Red, White, and Blue takes place at the New York's World Fair, as so many other stories do around the same time period. In fact, this might be the strongest case against shared universe campaigns, as otherwise Heroes would have been meeting up all the time at the World Fair. Once again it's saboteurs at work, though slightly less menacingly this time, they are arms manufacturers agitating for war instead of foreign spies. At first, these saboteurs seem content to sow chaos by doing things like tossing "stench bombs" into restaurants. Unless this is somehow weapons-grade stench, I would think this would be distracting, but not affect game mechanics.
There's a perplexing phrase in the story, where Red says "But if I catch you tanked up on circus water..." to Blooey, and I've had to research what that means. I can't Google the phrase as a whole, but "tanked up" means to get drunk. "Circus water" probably refers to the fact that, before Walt Disney convinced the world there was money in family friendly entertainment, places like circuses and amusement parks actually catered to adults instead. So if you went to the circus, you were likely there buying beer to drink, or maybe even something harder.
Red also says "rushing a squaw around" to mean chasing women, which would certainly be considered racist today. When the saboteurs turn to murder, Whitey grapples with one of them, but the man is able to evade him, straight out of melee (he becomes "lost in the confusion").
Ben Webster and his friend Pat search the roof for signs of the saboteurs in their story, only to find a cryptic clue -- a card that says only "Success or death, 251."
A salesman in Reg'lar Fellers gives some suggestions for what the children can buy with 25 cents for a gift -- a toothbrush, writing paper, two cigars, a metal pencil, and a safety razor. I'm wondering if "metal pencil" means a mechanical pencil.
In Mystery Men of Mars, Ted and Alan lose their robot trophy -- when immersed in salt water, it rusts its "brain." Before it goes, we see it leap once, like an alien Hero.
In Hop Harrigan, we see that SCMs can have their own Supporting Cast too, as Gerry has two German shepherds she wants to fly with her. Hop proves to be a terrible flight instructor; when Gerry freezes up at the stick, Hop clobbers her over the head with a fire extinguisher instead of just grabbing the stick from her. That the dogs then attack him is a sweet bit of justice. A reference to a "Kenosha Dam" makes me doubt my proclamation in the last post that Hop's adventures took place in the Northeast, as this makes me think maybe he's in Wisconsin. In the craziest moment of Hop Harrigan yet, Gerry -- who's supposed to be much younger than Hop, who himself seems to only be 18, rescues him and her father, then makes out with Hop in front of her father.
Speaking of dated humor, both Reg'lar Fellers and Toonerville Folks have jokes about parents beating their children.
(Read at fullcomic.pro.)
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