Marvel Mystery Comics #29

Jul 26

Jul 26 Marvel Mystery Comics #29

The Moonlight Murders

A spree killer called the Javelin is loose in the city, slaying anyone who comes across his path. After a claiming his latest victims, he sends a taunting message to the chief of police by tossing a javelin through his window with a note. The Human Torch and Toro arrive shortly thereafter and the Torch flies out to try and find the culprit but finds that he has fled the scene. The chief decides to increase police presence in the city, sending out all available units to keep an eye out for the Javelin. On patrol, the Human Torch and Toro spy the Javelin about to kill a young woman inside her apartment. Rushing in, they are unprepared for the Javelin's carbon monoxide gun which snuffs out their flames. Powerless the two heroes are knocked out by their foe, but before he can slay them as well the police knock at the door. Deciding to use this to his advantage, the Javelin leaves some of his weapons and flees the scene, framing the Torch for the murders.

Brought to police headquarters, the Torch and Toro try to explain their innocence, however the chief notes that all evidence points to them and attempts to arrest them. Seeking to clear their names, the Torch and Toro flee the scene, taking refuge under an old wharf. The Torch remembers his friend Edwin Rushing and knows that he can help identify the make of the javelins used in the murders. Rushing back to police headquarters, the Torch and Toro steal the murder weapons from the chief's office and brings them to Rushing. Rushing tells the two flaming heroes that they come from a remote region of Africa where a rare brain disease makes people kill during the full moon before they go completely insane.

Just then, a fire boat out on emergency patrol explodes and the Torch spies the Javelin racing away from the scene in a motorboat. The Javelin knocks out Toro and takes him prisoner and the Torch's flame is put out by another fire boat allowing the Javelin to escape. Rushing had a good look at the Javelin's face and recognizes him as big game hunter Reginald Carter. With the address of Reginald's home, the Torch leaves a flaming message in the sky for the police promising he will catch the real killer.

Recurring Characters

Human Torch, Toro

The Item of the Mad Artist

Story continued from last issue..

Swimming up north along the Virginia coast, the Sub-Mariner hears a drowning woman's cries for help and brings her to shore. After resuscitating her she tells Namor that he must warn her fiancé Dick about Stefan Natas whom she calls a devil before passing out. A passing fisherman recognizes her as Vicki Amhurst, the fiancée of wealthy stock broker Dick Arbor. Namor catches a lift to Arbor's home where he is rushed inside with the unconscious Vicki. Namor is introduced not only to Dick, who is worried sick over his fiancée, but his sister Arline, a famous speedboat racer. When Namor explains the involvement of Stefan Natas, Dick becomes furious as Natas is an eccentric that lives on a private island who has developed an unkindly reputation with women, as he was constantly in the company of show girls who were never seen again. The previous night Natas had invited Vicki and her cousin over to a party so that he might show them his undersea garden.

Dick decides to go to Stefan's island, and Namor decides to tag along with him and Arlene. When they arrive on Natas private island they are granted an audience with him. When Dick angrily demands answers, Stefan tells them that Vicki and her cousin got into an argument. When Natas interfered, a fight broke out upsetting Vicki to the point where she jumped off the porch and disappeared into the night. Natas had figured that she returned home. Not buying the story and madder than ever, Dick punches Natas in the face before Namor breaks up the fight, suggesting that cooler heads prevail. Dick and Natas agree to talk things out in a more civil tone while Namor and Arlene check out Stefan's undersea plants.

Away from Natas, Namor admits that he agrees with Dick and believes that Stefan is lying. He decides to investigate things further and dives into the private pond where Natas keeps his undersea plants. Detecting a hint of chlorine in the water, Namor follows a tunnel that leads to an in ground swimming pool. surfacing he finds a secret passage way where Namor finds a painting of Vicki, and even more shocking the severed heads of the missing showgirls encased in alcohol filled jars.

He is then confronted by Natas who attempts to shoot him, but Namor dodges the bullets. Natas attempts to escape by swimming through the tunnel in his pool, but Namor follows after him quickly in his natural element. Natas lures Namor to his shark tank, but is overpowered by the monarch of the deep. The Sub-Mariner breaks off his fight with Natas when he hears Arlene crying for help. Rushing back into Stefan's mansion, he finds her being tied up by Natas' butler, and that Dick is also tied up. Namor knocks out the butler and frees Arlene before going back out to deal with Natas. Dick interferes with the fight and is stabbed in the back, prompting Namor to knock Natas into the shark tank to be devoured alive. When Arlene comes out of the house, she informs Namor that she found documents that reveal that Natas was in reality a French painter named Anton Devers who had just recently escaped from a mental hospital.

