Speed Comics #7 - pt. 1

This is the first issue of Speed Comics to trade owners from Brentwood to Harvey Comics, and while the cover reflects the future look of Shock Gibson, the interior art (luckily) is inventory from the old look. 

Shock is reading The Daily Blade, a newspaper we haven't seen him read before, which is good; you shouldn't get all your news from just one source.

More importantly, this is a prime example of the Mythic West. As detailed in Hideouts & Hoodlums Supplement III: Better Quality, the Mythic West is a place, like a D&D demi-plane, where the "Wild West" still exists in the present day. There's really no other explanation for why the Hooded Riders, KKK-like extortionists, would travel as inefficiently as on horseback for getaways.  

In the Mythic West, there's always a job waiting for you at a Lawful-aligned ranch. 

$1,000 doesn't seem that bad. I wonder if any Heroes would just offer to pay it rather than bother to go after them.

It's surprisingly rare that we see bad guys actually being called hoodlums. I'm thinking these guys are bloodthirsty hoodlums. 

I can't really think of much to say about this panel, except that I like it. The bad guys are so obviously bad guys. Shock is wearing his costume underneath a cowboy costume. The humor and light tone of it. 

Of course, the axe doesn't hurt Shock, and it shatters on the next page. Take my word for it. I gave that a bit of thought just now and realized that, if the player has a good in-game rationale for it, like an electric forcefield, then the Editor should let him use his wrecking things ability even when not physically touching something he could be touching (the flavor text rule of Hideouts & Hoodlums I keep referring to so often: if you can explain it, and it doesn't violate the game mechanics, it happens). 

A couple of things: one, as much as I'm enjoying the story, I'm hating how Shock's hair color is inconsistent from panel to panel. I'm having a hard time explaining to myself how his superpower could be causing that, which just leaves a lazy colorist.

Two, it's great storytelling to drop this ethical challenge into the scenario, something that requires a choice and not just an application of superpowers. It tells us a lot about Shock's character.

It also tells us how long he was chasing them -- 20 miles. That he wasn't able to overtake them means he didn't have Race the Train prepared as one of his powers today.
 

Here we can see that making the right moral choice earns Shock valuable information for solving the scenario...though, admittedly, the same information he would have discovered by following the hoodlums and leaving the old man. 

This is likely coincidental, but Dead Horse State Park is in Utah, and it's full of canyons!

I'm willing to bet that bullet doesn't hurt him on the next page...

Well, look at that, I was right! Note that Shock was automatically protected without needing to see the bullet coming, which fits with powers having continuous duration.

The more interesting thing is the grizzly bear in the cage. I'm thinking of an adventure now where all the wandering encounters were really animals in cages, released "offstage," that exploring Heroes might come across later. 

See, as primitive as the art sometimes looks and as simplistic as the story may seem, this is actually better than many other golden age stories I've reviewed for this blog. Here, Shock refreshingly doesn't kill the bear -- another moral choice for our hero -- and the reward for taking this action (or inaction) is that the bear flees (missed morale save) and turns on the hoodlums. 

Moreover, while the villains are nameless, hooded antagonists, they are resourceful and are able to quickly escalate their threat level to match (well, nearly match) Shock, with unexpected variety. 

Of course, this water impediment facility is also unexpected because there aren't any in the real Dead Horse State Park. 

All that said, I think it's rather silly to base all your powers on electricity, and have no weakness to water. And he doesn't even to necessarily have a weakness here, but it should follow that activating any of his powers should shock him rather viciously here. 

Instead, Shock demonstrates some sort of Swim Against Current Power -- or simply Race the Train, to give him enough forward momentum to overcome the wave? There's no explanation for why he didn't use it earlier when he was trailing the horsemen for 20 miles -- unless, as in Hideouts & Hoodlums, you can only use the power once and he was simply holding onto it for later.
  

I'm amused by the fact that the hoodlum, stripped to his union suit, is not dressed all that differently from Shock Gibson in his. The similarities highlight the true contrast in their faces and posture. 

