Flash Comics #3 - pt. 1

The Flash's hometown is New York City, at least for this story, and the city's newspaper is the Town Cackle, a paper that sells for 2 cents. When his fiance Joan's father is framed as a spy, the Flash's first suspect is the newspaper that reported it (to be fair, it was Joan's idea, and who wants to say no to their fiance?). At the office, Flash just happens to hear the city editor implicate himself to a subordinate.

In Hideouts & Hoodlums, there can either be a random chance of coming into the room at the right moment, or the Editor can simply force the encounter to happen that way if the entire plot hinges on it. Of course, it is not a good idea to make scenarios hinge on a single choice of the player(s). Suppose no one had thought to go to the newspaper office?

Flash uses the powers Invisibly Fast and Race the Train (provided the first power's duration had ended).

Major Williams' science project is the "neutronic bombardment of uranium," which suggests that with minimal research you could learn some reasonably accurate atomic research talk at the beginning of 1940.

Flash is smart to interview Williams to find out what he knows and who he suspects (indeed, it might have made more sense to do this before starting to investigate the Town Cackle), but his timing works against him when Williams' house is robbed at the same time Flash is in jail interviewing Williams. When super-speed is available (or Teleport, for high-level magic-users), plots will need to hinge on this sort of lucky timing.

Not sure what the average temperature was in March 1940, but if Flash strips you down to just your dress shirt and leaves you on the top of the Empire State Building, you'll take a point or two of cold damage.

Rather than use his powers to coerce confessions out of the editor, Flash goes incognito and uses a concealed dictaphone to record his confession. And then the same trick works again when he talks to the spy above him. It's like, if you try to trick a mobster into confessing, the mobster has to save vs. plot to resist the urge to monolog about everything.

When Major Williams is cleared and released from the county jail, he blurts out to the warden that the Flash's real last name is Garrick.

Flash spends a considerable amount of time running out of costume, putting to bed the conceit in 1st ed H&H that superheroes would not be able to use their powers out of costume.

Is that Flash is using some sort of spinning power against the boss spy when he spins him around by his heels (he's pretty strong to lift a man up by his heels!), but the end result is the mobster simply being prone on the ground, so this could have been a simple trip attack with a lot of flavor text added to it.

Further analysis of this issue can be found in The Trophy Case #1.

Next up is Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent. In Panama, Cliff is apparently seduced by a vamp working for spies in the employ of a fictional country called Bortola. Bortola is an Italian female name, meaning that "Bortola" is likely a stand-in for Italy. The naval plans spies are after this month are for a new design of battle cruiser. There's a wrinkle to this one, as the plans currently contain a fatal flaw known to Cliff and the inventor. Instead of keeping it away from the spies, Cliff needs to get these faulty plans to them without making them suspicious -- a good scenario for players who enjoy role-playing over combat, I suppose.

There are a few flaws in the execution. Keeping Cliff's girlfriend in the dark about the seduction was stupid and should have lost him a girlfriend before the end. The Bortolan navy spends "$1 million" on their new fleet of faulty cruisers. Why are they spending American currency?

In this issue, Hawkman is spelled "Hawk-Man," and the narrator also refers to him as "The Phantom of the Night," which doesn't really make much sense. Hawk-Man isn't too concerned about his secret identity (neither was Flash, really), as he sees an old friend of his out for a stroll and calls out to him, "I'm Carter Hall!" He's wearing a completely different design of helmet in this adventure too, one that rests on top of his head and leaves his whole face exposed.

(Flash story read in Golden Age Flash Archives vol. 1, the rest read at readcomiconline.to)

Flash Comics #2 - pt. 1

The cover may belong to Hawkman, but the first feature is still the Flash. The story begins on Broadway, during a show of the "Fancy Follies," referring to the Ziegfeld Follies. When the Flash shows up in the story he's just goofing off, showing off his speed by using Race the Car beside Joan's taxi. Joan, on other hand, has already been investigating this string of theater shootings and found their common denominator -- Lord Donelin of Ireland. The Flash upgrades his speed with the Invisibily Fast power so he can search the dressing rooms at the Follies, while Joan correctly goes after Donelin. Joan is either being played by the better player, or the Editor is using the supporting cast to do all of the Flash's work for him.

