Mark and not only fools him with his disguise, but convinces him that they fought off the gang without issue. Meanwhile, Blonde Phantom has tracked the gang back to a cabin in the woods. She storms in on them and takes one of their guns and demands that they untie Colonel Ryder. However, before they can comply, Signor Korte comes in from behind and knocks out the Blonde Phantom. He then orders his men to tie her up and set up some TNT to blow them up. With three minutes until the explosion, Signor Korte bids farewell to his enemy. Left to die, Blonde Phantom tips her chair over and uses broken pieces of glass to cut through her bonds. With only moments to spare, she tosses the TNT out a window where it explodes harmlessly. She then unties Colonel Ryder and explains what happened as they rush back to the base to stop the atomic bomb launch.

Meanwhile, Mark and "Colonel Ryder" are walking through the test site and Mark begins to get suspicious when "Ryder" begins asking too many questions. Before they go to watch the demonstration they are joined by "Ryder's" friend Signor Kort. Mark finds this very interesting but cannot act on anything due to Kort's diplomatic immunity. "Ryder" then takes Signor Korte to where the bomb is being held. Allowed admittance alone, the two reset the targeting of the bomb so that it will strike New York City. Spotting Signor Korte leaving the warehouse alone, Mark storms in and catches False Face in the act of reprogramming the bomb. However, as he removes False Face's disguise, he is knocked out by one of the soldiers on guard -- really one of False Face's men who infiltrated security. They then place Mark in the cockpit of the bomb so that he will be killed in the explosion as well.

Blonde Phantom and the real Colonel Ryder arrive back at the base just as the bomb has been launched. Quickly False Face is arrested and Blonde Phantom gets a pilot to fly her after the bomb in a plane. They manage to catch up to the bomb just as Mark is coming around. Realizing that the destination of the bomb has been changed, Mark changes it back to it's original target. When Blonde Phantom's plane gets close enough, she tosses him a parachute and he jumps to safety. Joining Mark on the ground, both Blonde Phantom and Mark watch as the bomb explodes, marking the test a complete success. Later they question False Face in jail and he denies working for anybody. Back at his office, Mark wonders who Blonde Phantom really is, unaware that she is really his secretary Louise Grant. While at his home, Signor Kort vows to eventually succeed in his plans.

Recurring Characters

• Blonde Phantom

• Mark Mason

• Signor Korte

Murder at the Opera!

Mr. Wu and Alfie are at the opera house watching a Pagliacci musical featuring Canio the Clown. After the show the pair are leaving out the back way when they hear cries for help. They rush back into the opera and into the dressing room of the tenor Gino Marino dead. They also find his nephew Peter Barton who was apparently knocked out in the attack. After a brief scuffle with some of the opera staff who mistakenly accuse Mr. Wu of murdering Marino, the detective begins examining the crime scene.

While examining the room, they are shown by Peter that the killer came in through the screen. They also meet with Jim Foley, the stage manager and Alan Matthews who is Gino's understudy. Mr. Wu also finds some burned papers when Alfie suddenly sees someone standing out side the window. Alfie pounces at the intruder who tries to fend the boy off with a pair of knives. However, Alfie easily subdues his attacker and Mr. Wu takes the two knives. He notes that one has the green paint from the screen on it and the other has Marino's blood. The attacker introduces himself as Carstairs, the stage doorman but denies killing Marino and suspects that Matthews had done it. Wu lets Carstairs go and they go back into the dressing room to examine the burned papers, and identify them as checks belonging to Marino.

Suddenly they hear Matthews crying for help, and find him murdered on stage by someone dressed up as Canio the clown. Canio escapes on a horse-drawn buggy leaving no clues. However, Mr. Wu takes Alfie back to the dressing room having deduced who the killer really is. They spot Canio the Clown watching from outside and subdue him, revealing him to be Barton. Mr. Wu explains to Alfie that he realized that Barton was the killer because the way the screen was cut could have only been done from the inside. Later when they turn Barton over to the police, he confesses that her murdered Marino because Marino had found out that Barton was forging checks in his name.

Recurring Characters

• Mister Wu

• Alfie

Scourge of the Spiderman!

