USA Comics #5
Victory Boys
Hitler and Mussolini need to find a way to hide Germany's difficulties from a visiting Hirohito, so they whisk him off to a castle in the Black Forest. The Victory Boys are nearby, and Maxie is chosen to go hunting for some food for them. He gets captured, and the Victory Boys must confront the three dictators to rescue him.
Recurring Characters
Victory Boys (Victor, Maxie Stein, Kurt Erzberger, Gus Weber, Warren Zumwald, Nazis (Adolf Hitler), Emperor Hirohito, Benito Mussolini
Continuity Notes
This is the last Golden Age appearance of the Victory Boys. They will resurface again in the All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes limited series.\
Murder, Unlimited
Satan summons his minion the Black Widow to his side and orders her to bring him the soul of contract killer Karl Koodamore. On the surface Koodamore is hired by a wealthy man named Henderson to murder stage actor John Marriman whom has won the love of his wife. Karl takes the job and has one of his men pose in the role of Death with an electrified sword in the play "The Duel with Death" that stars Marriman in the lead role.
The Black Widow appears just as the minion slays Marriman, and the Black Widow kills him with her widows touch. Pointing out Karl in the crowd she attempts to claim his soul as well, but he flees while his minions are left behind to try and stop her. She claims all their souls as well and continues on her pursuit of Koodamore.
Karl attempts to see refuge in the office of Cross-Face Durok, one of his minions. This doesn't save him from the Widow as she soon smashes through the window but takes Cross-Face's life while Koodamore flees the scene once again. Catching up to Koodamore, she gets in the path of his car, forcing him to drive it off a cliff and to a fiery death in the chasm below. With her mission accomplished the Black Widow returns to her master, Satan.
Recurring Characters
Black Widow, “Satan”
Continuity Notes
This story refers to the Black Widow’s master as Satan. However, The Twelve limited series details that it was an unidentified demon. The difference in accounts could be attributed to the fact that, in continuity, Timely era stories are “comic book adaptations” that are based on “true events”. See All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes and Young Allies 80th Anniversary Special #1.
Hills of Horror
Mr. Lamb has taken his son Jonah on a tour of Asia. They end up in Shang-Hai where they caught in the middle of a building collapse. Jonah's father is caught in the collapse and is killed instantly. Now an orphan, young Johan decides to cut it on his own and leaves Shang-Hai alone.
On the edge of town he ducks into a barn to rest for the night and finds it already occupied by an American wanderer named Budd Powers. Powers welcomes the boy and the two become fast friends and decide to travel Asia seeking adventure together.
The following day they end up in a Chinese village under siege by a group of raiders. The pair try to stop the attackers and are captured. However, they are rescued by a Chinese boy named Sen Yet. They soon get the upper hand on the raiders and fight them off. They are thanked and welcomed to anything they wish, however Budd only asks for a roof over their head and food to eat.
The Fighting Hobo
Butch Brogan is a wandering homeless man who comes across a discarded book of Shakespeare while relaxing in the city dump. He immediately falls in love with the works, particularly Hamlet, even going so far as trying to dress up like the main character. This earns him nothing but laughter from his fellow hobos, but Brogan is not upset by this and decides to wander about town.
Butch later witnesses Mrs. Upsnoot, a local rich woman, have her expensive dog kidnapped by a pair of crooks trying to get easy money. Brogan chases after them hoping to rescue the purloined pooch. Borrowing a motorcycle, Butch chases after the crooks all the way to their hideout.
Getting the drop on the crooks he knocks one out and rescues the stolen pup. However the second crook attempts to escape on the motorcycle, but Brogan gives him chase in the crooks car. Forcing the crook off the road, Butch easily knocks him out. After the crooks are turned over to the authorities and the pooch returned to Mrs. Upsnoot, Brogan is thanked for his aid with a check and a kiss on the cheek.
The Blue Blade
An American scientist has finished creating his new atom smasher ray and shows it to his daughter. He is unaware that Japanese spies have learned of it's completion and reported it's existence back to their leader Sandai. Sandai orders the device stolen at once. A group of spies storm the home of the scientist and demand his new weapon, the scientist refuses.
Before the spies can attack, the Blue Blade smashes through the window and attacks the Japanese spies. However, while the hero is busy fighting off the spies, Sandai takes the scientists daughter hostage and forces the scientist to leave with him and share his secrets for his daughters safety.
The Blue Blade realizes too late what has happened but manages to follow the spy back to his private yacht. There the Blue Blade easily beats Sandai into submission and frees the scientist and his device. With Sandai defeated the Blue Blade uses the atom smasher ray to destroy the spies boat and rides off into the night a hero.
