Captain America Comics #41
The Killer Beasts of Notre Dame
In Vichy, France, the Nazis have installed a new governor who has to deal with rebellion from the French citizens in the Nazi occupied territory. In order to cow the people over the governor initiates a plan wherein he has inmates from the local insane asylum dressed up like Gargoyles and sent out to attack the people. While the French citizens plead for help, the Germans then pretend that the Gargoyles are imaginary, and in order to continue their ruse, actual gargoyle statues are slathered with blood maintaining their hoax that the stone gargoyles in town are coming to life and attacking French people. When a prominent group of French citizens confront the new governor and demand he does something, he suggests that if the creatures don't appear to be attacking any Germans, then perhaps it was best they started acting more like German people.
Sensing some sort of trickery, the head of a French resistance movement secretly meets with Captain America and Bucky who agree to investigate the situation further and smuggle themselves into town. There they spot a Gargoyle stalking the streets, seemingly being led by a Nazi soldier. Attacking both the Gargoyle and the Nazi, Captain America and Bucky are forced to flee the scene when their fight attracts more guards. Rushing to the local Notre Dame cathedral, the pair rush the guards and then scale the walls. Up on the roof of the building they catch a Nazi soldier slathering the gargoyle statues with blood and realize that some kind of hoax is going on.
Captain America and Bucky are soon swarmed by Nazi agents who easily overpower the duo. The governor then has them tied to the cathedrals massive bell to be killed when it is rang. Left to their own fate, Cap and Bucky manage to break free and begin fighting their way to freedom. During the fight with the governor, the cells containing the Gargoyles are accidentally opened leading to a fight between the insane asylum patients and the Nazi soldiers. During the course of the fight the leader of the French resistance shoots the Nazi governor in the back, killing him and causing him to fall from the roof of the cathedral. Investigating the battle below, Cap, Bucky and the resistance fighters find that the Gargoyles and Nazis slaughtered each other. With the battle won, Captain America and Bucky are thanked for their help.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Bucky, Nazis
Berlin's Mistress of Death
As the Human Torch and Toro are returning to New York City, below them a woman named Elsa is being escorted home by a merchant sailor named Tommy. As she says good night to him they are being watched by two men in the shadows. As Tommy leaves, the men murder him and steal his dog tags before feeling as the Human Torch and Toro are attracted by Elsa's screams. When questioning her, Elsa says she could not see Tommy's killers due to the fact that her fence obscured her point of view. Investigating Tommy's body, they find that the only thing stolen from his person was his dog tags.
Going to FBI headquarters, they meet with the director of the local office who tells them that Nazi spies were somehow smuggling information about shipment routes out of Lisbon. Realizing that Elsa's accounting of the events don't add up the two return to her home. There they surprised by the two killers -- who are Nazi spies working with Elsa, a spy herself -- douse their flames with a chemical and place them in air-tight glass coffins.
Elsa and her henchmen explain to the two heroes that their agent in Lisbon had smuggled the secret information through the dog tags of merchant sailors who were returning home on shore leave. They then take the Torch and Toro out to the East River and dump them into the water. However, the two heroes super heat the glass so that it shatters when they land in the water, allowing them to escape.
Chasing Elsa's getaway car across the Brooklyn Bridge, the two heroes force the Nazi spies off the bridge and into the water below where they drown, ending their threat.
Recurring Characters
Human Torch, Toro, Nazis
The Murder Brain
Acting on a tip from a local stool pigeon, Captain America and Bucky rush to the local prison where death row inmate "Tiger" Duncan has managed to break out of his cell and attempt to escape using a gun made with smuggled parts. The two heroes capture Duncan just as he finishes scaling the wall and turns him back over to the authorities.
Shortly after his recapture, Duncan is sent to the electric chair where he is electrocuted and declared dead. However, as the prison doctor performs an autopsy on Duncan's body, he is shocked to find that while Duncan's body is dead, his brain is still alive and intact. Suddenly, the Brain establishes a telepathic link and begins forcing the doctor to do his bidding. The living brain of Tiger Duncan then commands the doctor to get revenge for him on the men who sent him to the hot seat.
First, he sends the doctor after the District Attorney who helped put Duncan away. Arriving at the D.A.'s office just as the D.A. is on the phone with the warden of the prison, the doctor shoots the D.A., with Duncan's voice speaking out of his mouth. Overhearing this voice over the phone, the warden is shocked that Duncan could still possibly be alive. He calls in Captain America and Bucky again, and they search Duncan's grave, finding his body intact and leaving them to wonder what is really going on.
Meanwhile, the doctor is then forced to attack the judge who sentenced Duncan to death, and strangles him to death. Hearing about the murder, Captain America and Bucky investigate the scene and find a broken thermometer at the scene of the crime. Later while considering the evidence, Steve Rogers realizes that the killer is the doctor and the two heroes rush to tell the warden.
They arrive just as the doctor is attempting to stab the warden to death. Captain America stops the doctor, knocking him out. Looking at the doctors face, the two heroes are shocked to see that the doctor is beginning to resemble Tiger Duncan. Caught off guard, Cap and Bucky fail to stop the revived doctor from getting away, but they follow him back to the house. There they see Duncan's brain commanding him and during the fight a bullet meant for Cap knocked off aim causing it to strike the Brain, killing it. As the Brain dies, so does the doctor who is glad to be finally free from Duncan's control.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Bucky
The Case of the Hit and Run Monster
Detective Mike Trapp and his assistant photographer Pepper Burns investigate the hit and run of a young boy and determine that the offender is John Wheland.
Recurring Characters
Mike Trapp, Pepper Burns
The School of Horror
Greystone Building is a failed office building after a number of serious accidents cause the tenants to flee the property. One day, the owner John W. Carver is falls out of a window on the top floor of the building and falls to his death. Among the witnesses are Steve Rogers and James Barnes who overhear the police ruling the death as a suicide. However, Carver's wife arrives at the scene and refuses to believe that it is a suicide explaining the string of bad luck the building has had.
This convinces Steve and James to investigate as Captain America and Bucky. Inside the building they hear strange chanting and uncover a secret room on the top floor. Inside they find a man calling himself the Schoolmaster teaching a group of men in the art of killing. Cap and Bucky are jumped from behind by some of the Schoolmaster's students who then prepare to hang the heroes. But they manage to break free and fight off the men. Chasing after the Schoolmaster, Captain America dives at the villain, but the Schoolmaster dodges the attack. Cap smashes through a nearby window and almost falls to his death if not for his quick rebound bouncing off a flagpole and back into the building.
He manages to get the drop on the Schoolmaster who explains that he was John Carver's buisness partner, Sanderson. He explains that Carver had betrayed him, sealing him in a secret room in the top floor of the building to die. Instead, Sanderson developed his Schoolmaster identity and began his school and killed Carver. With his operation foiled, Sanderson then leaps out a window and falls to his death.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Bucky
