Champion Comics #5 - pt. 3

Before we quit this issue of Champion Comics and move on, let's visit one last feature. The Adventures of Bill Handy is yet another Terry and the Pirates clone, with the Asian sidekick replaced with a black sidekick.

I had to double check, but there is no country called Palay. It appears to be in the West Indies.

"Wanga," amazingly is a real thing (and I was sure that was the fake one!). It's a magical charm packet found in Haiti, so that explains which country "Palay" really is.

Putting a machine gun nest may have seemed like a really good idea while stocking the castle, and it's definitely a good defensive position that can attack the Heroes at various locations, so long as they're out in the open. The problem is what happens when the Heroes get their hands on that machine gun and that position, and can essentially take over the whole castle at that point. The lesson: don't leave trophy weapons sitting out where Heroes can find them unless you want them to have them.

It's a castle with dungeons! I wish we'd seen more of this place.

Smashing the radio room may seem an odd extra step. Bill must not be certain the dungeon will hold his prisoners.

I wish we got to see the other side of that map where the good stuff is! A map that shows the location of a new hideout is as good as a treasure map.












If you don't look closely at that last panel you'll miss their strategy. Bill pounds on the side of the tower. The Nazi climbs up the tower. At the top, Marco surprises the Nazi and takes him prisoner. I would expect this to work once, maybe twice, before the crew below gets wise and takes other actions. A wiser course of action would just be taking the sub down and making the good guys tread water. 

A wisecracking player might say, "Gee, what good is someone else's medal gonna do me?", but a smart player would know that medals are rewards and rewards are worth XP!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)