Prize Comics #2 - pt. 2

We're still visiting with Ted O'Neil in Mexico. He's dealing with diamond smugglers, but pretty poor smugglers. Are they really about to brag about having $1,000 in diamonds? That should be easy, even in 1940. 

Here we have an uncommon instance of a whip being used as an entangling weapon. 

Just as rare, we have a missile weapon -- a rock -- being thrown into a melee to great effect.

Here we're told these are poor smugglers again, willing to kill over only thousands of dollars. 

They're slow smugglers too, though that is because of Hideouts & Hoodlums' initiative system. Even though Bates should be able to pull a trigger before Ted can reach up and grab that beam, he can't if Ted out-rolls him.

The smugglers are also poor shots, missing despite the +2 bonus they should have for attacking from behind, and while Ted can't move too much.

Tossing a lasso over someone while flying by in a fast-moving plane strains cred -- oh, who am I kidding? This whole story is straining me. This lasso trick would need a natural 20, over a result over 20, to pull off. 

And how dark is this ending? It's implied that Ted landed so rough that Bates' face is smashed in by the fall. 

You know, this issue really isn't winning me over, and Jupiter, Master Magician isn't helping. Let's ignore for the moment that Jupiter's antennae look like pencils sticking out of his hair. Let's pretend that monster is drawn less goofy-looking and more like the D&D gargoyle it superficially resembles. Let's even try to ignore the fact that, if the city is shielded by rays so he can't locate it, then how does Jupiter know it's far away? Instead, let's talk about how dumb your supporting cast member has to be to volunteer to be a decoy, while you watch a monster carry him away, even though you have no idea if the monster is going to eat him the minute it leaves town with him. And even if they're convinced from the crystal ball that the monsters are taking their abductees to this far away city, maybe the abductees don't need to show up alive, or with their heads still on. 

Okay, I lied -- let's go back and talk about the crystal ball shielding too. We need a Protection from Scrying spell for H&H

to simulate that.

On this next page, we learn how gargoyles are made. Ouch! And made by mad scientists...or is the old man a magic-user? It seems he is if he knows about white magic and shielding his location from scrying.

Jupiter here casts Hold Person, Knock, and ...Clean Room? Or just a use of Telekinesis maybe? Oh, and previously he used a Fly spell I forgot to note! It's worth noting that the Fly spell for magic-users is slower than gargoyles fly (12 vs. 15), so it would be hard for Jupiter to keep up, unless he has a faster Fly spell.

It's not a very successful ambush if the other side is able to attack first, is it? 

Jupiter's next spell is a new one and I'm inclined to call it Jupiter's Disarming Hand. It creates one invisible hand per level of the caster that can all make attack rolls vs. visible targets within a, oh, let's say 20' diameter area of each other and if the roll succeeds the target is disarmed of a weapon. The range is, let's say, 60' + 10' per level. It's a pretty weak spell, weaker than Sleep, so I think I'd put it at 1st level.

I'm not clear about how to describe the next panel. Is Jupiter using Hold Person, and then loading the paralyzed gargoyles onto Floating Disc spells? Or is there a new spell in play here (actually, Floating Disc would also be new, to H&H)? Maybe something called Jupiter's Delivery, where 1 inanimate, or paralyzed animate, object per level will float to any location you name for them to go, as long as the caster knows the location,

and it is within, oh, let's say 200' + 25' per level? This is maybe a 3rd level spell.

Then Jupiter scrys the bad guy's location with his crystal ball. "Wow! I still don't know how you do it!" "Really? Really? I'm holding a crystal ball right in front of you. How was this not a big clue for you?"

Up to this point, I could still pretend Jupiter is 3rd or 4th level with a Crystal Ball trophy item, but then he casts Earthquake and I'm just rolling my eyes at how many brevet ranks I have to throw at comic book magic-users. 

Now this turn of events starts out pretty cool; we get a nice visual of a paralysis raygun. And then...whaaaat? Instead of Jupiter thinking his way out of this trap, they luck into a stupid gargoyle tripping over the cord and unplugging it? They're miles underground -- why are there even wall plugs down here? 

It's unclear how Jupiter wrecks the raygun (and a lot of wooden rafters around it). Some spell version of Wreck at Range? Or a Fireball spell? 

It's worth pointing out here that Jupiter has either cast Fly twice, or has a Mass Fly spell that let's them both fly separately. He also has a higher level version of the Strength spell that boosts multiple (at least 2, let's say 2-5) targets' STR scores. This spell is going to be level 3. 

"Hey, watch where you're grabbing with that hand, mister!" You know which panel I'm talking about.

That is one funky ramp onto the plane. And for that matter, why are subterranean monsters using a plane?

Uh...H&H already has an Enlarge spell, but the size of Jupiter's hand is pretty ridiculous there. More so because we're lead to believe it's only his hand that gigantic and the rest of his body, off-panel, is normal size. 

