Captain America Comics #23
The Mystery of the One Hundred Corpses
Steve and Bucky discover dozens of corpses at a quarry's pool. The man responsible, Izan, shoots at them. They tackle him as Cap and Bucky but Izan escapes. Authorities determine the pool's 99 victims died of natural causes. When Cap and Bucky meet a boy crying for his dying father, they find the "father" recovered, yet a hearse transports his doctor and a corpse. Cap and Bucky follow the doctor to a hideout, where he unmasks as Izan. They attack, but Izan escapes, killing his own men in the process. At the quarry, Cap and Bucky find Izan with over 100 spies who have assumed the identities of the quarry victims, most of whom are air raid wardens. The spies detect and overwhelm the two, whom Izan leaves in a stone-crushing machine, but Cap gets Bucky to kick a rock into a gear, shutting it off. Izan and company light up Manhattan for a Nazi air raid, but Cap and Bucky confront them at a power plant, where Cap punches Izan into a console, short-circuiting the plant and throwing the city into darkness. FBI agents arrive, reporting that US planes intercepted the Nazi planes.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Bucky, Sgt. Duffy, Nazis
Terror At the Shipyards
After spies switch cargo on a government truck. Torch and Toro attend a ship launching, where the ceremonial bottle explodes upon striking the ship, which Torch and Toro save from sinking. After saving a second ship, the two consult shipyards manager Hefler. Later, the spies open fire on Torch and Toro, who melt the bullets and pursue. They enter the spies' hideout, but the spies use "foamite" to extinguish their flames. bind them in straitjackets. and depart. Using his teeth. Toro unties Torch, who then frees him, and they return to the shipyard, where multiple ships have launched. They prevent a remote-controlled TNT-loaded boat from sinking one ship. Torch leads Toro to Hefler's office, which overlooks the entire shipyard, finding Hefler allied with the spies. They knock the gang out and turn them over to government agents.
Recurring Characters
Human Torch, Toro, Nazis
Battling The Deadly Snapper
In Louisiana for training. Steve and Bucky's unit march past a chain gang, from which Killer Bane escapes. Cap and Bucky. followed by guards and hounds, pursue Bane into Swamp Sinister, where the gigantic, bulletproof Turtle-Man offers protection and his giant turtles delay Kane's pursuers. Cap and Bucky make it past, but Turtle-Man downs them and escapes. Later. Turtle-Man brings Kane to the hideout of his gang, the Swamp Killers, all freed con as float riders. At Turtle-Man's command, they rob a escape into the swamp by boat. Cap and Bucky follow, using vines to swing past alligators. Turtle-Man, withdrawn into his shell to resemble a boulder, takes them by surprise, hurling them into quicksand. Cap uses his shield to cut down a tree branch, which the two climb to freedom. At the hideout, they take the Killers by surprise and defeat them, including Turtle-Man. revealed as criminal "Rocks" Rico in a costume. Prison guards take the whole gang into custody.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Bucky, Sgt. Duffy
The Case of the Bund's Bonds
Roddy Colt becomes suspicious of a group of men selling war bonds that are too good to be true. His suspicions are further piqued when a young girl tells him that her poor family has been threatened if they did not purchase the bonds as well. Roddy, as the Secret Stamp stows aboard the back of the car belonging to the suspicious bonds salesmen.
When the car arrives at an abandoned house, the Secret Stamp overhears them admit that they are Nazi spies using the money to fund their espionage activities. Attacking the spies, the Secret Stamp is overpowered and captured. The spies then tie him to a post that rests next to a pit. Tying weights to his feet they then douse the bonds on his hands with acid, leaving him to eventually fall down the pit to his death while they go out and sell more junk bonds. Left alone, the Secret Stamp manages to turn himself around so that when the acid eats through the bonds around his hands he can grab the post and maneuver himself to safety.
Finding evidence that proves that the men selling the bonds are spies, Roddy then telegraphs a message to the police and rushes to nearby Riverdale where he confronts the spies and tackles them before the authorities can arrive and arrest them. Later as the leader of the spies is being dragged into a police van, Roddy happens by and mocks him making the spy realize -- incredibly -- that the boy before him is the Secret Stamp.
Recurring Characters
Secret Stamp, Nazis
The Idol of Doom
Steve and Bucky observe a turbaned man and a woman out on Snake River at night. When the man chants to "Decka." the pair's boat is encircled by flame, then disappears. Steve and Bucky dive in. finding only the card case of "Prince Ba'rahm. Oriental Mystic." Days later, the woman's body is found. Soon another woman's body surfaces; both are identified as wealthy society women. A third woman, Mrs. Dale, arranges for her wealth to be claimed by a third party bearing her signature, then visits Ba'rahm. Meanwhile. Steve and Bucky consult Brady, the dead women's attorney, who directs them to Ba'rahm. Ba'rahm's underlings overwhelm the heroes, who are bound and taken to an underground machine room. Cap and Bucky escape and knock out their captors. Through a telescope, they see Ba'rahm and Mrs. Dale on the river and Cap realizes the machinery pumps oil into the river to create the burning circle, then sucks the rowboat into the room. Shao the Dwarf knocks out Cap and Bucky.
When Ba'rahm returns, he takes them to another chamber, opens a river valve, and leaves them to drown. Reviving. Cap and Bucky swim up the gushing pipe and reach the river's surface. They break into Ba'rahm's seance room, where Mrs. Dale is unconscious. They knock out Ba'rahm and company, but a masked man. Ba'rahm's employer, enters. Struck by Cap's shield, the man burns his hand on an incense brazier, which he topples, setting the warehouse ablaze. Cap and Bucky escape with Mrs. Dale, leaving Ba'rahm and company behind. Back in Manhattan. Cap and Bucky confront Brady, whose burned hand identifies him as Ba'rahm's employer, having sent his clients to be bamboozled into signing fortunes over to Ba'rahm. who promised them eternal life but killed them instead. Brady draws a pistol out. stumbling, crashes through his window, falling to his death.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Bucky, Sgt. Duffy
