Fantastic Comics #5 - pt. 5

Oh boy, it's Stardust...

These guys are called "crime wizards," but as cool as that name sounds for a mobstertype, their ambition of either controlling or destroying all the wealth in America makes them sound more like Republicans. 

We get two mad science devices on this page. One is a tornado generator that looks kind of like a tree for some reason, and the other is invisible vacuum tubes that descend out of the sky and suck people up, but that makes it look like they're just flying off into the sky.

I think that last panel is to be interpreted as a collage of events occurring at different times, rather than the tubes being able to stretch that far apart at the same time.

The top of the Empire State Building seems like an odd place to ask them to drop off the ransom. Were they going to use the invisible vacuum to suck up the money? 

Stardust uses the 4th level power Turn Gun on Bad Guy to reflect the death rays back. Or does it have to be a higher level version to account for the range and the multiple rays reflected? Yeah, probably 7th level. I'll call it Turn Death Rays.

Here Stardust uses a Control Weather spell (he would be statted as a Magic-User/Superhero, since his abilities are all over the place). Or...could it be Dispel Science? That would be an interesting power to develop. Whichever it is, it stuns a crowd of traced faces.

An interesting wrinkle here is that at least one of the criminal wizards actually is a magic-user! Since he only uses Enlarge Person on himself, he may only be 3rd level - which seems like a really light challenge for our 18+ level Stardust. Stardust counters with Reduce Person, and it makes sense that Stardust, being higher in level, would be able to reduce Wolf-Eye further than he could enlarge himself.

More interesting, I think, is the throwaway reference to a "magic gland" -- which seems like perfect comic book logic for how certain people are able to learn magic and others can't.

Lastly, Stardust is probably just using Teleport spells to get everyone back home.

Now here's Sub Saunders and we have two unusual rays here. The first is a Water Breathing ray, which could well be our first non-combat, non-disrupting electronics ray. The second is some kind of suction ray, which could be handled like high-level Telekinesis, but to pull down a full-sized submarine might mean it is equivalent to a Telekinesis spell cast by a 100th level caster. We can just keep the mechanics very specific - the ray only works on subs, or some other type of ship, and pulls them down x number of feet. It's okay to tie an item to a specific type of plot.

Now this is unusual - we have a new variant of mermen who are called amphibious men, but they appear to just be perfectly ordinary men except for their ability to breathe underwater (and their predilection for helmets -- ooo, could those be magical Helms of Underwater Action...?).

Hmm...so, on all those ships he sucked down to his ocean kingdom, not one had a map already on board? That seems mighty suspicious, and I wonder if Kelpa isn't just giving him an absurd story to see if he can get Sub to go along with it. 

I like the idea of a swordfish pit, as it's a welcome switch from the shark cliche.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)