Nick Peron

View Original

Sub-Mariner Comics #2

Incident In Canada

Credits

Nazi spies have decided to try to free their comrades held behind as prisoners of war in Canada, as their British captors are breaking their morale. As they are plotting this, Namor is swimming up near Niagara Falls and recalling that there is a POW camp holding prisoners nearby, the Sub-Mariner swims across the US/Canadian border to make sure that nothing is going on. Swimming over frozen Lake Ontario, Namor recalls how a number of ships have gotten into accidents crossing the frozen lake of late because of the ice and suspects that if any prisoners escape from the camps they could walk across the ice into the United States.

Elsewhere, a Nazi spy in Canada gets a call telling him to come out and assist a ship stuck in the ice on the lake. Rushing out in his car he gets the Sub-Mariners attention by almost running him down. Namor stops the car and asks whats going on. Panicking, the Nazi spy tells him that his ship is stuck on the ice and Namor offers his aid. Realizing he is in the company of Nazi spies, the Sub-Mariner offers his services for $5000, playing along to give the Nazis grief. When he frees the ship and goes to collect his "money" the Nazis attempt to eliminate him. Unaware that he is the Sub-Mariner they tie him up in the hold of the ship but the monarch of Atlantis breaks free and starts causing a racket. This leads to a fight that is complicated when the ship strikes a chunk of ice, punching a hole in the hull of the ship.

Namor dives out and pulls the ship onto an ice floe and knocks out the captain and his crew. He sells the hiding Nazi POWs on the idea that the captain was a traitor and that he will help them sneak into the United States, however one of the escaped prisoners recognizes the Sub-Mariner from a previous clash in Europe. When the Nazis turn on Namor, he easily beats them into submission and incapacitates the boat. When the captain and the head smuggler attempt to flee, Namor rounds them up and then radios the coast guard from their communications room to report their escape attempt to the authorities.

Recurring Characters

Sub-Mariner, Nazis

Sabotage In a Coal Mine

When a series of mine accidents hit a small Pennsylvania town, Namor suspects that it might be the work of Nazi Fifth Columnists and decides to investigate. However when he arrives on the property of the Largo Coal Company and listens into one of the residences, he overhears a number of works and realizes that this is really a union dispute. The unionized workers who are on strike and causing the accidents to force their employer to pay them more. With a new workforce hired by the company, the union employees plan on flooding the mine to cause a good scare, and have planned it so that nobody really gets hurt. When Namor attempts to warn the mine foreman, he scoffs at the idea, thinking it to be nothing more than a prank. Namor decides then that he must take matters into his own hands.

As the midnight shift of workers enter the mine, Namor follows after them and attempts to convince them to turn back. However, they too refuse to believe his warnings. The Sub-Mariner fails to convince them and the planted TNT explodes, and instead of blocking off the miners from the flood on the lower level, something goes wrong and no barrier is formed, causing rushing water to come after them. Namor rushes the workers to safety and then plugs the flood but gets trapped on the flooded side before he can rescue the miners.

Swimming the other way around he comes out of a water pipe in the nearby reservoir. Rushing to the opening of the mine he finds workers attempting to free their trapped comrades. Knowing this will cause an avalanche, Namor stops them and then attempts to go back to rescue the workers by returning through the pipe. He is attacked by the union members, but Namor easily knocks them out before they can shoot him. Swimming back through the flooded mine, Namor reaches the shaft entrance and sees that the workers have been climbing up manually to escape the quickly rising water. Namor comes to their aid and helps pull the majority of the workers out. Back on the grounds, he overhears a young girl crying and learns that her father is still trapped in the mine.

Returning into the mine, Namor searches the flooded area and finds the lost miner trapped in a small pocket of air. He pulls the man to the surface and resuscitates him before reuniting the man with his family. Namor learns that the man was one of the strikers but he decided to become a scab and go back to work. He tells them where their hideout is and confronts them. Attacking their leader, he pulls him into the compromised mine and threatens to bring it down around them unless he reveals his true game. The man confesses that he is really a Nazi spy who was attempting to cause dissent in the mine to affect America's war effort. Namor pulls the man back up to the surface and consigns the Nazi to a fate worse than he could ever come up with: he leaves him at the mercy of the wives of the miners he endangered who beat him senseless.

Recurring Characters

Sub-Mariner

Namor Blitzes a Nazi Sub

While relaxing in the South Atlantic, Namor's peace is interrupted when he spots a Nazi Sub, which he decides to follow. After the sub fires a torpedo at a British ship sent to hunt the sub, the Sub-Mariner rushes it. He destroys the rutter, punctures the hull then pulls sub down and leaves it to stay before returning to the surface to save the British ship from sinking.

Recurring Characters

Sub-Mariner, Nazis

Slaves of the Python

Reese University is rocked by horror when one of their professors Miss Dawson is killed by a seemingly human python. Reading about the story in the papers, the Angel decides to investigate as Dawson was a renowned chemist. Breaking into her lab, he finds the woman's notes and learns that she had come up with a new special gas formula that would be an asset to the military yet she feared it falling into enemy hands. The Angel is soon attacked by the strange python creature that attacked Dawson the night before. To the Angel's surprise, this creature is really a man dressed to look like the snake he imitates. The creature crushes the Angel into unconsciousness and steals the note book. Coming around the Angel finds that the diary has been taken and returns to his home to investigate things further. He soon finds a number of prominent scientists have all gone missing recently. Of all the scientists who had gone missing only a Dr. Bach managed to return seemingly unharmed.

Visiting Bach's lab, the Angel is attacked by the scientist but the hero easily overpowers him. He learns that Bach was threatened into serving the Python and was one of the only scientists allowed to go free because he was loyal. The Angel learns the Python's location: an abandoned mansion in Westchester. Confronted by the Python, the Angel is once more beat into unconsciousness and taken prisoner. Revived later, the Angel learns that the Python was a circus contortionist in Nazi Germany who was hired by the Nazis to capture and get secrets from American scientists -- by torture if necessary.

The Python then begins to whip the Angel, however the Angel resists giving into the pain and continues to mock the Nazi operative. Changing tactics, the Python prepares to torture a female scientist in order to get Dawson's formula out of her, however the Angel breaks free and attacks the Python once again. With the Angel overpowered the girl agrees to give the formula and seemingly writes it down. The Python then tosses the Angel into a gas chamber and gives him a knife so that he might cut his throat if he chooses not to die from the gas. The gas has no effect on the Angel, but he feigns cutting his own throat. When the Python goes in to check to see if the Angel is truly dead, the hero gets the jump on him and beats the Python and his aide into submission.

When the FBI arrive on the scene, they find the Python tied in a human knot and the Nazi confesses his crime. As usual, the Angel disappears before anyone can thank him for saving the day.

Recurring Characters

Angel, Python