Amazing-Man Comics #10 - pt. 1

For my 800th post (!), we're back to Centaur Comics and this issue of Amazing-Man Comics has a theme of getting places. Particularly since Bill Everett's lead feature is all about getting Amazing Man to his next adventure.

Two things about this page -- one is that John Aman, the Amazing Man, is "unaffected by intense heat," suggesting he's activated the 2nd-level Fire Resistance power.

The other is that "the pilot is unaware that flames have seared and damaged his parachute." Does that mean John is aware of it? And he still threw the man out of the plane?

There's some reallly curious physics going on here. Now, if John had assumed a proper diving position and reduced his wind resistance, there was a chance of him falling faster and catching up to the pilot. But if he's transformed into green mist, there's no way he should be falling faster than a solid object.

In the final panel, John is using the Feather Landing power. The expanded explanation for that power in 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums even accounts for this use (it's the 2nd function under the power).

Smothering Cloud might need to be a new power, as I can't think of any game mechanic I currently have in H&H that would handle this, other than Control Fire, a 3rd-level power.

I'm not sure if we need a power that handles protection from rare air/high altitude...but I'll consider it.

Usually it's the villains who unerringly find the Heroes' weaknesses, but here John just stumbles onto the fact that his mist form can be frozen!

 ...but he isn't totally vulnerable in this state, as he can still control his movement completely, just as he could when his mist form was gaseous. What we can gather from this, though, is that he can't change back to human form from a different solid state.

Now, I'm wondering here if we can pin down anymore closely where this super-isolated village is. It's not a very big plateau if it only has the one village on it. Otherwise, it really sounds like Tibet, with how it's encircled by seemingly impassable mountains. Perhaps this is just one corner of Tibet.

If John already is in Tibet, that would explain how this secret passage gets him back to the Tibetan monastery so quickly.

I'm not sure how strong 100 elephants are, but if this means he could lift 100 elephants, that would be 600 tons, making him by far the strongest superhero yet (Superman and Captain Marvel are still years away from being able to lift 600 tons). In fact, that would currently be like an 8th-level Raise power. But I suspect an unreliable narrator again, as those boulders don't look nearly that heavy.

I wasn't impressed with this western story, hastily drawn and supposedly by Joe Simon (though he had to have really hacked this out fast!), and will only share this one page from "Ranch Dude." I share this because counting to 2 or 3 in a gunfight makes no difference by H&H rules; both sides still roll randomly, with highest roll going first.

We'll probably come back and look at The Magician from Mars more next time, but two things about this page -- yes, it really does say she got her powers from being exposed to a cathode ray, and cathode rays really are just the beam of electrons you'd find in a (now) old-fashioned television set.

The other thing is the Moderni Airport. There is no real Moderni Airport that I can find evidence of, but this is likely a Mars location anyway.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)