Marvel Mystery Comics #45
Message From a Corpse
The Human Torch and Toro are assisting the FBI in the capture of a Nazi spies named Franz Pappi, Von Griezer who they have tracked to his hideout. As they flame on to capture him, the spies inside the building rush out and attempt to make a run for it. During the fire fight, an FBI agent guns down Pappi while the other spies flee back inside the building. The two heroes are ordered to stay outside a guard Pappi's dead body, although Toro does not understand why. Soon it is determined that the other spies have left, and so they take Pappi's body to the morgue.
There they find no trace of the secret information that Pappi was supposedly carrying. The Torch believes that Pappi likely had it memorized and so they send his body off to be buried in the secret graveyard of all enemy spies killed in action. After Pappi is buried in the secret grave yard, the Torch and Toro say goodbye to FBI Agent Fredericks and part company. On his way home Frederick's is driven off the road by the other Nazi spies and taken prisoner. Pinned under a pile of rocks, the FBI agent is ordered to provide the location where Pappi has been buried. The FBI agent refuses and Von Griezer orders him eliminated as they know which graveyard to search and will dig up every grave to find their fallen comrade if that is what it takes.
When the spies arrive at Mount Everett Cemetery, they easily knock the caretaker aside and begin unearthing the most recent graves. The caretaker rushes to the phone and calls the authorities, who get in touch with the Human Torch and Toro. The two flaming heroes rush to the scene. There they are attacked by Von Griezer who is riding a backhoe. This distracts the two heroes long enough for the spies to find Pappi's body and make a getaway. Or so it seems, the Torch and Toro are really following a decoy leaving Von Griezer to open the true coffin containing the body of Franz Pappi.
When the Torch and Toro realize the trick they double back and follow another truck from the cemetery to the Nazis secret cave hideout. There they quietly watch as the Nazis put a fluid on Pappi's skin revealing a map for them. The Torch and Toro spring into action and prove no match for the spies. The heroes send the cave collapsing on their heads, killing them all. Recovering the body of Pappi, the Torch and Toro hand it over to the FBI for examination. They learn that the Nazis were plotting an attack on a Russian fleet of ships and with information on Pappi's skin were able to adequately warn Russian military officials of the trap they were about to wander into.
Recurring Characters
Human Torch, Toro, Nazis
Phantom of the Air
A Nazi bomber flies over Greenland dropping paratroops into the cold waters before the ship is shot down. Those who find the plane are unaware of the soldiers who jumped ship and are puzzled by the lack of crew aboard the ship. A few days later along the English coast, the Sub-Mariner meets with British military officials to prepare for an air attack on the Nazis when the report about the plane being shot down in Greenland is reported over the radio. As they continue their planning, information from the weather stations report that flying conditions are not good for the attack. However, shortly thereafter the air base is attacked by Nazi fighter planes.
As the Nazis decimate the area, the Sub-Mariner learns that the weather data is collected from weather stations in Greenland. Suspecting that something is going on, the Sub-Mariner dives into the ocean and heads for Greenland to find out what is going on.
Arriving on the frozen continent, the Sub-Mariner is led by a local Eskimo tribe to the nearest weather station. There he is told by the commanding officer on site that they get all their data from a central outpost station. When the Sub-Mariner arrives there he learns that the remote station has been taken over by Nazis led by Von Kropp who transmits the correct weather reports to Nazi Germany, while sending false ones to the United Nations in order to make them vulnerable to attack.
During his attack, Namor is knocked out when the Nazis drop a large chunk of ice on him. Namor is then encase in a block of ice and kept prisoner while Von Kropp prepares to provide more false information on the eve in which Nazi forces intend to invade both Greenland and Iceland and take them over for Germany. Having expanded his chest while being encased in the ice, Namor has given himself enough room to break free from the ice.
Free once more, the Sub-Mariner easily defeats the Nazis in the weather station and then tips off the British to the plot, and the RAF sends a fleet of fighter planes to fight off the Nazi invasion.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Nazis
Case of the Poison That Did Not Exist
Terry Vance, Dr. Watson, and Deadline Dawson are present at the court trial of a captured Nazi spy who faces the death penalty for his crimes. When the verdict is guilty the Nazi surprises them all by jumping out of the courtroom window. He survives the 12 story drop by landing on a specifically placed truck filled with hay brought by other Nazi spies come to assist their comrade. However, when the authorities try to follow after it they later find it junked on the side of the road.
Terry decides to help recapture the Nazi so that he can close his case, however the District Attorney attempts to discourage the boy from getting involved, telling him that the authorities will handle the situation.
Terry returns home and the next afternoon reads the newspaper and is shocked to learn that a member of the jury was killed over night. Suspecting that the Nazi spy is eliminating those who found him guilt of his crimes, Terry attempts to tell the District Attorney. The D.A. is unimpressed with Terry's assessment as the cause of death is ruled to be heart failure and Terry is kicked out of his office.
