Captain America Comics #35

Aug 1

Aug 1 Captain America Comics #35

The Gargoyle Strikes

George Tarragh is a wealthy European who always wears a mask becomes an international man of mystery and fame. However, unknown to all he wears a mask because he is hideously deformed. Following the outbreak of World War II he begins to believe the Nazis doctrines of a master race and decides to champion their cause as the Gargoyle. Upon reading about the Sir Anthony Hutchin's trip to Florida to discuss with the President of the United States a new British invention to enhance the precision instruments he allies himself with some Nazi spies to steal the device.

As the Gargoyle spies on soldiers in the area he spots Private Steve Rogers and Bucky making arrangements with some local Seminole Native Americans to put on festival for the British ambassadors arrival, unaware that the Gargoyle is listening in and planning to strike then. The following night when Sir Anthony arrives with his daughter Anne, he gives his daughter a compact that has a hidden microfilm of the precision instrument plans, getting his daughter to promise to keep its location a secret. As the festival begins, the Nazi spies surround it waiting for the Gargoyle to strike, but they are spotted by Rogers and Barnes who give them chase.

While everyone is distracted, the Gargoyle (having doffed his disguise) tosses a bomb into the festival causing continued distraction. While Steve goes to Anne's aid, the Gargoyle kidnaps Sir Anthony and escapes. When one of the Natives claims to have seen a "gorilla" carrying Hutchin away, Steve and James decide to investigate later that night as Captain America and Bucky. They first go to the hotel where Anne is staying to check to see if she is okay. They arrive just as the Nazi spies finished ransacking the room. While the rush to the roof tops to confront them, one of the Nazis falls off the roof to his death. As Bucky goes to search the body Captain America attacks the Gargoyle, but the foe gets away. In the dead spies pocket they find the latitude and longitude of an uncharted island that is the Nazis base.

Along the way they run into Anne Hutchin who had managed to evade capture by disguising herself as one of the natives. She tells them that she received a note demanding that she surrender the plans to the spies if she wishes to see her father alive again. Elsewhere, as the Gargoyle and his minions fail to get Sir Arthur to talk they realize that his daughter must have the information they seek and with Captain America and Bucky after them, they begin preparing a trap for them.

The Gargoyle takes a rowboat out into the water and waits for Captain America to attack. When Captain America rushes the Gargoyle, the man-beast dives into the water while the Nazi spies grab Bucky and Anne at shore and speed off to the island. Captain America follows after them and soon finds it is not an island they are hiding out in, but a derelict ship. Aboard the ship, the Gargoyle has put his disguise back on in order to try and coax Anne into giving over the plans. She refuses however when she goes to powder her nose, the secret compartment in her compact opens causing the plans to fall out. As the Gargoyle grabs the plans and prepares to leave for Berlin, Captain America busts through a one of the porthole and frees the captives, fighting off the Nazi spies.

When the Gargoyle attempts to escape in a auto-gyro, Captain America climbs onto the craft and in battling the Gargoyle causes it to crash. The Gargoyle is easily tied up and as the Gargoyle is handed over to the military he vows to get revenge against Captain America someday.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky, Nazis

Mystery of the Horrible Hermit

The Human Torch and Toro are on a sailing trip along the Mississippi River when they hear gunshots. Going to investigate they find a group of escaped Nazi prisoners of war clashing with American troops. It appears that the Nazis are being led by a local Civil War veteran named Herman the Hermit. Although the Human Torch and Toro capture the most recent escapees, Herman the Hermit escapes. When the military officer tells them where to find the Hermits shack, the two heroes head off to confront Herman.

At the hermits home, the Nazi spies begin plotting another attack on the POW camp, and have prepared a vacuum sealed room in order to trap the Human Torch and Toro. When the two heroes arrive, they are tricked into entering the room and trapped inside where they are unable to use their flames and at risk of suffocating. When the "Hermit" and the Nazi spies leave, the real hermit -- having been kept tied up in his own home and replaced by a Nazi spy named Fritz von Arnheim -- comes to the Torch and Toro's rescue, freeing the two heroes before they suffocate.

The Human Torch and Toro then chase after the spies, capture them and when von Arnheim attempts to escape, the Torch forces his car to crash. When the Torch unmasks the Nazi spy he reveals him to be one of the FBI's most wanted spies.