Recurring Characters
Blue Blade, Imperial Japan
Continuity Notes
This is the only Golden Age appearance of the Blue Blade. The character is seen decades later in The Twelve mini-series.
Roko the Amazing
Lon Crag is an art student at Goodfield High School. One day he sees a class mate reading a Captain America comic and decides to check it out for himself. Reading the stories contained in the comic Lon is inspired and wishes that he too could be a super-hero like Captain America. One day as he is painting a picture of the ancient king off ancient Greece, Menalaos.
To his surprise the painting comes to life with the spirit of Menalaos who endows Lon with super-human abilities should he say the word "Illium" granting him the wisdom of Ulysses, the battle prowess of Agamemnon, and the invulnerability of Achilles. With his new powers, Lon calls himself Roko the Amazing.
Told by his art teacher to find real life subjects to draw, Lon goes out into the city and witnesses the girders of a construction site break loose, endangering the steeplejacks on it. Changing into Roko the Amazing and saves them with great ease. Resuming his mortal guise, he overhears the construction workers on the site talk about how the site is cursed and a number of accidents have happened over the past while.
Lon decides to investigate further that night and spots a masked man attempting to sabotage the construction site. Attacking the man, Roko notes that he is missing an ear before the culprit escapes. The following day, Lon is selected to draw pictures for a construction award ceremony. There he witnesses Mr. McCarthy being given an aware. Noticing that he is missing an ear, Lon realizes that he is the man from the night before. Changing into Roko once more, Lon captures McCarthy and forces him to confess his crimes to the authorities.
Gypo the Gypsy Giant
Bobby is sent out to play in his yard for the day and is warned not to stray too far or to go into the nearby forest. Not listening, Bobby goes seeking adventure. He is confronted by Gypo, a giant who attempts to scare the boy. When he fails to do so, he begins to cry. Realizing that Gypo is nothing but a push over when his overbearing wife stops by, Bobby agrees to accompany them back to their home to help get their pet dragon off the roof of their home. Knocking out the dragon, Gypo thanks Bobby for his help and leaves to study his book "How to be a Successful Giant".
Corporal Dix
Corporal Dix is to be sent to the Panama Canal and says farewell to his brother and mother before shoving off. Arriving at base, he is surprised to see his old friend, the company chef "Fish Face" Friday. Friday is interested in doing what he can to help the army beat the Japanese in the war, but Dix reminds him his job is to keep the troops fed.
The trouble with Fish Face begins when he shows up one day wearing an old civil war uniform. When Dix asks him why he is wearing it he tells the Corporal that he plans on joining the Japanese army. Other soldiers hear him and pile onto the African-American cook thinking him a traitor, but Dix orders them off and demands that Friday explain himself. Friday tells the Corporal that he intended to kill the Japanese with his own cooking.
Soon their ship is attacked by Japanese fighter planes and Friday is injured in a bomb blast. Corporal Dix angrily fights back by jumping off the ships conning tower onto an enemy plane and forcing it to crash. Surviving the crack up, Dix is brought back aboard the ship where he finds that Friday is alive and well.
When a Japanese pilot sneaks aboard the ship and tries to kill Fish Face, it is Corporal Dix who catches him in the act and saves his friends life. The pair knock the Japanese soldier ass-over-kettle into a pot of soup and he is soon captured.
Recurring Characters
Corporal Dix, Imperial Japan
The American Avenger
Don Caldwell went to South America and fell in love with the culture. Over the course of several years he learned everything there was to know about South American culture. He particularly came to love the local hero of legend, El Gaucho who was fabled to return someday soon. Following the outbreak of World War II, Don was on his way home when he is approached by a man offering to show him El Gaucho's old uniform.
Seeing it, Don is awed and is even more surprised when the old man offers him to take up the tradition of freedom fighting that El Gaucho was famous for. Don accepts the role and becomes the new El Gaucho, also known as the American Avenger. To help fortify the myth of El Gaucho, the statue of the hero disappears which unnerves Nazi forces in the area.
When Nazi forces being eliminating engineers under orders of their leader Baron Girbel, the new El Gaucho comes to stop them. Freeing their captives and stopping their operations. Girbel is not defeated however, and manages to escape to Buenos Aeries. There he plots to smuggle in Nazi spies into the United States through New York.
Learning of this, Don also gets a ticket on the same steam ship and that night when the Nazis attempt to take it over, he goes into action as El Guacho and easily defeats them in combat. With the ship still under control of the original owners, it arrives in New York City without incident where Girbel and his men are taken into military custody.
Recurring Characters
Nazis
