Marvel Mystery Comics #39
Smugglers of Death
Professor Horton has asked the Human Torch to protect her niece Doris, who is returning to the United States from Sweden with a valuable pearl necklace. The Torch leaves to meet her and her companion, Vance Coburn, a British attache. Meeting them at the pier, introductions are made and then suddenly a car drives by and seemingly shoots Doris to death. The Torch rushes after the shooters but loses the killers. Rushing back to the body, the Torch notes that the necklace was stolen as well. However, the Torch is in for a shock when Toro arrives and tells him that Doris has actually arrived alive and well back at the house with Professor Horton. The Torch doesn't believe it until he arrives there and is shocked to find the claim to be true.
At the house, Horton instructs the Torch to escort Doris to Washington D.C. and that he and Coburn will accompany them shortly. Along the way, their train is derailed and Doris is kidnapped, the Torch immediately rushes to a phone and calls Horton. Horton soon arrives with Coburn and Toro, and the two flaming heroes begin their search for Doris, even though they are confused by the whole chain of events. They find Doris in the basement of a house surrounded by gunmen. When they come crashing in, the leader threatens to kill Doris if they don't leave. They do, but the Torch comes up with an idea to free Doris. They use their flames to smoke them out of the house, and when the crooks follow after Doris (using her as a human shield) they are tripped up by the Torch and Toro as they zip past with a rope.
They dump the crooks, and the Torch leaves Toro to guard them while he brings Doris to safety. Toro is jumped by one of the men who knocks the boy out with the butt of his gun. Meanwhile, the Torch returns Doris to the hotel where Horton and Coburn are staying. Doris tells her uncle that the pearl necklace is safely hidden in the hem of her dress. The Torch then spots the pearl necklace belonging to the "other" Doris who was killed earlier in the day. Coburn tells the Torch that it was his objective to protect it at all costs, and Horton orders the Torch not to ask too many questions.
When the Torch goes back for Toro he spots the crooks attempting to bury him alive and stops them in the nick of time, and turns them over to the FBI. Deciding to get some answers from Horton, the two heroes return to the hotel and find Coburn holding them at gun point. The two heroes easily stop him and knock him out, and then the truth is told: Doris was smuggling a list of Nazi spies operating in the United States within the pearl necklace, and that Coburn was at the top of the list. He also explains that the young woman that the Torch saw gunned down in the street was just a decoy who died tragically in the line of duty.
Recurring Characters
Human Torch, Toro, Phineas Horton, Nazis
The Case of the Blinding Lights
The Sub-Mariner is enjoying the entertainment on Coney Island when suddenly the air raid sirens go off forcing another defense black out. To his surprise, he spots Nazi spies led by Von Goober turning on spot lights on the top of the parachute drop ride. The Sub-Mariner tries to knock out the lights but gets knocked down the ride for his troubles while the Nazis make a break for it. Breaking his fall, the Sub-Mariner loses them somehow as they are travelling through the Tunnel of Love. Just then the Nazi bombers arrive and succeed in dropping bombs on the carnival.
Angered by the destruction, the Sub-Mariner dives into the ocean and swims into the sea to search for the ship that brought the bombers close to shore. He finds a submarine that has been modified to be an aircraft carrier and storms it. He easily knocks out the crew and takes one of their uniforms to pose as a submarine pilot. When the planes return from their run, the pilots are also attacked by the Sub-Mariner who once more easily rounds up the Nazis. He then signals for the Coast Guard and turns the Nazis over to them.
Diving back into the water, the Sub-Mariner swims back to the amusement park to try and find out where the Nazi spies went. In the Tunnel of Love he finds a secret trap door that leads to an underground bomb shelter where he finds the Nazis gloating over their victory. The Sub-Mariner knocks out the men while Von Goober makes a break for it. His flight is all for naught as the Sub-Mariner catches up to him as he attempts to escape in a speed boat, beats him into submission then turns him over to the Coast Guard.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Nazis
The Magic Glasses
Continued from last issue...
After escaping from Zar the Wizard's castle, Jimmy Jupiter and his pal Knobby get lost trying to find the castle of King Ra and stop to ask a turtle who points them in the right direction. They come to an obstacle when they reach a lake and have no way of getting across. An crocodile happens by and offers to swim them there, but about half way across he tells the two that he intends to eat them instead. Jimmy suggests that he eats them in pieces and the croc is more than happy to oblige. However, this is a trap and Jimmy jams the creatures mouth open with one of Knobby's wooden legs and demands that they swim them to the other side or he'll leave the leg there and make the crocodile choke to death. The croc agrees, and soon the two friends are well on their way again.
Shortly they are confronted by thee witches who all share a single pair of glasses in order to see. They cast a spell to create a magic circle trapping Jimmy and Knobby there because they are angry at King Ra. When Jimmy notes that they cannot see without their glasses, he offers to petition the king to give them all pairs. The witches refuse to trust him, so Jimmy steals their glasses and upon learning that it is the key to their power as well uses them to reverse the spell keeping them there. Keeping the glasses, Jimmy promises to ask the king to bring them three pairs of glasses -- without the magic powers.
This story is continued next issue...
Recurring Characters
Jimmy Jupiter, Knobby
The Shadow Army of Saboteurs Strikes!
Jeff Mace meets his friends Mary Morgan and Jack Casey for lunch where Casey suggests they go up to Canada and investigate a series of escapes from the prisoner of war camps. Jeff pretends to be not up to the danger, but goes up to Canada ahead of his friends as the Patriot. There he gets Canadian officials to cooperate with him and he poses as recently captured Nazi operative Lieutenant Karl Mueller.