Jupiter demonstrates a Mass Teleport spell that, gosh, that would have to be a 7th-level spell, especially since Johnson isn't anywhere near them when Jupiter and the mad scientist teleport. Johnson is, of course, only there to either witness Jupiter's victory (because Jupiter needs it for his ego) or -- as happens -- to give the mad scientist one last chance to threaten them. Polymorph is already a 4th-level spell. Based on the 7th-level spell alone, we know Jupiter is at least 15th level, and that's with 13 brevet ranks, just for what we see in this story. And I don't even remember how many brevet ranks we had to assign him last time!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 

Prize Comics #2 - pt. 1

Oh boy. We're visiting with Power Nelson again in his Buck Rogers-esque "future" of 1982 and, boy, the racism practically jumps off the page and pokes you in the eye. 

The "bonk heads" attack sees a lot of action in the early comic books, which makes it frustrating that it's hard to model with the Hideouts & Hoodlums combat rules. This could be the Multi-Attack power for superheroes, or it could be grappling one opponent and then using the first one as a clubbing weapon against the other in the following turn. 

This might be the first time we've seen a gun backfire against its holder. This is even harder to model in the rules and is likely just a freebie to the player. 

These stratosphere freighters look awfully un-flightworthy to me. What keeps them from rolling in flight? 

It's hard to say how terrific a leap that is. It seems that Nelson is higher than the skyscrapers, so this could be Leap II. The steel plates on top of the plane probably wreck as if a generator, though this could be "futuristic" steel and wreck one level higher.

It was tough to say what the raygun did, but we get some clues here about them being heat rays. If it is, that means Nelson is buffed with the Fire Resistance power here.

Ugh...Prince Ugi can't be very good at piloting if his fighter can't outmaneuver a freighter. Nelson might be out-piloting him in skill checks despite rolling at a penalty, or maybe he is high enough in level to have a stunt (higher-level superheroes will get those in the Advanced H&H Heroes Handbook, if I ever get it done).

The result of the wrecking things seems plausible, given its a heat ray.

The first three panels are good here, with Nelson improvising a weapon and coupling it with a buffing power (Extend Missile Range -- but at which level? We can't tell the distance from these panels) to solve the problem. 

The rest of the page is crazy. A planetoid/giant meteor just happens to show up out of nowhere for the fighter to crash into? That should be like a 1 in 1,000 chance on a wandering encounter chart, at best.

More crazily, the planetoid comes into our atmosphere -- and then leaves, like some kind of boomerang meteor.

Take a careful look at these first two panels. Although it's attached to something (a recharger on his belt maybe?) by wires, Nelson is using a pocket sending-receiving set -- a cellphone. 

Again, the rest of the page is crazy, or let's say deeply flawed, at least. If the gun is designed to fire a message to Mars, but it would atomize Nelson, what would the message be made out of...?

Okay, I can't let this page go without ranting. 

Oh, you won't be blown to bits because you...can breathe? In what way does that make sense? Are empty lungs his Achilles' heel? 

And what is he packing his robot-repair kit in? The atomizing-proof shell the message for Mars was going to be shot in? 

And what kind of space-gun is fired by pulling a lanyard? Is it a gun or a convention-goer?

Yeah, I've had enough of that. We're going to jump into the next feature, Ted O'Neil the Barnstormer. Here we see that a low-level aviator might have to take dangerous jobs for only $100.

Whoa -- I knew we had a tight southern border for people coming north over it, but I wonder if we ever really had a time when we would shoot down American planes trying to fly into Mexico? 

(Scans courtesy of ComicBookPlus.)

Daring Mystery Comics #3 - pt. 2

The Phantom Reporter story, for Timely Comics, was a strong one, with an interesting character, and well-told, in the sense that there are no glaring plot holes I saw. I'm no longer surprised that David Liss, when given an opportunity to write a forgotten character for Marvel's 70th anniversary issues, chose the Phantom Reporter.

Trojak the Tiger Man is up next. I'm not a fan of these stories, being almost uniformly cheap Tarzan rip-offs and just overflowing with racism. In this story, we learn Trojak has trained himself to go days at a time without sleep, the special thing about this being that Trojak doesn't have access to coffee. I'm not sure how to handle this in game mechanics terms, but I think I need to because Trojak is staying up for days staking out a dangerous area and wandering encounters could kill him easily if he falls asleep. Constitution checks seem like they would work here, though there needs to be either diminishing returns from those successful checks (the first one lasts for 24 hours, the next lasts for 20 hours, and so on), or a penalty to each successive check, to reflect that it gets harder the longer he stays up.

