Marvel Mystery Comics #67
Death Bird of Thunder Mountain
When a cargo plane suddenly crashes a search party finds the wrecks and the survivors thanks to a Native American guide. One of the pilots claims that their plane was ripped apart by a massive eagle. The guide believes that the plane was destroyed by Wa-Te-Ka-Na, a Native American air god that his people worship and suggests that the gods are angry that man has created aircraft.
Days later a number of other planes went missing in the area prompting the FBI to summon the Human Torch and Toro for help. The pair are asked to tail a mail plane that is carrying a large sum of money in the cargo. As they fly over the area they pass through a storm. The rain forces the Torch and Toro to retreat inside the plane before their flames are snuffed out. That’s when a pair of massive talons appear from above the clouds and rips the airplane in two. The heroes tumble out and the force of their free fall dries them up enough to flame on and save themselves from a fatal fall. Returning to the airfield, the Human Torch is more suspicious than ever to know why shipments carrying money are the only ones being attacked. Suspecting this is the work of something all to human, the Torch requests that the time of the next flight be changed in the hopes of throwing off the thieves. They then swap places with the pilots in order to fly the plane themselves.
As the craft is in the air, the Torch and Toro are unaware when a man emerges from one of the mail bags. He then rigs a massive parachute to the inside of the cargo hold with a long chain and then leaps out the back with the bundle. The pair are tipped off by what’s going on when the doors open causing a massive draft in the plane. Suddenly, the massive parachute unfurls revealing that it is in the shape of a massive eagle complete with gigantic talons. The anchored parachute wrecks the plane causing it to crash. Surviving the crash, the Torch and Toro then defend the cargo from the thieves who have masterminded this complex scheme, but unfortunately, the falling rain prevents them from flaming on and the pair are knocked out and taken prisoner.
The pair are then left inside a cave with the other captured pilots. To eliminate their prisoners, the crooks turn on the engines of a plane in such a way that the propellers fill the cave with carbon monoxide and suffocate everyone inside. The depleting air supply also prevent the Torch and Toro from flaming on. Quick thinking, the Torch has Toro and the pilots block the blowing carbon monoxide allowing him to flame on and melt his way out of the cave. He and Toro then chase after the crooks who are trying to escape in a helicopter. Recovering the stolen money, they blast the chopper out of the sky sending the thieves falling to their deaths.
Recurring Characters
Human Torch, Toro
The Lost Soldier
Betty Dean is interviewing veterans that are returning home from the war, paying particular focus on those who were wounded in the conflict. Most of the soldiers don’t want sympathy from the people back home and just want to be treated as equals. Betty decides to roll with this theme thinking that pity could unintentionally harm the soldier’s reintegration into society. She is soon joined by the Sub-Mariner who thinks that this is a good story idea and leaves her to it, deciding to go up to the nearby amusement center up the pier for some fun.
There a one-armed soldier named Jim is refused an offer to rejoin the shady characters he hung out with before the war and refuses. When things get violent, the Sub-Mariner arrives to lend Jim and his fellow soldiers a hand and drive off the crooks. Jim tells Namor that being in the army helped him clean-up his act and he is looking forward to finally reuniting with his girlfriend Peggy who promised to marry him when he got back from the war. Later that evening, Jim goes to Peggy’s home and discovers that everyone pities him due to the fact that he lost one of his arms in combat. He eventually gets fed up with the pity and storms out. Namor happens to spot Jim and tries to see what’s wrong when he is briefly distracted by a newspaper reporter harassing him with dumb questions about pin-up girls. Jim meanwhile meets up with Whitey again and accepts another offer to join a poker game that is happening aboard.
When Namor finally catches up to Jim, he and Whitey have boarded a boat and are heading off to the poker game. When the Sub-Mariner tries to follow the hero clumsily strikes his head on a cargo crane stunning him long enough to lose sight of the boat. Meanwhile, Jim is told that Whitey intends on committing a robbing instead. When Jim refuses to be a part of it, but is knocked out by Whitey’s goons. Searching Jim’s pockets they find a citation letter from the military. After robbing the poker game, they kill a guard and leave Jim’s citation to frame him then dump Jim off at home. When the Sub-Mariner learns about the murder he agrees to help Jim clear his name. While the Sub-Mariner is busy tracking down Whitey, Jim escapes police custody intent on clearing himself.