In the prison, the Patriot then quickly gains the trust of the other Nazis locked up and begins discussing plans on how to escape. He is given a cigarette that once unrolled contained escape plans. That night, the Patriot follows the plans sneaking out to a lake on the prison property. He then sees a Nazi plane drop diving equipment into the water. Recovering it, he uses it to swim through an underwater tunnel to a location outside the camp. He then travels to a nearby farm house where he is taken in by a Nazi operative. The Nazi discovers the Patriot's true identity when the hero lights up his cigarette with an American lighter. A fight breaks out, but in the struggle, the Nazi ends up shooting himself in the face.
Searching the Nazi's farmhouse, the Patriot finds evidence of a Nazi spy cell operating in New York City. The Patriot then rushes back to the United States and smashes up the Nazi operation there. He then calls his friend jack Casey who is still up in Windsor Ontario to tell him the story. Later when Jack and Mary return to the United States, Jack laments how the Patriot managed to scoop him in the United States while he was in Canada, then call him collect.
Recurring Characters
Patriot, Jack Casey, Mary Morgan
Dialogue of Death
At the mountain hunting lodge of Horace Smith, a party is taking place with the cast of his most recent play written with his partner Dick Crawn. The two excuse themselves from the party to go into the woods to write their next play. However things take a turn for the tragic when a gun shot is heard and Dick Crawn is found alone in the woods with a suicide note. The still smoking gun allows the Vision to appear, who states to all gathered that the death was a murder and not a suicide. An actor named Prentiss is not convinced of the Vision's claims and becomes confrontational, so the Vision disappears in a wisp of cigarette smoke telling those gathered that he will prove it.
Appearing at the hunting lodge, the Vision looks inside for clues and finds some papers burning in the fire place. Taking them, he uses silver nitrate to uncover the works and deduces what happened. He decides that he will solve the case by writing a play and soon get to work.
A short time later, all the actors and Smith are present before the court where the death of Dick Crawn is ruled as a suicide. While actors Johnson and Ruth still believe that the Vision may be right, Prentiss will hear nothing of it. When they all return to the lodge the Vision appears with his finished play and acts Ruth and Johnson to help act it out in front of all the guests and Smith. What plays out is a play that suggests that Smith had murdered Crawn, by pretending his typewriter stopped working and having Crawn write by hand a line about committing suicide, and then shot him.
Having been exposed, Smith confesses telling all gathered that he killed his partner so that he could claim all the royalties for his play. He tries to kill the Vision with a shot gun but misses and then flees into the wood. Pursued by the Vision, Smith accidentally runs off the edge of a cliff and falls to his death.
Recurring Characters
Vision
The Case of the Fat Man's Folly
Terry Vance and Deadline Dawson are in a New England town trying to find a scoop on the local shipping program when suddenly the room they are in is filled with chlorine gas. As they rush for fresh air they find a dead body on the site, and Terry notes that the dead man's clothing has been bleached by the gasses. When the gas clears they rush and get a police officer who identities the dead man as an FBI agent and tells the youths to get lost. Curious about the situation, Terry deduces that he must have been in a location where chlorine is used, like in a granite quarry. Although there is no quarry in the area, Deadline recalls that there is a granite pulverizing factory near the dock yards. As they head over there to investigate, they are unaware that they are being watched by someone.
Outside the factory, they are attacked by a Nazi spy who knocks out Deadline Dawson, but Terry and Dr. Watson escape by diving into the docks. They swim through the pipes and come up into the factory. There they overhear the spy telling Deadline that they are using the factory as a front to flood the dock area with chlorine gas and kill everyone involved in the shipping and that the factory's smoke stack is being used as the delivery method.
Terry gets the jump on the spy and knocks him out, and then he and Deadline carry the fat man up and use his large body to block the smoke stack. Then they lock all the door except one and call the authorities. when the spies minions turn on the smoke stack, the smoke ends up being forced back into the factory flooding it with the poison gas. Forced to flee, the spies exit out the only door in the building and right into the hands of the police.
Recurring Characters
Terry Vance, Doctor Watson, Deadline Dawson, Nazis
The Missing Fishermen
After a series of fishermen go missing on a lake in Connecticut, the Angel decides to go down and investigate himself. Deciding to search a house nearby, he is surprised to find an almost flawless reflection of the house under the water. However, this is no mere reflection and he is soon grabbed by an amphibious fish man and forced underwater. Knocked out, the Angel is dragged inside the underwater portion of the house and chained up with the other captured fishermen. There he learns that the fish-men who had captured them keeps the prisoners well fed and that those they have taken out of the room have never been seen again.
When one of the fish-men return he decides to take the Angel to the lab. There he learns that these fish-men are removing the skin from their victims and grafting it on their own bodies. The one doing the surgery explains that they are all brothers who were born with scaled skin and the ability to break underwater. Mocked by normal people the only job they were able to get was part of a circus freakshow. One of them devoted his time to medicine to learn how to do skin grafts and once he had completed his medical training they all decided to get human skin.
The Angel then breaks free from his bonds and beats the Fish Brothers into submission and escapes from their house of horrors, alerting the police. When the police arrive, the captured fishermen are freed and the Fish Brothers are taken into custody. As it his tradition, the Angel leaves before he can be thanked for his heroic rescue.
Recurring Characters
Angel