The Flash's powers seem to have long durations, but he rarely gets into combats and so his powers last in terms of exploration turns (10 minutes each).

Curiously, when Donelin's henchman Goll tries to sneak up on the Flash, Goll opens the door silently, but the Flash hears Goll breathing and foils his surprise anyway (though, really, doesn't it make more sense for Flash to have heard the door...?).

If you're wondering about these names, 1) Gardner Fox wrote this and Gardner often used obscure or made-up names (look at his own!), 2) Theo is likely short for Theodora, a real name (though an obscure one, the 628th most common baby name for girls in 1940), 3) yes, Goll is completely made up. Gardner may have been wanting something that read like "Gaul," or -- being as well-read as he was -- may have been thinking of Lord Dunsany's "gnolles."

When combat does start, Flash might have activated Race the Bullet, or Donelin might have simply missed his attack roll (it's hard to say, except when Flash starts doing fancy tricks like catching the bullets). What he learns is that someone is pulling Donelin's strings and has ordered more hits on showgirls, so he leaves without even tying them up first.

Back at the follies (for a guy with a girlfriend, Jay sure likes to come back to see the showgirls), Flash happens to spot a man in the audience pull a gun. It's possible that he just got lucky and won a surprise roll, but no speed-related powers help with surprise. Perhaps, since the audience member was in a dark theater (though it's not inked that way), Flash had to make a search for concealed check to spot the gunman. Speed-boosting powers can help give a speedster/superhero more search rolls.

A favorite tactic of the Flash is to strip his opponents to their civvies, the thinking being that even bad guys in the 1940s still had their modesty and dignity. Rather than over-complicate things, I would allow a simple hold to strip someone's shirt and pants off.

Flash encounters a trap; a wall panel that mechanically opens on its own, revealing a concealed crossbow that shoots into the room (1/2 HD attack, since it can't turn and aim).

Flash demonstrates that he can dodge five bullets fired from different directions practically simultaneously. The "Race the -" powers simulate this by buffing Armor Class (in theory, any Hero can do this, so long as the guns roll low enough to attack).

Duro is a made-up brand name for imported cigarettes.


This is what I wrote about this story back in The Trophy Case v. 1 #1:

"This story establishes that the Flash's girlfriend, Joan Williams, will remain an important character and at least as effective a partner in crime fighting as Lois Lane is for Superman. Here, Joan introduces the Flash to the showgirl in trouble, deduces the identity of the killer without Flash's help, finds out where the killer is hiding and even (intentionally or not is unclear) leaves a clue for Flash to find and follow her.

"Fox again experiments with other tropes that he will quickly abandon, this time the notion of the Flash leaving little lighting bolts as calling cards or even weapons.

"The best sight gags include the Flash both disarming and undressing an assassin in the theater and the woman in the theater who has to hold her dress down as Flash goes whizzing past. It is odd, though, how quickly this will become
an ongoing theme.

"No. of times unseen to date: 5
No. of bald bad guys to date: 2
No. of men undressed to date: 1"

Next up is Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent. That Gardner Fox wrote the story is evident in that Cliff's girlfriend is named "Lys" -- which has to be either wholly invented or a shortened version of Marlys (the 393rd most popular baby girl name in 1940).

The cliche of Heroes hearing plot hooks on the radio in the form of breaking news announcements is an old one, but here Cliff is flying over Montana (on his way back from last month's Alaskan adventure) when he overhears a radio auction of state secrets. Rather than land and try to figure out where the signal was broadcast from, he decides to fly to Panama because the state secrets come from there (which suggests to my mind that the bad guys would have already left Panama, but then I'm not a spy...). Cliff does not bother informing his superior officers in the FBI about this schedule change; he just does it.

