Sub-Mariner Comics #8
The Mystery of the Knife
The Sub-Mariner is approaching the US Coast near Goose Rock Lighthouse. Inside the lighthouse, Nazi spy the Knife returns inside and reveal to his supposed partner Ritten is really a spy with the FBI and begins stabbing him to death. As he is being stabbed Ritten uses the light switch to the lighthouse's lamp to signal an SOS that is seen by Namor. Rushing to the lighthouse, the Sub-Mariner arrives just as the Knife runs out to the balcony. Checking on Ritten, the dying man warns him of the spy and mentions "Parris" before dying. Rushing outside Namor clashes with the Knife, who manages to knock the hero off the balcony and into the water below. Namor hits his head on the rocks below the water and is knocked out for a few hours allowing the Knife to get away. When Namor comes around again he thinks about what Ritten had said and deduces that he must have been speaking about Parris Island, where a station of Marines is located and decides to ferret out the spy by joining the Marines himself.
When Namor meets with the military brass to tell them the idea, they agree to allow him to join the Marines. Assigned to Parris Island, the Namor is in maneuvers when he is treated roughly by Sargent Howard. This makes Namor suspicious and he gets a fellow officer to help him out with a "prank" to check out his suspicions. He has that officer yell the word "Achtung!" in a meeting hall and Namor watches as only Howard stands at attention as a Nazi would. Calling in his suspicions to Navy Intelligence, they tell him that Sargent B.R. Howard is an American citizen. Namor still suspects him as being a spy and soon he and his troop learn that they are being sent to California for advanced training.
Riding to the west coast by train, Namor hears a faint ticking noise and manages to find the bomb and toss it off the train before it explodes. Then, hoping to trap the Knife, tells everyone he saw who the Knife was and that he is keeping it a secret until they get to California so that he can report it to Navy Intelligence. Then pretending to sleep, Namor leaves himself open to attack from the Knife. Sure enough, the Knife takes the bait and attacks him and a fight breaks out. However, the Knife throws a knife striking Namor in the shoulder allowing the crook to escape and doff his disguise before Namor can confirm who he is.
In California, they begin their advanced training and soon learn that they are being stationed out on Guadalcanal. While they are travelling there by battleship, the Knife telegraphs their location to Imperial Japanese forces who prepare to attack. Although they catch the American destroyer off guard, the Japanese are forced to retreat when Namor dives into the water and redirects their torpedoes back at them.
When the Marines land on Guadalcanal, they begin exchanging artillery with the Japanese navy until the Knife uses a flare to signal the Japanese that their long range ammunition has run out. The Japanese navy then stays out of range and continues shelling the American battlements. Namor swims out and gets more ammunition from an American supply station and brings them back but learns their long range cannons were destroyer in the attack and that their light cannons do not have enough range.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Imperial Japan
The Setting of the Rising Sun
Namor is off the Alaskan coast when he spots a blimp go down close to shore and so he goes to investigate. He finds that the blimp had been shot down and sees an entire army of Japanese soldiers have landed. He fights the soldiers into fleeing and spots that they are taking a motorboat back to some cutters. Namor begins fighting in the sea, destroying the ships, revealing a Japanese sub disguised as a battle ship and destroying that vessel along with the others.
Namor then returns to the mainland, and after burying the equipment found aboard the blimp he decides to watch over an American supply convoy driving through the area. He is shocked when he sees dazed American troops suddenly stop the convoy and attack it. With too many soldiers attacking, Namor decides to follow them instead and is shocked to see that they are taking the supplies to shore where they are shipped over to a nearby Japanese battleship. There he attacks the officers on board, and learns that Dr. Suki, a Japanese scientist, has developed a formula that makes those exposed to it obedient slaves. Namor is overpowered and put in irons so that he too can be infected with the serum, but he breaks free and flees the Japanese ship.
Returning to shore, he tries to make some of the effected American soldiers snap out of it, but one of them hits him in the head with a shovel knocking him into the water where he passes out. Reviving, Namor returns to the mainland and finds that the Japanese have set up a base there where they are exposing captured soldiers to the serum, turning them into slaves and that Dr. Suki has an antidote should they ever need one.