Recurring Characters

Human Torch, Toro, Nazis

The Steel Mask

Steve Rogers and James Barnes are sight seeing ancient Aztec ruins while on their day off from protecting the boarder. At the same time Professor Maxwell Dix and his daughter Susan are exploring the temple to find a long lost brazen idol. Their examining of the ruins uncovers a secret passage way leading into the giant pyramid. Inside they find the massive idol they are searching for. As Maxwell is attempting to decipher the hieroglyphs when they are suddenly confronted by a man in a steel mask.

The Man In the Steel Mask claims to be an ancient Mayan ruler that has been slumbering in the temple and plans to take over the world now that he has been freed. As the man subdues Maxwell, Susan flees and her screams are head by Rogers and Barnes. The pair change into Captain America and Bucky and go to investigate what the commotion is about. They arrive as the man threatens Maxwell with violence if he does not translate the inscriptions so that he can activate the idol. The man manages to knock the two heroes out with a single blow and then ties Maxwell to a rack and threatens to torture him if he does not talk. When this fails to work, the Man in the Steel Mask decides to harm Maxwell's daughte rand exits the temple to bring her back. When Captain America and Bucky revive, they attempt to prevent the Steel Masked Man from capturing Susan but fail. Chasing after the pair, they are trapped in a room.

As the man forces Maxwell to translate the inscriptions, the Man in the Iron Mask activates the idol and commands it to grab the two explorers. Inside the other room, the two heroes find explosives stored in the room and use them to blow up the door. They free Maxwell and Susan while the Man in the Steel Mask rallies an army of Mexicans who believe him to be their ancient leader. Captain America and Bucky send the Mexicans fleeing by reactivating the idol, but the Man in the Steel Mask manages to retake control of the idol. Before he can destroy Captain America and Bucky, the two heroes blow it up with a grenade. Confronting the Man in the Steel Mask, Captain America knocks him out with a single blow. The punch also breaks the man's steel mask revealing him to be a Nazi spy.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky

The Case of the Horror Money

Steve Rogers and James Barnes are in Washington D.C. where they are put on guard duty at the Engraving Department of the United States Banknote Company. Steve is convinced that there is something afoot when a previous supply of the special silk paper used to print money has been stolen.

Later that morning master engraver Ezra Jenkins is visited by his manager Peter Stromboli. Peter tells Ezra to put his engravings in the vault for the day. As Ezra begins to do so he finds a note warning that his granddaughter Gloria is in danger, prompting him to rush out of to find out whats wrong. Unknown to him, there is nothing wrong with his granddaughter at all, as she is working her usual shift as a cigarette girl at a local club. She too gets a note advising her that her grandfather is in danger and rushes off to the Engraving Department to see what's wrong.

Gloria arrives at the facility first and has security call up to her grandfather. Steve and Bucky escort Ezra to the main gate to see his granddaughter and try to figure out the strange set of circumstances. Ezra carries the engraving plates with him and when his meeting is interrupted when some men rush the gates knocking out Steve and James and capturing Ezra and Gloria.

Weeks later after Steve and James have recovered, the Unites States is facing a crisis when a flood of thousand dollar bills are appearing in circulation in a massive surplus, stranger still these bills are 100% genuine. When the story hits the newspapers, Steve and James realize that there is a connection and a Nazi plot. They decide to investigate, but not as Captain America and Bucky -- at least, not yet.

Going to the Second National Bank they watch as Peter Stromboli -- posing as L.K. Waters of the Waters Department Stores -- enters and breaks a $1000 bill. After he does so, Steve and James follow after him in a taxi cab. They follow him into Virginia, and the pair realize that their drive is in league with the counterfeiters. They duck down and change into their costumes waiting for possible treachery from their driver. This doesn't stop them from being ambushed, and both heroes are knocked out. Believing Captain America to have been killed by the blow, they take Bucky prisoner and leave. Not believing his partner to have been killed, Bucky leaves a trail of gum balls so that Cap can follow him later to the Nazi's hideout.

Captain America revives and uses Bucky's trail where he finds the the Nazi spies forcing Ezra to make the worthless bills in a plot to flood the market. To do so, they threaten to torture Gloria if he refuses. Captain America makes short work of the spies and knocked out "Waters", unmasking him as Stromboli and turning him and his network of spies to the authorities.