We learn that Cliff is Special Agent G-30 and is high-ranking enough that he can walk in on any military base, announce himself, and demand an audience with their commanding officer. Cliff should still be 1st-level at this point.

The enemy country that is called Kovaria could be Germany, or more specifically the German State of Bavaria.

In Panama, Lys and Cliff separate and agree to meet at "Park Square." Using a generic name meant Gardner didn't have to do more research and find a similar location in Panama City.


In a hallway in Panama, Cliff runs into a femme fatale he's met before, Lolita Devere. He decides to trail her and see where she goes next, which turns out to be a shoemaker's shop (the shop has "SH" in the window, no doubt for "SHOES", instead of "ZA" for "ZAPATOS"). Rather than barge in and find out what she's doing in there, Cliff takes the time to go meet Lys, tell her what's going on, buy a cart full of fruit and a disguise for himself, and when he gets back to the shop just assumes Lolita is still in there (unless he paid a local to watch it for him behind the scenes?).

That night, Cliff leaves Lys trailing Lolita while he breaks into the shoemaker's shop. Just looking through loose paperwork in the shoemaker's shop, he stumbles across the names of the spies (Lolita and a Count Ruthnor) and an offer for $1 million for the Panama plans.

Count Ruthnor shows up, goes down in one punch from Cliff, and Cliff finds a list of code signals on his person. Solving the code (perhaps there was an answer key in those very useful papers he found), he knows that Lolita has orders to drug a U.S. lieutenant at the hotel where Lys has trailed her to. It turns out, they held the auction first but didn't have any plans until now when Lolita drugs the lieutenant and steals them from him. Although there was no mention of them in the papers, Lolita has two more spies working for her (or perhaps a different mobstertype).

(Flash feature read in Golden Age Flash Archives v. 1; the rest read at fullcomic.pro)
 

  

Flash Comics #1

All-American Comics, which will become half of DC Comics, debuts one of their better titles this month with Flash Comics #1.

This was the birthplace of several major DC franchises, most notably the Flash. I had reviewed the Flash story already in the very first issue of The Trophy Case, though not with the level of specificity I've achieved since on this blog, so I will have some more notes here.

First off is some more consideration of where the Flash's stories were located. I had written before about how the Flash could have been a Midwestern hero. He does move to New York City to attend Coleman University for his graduate studies, but at the start of his origin story, Jay Garrick (the Flash) went to Midwestern University -- and there was a real Midwestern University already in 1940, then in Chicago, Illinois.

Jay is so addicted to cigarettes that he has trouble waiting for his smoking break; indeed, one could argue that it is Jay's anxiety about being without a cig for so long that leads to the accident that gives him his powers.

Professor Hughes, the teacher supervising Jay's experiments, and at least one doctor at this unnamed Chicago hospital, are the first to learn Jay's secret, even before he tells his friend Joan. Then he reveals his super-speed to an entire football stadium, completely tossing out the pulpish trope of keeping a secret identity.

An entire year seems to pass during The Flash's origin story!

How fast is the Flash? A caption already describes him as moving at the speed of light, but it sure seems like the Flash only sprints at under Mach 2; that means he's using the Race the Bullet power.

Next up is Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent. Cliff is revealed to already have some field experience, as the Army borrows him from the FBI for this mission because of his reputation.

Cliff requisitions a monoplane fighter, with a machine gun mounted over the single prop, for the flight out to Alaska. And he's just 1st level?  I suspect some brevet ranks here.  I also can't identify the plane type. It looks like a Blohm and Voss Ha 137 because of the wing configuration, but that was a German plane.

The biplane that attacks Cliff gains surprise, demonstrating that surprise rules even apply to vehicular combat.


Mount Logan is a real location in Alaska; it is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest peak in North America, after Denali.

It seems awful convenient that the enemy aviators who shot down so many planes then left them all lying in a valley, still flyable, and stocked with bombs. But it is still a smart tactic of Cliff's to bomb the enemy runway first, so none of their planes can take off.

