Sub-Mariner Comics #18
The Fantasy of Hate
The Sub-Mariner is attending a yacht party being thrown by his friend Rob Kane's birthday. When opening his gifts, Rob finds that one of them is a death mask that bares his likeness. He suddenly reels overboard, with Namor following in to grab him. However, when the Sub-Mariner recovers his friend, he finds that he has been killed by poison. When searching for the mask that he touched, Namor finds no trace of it. The package also has no return address, but Namor vows to catch the killer while Rob's wife offers a $5000.00 reward to whoever catches her husbands killer.
Namor swims to the police station to report the crime and see what he can learn about it. There, the chief of police tells the Sub-Mariner that this is the fourth such murder and that the victims were other high profile people: Elsie Maxwell, society woman; Roy Edwards, an engineer; and poor musician Don Lemira. The chief of police also shows Namor masks that were sent to the police of each of the victims, however without their names they were unable to identify them until it was too late. Namor takes a look at the masks and examines their fine workmanship.
He then goes to the local newspaper where he gets the aid of Betty Dean to get the names of local mask makers. They first pay a visit to the home of mask maker Franz Egraus. There they are greeted by his apparently blind wife who tells them that Franz is in his workshop. There they arrive, apparently too late to stop him from suffering the same fate as the mask killers other victims. After attending to the body and consoling Mrs. Egraus, Namor is shocked to find that this mask has also disappeared.
They next pay a visit to the next mask maker, J. Sarambi, who Namor notes is faking a broken arm. When Namor confronts him about the mask murders, Sarambi pulls a gun out on the hero and two thugs enter the room and knock him out with a cauldron. When Namor comes around, he finds that his attackers are gone and searches the studio for clues, and finds a mould for a mask that resembles Betty's face. Rushing to the newspaper office, Namor manages to slap the mask out of Betty's hand before she can die. They notice that the mask suddenly melts, making Namor realize that the mask is made out of a poison that quickly liquefies with a touch. To confirm his theory, he decides to check Egraus' body and returns to his shop. Finding a coffin there, he finds not the body of Egraus, but that of Sarambi inside. Soon, Namor is ambushed by Egarus and the thugs who knock him out once again, and lock him in the coffin with Sarambi's body.
Soon Betty Dean arrives looking for Namor and is shocked to see Egraus alive, Egraus takes her prisoner revealing he took a drug that put him in a death like state. They then all board a ship where the dump the coffin containing Namor and Sarambi's corpse overboard to die. Namor revives and searches Sarambi's pockets and finds a needle and a specially made vial containing two fluids: The poison used in the masks, and an acid used to dissolve the masks after the poison has been injected. Namor uses the needle to poke a hole in the acid side of a capsule and uses it to eat a hole through the coffin allowing water to flow in and revitalize Namor's strength. Namor then quickly breaks out of his coffin prison and rounds up Egarus and his gang. When Mrs. Egraus, having faked being blind, tries to flee the scene Namor captures her and finds a mask in the shape of Mrs. Kane.
Turning them over to the police, Namor learns that Egraus' wife was a secretary for Mrs. Kane in South America when Mrs. Kane suddenly died. Having her husband craft a mask to disguise herself, Mrs. Egraus posed as Kane's wife and orchestrated a plan to murder him to inherit his fortune. He learns that they used Sarambi to provide the chemical poison for the masks and they decided to murder him when he demanded ta bigger cut. With the murders solved, Namor is thanked by the police and returns to the sea.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Betty Dean
The Ghost Ship
While out on the New York dockside, Namor runs into his friend Larry Garter. Larry tells him that he's taking an advance boat to meet with the Marquita, a ship returning from South America to meet his girl Lois Winsor, who promised to marry him upon her return to America. He also introduces Namor to his wealthy friend Allen Rosnim. Namor parts company with the men, but decides to go and see if he can help with the docking when the fog becomes really thick.