Rushing to the madman's home, the Torch is clubbed from behind and put on the rack to be tortured. The Javelin turns his back on Toro, giving the young firebug the chance to use his flame powers to melt his gun. With his opponent's ability to snuff out his flame removed, the Torch burns free of the torture device. While the two heroes are busy rounding up the Javelin's butlers the crook makes his escape through a secret passage. The heroes follow after him but he douses their flames with carbon dioxide foam and unleashes a pair of lions on them. The two heroes get far enough away from the cloud of foam to turn back on their flames and beat back the beasts. They then capture the fleeing Javelin and turn him over to the police, clearing their names.

Recurring Characters

Sub-Mariner

The Mine of Terror

Dr. Smythe the leading authority on sleeping sickness receives a letter asking him to travel to South America to come to the aid of the Columbian Gold Mining Company, who claims that their workers are being stricken by sleeping sickness. Smythe decides to take his daughter Joan along with him. As they take a cruise ship down to South America, Joan is visited by the Vision in her sleep who warns the girl that great danger lies ahead and that she should turn around before it's too late. Joan wakes up and dismisses the experience as only a dream.

Joan reconsiders this thought when none of the natives are willing to take them to the gold mine. When a Caucasian man named Jonas offers them a flight Joan voices her opinion, however her father will not give up on those who might potentially need his help for the sake of superstition.

Smythe and his daughter soon find that they are getting into more than they bargained for when they learn that the mine has been taken over by a number of mobsters who have fled the United States to take up criminal operations in Colombia. They force Smythe to treat their boss, Legs Cachone, a man wanted in the city of Chicago. Unable to shirk his duty as a medical doctor, Smythe treats Cachone's illness. When the mobster is cured, the Smythes ask to be allowed to go home, but the mobster refuses to let both of them go. He allows Smythe to leave if he wants, but insists that Joan stay behind so that he does not talk to the police about his location. Disgusted by this, Joan slaps Cachone in the face, and he has her tied over an alligator pit in retaliation. When Smythe tries to save his daughter, he gets pushed around by the mobsters.

When they decide to have some fun by lighting a match on the ankle of his shoe, the smoke it creates allows the Vision to appear before them. While the hero is busy fighting Cachone's men, the mobster cuts Joan loose forcing the Vision to come to her rescue. As he is doing so, Cachone grabs Smythe and takes him to a mountain top. When the Vision follows after him, Cachone threatens to throw Smythe down into the river below, however their combined weight causes the ledge to break and both men take the plunge. The Vision dives down, but chooses only to save Smythe, leaving Cachone to die in a watery grave.

Recurring Characters

Vision

The Mystery of the Stinging Death

Deadline Dawson and Terry Vance travel to the Caribbean to report on defense construction in the area. When they land one one of the islands, they are warned by one of the natives that the local tribes have put a voodoo curse on the American workers that have come to their land, and that visitors who have came to the island have been stricken with and kill by the yellow fever. Terry is not so easily frightened off and convinces Deadline and Dr. Watson to accompany him into town. There they see a bunch of old women attempting to stone a young girl to death and calling her a witch.

Dr. Watson scares the old crones off and Terry and Deadline get away with the girl in a horse drawn taxi. Along the way to the Estados Hotel, they learn that girl is a dancer at the hotel, and that everybody she has done her "devil dance" for has been stricken with yellow fever and died, and as such the locals have accused her of witchcraft. When they arrive at the hotel they are welcomed by its owner Senior Revuelta who welcomes both Terry and Deadline with open arms and invites them to a special dinner. Terry and Deadline accept, and Terry notes that Revuelta has some strange branding on his forehead. Before dinner, Dr. Watson rushes off into the jungle, prompting Terry and Deadline to chase after him.

Their chase takes them deep inside the jungle where they happen upon a tribe performing a voodoo ceremony. Terry notes that the voodoo practitioners all have the same markings on their foreheads as Senior Revuelta and that they are extracting blood from Yellow Jack mosquitoes — the source of the yellow fever. Returning to the hotel, they find Dr. Watson, who has just gone on a banana eating binge and has fallen asleep. As they are eating dinner, the Dosia puts on a dance for them. As she does so, Terry notices that Revuelta is getting close to Deadline and that his cane has a pointed end. Terry tackles the hotel owner and checks the cane as the authorities enter the room to see what the commotion is about. Terry finds what he had suspected all along: The tip of Revuelta's cane was coated with Yellow Fever and he was the one responsible for getting the American contractors ill.