Madeline Joyce is driving home when she is stopped by a motorcycle police officer who tells her that the area she is heading to is off limits after a series of strange murders. She reveals to him that she is Miss America when they suddenly hear a cry for help. Miss America rushes off and spots a man standing over a victim who is covered in a massive glowing spider web. Miss America briefly battles the strange "Spiderman" until the office scares him off with gun shots. The officer takes the victim to the hospital, while Miss America takes the strange webbing back to the police station to be examined.

There, the police scientist is stumped as to what the glowing webbing can be made out of. They call in Professor Morte, an entomologist who believes that the killings are being done by a giant spider, an idea that has been thus far dismissed as crazy. Morte and his assistant soon arrive, and Miss America recognizes Morte as the man who she fought earlier. While she believes that Morte is trying to further confuse the police, Miss America decides to force him to show his hand. Taking the web, she flies off telling the police that she is going to catch herself a giant spider.

She stalks outside the police station and waits for Professor Morte to leave and notes that he has rushed out in a hurry. She then goes into the nearby woods where she is attacked by the Spiderman again. The attacker catches her in another spider web, but when he attempts to stab her she kicks the knife from his hand and he flees. Miss America then follows him back to Professor Morte's lab. When she confronts Morte about being the Spiderman, he denies it. Suddenly, another man tackles Miss America and traps her in another web, and the Spiderman reveals himself to be Morte's assistant, who disguised himself as Morte in order to frame him for his murders.

He then takes them into the basement where he shows them massive spiders that he has bred on human blood that he intends to use to take over the world. He then prepares to drain Miss America of her blood, but she manages to break loose from the web and land a kick on the Spiderman, sending him reeling into the glass cases where his spiders are kept. The glass breaks and the spiders quickly devour him while Miss America and Professor Morte escape. Later at police headquarters, the chief of police tells Miss America that they managed to kill the spiders with poison gas and Professor Morte thanks Miss America for stopping his insane assistant.

Recurring Characters

• Miss America

Death After Dinner!

Blonde Phantom pays a visit to the office of Mark Mason who is stumped how government secrets are being leaked out, and they suspect that Senior Korte is responsible, but have no proof of his involvement. Blonde Phantom soon leaves so that she can return as Louise Grant, her alter-ego who is on a lunch break.

Meanwhile, at the home of Signor Korte, Senator Mushbell rushes in and tells them that there is a problem with their plan: One of the wives of the government officials they have been hypnotizing to reveal government secrets has started to become suspicious. Korte then orders the wife to be eliminated and sends a coded message to his agent Carl to do so and to get more government secrets. Carl gets the instructions and remarks on how brilliant they are.

That night at the Colonial Club, Blonde Phantom and Mark Mason join a number of government officials and their wives for dinner. While the men discuss business, Blonde Phantom speaks with the wives. She learns that they go to a beauty parlour called La Glamour run by Mrs. Breese that does amazing manicures. They all were tipped off to the place by Grace Carleson, who suddenly keels over in the conversation. A doctor examines her and determines that she had died suddenly of natural causes. When they learn that Grace was in good health, Blonde Phantom and Mark Mason decide to examine her body later in the morgue. There they find that Grace's hand has a cut on the tip of her recently manicured finger. Although Mark doesn't make any connections, Blonde Phantom suspects La Glamour is somehow tied in and decides to go alone.

She goes for a manicure, and Mrs. Breese accidentally cuts her finger and then applies antiseptic. However, this turns out to be a drug and using a light Mrs. Breese seemingly puts the Blonde Phantom under her hypnotic control. They manage to get the location for a bomb formula and the combination to the safe of the chief of the OSS Who has it. After getting this information, they snap the Blonde Phantom out of her hypnotic spell and she has no memory of what happened. Carl goes to Senior Korte and they celebrate this victory before Carl goes to steal the plans.

However, when they open the box it turns out to be a jack in the box, and they are suddenly surrounded by OSS agents led by Mark Mason and Blonde Phantom. When they attempt to question Carl he suddenly keels over, a victim of poisoning. When the story hits the radio news, Senior Korte and Senator Mushbell listen. Korte gloats that once more he has managed to avoid being implicated and captured once again.

Recurring Characters

• Blonde Phantom

• Mark Mason

• Signor Korte