Undaunted, Terry breaks into the D.A.'s office and steals the list of names of people on the jury. He pays a visit to the next name on the list. He arrives just as a city doctor is about to inject the man with a supposed inoculation. However the boy detective is unconvinced despite the "authentic" credentials and exposes the doctor as the Nazi spy in disguise.
When the Nazi is apprehended and turned over to the authorities, Terry reveals how the spy was killing his victims: The needle he used contained nothing but air, and when the air bubble injected into the victims bloodstream reached the heart it made the cause of death look like heart failure.
Recurring Characters
Terry Vance, Doctor Watson, Deadline Dawson
In the Valley of Time
Jimmy Jupiter is walking through the woods lamenting that he cannot find anything to do on weekends and feels like he is wasting his time. Kicking a clock he finds he is shocked to find that the clock is alive and is soon joined by a friend. They both warn Jimmy of the dangers of time being wasted and take him to the Valley of Time.
There Jimmy is shown around the various parts of the Valley and it's many citizens including Once-Upon-a-Time and the Minute Man. Jimmy is soon brought before the King and Queen of Time who teach Jimmy the importance of making the best of his time. As a special surprise to the boy, they show him their time machine that allows a person to look anywhere in time both in the future and the past. Jimmy is given a brief glimpse of the victory celebrations following the end of World War II.
When the clocks tell the King and Queen Jimmy has been wasting his time he is given a spanking but wakes up back in his own world when the alarm in the clock he kicked earlier goes off. Rushing home his mother tells him that supper will be ready soon, and Jimmy tells her that he will mow the lawn while he is waiting, shocking his mother at his valuable use of time.
Recurring Characters
Jimmy Jupiter
The Vision's Secret
In the Himalayan mountains a group of Japanese agents have located the hidden city of Shangra-la. Welcomed to the ancient city with open arms, their request to see the leader of Shangra-La is granted. Soon they are brought before the leader of Shangra-La, a man named Lemme-Tel. The leader of the Japanese envoy then asks the emperor to show them the secret of life and death, telling him that they had come to learn the secret for their leader the Emperor of Japan.
Deducing that the visitors would use such secrets for evil, he refuses and orders them to leave Shangra-la. No willing to leave empty handed, the leader of the Japanese pulls out a gun and demands that Lemme-Tel shows them the ancient secret. With no other choice he takes them to see the Pillow of Life and Death. Lemme-Tel warns the Japanese that the pillow holds the secrets of death as well as life. Not heeding the warning the leader of the Japanese invaders orders one of his men to take the pillow. However, upon contact with the pillow the man ordered to take it is killed instantly.
From the rising smoke materializes the Vision, the apparent protector and original defender of the Pillow. During the course of the fight that ensues, the Vision tosses most of the Japanese spies onto the pillow, killing them. During the struggle their leader fatally shoots Lemme-Tel but is beat into submission. Unwilling to be defeated, he commits Hari-Kari.
With Leme-Tel dying, the Vision uses the pillow to restore him to full health, telling the leader of Shangri-la that his time will only come when he has trained a successor to take his place. Thanked for his assistance, the Vision then disappears into a puff of smoke.
Recurring Characters
Vision
Continuity Notes
The Vision states that he has had a long history with the people of Shangri-La. This refutes the origin that is laid out in Marvel Mystery Comics #13, which states that the Vision is a police officer from another dimension. The profile for the Vision in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12 states that the Vision lived in Shangri-La centuries ago and “somehow” ended up in the Smoke Dimension through other means. Muddying things further is the events of Avengers/Invaders in which the Vision states that he and his people actually act as shepherds guiding young Cosmic Cubes. There is yet to be an official explanation. I speculate that the Pillow of Life and Death could have been a Cosmic Cube of some kind and perhaps that is why the Vision was there. When the Pillow was secured, the Vision returned to the Dimension of Smoke and wouldn’t return until he was accidentally returned to Earth in mid-1940s.
Sabotage at the Ferry Base
While searching for Nazi spies, the Angel is captured and brought to their leader a Nazi known as Double-Beard. However, the hero is not easily kept a prisoner as he breaks free and beats the Nazis into submission, however their leader manages to escape.
With the spies somehow sabotaging American planes ferried across Atlantic, the Angel decides to go undercover as an aircraft mechanic in ferry base from where crashed airplanes took off.
The first day on the job, the Angel finds no sign of tampering, yet the following day the plane he inspected had crashed. Next night he stows aboard a recently completed plane as it is about to be flown by a female pilot. She catches the Angel spying on her and briefly believes him to be a spy.
Suddenly she feels faint and passes out, forcing the Angel to take evasive action to avoid a fatal crash. Although he fails to stop the plane from crashing he helps make the crash one they can both walk away from. Having crashed somewhere in the Canada, the Angel learns that the last place the pilot was before her flight was the pilots lounge. Finding a Mountie, they are taken back across the U.S. border where the Angel rushes to the cafeteria where he catches Double-Beard and knocks him out. Turning him over to the military brass, the plot becomes obvious: Double-Beard and his men drugged the pilots's beverages making them pass out in flight leading to an eventual crash.
Recurring Characters
Angel, Nazis
