Sunday, July 8, 2018

Marvel Mystery Comics #3 - pt. 2

There are at least 12 cultists, probably more, in the mansion/castle. We never see the drummers, though as loud as those drums are, I wonder if they were using a record and loud speakers.

The Angel demonstrates that he can climb walls and search for secret doors at the same time.  He also demonstrates the ability to catch thrown objects in mid-air -- this could be a stunt burned for a save vs. missiles.

The cult leader is a hypnotist, or perhaps just a slick hoodlum. The Angel clobbers him, as well as the cultists, pretty easily, with his bare fists. The hypnotism seems particularly strong, though, as the hypnotized cultists follow the leader into the pit, even though putting them at risk like that should give them all fresh saving throws.

The Angel breaks the bonds holding the abducted woman with his bare hands and makes a 10' standing high jump while carrying over 100 lbs. -- blurring the lines again between Mysteryman and Superhero. The Angel may need to be statted with both classes.

Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner's story continues, but he's clearly meant to be a villain here, referred to as an "amphibious demon" by the narrator no less!  This issue makes it clear that his people are based out of Antarctica.

Policewoman Betty Dean debuts in this story. New York had policewomen since 1918. Betty is fearless, tough as nails, and calls her gun "Roscoe." Betty has to patrol the waterfront for a week before finally spotting the Sub-Mariner off the shore of the Battery.

Betty gets surprise on Namor, claps Roscoe to his temple, and tries to trigger a morale save. Namor easily disarms her, grapples her, and then drags her out to sea. In fact, he drags her so far that they witness a U-boat skirmish in the Atlantic between the Germans and either England or France. This is particularly weird because, in 1939, there were no U-boat skirmishes anywhere near the U.S. So, either Namor dragged them reallly far, or for some reason the War in Europe is a lot closer to the U.S. than it should be.  Later in the story, Betty says there is a German flotilla and minefield further southeast of where they are. Ignoring for the moment that Betty seems to have secret military information -- where can this flotilla and minefield be? There's no geologic feature to blockade with mines within hundreds of miles of New York...did Namor really swim all the way to the English Channel?? That's like teleportation, or Teleport Through Focus, with water being his focus.

I'm not sure if we need a game mechanic for Namor grabbing onto a torpedo and turning it back at the U-Boat, but if we did, the power Turn Gun on Bad Guy would do fine. Once Namor is on board the sub things get a little simpler. Possibly buffed with a Get Tough power, Namor wades through the crew and punches out at least five of them before the remaining two crew members fail their morale saves and surrender. After that, Namor goes back on deck and uses the deck gun to shoot a bomber out of the sky. Thankfully, Namor likes to fight with his bare hands and never carries a deck gun around with him all the time (which I do worry about superheroes in H&H doing -- anti-aircraft guns are fearsome weapons).

"Great gar-fish!" was Namor's first catchphrase.

Namor displays the power Push Ocean Liner.  Between that and teleport-swimming -- Namor must be...at least 8th level?

Betty Dean's stroke of genius is to convince Namor to fight Nazis first and judge the U.S. later -- turning Namor from villain to anti-hero.

Namor tricks the German flotilla by moving their mines around on them, and there's no power needed for that other than breathing water. He does rip the rudder off a second U-boat, using wrecking things, and then flies away with another power.

In The Masked Raider's cowboy adventure, we learn that he's wanted by the law, dead or alive -- meaning Timely has yet another anti-hero here.

(Read in Marvel Unlimited.)








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