When Namor arrives he meets with the captain who decides to drop anchor until the fog clears. Namor then looks up Lois' room number and rendezvous with Larry and tells her where to find her. However, when Larry pays a call to Lois tells him to go away as she is taking a nap. However, later, Namor and Larry spot Lois suddenly rush out of her cabin. Losing sight of her, the two men to split up and find out what is going on. As Namor searches he sees a man stumbling down the deck and fall overboard. When Namor pulls him out of the water, he finds that the man is dead. When the ship doctor examines the body, it is identified as that of wealthy manufacturer Hugh Tyson. When Namor enquires about who could kill him, Hugh's nephew Jim blames business rival George Ward, but Ward denies killing him and blames Jim. Both men alibis, which Namor checks out and learn that they are valid.
Namor spots Lois and follows after her but is delayed when another passenger walks into him. Finding Lois in her room, he catches her as she is burning a note. Namor blows out the fire, but Lois says it was an IOU that she owed to Hugh for a gambling debt. Searching through the charred remains of the letter, Namor finds a portion of a confession and believes that Lois might be deeply implicated, since part of a name spelling "Wins" is visible. As Namor examines the note out on the deck he is attacked by a mysterious man who grabs the note and jumps overboard. When Namor dives in after him, he is too late to capture him.
When Namor returns to the ship he finds the police questioning Lois due to the fact that she was last seen coming out of Hugh's cabin. However, Lois continues to profess her innocence and tells them that Hugh's killer is a man, a fact that Namor agrees with. The police then inform Namor that Larry has gone missing and might be involved, but Namor does not believe it. Searching for Larry, Namor finds him injured and stashed in a life boat. After giving him first aid, Namor learns that Larry was attacked. When they are considering the situation, Namor realizes that the note he saw was upside-down and that the killer is not Lois Windsor, but Allen Rosnim. They are suddenly confronted by Allen who sprays them with a gas gun, revealing that he intends to blow up the ship. Although stunned, Namor manages to grab a fire extinguisher and uses the water inside to revitalize himself.
Namor catches up with Rosnim and forces him to reveal the location of the explosive and knocks the rigged life boat overboard where it explodes harmlessly. After being turned over to the police Allen confesses to murdering Hugh. He explains that he was blackmailing Hugh to keep his past embezzlements. When Hugh became terminally ill, he wrote a confession that implicated Rosnim as well, and had him killed. With the murder solved, Namor meets with Larry and Lois who invite Namor to be the best man at their wedding.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner
The Water Front Phantom
Along the waterfront, Namor meets with Betty Dean who is having a hard time to find a good story for her newspaper. As they walk they spot a man helping some children out with model boats. When he touches the boat he suddenly falls over dead. Namor calls a doctor who pronounces the death as natural causes due to heart failure. Namor searches the body and finds a note identifying the man as Dan Dunbar, and that he in the event of death, he is to be taken to the Green Acres Funeral Parlor.
Namor finds the whole incident strange and when he goes to recover the model boat somebody attacks him from behind. When Namor comes around he finds that his attacker and the boat are no longer there. Namor finds this all too suspicious and decides to begin his investigation at the boarding house where Dunbar lived. There he meets the landlord, Jack Prentice and his wife Martha. When he tells them that Dan is dead, Jack callously tells his wife to put an ad out to rent his room while he goes out in his ship. Martha tries to explain the situation when the other patrons of the boarding house return home for supper. Namor meets Dan's fellow sailors, Luke Adams, Tom Langley and tells them about Dan's death. Suddenly Luke and Tom get into an argument because Tom believes that Luke stole his jack knife. When another boarder named Pete Jones-- a writer who records his thoughts into a Dictaphone before writing them down -- fails to turn up for supper, Namor goes up to his room to investigate and finds Pete dead, apparently killed by self inflicted gunshot wounds. Playing back his Dictaphone, Namor hears a suicide confession that apparently supports it.
