Amazing Mystery Funnies v. 2 #5

It's kind of a given that the science in science fiction strips of the 1930s was going to be pretty weak, but I'm still surprised that Sari can hear the hum of the pursuit ships, from a long distance away, through the vacuum of space. One can either try to hide this in their Hideouts & Hoodlums games as if it were a bug, or treat it as a feature and go full-on gonzo the science. The H&H rules try to walk a middle road between the two, like making other planets inhospitable environments, but not as inhospitable as they really are in real life.

We also get some sense of the geography of Venus from this. There is Meteor Plains to go visit, or the Bendozi Spur, which can be reached through an underground tunnel.

Sari suffers complications from injuries, as she now can't use that arm. Paul overbears Skyrocket by making a successful attack roll, followed by Skyrocket failing his save vs. science. Since Skyrocket was already prone, he should save at -2.

This giant underground tunnel actually leads to Vendex Valley instead of Bendozi Spur. Why one would need to navigate underground, and why it wouldn't be easier to reach these locations flying above ground, has me a little perplexed.

This is clearly a Potion of Invisibility being given to Skyrocket, even though it's called a "chemical" and that makes it hi-tech. I'm thinking I made a mistake in separating trophy items into hi-tech and magical. They should all work the same, and the tech/magic distinction should be largely flavor text only.

I don't have anything really constructive to say about this page, but it reminds me of D&D games I've played (or ran!) where the DM prepares a consistent naming scheme for the campaign -- with NPCs like Batow, Redon, Morten, and Klawger -- and then someone introduces a character into the campaign called...Tim.

At least Tim gets a lightning gun!

And then there's these guys. They're batmen. The Batmen of Kordano. So this can be a thing in H&H now. They live to alternate between daggers and lightning guns, apparently.

Batmen don't stand much of a chance against giant flame guns that can create walls of fire.  Tim's dissolving gun can wreck like crazy too.

Daredevil Barry Finn encounters a distinctly different merman, one created with science instead of naturally.

I should have thought of this one a lot sooner -- a Potion of Explosives. This can't be the first time I've seen a vial of chemicals that can explode. It's clearly meant to be thrown...woe to the Hero who drinks it...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)