This issue starts with the debut of Mastermind Excello. Mastermind Excello is Earl Everett's code name with Naval Intelligence. Everett is an interesting choice of surname, since Bill Everett would be a known name in the small world of comic book publishing already.
When Excello meditates, his mind conjures images of nearby evil, like he was casting a Detect Evil spell, only the Editor was allowing additional information here, including a visualization of the evil act (planning sabotage), as if Excello was scrying with a crystal ball. I think that's too much information from a 1st-level spell. Of course, it's also possible that Excello has a miniature crystal ball in his pocket and we just aren't privy to that information yet...
Excello allows himself to be captured, confident he will be taken to the spies' boss. Why he doesn't instead assume they will knock him out and just toss him overboard is puzzling, unless he was also casting an ESP spell?
The spies are Sovernians. The monocle on one of the spies is usually artist shorthand for them being Germans, but the naming conventions are odd; the spy chief's name is Kadash, which is a Jewish name. Sovernia sounds a little bit like Slovenia...so these are Jewish spies from Slovenia?
While imprisoned on the Jewish Slovenians' battleship, Excello uses Clairaudience to overhear the chief plotting. To this point, Excello has seemed to clearly be a Magic-User -- but then he wrecks his way out of the chains binding him! In the next panel, Excello's wrecking ability is explained away by "Secret Chemical SF 44," which he has vials of concealed on his person. But are these trophy items, or flavor text explaining his wrecking ability?
"...machine guns are no match for Excello's triple propeller pistol." Really? Because it looks like an ordinary six-shooter. It doesn't seem possible that it can shoot three bullets at once through a single barrel. Does it shoot three times as fast as a pistol? That still doesn't seem as fast as a machine gun. Of course, that's thinking in terms of real world physics...in Hideouts & Hoodlums, your rate of fire is determined by your level. So a machine gun isn't super effective in the hands of a 1st-level spy, but still gets four attacks per turn. If a triple propeller pistol works like an automatic, then Excello can outshoot it if he is level 5 or higher -- and we already know he is if he can cast Clairaudience. H&H works again!
I'm going to have to go with my earlier theory about the pocket crystal ball, because Kadash's plane should be well out of spell range when Excello reads where Kadash's HQ in New York is. It's on the 80th floor so, naturally, instead of taking the elevator or stairs, Excello dons "vacu-pads" on his hands and knees and climbs all 80 stories on the outside of the building, in broad daylight, because that's surely not going to draw attention. Or is it broad daylight? The sky is colored orange for some reason, so that makes it hard to pin down a time of day.
After easily defeating Kadash and his men with just his fists, Excello disguises himself as Kadash using a disguise kit that we even get to see the contents of (which includes several fake mustaches of different styles). As a magic-user, this could have been explained away as a Change Self spell, but since we can see the kit I'm going to agree he used mundane means and saved the spell slot for something more useful.
He also has a seaplane now because he took one from the spies and now uses it to get around. He heads to find Kadash's boss in Reedsville, New Jersey. An interesting choice of states -- Pennsylvania has the largest Reedsville, and West Virginia and Ohio also have their own Reedsvilles, but placing this in New Jersey makes the town fictional.
The boss's boss's plot is kinda complicated. His spies have planted explosives all across the country. Instead of setting them off one at a time, they are all rigged to be set off remotely from one master switch in Reedsville -- a set-up that required taking over a powerhouse with "super turbines" to power the master switch. It might not take a mastermind to notice something that suspicious.
The jig is up and we know Excello is a superhero as well when he picks up a turbine and throws it at guards. It's hard to guess how much that turbine weighs, especially since it looks more like a boiler than a turbine...but I should think the Raise Car power would handle it. Excello combines that with Improvise Missile Weapon I to take out three guards, and then shoots the rest. Excello must have a license to kill.
Until now, Excello hasn't seemed too overpowered, but one vial of his secret chemical and blow up the entire powerhouse, which seems a tad powerful. Even if just a one-shot item, he's just wrecked things like a superhero of at least level 6.
Excello also has a pocket transmitter he can use to contact Naval intelligence and have them, on his orders, fire a coastal defense gun at any target he names, plus calling cards with an American flag on them and the catchphrase "America first, last and always" (and without the Oxford comma, no less!).
From this story, I would say Excello is a magic-user/superhero with four brevet ranks in magic-user and one brevet rank in superhero.
(Read from Marvel Masterworks: Mystic Comics vol. 1)
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