Namor attacks the base, taking out the guards but when he tries to capture Dr. Suki the scientist flees. Namor pursues him in a jeep and follows him back to the Japanese ship at sea. There, Namor attacks and forces a Japanese Zero fighter to crash on the ship destroying it. He then grabs Suki and forcibly returns him back to the inland base where American troops have recaptured the location. Namor then threatens to inject Dr. Suki with his own formula if he does not cure the affected soldiers. Suki complies but later tires to inject himself with the serum to hide his knowledge from the Americans, but Namor stops him and he is taken into custody.
Namor rectifies this by diving into the water and sneaking aboard the main Japanese destroyer. Jumping a sailor and taking his uniform, Namor makes his way up to the control room and forces the superior officers to order their ships closer to the island. When the Japanese forces are getting hammered by the American guns they try to surround their ship with a smoke screen, but Namor dives into the water with a waterproof radio and uses it to tell the Americans where to fire, sinking the rest of the Japanese ships. In the aftermath of the battle, Namor finds Sargent Howard among the wreckage begging for his life. Namor drags him back to shore so that he can face a firing squad and is commended on a job well done.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Imperial Japan
Genius for Murder
Independently wealthy would be writer Caleb Crane is working hard to become a successful murder mystery writer. However, his most recent submission to "Death Stories Magazine" is rejected because it lacks realism. The editors letter suggests that Crane stick to writing what he knows, which inspires him to go out and commit some crimes and murders so that he can write a more convincing story. That night wearing a mask, Crane went out and robbed a woman of her pearl necklace, strangling the woman to death as he did so. As the woman dies, Crane tosses a white carnation on her corpse. The woman's screams are heard by Thomas Halloway who confronts Caleb, however he manages to fight off the hero and give him the slip. Returning home, Caleb's hands are shaking with excitement but he manages to write out a story that totally grabs the editor at Death Stories Magazine and his story is purchased.
When it makes publication and is read by Thomas Halloway, he notes that the facts of the story and some of the lines uttered by the killer matches his encounter with the killer the press was now calling the "White Carnation" and decides to investigate Caleb Crane. Learning that he has a private PO Box, the Angel stakes it out and then follows Caleb home. Crane notices that he is being followed and attempts to strike the Angel with his cane leading to an altercation, however Crane points out that the Angel does not have any solid evidence against him except for a story and the Angel is forced to let him go.
Using newly made underworld connections, Crane learns that mobster Grogans mob was planning a hit at the Red Cat Cafe that night. Both Caleb and the Angel are in attendance when the hit goes down. The Angel is shocked when Crane suddenly starts trying to help stop the robbery. Chasing after Grogan, Crane pretends to help the crook escape, but only lulls him into false security and murders him instead and has his body dumped in the harbor. Acting as though Gorgan got away, the Angel reconsiders his theory that Crane is the White Carnation.
However, while the Angel goes about his investigation Crane confronts Grogan's gang and offers to be their new leader with a unique proposition: They keep all the money from their crimes, paying Crane nothing except for telling their stories so that he can have them published and earn an income that way. With the White Carnation Gang going on a crime spree and the body of Grogan dredge up from the harbor, the Angel once more suspects Crane to be the mastermind behind the operation.
The Angel decides to catch Crane by playing to his ego by opening up a new publishing company. When Crane submits a story for publication to the Angel's false company, he rejects the story claiming that it was boring and that he has better writers. Planning to murder the Angel and frame on the other other supposed writers hired by the company, he walks into the heroes trap. Beating Crane into submission, he agrees to confess and then has his confession, court trial and experience in prison published as a story that captivates the nation.
Crane then attempts to use this good publicity to get an appeal for his death sentence, however these attempts fail. Crane then asks to be allowed to have a typewriter so that he can write one last story. The warden agrees to this request and has a custom typewriter built to Crane's specifications unaware that parts of the device also build a gun. Using this weapon Crane attempts to break out of prison and get away in a phony hearse brought by his gang. The Angel stumbles upon this and hides in the coffin inside. He then knocks out Crane and his gang and brings Crane back to prison. There, Crane accepts his defeat and finishes writing his story. He then thanks the Angel for his genius and then allows himself to be put into the electric chair and executed.
Recurring Characters
Angel