With this second death, Martha reveals that her husband and the boarders all took out $5000.00 life insurance policies on each other because they are all old friends. With each death the beneficiaries has more money to earn, if they all die then the money goes to the Seaman's Fund. As Namor puzzles over this they witness as Jack's boat suddenly crashes into some rocks and explodes. Namor dives out and finds the charred remains of a body, and evidence that shows that a bomb was planted in the boat. When he returns to shore, Namor attempts to question the Luke and Tom. Tom accuses Luke of killing Pete, Dan and Jack and a fight breaks out. Luke then pulls out a gun and shoots Tom dead. Everyone is shocked, including Luke, who claims the gun was loaded with blanks and he only wanted to scare Tom.
Taking Tom to the police station, the police attempt to force a confession out of him, but Tom pleads innocent. Namor, remembering the Dictaphone recording of Pete's "suicide" realizes that it might have recorded evidence that could identify the killer by his foot prints. Taking the Dictaphone to the police station, he rigs a device that allows him to get the vibrations of the killers foot prints. They then get a recording of Tom's footprints and find the vibrations don't match.
Suspecting who the killer is, Namor follows Mrs. Jack Prentice as she boats to a nearby cabin where he finds Jack alive and well. When Namor confronts them Martha pulls out a bomb while Jack tries to get away. Realizing the bomb is a fake, Namor goes after Jack to the shore where he sees the toy boat that was involved in Dan's killing. When Jack tries to sneak up behind Namor, the Sub-Mariner sees his reflection in the water and tosses him on the boat. Jack is electrocuted to death, and Namor realizes the boat was rigged with a lethal electrical charge. He then rounds up Martha and turns them over to the authorities, who confesses to the whole plot in order to get all the money from the life insurance policies. After Tom is cleared of all wrong doing, he does not know what to do with all the money he's inherited and decides to donate it to the Seaman's Fund. Later when Betty returns to see what Namor has been up to, she is floored by the fact that she missed out an eye witness story to four murders.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Betty Dean
Shadow of the Noose
In a Southern town, a local judge is on trail for the murder with his wife and daughter charged as accessories for trying to cover up the crime. The Angel watching the case with great interest. When being cross-examined, the judge and his wife and daughter are on trial for murder. The judge tells them that he was called by the Noose, who demanded that he come to his neighbours home, even though they were not on good terms. However, when the judge left his neighbour was still alive, but his wife and daughter had followed him and found him dead and tired to hide the body to protect him.
However, other witnesses provide testimony that would suggest that the judge was the killer, especially that of an old woman who was the victims housekeeper. Finding the house keepers testimony suspicious, the Angel goes to the local police to do a background check on her and learns that she had been working for the victim for five years, around the time the Noose had vanished. He also learns that while the murder scene was full of the judge's prints, the murder weapon -- a fire poker -- was devoid of prints. When considering house keepers testimony, the Angel realizes that something doesn't add up and rushes off to the victims house.
There he catches the Noose just as he is about to strangle another one of the witnesses that almost blew the case for them. The Angel attacks the Noose, but his would be victim also attacks allowing the Noose to escape. As the Angel struggles with the man, the Noose uses a gun to kill the witness. The Angel then looks around the home for the housekeeper but finds no trace of her.
The following day, the Angel convinces the court to allow him to question some of the witnesses and has the housekeeper take the stand. When the Angel shows her the murder weapon, she identifies it as the weapon that the judge used to kill her employer. The Angel then accuses the woman as being the killer, and to the shock of the hotel room, removes her wig and veil revealing her to be the Noose. The Noose kicks the Angel aside and grabs the poker and is about to bludgeon the judge to death when the Angel subdues him. After the Noose is taken into police custody, he explains that the Noose's fingerprints were not on the weapon because of the gloves he wore as part of his housekeeper disguise. With the judge cleared of the crimes he had been accused of, the judge's daughter and wife thank the Angel by kissing him in the each cheek.
Recurring Characters
Angel
