Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #9

The Masked Marvel is slumming on this adventure, tackling stamp counterfeiters. He apparently has a power that allows him to translate codes super fast. A Read Codes power?

As a superhero, MM should be able to rip open that wall safe with brute strength, but instead opts to play safecracker and hope for a lucky skill check.

Here we have a rare example of a disguise failing. A small printing press probably still weights just over a ton, meaning The Masked Marvel had to use Raise Car to lift that.

This is from Spy Hunters and it demonstrates some of the challenging solutions players have to come up with in a low-level campaign, or even a solo mid-level campaign. A more powerful group of Heroes would have just stormed in there and fought their way to the prisoners, not coordinate with the prisoners via thrown note and stage a diversion for them.

And I share this page because these continue to be good tactics. Again, bear in mind that these must be low-level fighters -- because mid-level Heroes can usually take out low-level/Hit Die opponents in large numbers -- so they are using sneakier tactics like hit-and-run raids to steal better weapons from the enemy. They also use the terrain to their advantage, not only using the height advantage of the hill, but seeking out a cave to bottleneck combatants into.

One good thing you can say about cultists -- they know to change their passwords often. There's now a stat entry for cultists in 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums.

This interesting wrinkle turns out to be a good history lesson. 3-D film was first shown in 1915, but it either didn't work very well or just failed to catch the public's interest.  Most people wouldn't have even heard of 3-D film until 1936, when a 3-D short won an Oscar, and it would not be until 1939 when millions first witnessed 3-D at the New York World's Fair. Out here in California, though, it is conceivable that many of these cultists had not made the trip to New York yet and could be fooled by their first exposure to 3-D film.

It takes Dean Denton all day to invent something, and it's not even anything major (spoilers: it's a calcium chloride bomb with an external trigger).

What I really like here is the multi-tiered cave complex, where one can lower oneself from the ledge of one level down to a lower level, without having to look for stairs or sloping tunnels to get down.

From a filler page called Detectionotes! -- this note about the FBI not being able to arrest people before 1934 is another useful history lesson for any H&H campaign set pre-1934 (or a later campaign with a very detailed backstory, or a time travel adventure...).

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)