Cliff's reward for helping the captured Army flyers escape is to get more work from the Army in the future. He also got a Supporting Cast Member out of the deal, Lys Valliere, an Alaskan native who can shoot, fly a plane, and doesn't mind being called "honey girl."

The Hawkman is next. Carter Hall is said to be a wealthy research scientist, though this origin story does not specify the science. Later stories will tell us it is archaeology, though perhaps metallurgy would be more appropriate. Also, like Jay Garrick, we see Carter Hall is a pipe smoker.

Carter has discovered the "ninth metal", that defies gravity; this is a reference to the John Carter of Mars books and the metal hull of their airships.  We also find out later that ninth metal repels electricity, though I don't know how many comic book writers have remembered that since.   

Magic is subtle in Hawkman's world; his knowledge of his reincarnated past comes to him like a dream, and Hath-Set's most impressive spell seems to be Darkness 15' Radius.  Borrowing a trope from science fiction, magic is said to be one of the "older sciences."

At least one of the soldiers fighting Prince Khufu (Carter) is armed with what appears to be a period-accurate khopesh sword.

Abydos is a real place, and is indeed one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt. Khufu apparently ruled from there.

The hawk helmet is implied to be an Egyptian relic, a ceremonial mask of the Egyptian hawk god.  The hawk god is called Anubis by the narrator, though who he meant was Horus.

On the other hand, perhaps Carter's field of study is electrician, as he invents a "dynamo detector" that tells him exactly where his enemy is using one, miles away.  It isn't clear what Dr. Hastor's plans are, exactly, or how channeling electricity through subway tunnels is going to help him rule the world. I guess extortion is his game? 

Hawkman's initial weapons are a wooden quarterstaff (wise against a foe wielding electricity, I suppose) and a crossbow.

It is unclear what caused Carter, Shiera, and Hastor to all remember their earlier reincarnations around the same time. 

Johnny Thunder's real name is John L. Thunder. He was kidnapped by Badhnisians in August 1918, for having been born at precisely 7 am on the 7th of July in 1917.

The island kingdom of Badhnisia is fictional, as are their enemies, the people of Agolea. But we know this is somewhere in Asia because a woman flees from their war with Johnny to nearby, and real-world, Borneo.  

The story picks up with Johnny at the age of 23, in 1939. He inadvertently casts Charm Person to make a man "go jump at a duck."  He inadvertently makes a falling man stop falling with Levitate. On another day, he inadvertently casts  Gust of Wind by telling two Badhnisian agents to "blow away."

There is no mention or appearance of Johnny's Thunderbolt in this story. For now, Johnny's power only works one hour per day, which does not exactly fit with how magic-users work in Hideouts & Hoodlums. But Johnny is still clearly a magician.

Johnny has two siblings who we only hear about.

Next is a one-shot story called "The Demon Dummy."  The villain is a corrupt (private) detective and the hero is a ventriloquist.  But this is no hero like Dean Denton; our ventriloquist gets framed for murder, arrested, and pines for the girl he lost until finally being released from prison the month after she died.

In the time of Zorro, or circa 1840 anyway, El Castigo -- The Whip -- also protected the people of Mexico.  He could use a whip to disarm a gunman or unhorse a rider.  A century later, Rod Gaynor is a bored rich boy on the road, brought by random coin tosses to the real community of Seguro, California (though, here, it seems to be an incorporated town). He is moved by the plight of the local poor and the legend of The Whip and dons century-old gear just in time to stop a lynching.

As The Whip, Rod can entangle someone with a whip and drag them.  He can make a horse break down a door.  He defeats the corrupt sheriff (equal to a captain, so 5th level?), though a lot of that is because of superstitious locals shouting that this is the ghost of The Whip unnerving the sheriff.

Don's disguise is supplemented with an outrageous fake accent.  Marissa, a local girl, guesses Rod is the new Whip.  Rod also has an Asian manservant named Wing.          

(Flash story read in Golden Age Flash Archives vol. 1; the rest read at readcomiconline.to.)