Nick Peron

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Daring Comics #10

Death From the Unknown

The Sub-Mariner is taking some time off on the island of Burbuda where he is the guest of the British ambassador Commander Steele and is spending the day entertaining young Billy Steele with stories of his many adventures. His relaxation ends when he hears a woman's scream. Rushing to the scene, he finds a man who was controlling a horse and buggy was struck by some strange arrow made out of some unknown metal and coated with a chemical that causes skin to burn. Namor finds this mysterious and decides to investigate the death, unaware that the strangely garbed killer responsible is still nearby.

Suspecting that the killer might attack again at the local sail boat races, Namor takes Billy with him. Witnessing strangely dressed men attacking the ships and making them sink, Namor swims out to the boats and finds the crews have abandoned ship and that they were struck with harpoons that released a gas that killed them by liquefying their skin. Rushing back to shore, Namor arrives too late to see the mastermind behind this attack toss a silent bomb at the crowd, killing many and injuring Billy. With the stakes getting higher, Namor sends Billy home and returns to the beach. He is attacked by one of the strange killers their fight taking them into the water. Meanwhile, back at the ambassadors house, a group of the strange men kidnap Billy. Back in the ocean, Namor fights off his attackers by smashing their diving helmets. Taking one of the drowned men to shore, Namor is shocked to see that the man is reptilian in form.

The Sub-Mariner is then found by the authorities and brought back to the ambassadors home where he learns about Billy's capture and vows to Commander Steele that he will rescue his son. Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island, the local bank is attacked by the human leader of the reptilian men, who use their advanced weapons to rob the bank of all its valuables. When Namor hears of this, he fears that the robbery could disrupt Burbuda's economy and he returns to the beach to try and find traces of the mystery attackers. There he spots a man in trouble as his fishing line is caught on something big below the water. Diving down, Namor finds a girl who he is surprised to see can breath under water. Freeing her, Namor learns her name is Vanza. She tells him that she and the reptilian men come from the planet Venus, and that their leader is an American gangster named George Mulford who escaped the law on Earth 20 years ago in a stolen space-ship that took him to Venus. There he convinced a group of Venusians to come with him to Earth to make it rich and live in America, he forced Vanza to accompany him.

Vanza takes Namor to the cave where the Venusians are located and there Mulford has them captured and brought before him. Before he can have Namor eliminated, the hero breaks free and begins fighting the Venusians. Despite their advanced weapons, Namor gets the best of them and kills Mulford by impaling him on a stalagmite. Rescuing Billy, Namor sets off some of the silent bombs and flees with Vanza. As they swim back to shore, the secret base of the Venusians explodes killing everyone still inside.

Recurring Characters

  • Sub-Mariner

Horror Rides the Rails

The Human Torch and Toro are called in to the state of Oregon to help combat a forest fire by burning away a section of forest to prevent the spread of the fire. On their way back home they come across a collapsed rail bridge. Investigating further, they find that the bridge was blasted while a passenger train was crossing. Finding no survivors they find that something was freed from the train using a blow torch. Spotting a nearby river, the two heroes decide to follow it to try and catch up with the killers.

Up river the Ogre and his men are escaping the scene with stolen gold bullion. In order to throw off any pursuers, they are picked up by an airplane and they leave their motorboat to crash. However, minutes later when the Torch and Toro come across the wrecked boat, the Torch deduces what happened and they begin canvassing the area. Finding a plane landed at a nearby airport near a mineral mine, the Torch and Toro convince the attendant to let them use the phone. While they are calling in the situation to the local FBI field office, the man rushes to the mine where he tips the Ogre off to the two heroes presence.

The Ogre tells his minion to try and lure the heroes to the mine to eliminate them. The man does just that and when they are near the rending machinery, the Ogre dumps a load of ore on them and activates the renders. The Torch manages to flame on, but only manages to save Toro from death. They two heroes then race into the mine and use their flame powers to round up the Ogre and his men, turning them over to the arriving authorities.

Recurring Characters

  • Human Torch

  • Toro

The Devil's Doorway

The Angel is called to the city morgue where another strange murder has happened. When the police cannot make an connection, the Angel finds one: All the 13 dead men all worked on the construction of the National Bank in 1932. The Angel decides to investigate the designer of the building, one Bradley Astoff even though the authorities maintain that he has a clean record. Checking the morgue files of the local police, he is confronted by female reporter Mickey Deveres who is hoping to break the story on Astoff's shady dealings and the two agree to work together.

They go to Astoff's heavily guarded home where the Angel tells Mickey to wait in her car while he gathers information. Sneaking up to one of the windows of Astoff's home, the Angel hears him gloating over the 13 murders. Before the Angel can act he hears Mickey scream. Jumping one of the guards and stealing his uniform, the Angel manages to convince everyone that he is one of the guards and gets Mickey to keep his cover when they are ordered to appear before Astoff.

Furious over Deveres' constant snooping into his affiars, Astoff decides to kill her and orders the guards to take her down to the basement of the house. There both Mickey and the Angel realize that Astoff is part of a large counterfeiting operation that will replace the legal tender in the National Bank with the fakes. When threatening to kill Mickey, she blows the Angel's cover forcing the hero to fight off Astoff's guards. During the fight Astoff and his men flee the scene.

Having an idea of what is going on, the Angel has Mickey drive him nearer to the bank and then tells her to go see an all night movie. The Angel then follows Astoff and his men to a nearby subway tunnel and follows them through to a secret access to the bank vault. When the Angel attempts to stop Astoff and his men, they attempt to kill the hero by releasing a mustard gas. The Angel knocks them into the vault room and seals the door, but passes out from the gas before he can escape.

He then wakes up in the hospital, where he learns that Mickey went back for him and rescued him before the mustard gas could kill him. He learns that Astoff killed the men who helped him build the bank because they were threatening to blackmail him to keep his plans a secret.

Recurring Characters

  • Angel