Okay, a few pages in this story gets cool. How often have Tarzan or Sheena gone up against prehistoric animals? Well...we're told that it's a prehistoric animal, but it really just looks like a poorly drawn Indian rhinoceros. Still, a very tough fight for a low-level explorer and his tiger companion! The rhino has Super-Tough Skin that can break knives (as the power does), and while I don't normally plan on giving rhinos superpowers, I suppose it couldn't hurt in individual cases. And...I'm going to say the way Trojak and his underlings defeat the animal is legit, pulling a tree over on top of it. A tree that size could weigh a ton. Let's say that's...6d6 damage? 

Not content to stop there, the story then goes on to have Trojak fight Nazis who abducted Edith (his Jane analog). This is one of those early stories that doesn't shy away from calling Nazis Nazis, instead of some concealing pseudonym. We get treated to an interesting overhead shot of the Nazi camp, which is very neatly arranged with everything in perfect rows! There are 14 tanks (possibly of 2-3 distinct types), 8 canons, 1 anti-aircraft gun, 4 planes (presumedly fighter planes), 6 things I can only presume are meant to be cars, 39 small tents, 6 large tents, 2 buildings, and 3 trees! We even get a map showing us where this camp falls on the Belgian Congo River. 

Basically, there is no chance Trojak should be able to get with 1,000 feet of this place without being dead. So, naturally, Trojak manages to sneak into the camp after only defeating two sentries. We also get our first indication that Trojak is actually a superhero, or might be an explorer/superhero, as he is able to wreck a barred window with "the strength of ten men." Even after an alarm is raised, only four more guards show up right away to attack Trojak with bayonets. Amazingly, Trojak thinks he can take them and everyone else who shows up (admittedly, the way the Editor is rolling randomly for reinforcements, maybe he's not wrong), but stops because Edith begs him to surrender, emasculating our hero. Actually, once he's captured, he figures he can watch the Nazis work their guns until he understands how to do it himself. And he does, throttling a guard who comes to feed him (which is weird, because we already know he can just bust out the barred window) and then escaping into the camp. Before he leaves with Edith, he mans an anti air-craft gun and aims it over the river so it drops shells onto the submarines docked there. We're informed that Trojak can work a cannon that "requires many normal men to operate," presumedly because he's buffing himself with a power, maybe Raise Car to make himself stronger. Again, only four Nazi guards converge on them before they escape the camp because of their "dulled Nazi minds" -- so, they're basically Trump voters.

Next up is Marvex the Super-Robot. It's interesting how common the concept of robots was back then, but no one really understood how one would work. Marvex is able to think because of the "delicate mechanism" in his brain, without specifying that as a computer. Marvex is created by two fifth-dimensional men who do it because they're bored and they want it to capture some Earth humans. Marvex is "born" with a conscience and won't do it, so he mops up (by then) six fifth dimensional men around him - with a seventh 5D guy. Which is weird because comic books tell us that people from higher dimensions are more powerful than us, sometimes vastly more powerful. And yet, maybe in their own dimension, they are just normal people?

Blowing up their lab tears an interdimensional hole that blows Marvex to Earth, where he immediately...tows an old man's car. Raise Car power? The man must be pretty wealthy because he tips Marvex $20 for it, which in 1940 lets him buy an entire suit in town to help conceal his appearance. When he hears a woman nearby scream for help he leaps up at least five stories, which can just be the Leap I power. The Feather Landing power lets him drop from that window to the ground without harming him or the two people he carries with him out of the burning room.

When a car full of spies speeds past and shoot at them, Marvex uses Nigh-Invulnerable Skin to block the others from harm and then Race the Train to catch up to the car. After learning where the spies took the secret plans (that is what the woman was hollering about), Marvex flies up to a 13th floor instead of leaping (Fly I, most likely). There is also an instance of wrecking things where Marvex wrecks a car, though since it's just the top of the car, maybe we can downgrade that one rank to robots. From the evidence, it seems like Marvex has used five 1st-level powers, but higher level powers could have duplicated some of them. As an android, he always get a free power anyway. And since we've only seen him use one 2nd-level power for sure, it's possible he's only 4th level, with only three brevet ranks.    

Last up is Captain Strong of the Foreign Legion. In Algeria, Strong is up against ...pirates? That's weird because these guys would normally be called nomads or bandits in anyone else's stories. While trying to set up an outpost to guard against the "pirates," the legionnaires are attacked by a "horde" of them, but we don't see more than ten of them. I really don't like how these stories act like it's okay to mow down Arabs with machine guns, but after that the tactics are sound. Strong knocks out one Arab, dresses as him, and then rides his horse back with the others as soon as they flee, and in this way he finds out where they were heading. In the Arab camp, Strong uses a combatant as a body shield, something we haven't seen in a comic in awhile. 

After escaping back to the legion's fort, Strong sets a trap for the "pirates" straight out of The Fellowship of the Ring; when the "pirates" show up and find the legionnaires all asleep, it's actually just empty clothes (though there must be some stuffing in them), ala The Prancing Pony. 

(Read at readcomiconline.to)