Mystery Men Comics #8 - pt. 4

We're back for one more installment of perusing this issue of Mystery Men Comics and seeing what we can apply to the Hideouts & Hoodlums role-playing game (you could try and apply these observations to other RPGs -- but why would you?).

Anyway, we're still in the middle of Denny Scott and the Bengal Lancers' story. Our unnamed lady sees through Denny's disguise (save vs. plot on her part?) and outs him.

The rug trick might be one of the few exceptions to when I would allow a stunt to be used in a combat situation. He's essentially making two grappling attacks at once, but the only result he's going for is to knock them prone.

I'm not sure what game mechanic would account for "perceiving something wrong." I almost hate to make save vs. plot too big of a catch-all, and yet it works perfectly for situations like this when it's difficult for the Editor to make the call.

Now I'm going to talk about just how confusing this story was. The lady -- is she a femme fatale? A spy? On who's side? It seems like she was planted here to take down Khan's operation from the inside, but she takes no action until she can frame Denny to make it look like he took down Khan instead. For what purpose? Could she have known Denny was coming?

And -- as much as I personally loathe Heroes solving problems with guns...why does Denny sneak into Khan's audience chamber with guns if not to shoot him? Was the whole gun-selling ruse to get some kind of evidence against Khan? Or trick him into becoming an ally? Maybe the alliance is what our unnamed spy is trying to stop.

Part of the fun of these golden age stories is that they are often so incomplete, we have to read the story between the panels!

We're going to be talking about locations for much of the rest of this post. Secret Agent D-13 starts out with the destination of Scapa Flow. And, as much as that sounds like a medical condition, Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay, and Hoy. This bridge would hold no great strategic value, but a student of WWI might know why this would have meaning for the Germans; Scapa Flow is where the remains of the German Navy was scuttled after WWI. 

I believe the UK Armed Forces uses "No. 3" instead of "3rd" to designate this squadron, if I'm correct and this refers to the No. 3 (Fighter) Squadron. It was first formed on 13 May 1912 as one of the first squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps – being the first to fly heavier than air aircraft.

This story has a really unusual ending. A British pilot and a German pilot both die in this story, on the same field, and are both labeled as heroes for their respective countries. D-13 waxes nostalgic about how he doesn't want to see Americans made into heroes in the same way. Bob Powell did the art on this; the writing is likely either Powell himself, or perhaps Will Eisner, who is known for deeper stories. Regardless, two years from now this would have been denounced as isolationist dogma

Again, we're looking at this story for the locations it names. The Paracel Islands are real; also known as Xisha Islands and Hoang Sa Archipelago, they are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. 

This story is also prophetic; the Japanese invade the Philippines for real in December 1941. Clearly, it was common knowledge as early as the beginning of 1940 what countries Japan would target next if they expanded their conquests beyond China.

Lastly, we have an unusual morality tale from usual artist George Tuska and, again, likely Eisner as auteur. The backstory you've missed is that Zanzibar followed this mobster onto a cruise ship, and the mobster said he was going to turn himself in, but instead he blows up the boat. The mobster is one of the people who survives and winds up in this lifeboat, and that's when Zanzibar teleports onboard (or maybe even just the Poof! spell if he was actually nearby in the water).

The ghost ship is seemingly a random wandering encounter, unless Zanzibar somehow summoned it to test the passengers. I'm skeptical of the latter, since the others are innocents and only one person deserves what happens.

Three undead skeletons turn up. Easy XP! Not so...these guys are not only tougher to kill, but if they kill you, they turn you into an undead skeleton! Do I need to toughen up the stats on skeletons? Or...are the skeletons just the physical manifestation of a powerful curse spell? It seems only Zanzibar knows!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #7 - pt. 3

We're back with Chen Chang and here Richard Kendall teaches us what a replacer is. Or at least he would be if my father wasn't an expert on trains. One look and he explained to me those are called derailers. But, yes...other than the name mistake, those are real things.

This is Lt. Drake of the Naval Intelligence, with examples of the dangers of shooting into a melee (uh-oh, shot your friend in the back!) and surprise rolls coming up in the Hero's favor (vs. guards, a mobstertype that is easily caught off-guard or easily overpowered in almost all instances).

Keeping someone submerged, as Drake does to the poor guard, is handled as a grappling roll; whoever has advantage forces the other one under. Three turns under in a row and it's save vs. science or drown each turn.

This is likely the first and last instance of a dead fish being used as a throwing weapon in a comic book.

This is Denny Scott of the Bengal Lancers. Torture never works on Heroes because they don't have to save vs. plot to resist giving out information like non-Hero characters would have to.