Fearing that he will get captured, Whitey tries to flee in his boat but both Jim and the Sub-Mariner get aboard and round up Whitey and his gang. With Jim cleared of any wrongdoing, Peggy and her family apologize for treating him with such pity. The next day, Jim and Peggy meets with Namor to tell him that they are getting married and that Jim has gotten himself a good job.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Betty Dean
The Fox and the Vixen
Madeline Joyce is at the local post office when suddenly the criminal couple known as the Fox and the Vixen suddenly crash in shooting the guards and robbing the teller. When Madeline attempts to stop the Vixen, she is knocked out by the Fox who then abandons the Vixen at the crime scene when the authorities arrive. After seeing a doctor and getting a clean bill of health, Madeline reads about the Vixen's capture and decides to help out the authorities as Miss America.
She goes to the police station where the Vixen is being kept to find that despite the fact that she was left behind, the Vixen refuses to rat out the Fox. Miss America then suggests to the police to let her go while she follows her back to her home by air. When the Vixen is released, she does every trick in the book to lose a tail and fighting off cops that attempt to follow. She is unaware that Miss America is flying overhead following her the whole way back to her apartment.
She quickly subdues the Vixen and waits for the Fox to arrive. However, the Fox sends up one of his men to go in his place. While Miss America is interrogating him, the Vixen smashes open her window to warn the Fox. The Fox attempts to flee, but Miss America -- carrying the Vixen with her -- forces him to crash his car. When the Fox attempts to flee he fires a spray of bullets that Miss America easily dodges. As she is rounding up the Fox, they both realize that the Vixen took the bullets and dies.
Recurring Characters
Miss America
Death Strikes From the Deep
Jeff Mace is assigned to the South Pacific to investigate reports of battleships that have been disappearing the area. Tragically, the plane that is taking him to the location is attacked by Japanese Zero fighters that shoot their plane down. The sole survivor of the attack, Mace vows to avenge those who were killed. A drift for a few days, Jeff spots an American battleship and flags it down. However, as it approaches the ship is suddenly electrified with a powerful force. Climbing aboard, Jeff discovers that all hands on deck were killed by the electrical jolt. Spotting a Japanese sub emerging from the water, Jeff changes into the Patriot to deal with it.
Finding some diving gear, the Patriot builds a rig that allows him to walk along the ocean floor while Japanese soldiers board the American vessel. He then approaches the submariner. He then manages to ambush the captain and take control of the vessel. Looking inside, the Patriot discovers that the submarine is designed to work like a massive dynamo that can be used to electrify enemy ships. He then uses the Japanese invention to electrify the battleship again, killing the Imperial invaders. The Patriot then calls the Navy to come and collect the Japanese death machine. After being thanked for his help, Jeff Mace returns to Hawaii to send his message back home. This story makes front page news, leaving Jeff’s co-worker, Mary Morgan to wonder how Jeff managed to get the story.
Recurring Characters
Patriot, Mary Morgan, Imperial Japanese Army
Continuity Notes
Although this story presents Mary Morgan as though she does not know that Jeff Mace is secretly the Patriot, she did learn his secret identity in Captain America: Patriot #1 which — chronologically — takes place prior to this story despite being published over 70 years later. One could assume that when Mary wonders aloud how Jeff got the story is less to do with the fact she doesn’t know about his double identity but more of a question how a normal man could have accomplished the feats that the Patriot accomplished in this story.
Cargo of Doom
The Angel is the guest of honor at an aircraft manufacturing planet to christen a newly constructed plane. The festivities are interrupted by an alarm. Rushing to the inside of the factory, the Angel and security officers catch a trio of Japanese spies trying to slaughter the workers. Although the Japanese operatives are captured and admit they were sent to sabotage the factory, the Angel is suspicious why they haven’t committed suicide — as the hero believes this is a standard practice of Japanese spies. That’s when one of the injured workers reveals that there were four more spies who ran off when the alarm was raised. Despite their efforts to learn more about these additional spies, the Japanese prisoners refuse to talk.
Later, the Angel learns that a new shipment of planes were loaded on a train to be transported out to port and that — for some reason — their prisoners were delighted to hear it. The hero quickly deduces what’s going on and gets a jeep so he can try and catch up to the train. Leaping aboard the train, the Angel catches the spies and tries to fight them off but is overpowered and thrown from the train.Luckily, the hero gets caught up in coupling and survives. When the train arrives at port and the planes are loaded up on the ship, the Angel wakes up and discovers there is no trace of the Japanese agents.
He quickly realizes where they are and, after changing into costume, boards the battleship. There he catches the Japanese spies as they rip their way free from the canvas material on the plane and prevents them from planting a bomb on the ship.
Recurring Characters
Angel, Imperial Japanese Army
