Blonde Phantom Comics #21
Kidnapped into the Future!
Louise Grant is working in the office of her employer Mark Mason hoping that Mark will ask her out on a date. She gets more than she bargained for when he bursts in and asks her to accompany him to the Fair of the Future being put on by Professor Kall to show off new inventions. They rush to the fair where they find that many upstanding members of society such as scientists, politicians and celebrities are also on hand. Professor Kall invites them to board his newly invented rocket ship. When they are all aboard, he tells them that it is really a time machine and transports them to the 30th Century. There they find armed guards waiting for them. Louise slips away to change into the Blonde Phantom. They are soon all captured by the guards who take them to a zoo where they are to be put on display so that the future people can learn about the 20th Century.
With the guards treating them with utter contempt due to their "primitive" natures, Blonde Phantom tricks one of them into turning off the force field that keeps her in her cell and jumps him. She then steals his uniform and uses it to escape the zoo. She then uses a teleportation system to transport herself to the home of the Excellency. There she gets inside his home and finds that he has been monitoring her progress. He then tells her that their advanced society is completely automated eliminating the need for freethought. The Blonde Phantom then comes up with a way to defeat him.
Soon, the Blonde Phantom and the Excellency arrive at the zoo and free the captives. They then all board the ship and the Excellency is forced to send them back to the present, telling the Blonde Phantom they will all forget except for her and that he is accompanying her to prevent him from committing the same acts again. Louise wakes up in the present with Mark in the office. Mark does not remember what happened, but tells Louise that somebody is there for her: the Excellency.
Recurring Characters
Blonde Phantom
Mark Mason
Continuity Notes
The possible future that the Blonde Phantom visits exists in an alternate reality. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #7 entry on the Louise Mason identifies this as Reality-49121.
The Thing That Haunted Hawkins Lake!
Louise Grant gets a telegram from Mark Mason at his office telling her to meet him at the airport as they are going on a trip to California. Arriving at the airport, Louise learns that they are being hired on a case to investigate the so called "Thing in the Lake" that has been haunting Hawkings Lake, an old gold prospect that has been turned into property owned by P.O. Hawkins. Hawkins has given the owners of the summer homes she rents the option to buy the land, but they are being frightened off one by one by the mysterious haunting.
When they arrive in California, Mark is surprised to find that Hawkins is a woman, Prunella Hawkins to be exact. She is waiting at the airport for them with the sheriff who really called for Mark as Prunella finds the stories nothing more than hogwash. Along the way, the sheriff explains the various hauntings that happened in the area. When they arrive at the Hawkings resort, both Mark and Louise are given rooms for the night. Before retiring for the evening, the sheriff tells them that Hawkins has been going bankrupt and that J.J. Jackson has been buying up all the property on the land. Coincidentally enough, Jackson is currently staying at the same hotel.
That evening as she is retiring for the night Louise is woken by a scream and changes into the Blonde Phantom and rushes outside. She spots someone going into Mark's room and turns and rushes to his front door. She arrives just to see Mark exit trying to stop someone who had walked through his room. Rushing around the corner she spots J.J. Jackson returning to his room, rousing her suspicion. Blonde Phantom returns to bed but is woken shortly thereafter by another scream. Rushing out she finds that woman had fainted after seeing something and they spot an old man out by the water.
As Mark rushes off to investigate, Louise changes into the Blonde Phantom again and gets there first, catching Prunella Hawkins and Jake Crockett (an elderly gold prospector) who have been putting on the ruse. Prunella explains that there is no crime against haunting one's own property and tells them that she and Crockett have been trying to scare away potential land owners so that they can dig for gold. J.J Jackson explains that they have carried this notion when the gold nugget souvenir from someone's pocket watch fell off on the beach and tells them that there has been no gold in the are for years, but the two elderly people refuse to relent. With the mystery solved, Mark and Louise return to the east coast.
Recurring Characters
Blonde Phantom
Mark Mason
The Metal Men of the Moon!
The Sub-Mariner is swimming in the ocean when he sees a massive waterspout carrying water into the sky toward the moon. Drawing too close to it, Namor finds himself sucked into space and to the moon. There he finds himself in the presence of sentient robots. One explains that they are the only remnants of the society that used to live on the moon that had died off. The robot explains that they need water like machines on Earth require oil. After explaining their need of the water, the robot tells Namor that he will never tell the people of Earth about his accidental discovery. Believing the people of Earth would attack or force the robots to pay for the water they have taken, the robot knocks Namor out. Bringing him back to the robots base, they use a device to wipe out his memories of their existence and return him to Earth. As the robots watch the Sub-Mariner from their view screen, Namor does not recall his adventure to the moon and laments how he wishes something interesting would happen to him.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner
Continuity Notes
The “Metal Men of the Moon” are very likely from someplace else. It was an early science fiction trope that aliens would come from other planets or celestial bodies in our own solar system. This became less the case once the general public became aware of the fact that no other planets in our solar system sustain life. Although there is no explanation for these Metal Men, Marvel’s typical answer to a situation like this is that the aliens were from somewhere else and briefly inhabited the location in question. The most common example are the “Stone Men from Saturn” who appeared in Journey into Mystery #83.