Putting your slaves to work along a river doesn't seem to be a good idea, especially in a comic book universe where water always acts as hard cover.

Moving on quickly, this page is from D-13, Secret Agent. Being dizzy and weak seem like complications from being low in hit points, but when it comes time to aim a gun steady enough to shoot through the heart, these "complications" don't seem to have any game mechanic effect on him and turn out to be merely flavor test.

This is from Captain Savage, Sea Rover and is an extremely rare example of a Hero succeeding by simply giving up and doing exactly what the bad guys tell him to do.

Nope, I'm calling you wrong on this one, comics.org. I know the art is credited to George Tuska, but there's no way that was inked by Tuska. A better artist, likely Bob Powell, inked over him on this one.

Anyway, Conjure Sand Storm seems like a pretty narrowly useful spell -- unless you plan on running a desert-based campaign. More likely this is Control Weather on display. You really do get a sense for how deadly Control Weather would be in the desert, though, as you can suffocate almost an entire caravan with it.

Melosh's next spell is Insatiable Thirst, a spell that wouldn't find its way into D&D until the 2nd edition book, Tome of Magic.

Melosh also has Polymorph Other and Protection from Normal Missiles in his spell arsenal. Pretty powerful for a guy who doesn't even own pants!

How Zanzibar casts Dispel Magic in his leopard form is unclear. Or the water has magical properties?

Having burnt through his higher level spells, Melosh is left with only Charm Person.

Zanzibar claims to have just won a "duel of wits", but it seems like what he did was cast Insatiable Thirst back on Melosh, then maybe used an Phantasmal Image spell to conceal the water hole. Then Z uses Dispel Magic on Audrey.

And in the end he gets to claim Melosh's Flying Carpet as a trophy! (Say...was Melosh wearing the carpet as a robe the whole time??)

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #5 - pt. 3

And we're back with Lt. Drake of Naval Intelligence, but only for that third panel. You get a good sense for the layout of that opium den from the entry hall, the perpendicular hall at the end, the side door, and the parallel stairs. Even the guard at the door is a nice touch, a refreshing change from the yellow peril hoodlum cliche!

I like this page for two reasons. One is that there's a flight of stairs going up that looks different than the first, so this suggests a three-floor hideout. And I like the random dumbwaiter, just sticking out in the hallway there.

They say comic books were written for 8-year olds, but I'm learning new vocabulary words myself going through these old comic books. This has got to be the first time in my 45 years I've encountered the word "ruction!"

I'm amused that a cartoony little dog like that was able to bite Drake for enough damage to make him drop his gun.  That looks like a 1 hit point dog?

Dog blankets do seem like a good place to hide dope. And hollow belt buckles are a good place to hide small trophy items. Who ever thinks to search belt buckles for secret doors?

I've looked at a lot of goofy excuses for disarming an opponent over the 26 months of this blog, but this has to be in the top 5. The heat from a furnace, at least 3' away, stuns her and makes her drop her gun. And I do concede that a ship's furnace has got to be unbearably hot, but it's not like Drake took her by surprise with this tactic -- she had just ordered him to open it! She should have been prepared for it.

Captain Savage is a hero with a schooner, and a good idea.  Alignment-wise, if he's a Lawful Hero, he either has to make a save vs. plot to keep that stolen loot (1st edition) or gets halved experience points for it (2nd ed.) if he doesn't return it. But, if he can contact the rightful owner and negotiate 50% as a reward, then he still gets full xp for the half-share and gets to keep good relations with the original owner.

We return to Blue Beetle, still stuck in the back pages of Mystery Men. Though a mysteryman by class so far, the first indication that BB might be a superhero is this instance of the Quick Change power. Without the power, I can't imagine how BB managed to strip out of his clothes and pull on his hood and goggles that fast.

The dropped cage, combined with a secret door, makes for a good trap, as Heroes can never resist the lure of a secret door.

BB's opponents are a gangster and a thug (gangsters getting their own stat block in 2nd ed.).

But now we're back to evidence that Blue Beetle is still a mysteryman, as he picks the lock instead of wrecking the door. But...it's not at all clear how he got from the cage to the locked room.

I've never statted a "desperado" before for H&H.  I'll have to keep an eye out for that word...

Blue Beetle is a jerk. Here, he decides to pay back a police officer for hitting him by knocking him out, leaving him unconscious on the sidewalk, calling the gangsters over to where the cop is, and then running away. BB is going to be pretty lucky if none of these gangsters have a grudge against cops!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)