Having a uniform that always fits a hero is a characteristic I associated with the guard mobstertype, but maybe this guy was a rearguard...?

I was amused at first that the hoodlum was cold, in a desert, but then it's probably getting to be nighttime, even if the color in the sky doesn't reflect that.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

 

Prize Comics #2 - pt. 5

   

This close to the end of the issue, I probably would have been forgiven for skipping the last story, but tucked away at the back of the issue is the only good feature in this issue, so of course we're going to look at Storm Curtis of the United States Coast Guard!

The date on the newspaper clipping tells us this adventure started back on December 26, 1939. There have been at least two real S.S. Lincolns, the first was sunk in WWI and the second was built in 1944 during the next war, but there was likely no real S.S. Lincoln at the time of this story.

Just to make sure we remember our terms, Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. 

A trawler is a vessel that trawls, and trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats.

The reference to a tramp refers to a boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade, which is one that does not have a fixed schedule or published ports of call.

I think this page is really remarkable. When I read it, on the following pages I kept waiting for the trick to be revealed, the trick of how Storm planned to survive that shot in panel 6. A bulletproof vest, most likely, I thought. Only, there was no trick. He really just stood there, face-to-face, with the bad guy, without any protection from harm, because he should.

He does win in the end, though there's more shooting ahead, and a bit of unnecessary sexism in the finale...so I think we're going to end this while we're ahead.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 

Prize Comics #2 - pt. 4

Things don't get better in the following Secret Agent M-11 story. The Secret Service want to know who this spy works for so they let him escape, but they do so in a really obvious way, letting him bolt past three people for the exit and having no one block the exits. The spy should be suspicious, but instead goes straight to his bosses working for the "Hugonian" -- Hungarian? -- government. The question is, why wasn't the spy followed? Or did they try and he eluded them?

The bad guys have a familiar tactic here, but M-11 uses an unusual one, so unusual that I'm not entirely sure what I'm seeing. Does M-11 carry a pouch of sugar with him to use as a blinding weapon? And why sugar? There are so many more irritating irritants he could be carrying. 

M-11's sugar fixation just gets weirder. Sugar is way too soluble

to be left on the road and expect anyone to be able to see it later. 

Then there's the carrier pigeon. If M-11 just followed them inside, when did the ambassador have time to attach the papers to a pigeon?

I'm just going to jump into the Black Owl story that follows and, nope, it doesn't get better. This is the Black Owl's debut story and it's not off to a good start. Beyond the silly mask and the horrible racism here, we have the Black Owl beating a suspect to get information instead of using his brains to find where the woman he was following went, and then when two yellow peril hoodlums start attacking him, instead of fighting back right away, he knocks over a shelf first. Why this would distract them from fighting him escapes me, unless the Black Owl figured something on the shelf was sacred to them and would upset them? But that seems unlikely, since not that much thought is being put to anything else in this story.

I include it mainly for the appearance of a copper. Coppers debuted in an early issue of The Trophy Case in order to explain how police officers sometimes make things worse for the heroes in comic books, and this is a perfect example. Black Owl was about to have everything wrapped up, but the copper comes 

along and, to escape his bad luck, Black Owl has to flee.

Observing from outside is a tactic you would think Black Owl would have tried first, and yet the secret gambling den doesn't seem to be on high alert despite the fact that there had just been a vigilante break-in and a police raid 30 minutes earlier. One guard at the door, with one more for back-up, isn't very secure for all those rich guests to gamble in secret. 

I have problems with this page too. I know, when have you liked any page in this issue, Scott? Good point, reader.

First of all, I disapprove of the use of torture by heroes. At least it's clear that all the information is questionable, as the hoodlum seems to be rambling intentionally until Black Owl is standing right over that pit trap.

About that pit trap, it seems odd to me that Black Owl and the hoodlum were standing so far apart that only Black Owl is now close to it. I suppose there should be a random chance of falling into a trap and the hoodlum was just luckier at his roll.

