USA Comics #15 — Nick Peron

Aug 6

Aug 6 USA Comics #15

The Doom of Metal

Steve Rogers and James Barnes are on a ship heading back to the United States. The pair are looking forward to returning home even if it is only on furlough. Suddenly, the railing Bucky is leaning on breaks prompting Steve to pull his young friend to safety. That’s when they notice that the ship is suddenly dissolving. The two join the other soldiers on board in diving overboard as the ship completely disappears. Pulled onto a lifeboat, the pair try to understand what has happened. Examining the wreckage they notice that the only the metal was destroyed leaving behind all the non-metal wreckage. Not sure what could cause all the metal on the ship to dissolve like that, Steve suggests that they pay a visit to Doctor Ramon Olvidar, the foremost metallurgist in America.

However, before the pair can arrive a man named Mister Lucifer arrives at Doctor Olvidar’s office. Doctor Olvidar recognizes the visitor and is fatally shot before he can do anything. Hearing the shot from outside, Steve and James rush inside. They find Doctor Olvidar who tells them that Mister Lucifer stole his metal destroyer and pleads with them to destroy it before it is too late. Steve and James change into Captain America and Bucky and pursue the scientist’s killer. They follow Mister Lucifer into the sewers. Noticing that he is being followed, Mister Lucifer turns on the flow of a water pipe in the hopes of drowning his pursuers. Cap manages to shut off the water valve, but the shooter manages to get away. Tragically, when they return to check on Doctor Olvidar, the scientist had since died from his injuries.

Soon, Mister Lucifer begins terrorizing the entire country by using the metal destroyer to sabotage military ships. Seeking a means of stopping this “metal plague”, the military calls the leading experts to try to a secret location to find a solution. Steve and James are put on guard duty and they spot Mister Lucifer setting up his metal destroyer on the roof of the building across the street. Steve quickly changes into Captain America and tries to stop him. However, Lucifer has a gang of men who quickly overpower and knock out Cap long enough for the maniac to unleash his weapon on the building. While everyone is busy fleeing the building, James finds Cap on the roof and revives him. After Barnes changes into Bucky, the pair question the commanding military officer, suspecting that Mister Lucifer must have had someone working with him on the inside. He learns that the first person to leave the building was Harvey Bellow, a man who was in favour of yielding to Mister Lucifer during the conference.

Confident that this is the connection, Captain America trail Bellows and overhear him arguing over Mister Lucifer’s next attack on a new prototype battleship. The following day, Cap has a trap set and flies out to the zeppelin which Lucifer isuseing to fly over the ship. Boarding the vessel, Cap and Bucky battle Lucifer and his men. However, they manage to get over the military ship, Lucifer activates his weapon. However, Captain America had soldiers place mirrors on the surface of the ship and they reflect the metal destroyer’s beam back up at the airship causing an explosion on board. As the airship crashes into the water, Captain America bails out and recovers Mister Lucifer’s body from the wreckage. He discovers that Mister Lucifer is wearing a mask and that he is actually an industrialist named Joshua Kliss. When investigating why Kliss would do this, Cap and Bucky learn that Kliss was about to lose his military contracts to his competitors.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Bucky

Luminous Death

The air raid siren over an American airfield in New Guinea blares as Japanese fighters make another attempt at destroying the base’s supply of ammunition and fuel. Not only have the Japanese developed a new method of dropping bombs with pinpoint accuracy, but they are able to locate the hidden ammunition and fuel stores thanks to information provided to them by a spy working on the base.

Suspecting that there is a traitor in the ranks, the military brass has Jap Buster Johnson called in to help investigate the situation. Arriving on base, Johnson meets with Commander Bennett who takes Johnson out to the scene of the attack. There he witnesses how the base has some of the locals helping build barbwire fences around the remaining munition dumps . Johnson also notices that the water in nearby tanks have a strange odour. Bennett tells Johnson that the smell is from the creosote they use to protect the wooden fence posts from moisture. Bennett is furious that the water tanks are leaking again and is unhappy that he is going to have to talk to Shu-Tan — the leader of the native workers — to do something about it.

That evening there is another attack and this time they manage to shoot down one of the enemy fighters. They discover that the plane is using a special kind of bomb sight, but it is too damaged to tell what it does. Johnson signs up to infiltrate the nearby enemy base in order to steal an undamaged sight from a plane. Although Johnson succeeds at infiltrating the enemy base, he has to fight his way out when he is discovered and has to fight his way out. Getting away without trouble, Johnson returns to base with the gunsight and discovers that it looking through it causes creosote to become luminescent.

When he reports this back to Commander Bennett they deduce that Shu-Tan is their spy, using the creosote to signal the location of the hidden ammunition and fuel stores to the Japanese. After his capture, Shu-Tan reveals when they next attack is planned and Jap Buster Johnson and his men are ready to shoot them out of the sky.

Recurring Characters

Jap Buster Johnson

The Link Mob

With the war in full swing, the Link mob has been prospering thanks to the fact that many police officers have been drafted into military service. Gloating over how easy their crimes have been, the leader of the gang begins plotting their next heist. Elsewhere in the city, Jack Robinson reads about the manpower shortages that have been caused due to the war effort. He decides to help out as the Whizzer and picks a job that requires the most amount of help. Finding an ad for a delivery service, Jack changes into the Whizzer and races to the scene. It just so happens, the delivery company is being robbed by a member of the Link gang and the speedster manages to stop it before he can get away. The next day, the Link mob tries to rob a department store but they are once again thwarted by the Whizzer who happens to come by during a delivery.

After two failed robberies, the leader of the gang decides they should commit a robbery at night when the Whizzer is not out making deliveries. They break into the home of the most wealthy man in the city during the early hours of the morning. Despite this plan, the entire gang is nabbed by the Whizzer who had also taken up a job delivering milk in the morning as well.

Recurring Characters

Whizzer

Blind Man’s Bluff!

As the spectre of Death looms, Detective Mike Trapp and his partner Pepper Burns are called to investigate the alleged suicide of Frank Fairfield, a blind man. At the scene of the crime, Mike finds a typewritten suicide note that was written on Frank’s typewriter. When questioning James Rand, the man who alleges to have discovered the body, Mike accuses Rand of murdering Frank. This is because although a blind person could use a typewriter to write a suicide note, they would have been incapable of making spelling corrections by hand because they wouldn’t be able to see their mistake let alone correct it.