Daring Mystery Comics #7
We Give You... The Thunderer
As the US Government passes new laws granting the F.C.C. more legal power, Nazi spies operating from the German embassy in Washington D.C. begin plotting the eventual conquest of the United States for Nazi Germany. However their plans are ruined when they are suddenly visited by a costumed being who calls himself the Thunderer. He easily beats the Nazi spies into submission and leaves them for the FBI to collect.
The Thunderer is in reality seemingly timid F.C.C. employee Jerry Carstairs, who is in a relationship with outgoing newspaper reporter Eileen Conroy. After a day of searching the airwaves, he meets up with his girlfriend who wonders how he can live such a timid life when there is excitement to be had chasing spies. Jerry dismisses any excitement as unnecessary, however after he returns home from his date he begins listening into the radio airwaves again. That night he picks up a strange broadcast of music which he deduces has a hidden message in Morse Code. Cracking the code he learns that Nazi spies are plotting to murder Eileen for her anti-Nazi reporting.
Changing into the Thunderer, Carstairs drops in on his girlfriend who is frightened by the masked individual. Explaining his intentions the Thunderer waits for the Nazis to show up and catches them off guard. He easily beats them into submission and Eileen manages to snap an exclusive photograph and lives to tell the story to her newspaper that runs the account on the front page. When she asks Jerry the next day why he cannot be more like the Thunderer, he tells her that he'd rather just hear about the hero from her. The comment leaves Eileen perplexed as she has not the slightest clue that her supposedly timid boyfriend is really the man who saved her life the night before.
Recurring Characters
Thunderer, Nazis
Introducing the Fin
A US submarine is travelling through the Atlantic ocean on war maneuvers when it suddenly crashes into some wreckage on the oceans floor. Among the crew is Peter Noble, who is knocked out as the ship crashes. Reviving hours later, Noble arms himself with an oxygen tank and a blow torch to try and free his comrades who are trapped in another part of the ship. When he does he is horrified to find that it had filled up with water and the entire crew had drowned while he was knocked out. When Peter attempts to swim to the surface he finds -- to his horror -- something in the water prevents him from swimming up to the surface.
Deciding to search along the ocean floor for another way to the surface, Peter finds a cavern which he follows to an underwater cave. Finding that there is no way out unless he digs his way out and so he goes back to the sub to recover tools to burrow through the walls. Breaking through a wall into another chamber, he finds the place filled with strange humanoid creatures with bat-like wings. Confronted by their leader Ikor, he learns that they are Neptunians and that he is trespassing in their realm of Neptunia. When Peter attempts to continue digging his way to the surface he is attacked by Ikor and the two are knocked into a pool of water below. Peter manages to fight off Ikor and is forced to shoot him to death. During the course of the battle Peter is shocked to find that he is able to breath underwater without any artificial aid.
Returning to the surface, the Neptunians begin to believe that he might be the reincarnation of their greatest warrior, called the Fin. However one of the Neptunians refuses to believe it and attempts to attack Peter again, Peter shoots him dead and warns the Neptunians from aggressive against him again. Deciding that there might be some truth to the Neptunian legend, Peter goes back to the sub and recovers some material to make a costume. Putting it on, he dubs himself the Fin and swims off to look for adventure in the high seas.
Recurring Characters
The Fin
Origin of the Blue Diamond
Professor Elton Morrow is on an Antarctic mission when he discovers a giant blue diamond in the ice and snow and decides to bring it back to his colleagues ship to research. As they return to the seas, they are spotted by a Nazi U-Boat which fires a torpedo upon them. As Morrow and the crew abandon ship, Morror dives overboard with a crate containing the mysterious blue diamond. When the Nazis fire cannons at the survivors, one strikes the crate containing Morrow's discovery. The blast shatters the blue diamond to pieces and it's fragments embed themselves in Morrow's body. Morrow and his colleague are rescued by a British bomber that takes them to a British battleship.
The Morrow awakens from his ordeals and learns from the doctors aboard the ship that the diamond fragments have somehow made him invulnerable. Recovering, Morrow returns to his home in New York City where he is frustrated over the loss of the blue diamond before he could fully understand it's origins. He does find that his body has become impervious to damage or pain. After succeeding in creating synthetic diamonds, Morrow decides to see how powerful he really is.
While out for a walk he notices a child in danger of being struck by a speeding truck and comes to the child's safety. To his shock and surprise when the truck struck him it was totaled yet he sustained no damage. Impressed by the strength he has on top of invulnerability, Morrow returns to his laboratory. Working that night he spots crooks lurking around in the museum next door and confronts them. The crooks are shocked to find that their weapons have no effect on Morrow who easily beats them into submission and leaves them for the authorities.
Inspired by his new abilities, Morrow decide to become a costumed crime fighter and takes up the identity of the Blue Diamond.
Recurring Characters
Blue Diamond, Nazis
Origin of the Silver Scorpion
Woodline Cemetery caretaker Greggs Hansen is convinced he has seen ghosts on the property and decides to call his friend Detective Dan Hurley for help. Hurley finds the story impossible to believe and hangs up on Hansen. Overhearing the conversation is his secretary Elizabeth Barstow who is curious enough to investigate the claim.