Recurring Characters

Terry Vance, Doctor Watson, Deadline Dawson

The Witches of Encore

Continued from last issue...

Jimmy Jupiter is down on himself because nobody believes him when he tells of his adventure in the land of Nowhere, and wishes that he could return to his friend the dragon Wump Jump. He is visited by a bee who agrees to take him back to the magical land, and grows to gigantic size and flies the boy above the clouds so that he can return to the strange world he had previously visited.

Arriving in Nowhere, the bee pays his leave and Jimmy soon finds himself greeted by a wise talking rabbit named Ruffy. Jimmy asks Ruffy to take him to Wump Jump and the hare agrees to help. However along the way they are captured by the Witches of Encore who take the pair to their castle in the clouds. There they tell Jimmy and Ruffy that they intend to cook them and eat them. When Ruffy tries to fight the witches, they use their magical powers to create a magical circle to trap them in that can only be broken by a good luck charm. Remembering that rabbits feet are considered lucky, Jimmy uses Ruffy's own foot to break the spell and free themselves.

They enter a room full of doors marked exit and when Jimmy opens one at random he finds it opens to a room containing the witches. Seeking a means to protect himself, Jimmy grabs a pin from one of the witches' Sunday hats and pricks her with it causing the witch to deflate. This sends the other witches fleeing in fear, and Jimmy and Ruffy decide to leave the castle by jumping out one of the windows. While Ruffy lands solidly on the clouds, Jimmy plows right through them and falls to the ground below...

...Suddenly Jimmy awakens in a meadow, his sleep disturbed by the sting of a bee.

Recurring Characters

Jimmy Jupiter, Ruffy Rabbit, Wump Jump

The Wolf-Man Terror

When stories about an ancient Wolf-Man stalking and killing Native Americans in the desert hit the national press, the Angel decides to go down and investigate the story to learn if it is true. Arriving at a Native village he finds that they all worship a wolf-god named "Wolf-That-Walks-Like-a-Man" and that they provide it gold as a sacrifice to appease it. After the ceremony ends and the Natives have departed, the Angel witnesses as the Wolf-Man arrives and collects the gold left behind. The Angel follows after the beast with a rifle in his hand ready to slay it.

Chasing after it, he soon finds himself attacked by a pack of wolves. As he is fighting off the creatures, the Natives are aroused by the battle. Seeing this as an insult to their god, the Natives capture the Angel and then ties him to a totem pole to offer him as a sacrifice to the Wolf-Man. The Angel manages to break through his bonds just as the Wolf-Man gets in close for the attack. Fighting the creature off, the Angel follows after it as it flees into a cave.

There, the Angel fights the Wolf-Man to a stand still and discovers it is no wolf-creature at all, but a man in a costume. Removing the wolf mask, the Angel exposes the Wolf-Man to be Genji the Native American medicine man for this tribe. Genji explains that his tribe makes a living panning for gold and he used his people's superstitions to get them to give him all their gold. The Angel turns Genji over to his tribe for punishment and he is executed for his crimes.

Recurring Characters

Angel

Death Stalks the Shipyard

A super dreadnought is being constructed in a naval shipyard under the supervision of the US Navy. Construction of the new super-ship is ground to a halt when a Nazi spy manages to convince the unionized workforce that the shipbuilders are really working for the Nazis and to go on strike. They then lock themselves in the plant and refuse to continue working on the ship. The work stoppage brings out not only the navy, but also the press including Jeff Mace, Jack Casey and Mary Morgan.

When the Navy prepares to retake the naval yard by force, Jeff slips away and changed into the Patriot and convinces them to hold off while he tries to deal with things more peaceably. Staking out the property at night, the Patriot spots the Nazi spy sneaking off the property. He follows him to another location where he catches him radioing his superiors in Berlin to inform them of his progress. Before he can stop the spy, the Patriot is knocked out by his accomplice. The two Nazis then tied the Patriot to some cement blocks and toss him in the nearby water to drown. The Patriot breaks free and cabs it back to the naval yard where he arrives just as the spies are once more rallying the union workers to revolt some more. The Patriot exposes the Nazis who are chased away by the angry workers. The pair climb up the girders of a crane with the Patriot following behind.

Confronting the two crooks, the Patriot knocks them both off the girders sending them falling to their deaths. Dying, the lead spy reveals to the crowd that he was ordered to attempt to halt production of the ship to impede American military efforts. With the truth revealed the shamed workers return to their job and the Patriot is hailed as a hero. When Jeff Mace resumes his civilian guise he protects his double identity by scoffing that the Patriot is not that impressive.