It gets really confusing past that. How did Black Owl avoid getting hurt in the fall (or was it just a really lucky die roll for damage)? How is no one else aware of the trap door opening and just go on about their torturing business? I know, I know, it

could just be lucky dice rolls again (this time for surprise), but there have got to be times when common sense should overrule dice rolls.

I tried to look up if "wire vest torture" was a real thing, but kept getting nothing but BDSM hits...

Next up is Buck Brady of the FBI. It's a pretty standard "hunt down the escaped convicts" scenario. Danford Prison seems as made-up as "The Daily Blurb" for a newspaper (though not that generic, at least). Which is odd because the action then swings to real-life Wichita, Kansas instead of, you know, Cityville, Kansas, or something like that.

Gosh, no investigation skills required for this mission. They're just walking down the street and a plot hook jumps out at them!

The art on this strip is terribly amateurish, but the layout work is sometimes inspired, particularly panels 2 and 4 on this page. 

Unless the law was really different back in 1940, I would think Buck would have to show a badge or something before commandeering that car. 

Apparently the chase goes on for so long that they are in Oklahoma by now, as this area looks way too mountainous to be around Wichita. Next page makes this geography even more suspicious, when the mobsters' hideout is in a box canyon. 

Buck's plan of parachuting into the canyon either depended on the mobsters sleeping during the daytime, having their radio up so loud that they couldn't hear a plane overhead, or getting a lucky surprise roll.

The mobsters blame the wind for all their missed bullets, but I think this is an excellent example of the "save vs. missiles" mechanic from Hideouts & Hoodlums in action.

This is also an excellent example of grappling attempted by multiple combatants, which is explained in the 2nd edition grapping rules (though it's been awhile, so I had to re-read it to make sure just now!). 

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 

Prize Comics #2 - pt. 3

One last page of Jupiter to look at. It should surprise no one that microzoric isn't a real thing. The effect of the ray is impossibly fast, but consistent with how illogical comic book science works. 

Ganging up on the mad scientists, though, that seems like pretty sound psychology. I can also understand the mad scientist, overpowered by all that magic, committing suicide to regain some control.

We get a Mass Teleport spell again, suggesting Jupiter is actually 16th level. The spell he hints at in the end is a much simpler spell-version of Sense Friend in Need. 

That looks like it might actually be a map of the Congo, showing the lost city of Tsul in the southeast corner, in the Mitumba Mountains, which actually makes sense for hiding a city. 

But the real reason I took a close look at this page was the notion of a collapsible canoe. I wasn't sure that was a thing, but apparently it is, and that would be a handy thing to put on an expanded starting equipment list at some time.    

This is interesting to me, as it seems there was a good chance Laura would have drowned had Jaxon not saved her, as if Jaxon made a save vs. science to avoid drowning and Laura didn't, but him helping her convinced the Editor to give her another save?

"Who are those strange creatures?" "Whoa, Laura, that is uncalled for and horribly racist! Those are just black men, not strange creatures! Geez!" Laura might be racist, but the artist treats them pretty decently, with un-typically realistic depictions.

A jaguar is pretty cool for a boss monster's pet.

The start of this story was pretty solid, but it got downright weird by now. The story here is that she's leading them to the secret exit only she knows about to get of Laura, so her husband can't replace her with Laura...but killing Laura would do the same thing, and sending her to walk into fire would sure accomplish that. And yet, amazingly, there really is an exit behind the ever-burning cave mouth. There should be no save for this one, running through fire automatically does damage in Hideouts & Hoodlums.

It gets weirder to find the lost city's treasure is sitting in a cave halfway to the exit instead of, you know, somewhere in the lost city. 

And then there's the matter of how they're even seeing the treasure and the snakes...in a cave, in complete darkness. I think I count nine vipers in that last panel.

It keeps coming. The twist ending of the disguised professor comes out of nowhere and throws everyone off so much that they forget all about the fact that there is still another way into the city of Tsul, so dumping the dynamite into the hole and caving in the exit caves doesn't really hide anything. And that's not even bringing up the racist depiction marring the last panel, after blacks were treated fairly normal the rest of the story.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)