Asking to leave early to attend a masquerade, Barstow instead dawns her homemade "Silver Scorpion" costume and goes to the cemetery instead. Arriving at the scene of the cemetery, the Silver Scorpion sees Greggs running for his life from a "ghost" which is in reality a man in a white sheet. The Silver Scorpion beats the man into submission and finds that other crooks -- all part of a counterfeiting operation are hiding on the cemetery property.
The Scorpion gets the drop on them and easily overpowers them and ties them up. When the authorities come to the cemetery just as Betty leaves. When Greggs tells them that the ghosts have been captured, the officers have a good laugh and tell Hansen what his "ghosts" really are. The next day when the Silver Scorpions exploits end up in the papers, Hurley is interested and then asks Betty about the masquerade. She tells him she never went because of a headache and leaves with thoughts of excitement over when she will become the Silver Scorpion again.
Recurring Characters
Silver Scorpion, Dan Hurley
The Valley of Time
Text story. Will Waring travels to Greece and finds a secret society of gladiators where he hones his fighting skills in the arena.
Recurring Characters
Bill Waring
The Benefactor
Mister Million is a wealthy man who has decided to share his fortune with those who are less fortunate than he is. Having his chauffeur drive him to the slums of town, Million spots a young newspaper boy named Nickie being bullied by some local kids who dump his newspapers on the ground before Million chases them off. The boy is not impressed by the adult intervention as the boys will now torment him further, thinking him a sissy. When Million attempts to make it up to the boy by offering to pay him money for the lost papers, Nickie refuses the charity not wanting anything he didn't work for. Million decides not to give up on the boy and tells his chauffeur to leave without him.
Nickie returns to the apartment where he lives with his ill mother and younger sibling. Nickie becomes worried because his mothers medicine has run low and he doesn't have enough money to buy more. Just then there is a knock at the door. Answering it Nickie finds his boss Mr. Wilson. Wilson offers Nickie a new location, working Fifth Avenue. Nickie is excited at working that corner as it means a lot of business. As luck would have it, it is a rainy day and selling papers is slow work, but eventually he begins selling off his supply. A paper is bought by Mr. Million who dashes off before Nickie can give him his change.
Still not wanting something for nothing, Nickie follows after Mr. Million all the way up to his office. There, the boy tries to return the money. When Million asks why he is doing so, Nickie tells him that before his father died, he had taught him to never accept anything without working for it. Finding the boys morality good but his rationale stubborn in light of his sick mother, Mr. Million comes up with a compromise: He decides to employ Nickie at his office. Nickie accepts the offer and is able to earn enough of a living to keep his mother medicated and his family fed.
The Underground Empire
In the distant future, the United States comes under attack from a subterranean race known as the Undergrounders who are led by a ruler known as the "Fuhrer". However their attack on the surface world is countered by Captain Daring and his army. With the aid of his girlfriend Susan Parker, Daring and his army manages to fight off the invading Undergrounders and slay their leader. With their dictatorship crumbled, Daring installs Parker as the new queen of the Undergrounderes, her first order of business to set them up as a free thinking democratic society.
Recurring Characters
Captain Daring
Continuity Notes
This story takes place in an alternate reality. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2 this story takes place on Reality-4263
Meet the Challenger
A young girl named Mary is snooping through Boss Dram's office searching for the material that Dram is seeking to blackmail her father with the truth behind a mistake he made while he was a young doctor. She is caught in the act by one of Dram's men, but she is rescued by the arrival of a new costumed hero who calls himself the Challenger. The Challenger slays the attacker in a fencing duel, the method of combat the crook had selected they fight in.
With Mary safe, she wonders why a man would dress up in a costume and call himself the Challenger. This causes the Challenger to think back to the events that led to him becoming who he is today. He recalls how he used to be timid William Waring who was always a push over to his peers. One day, his father would get information implicating a number of politicians with the local mob. When the elder Waring presents this information to the district attorney, he finds to his horror that the D.A. is also in cahoots with the crooks and he is shot dead in cold blood by Boss Dram.
Seeing his father get shot, Will wold attempt to get Dram but would be pistol whipped and left unconscious. Reviving in the hospital, Waring would vow to get revenge against the man who murdered his father. Selling every possession he owned, Waring would travel the world learning various fighting skills, weapon use as well as a mastery of modern vehicles and sports. After his training was completed he would return to America and take on the identity of the Challenger, seeking to duel with criminals to the finish.
Telling part of this story to Mary, the Challenger is startled when Dram appears armed with a gun and ready to shoot. With the help of Mary, the Challenger manages to disarm Dram and the two agree to duel to the death using Dram's choice of weapons: guns. However, Dram attempts to cheat by trying to shoot the Challenger in the back. Wise to this, the Challenger manages to dodge the shots and gun down Dram. When the authorities arrive on the scene, Mary helps slow up the police allowing the Challenger to escape capture. With Dram dead, Mary manages to get the information for her father, once more protecting him from blackmail for a mistake he made years ago.
Recurring Characters
Challenger
