Zip Comics #3 - pt. 2

It looked like Steel Sterling's third adventure was all wrapped up last time, but that was just a breather before giant mosquitos turn up! Giant mosquitoes have been in Hideouts & Hoodlums since 1st edition, and I'm glad to have an illustration for them now. 

I don't think stuffing the bad guy into a super-Howitzer should make it backfire in any game this side of Toon. We could say this speaks to Steel's willingness to murder his enemies but, given the lightness of tone in this story, I think we can chalk this up to the hero being aware of the trope that says the master villain always escapes his apparent death. 

I'm guessing the $10,000 reward for Steel Sterling is not for the murder of the Black Knight, anyway.

The Scarlet Avenger's plane isn't quite VTOL, but only a special trophy plane can take off with that short a runway.

It's really unusual for a master villain to break out the giant pterodactyls first thing, instead of throwing a few human hoodlums at the Hero first. 

I wonder what that ray does that is attracting the pterodactyls (probably pteranodons). Makes things smell like pteranodon food?

Panel 4 reminds me of my current D&D campaign, where the main villain can grant monsters magic resistance. Immunity to paralysis seems awfully specific. Making unexpected changes to monsters can definitely liven up an encounter with familiar mobstertypes.    

I was on board with this story up to the second panel of this page. Now, I would be fine with the mastermind being a woman, that is really different and unusual for a comic book - but dressed like a cocktail waitress? And her name is Texa?

So, Texa is a genius, right? What does she think his clothes are made out of that they would smoke that much? ...A smoking jacket? 

I like the concept of a capsule parachute, and really it's not that much more fantastic than the Flash being able to store his costume compressed in a ring. 

I also like the concept of the Scarlet Avenger being able to outsmart Texa because he works with a team and she only works alone, but I'm put off by the execution. 

"Faster! Faster!" 

"But, boss, we haven't had a break all day. What about labor laws?"

"I said faster! How are you going to work feverishly and talk at the same time?"

The way Texa and her henchmen are dressed you'd think there was kinky stuff going on here...

"Prepare to shower them with the liquid gas."

"You mean...water?"

If the sleeping gas was turned into a liquid -- in order to speed delivery? -- then how does it put the soldiers indoors to sleep? Does the liquid quickly evaporate after it falls and retains all its properties in its gaseous state? Because that's kinda cool...

Speaking of science...wouldn't the magnets pull the zeppelin down, rather than pull tons of metal and stone up? 

Magneutralizing? There already is a word for this, diamagnetic. 

By coincidence, exploding bubbles was an example of a dungeon trap listed in the original Greyhawk supplement. I'm pretty sure this is a coincidence...

 

We'll leave off here (it's Thanksgiving and I have pie to go eat soon...) with one page of Nevada Jones. There's not much to discuss here, except that I did my duty and searched the Internet for about five seconds and couldn't find any sign of a real town called Rattleweed, which probably speaks well for the real West.

Also, although there are a lot of racist assumptions going on here, they occur so early in the story that we can surely expect a plot twist in the next few pages. We'll see...next time!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)