Marvel Mystery Comics #5 - pt. 2

We're still in Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner's story in this issue. Namor is heading home! Golden Age Comic book readers know that Namor's home wasn't an Atlantis off the North American Atlantic Coast, but an icy realm under Antarctica. Namor is in the North Seas and says it is 9,000 miles from the North Sea to Antarctica. Bill Everett was either a good guesser or he spent some time with a map working that out. He is actually only a little off; it's 9,500 miles. He says the submarine can make it there in two days; assuming 24-hour travel, that means a speed of roughly 200 MPH; that's almost four times the fastest real submarine speed.

Namor refers to his uncle, the king, as "Holy one," suggesting that royalty is divinity in their culture.

Namor travels via his own power from Antarctica back to New York, a journey of roughly 9,100 miles that he makes in three days, and meaning Namor can travel an average of 126 MPH (though he is said to make this journey by air and water, so it's impossible to say how much of this reflects his swimming and how much his flying speed).

Namor does not yet spend all his time in just swim trunks; he returns to New York in a shirt, pants, gloves, and cloak. Anticipating Edna Mode and her "no capes!" advice, Namor's cloak is caught in the landing gear of a passing plane while he's flying away from police and this knocks him out -- either from the cloak collar strangling him or being buffeted by wings against the side of the plane, though I favor the first explanation. This makes no game mechanic sense, though, as he should have easily been able to use his wrecking things ability to tear the cloak before it choked him or led him to being buffeted unconscious. Unless, Namor was considered surprised by the situation, giving the cloak's strangulation a free surprise turn in which he could not react. It is still harsh, if not unlikely, to say Namor would run out of air in just 30 seconds (the time of a surprise turn in 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums).

Actually, Namor is only stunned and when he recovers, he uses "jiu-jitsu" to throw a fireman trying to grapple him. It's unlikely Namor has any direct knowledge of Japanese wrestling moves, but it's not like the Japanese invented the idea of flipping someone over their shoulder.

Namor fails his saving throw vs. chloroform and is knocked out by a really brave ambulance driver and taken into police custody.

Based only on a sergeant's permission, Betty Dean gets Namor released into her custody. Namor is uncharacteristically forgiving of his treatment by the police, pledging to work with them if he is deputized.

At that same time, a subway "accident" floods the tunnel at "5th street." In Midtown, this is likely the 5th Avenue-59th Street Subway Station. There, he uses "the strength of 100 whales" to tip the subway cars upright. I don't know how to measure the strength of 100 whales, but we could talk about the weight of 100 whales, with 100 of the smallest whales (dwarf sperm whales) weighing 25 tons total. This would be a 4th-level Raise power. By watching for air bubbles, he can find submerged passengers to rescue without having to make a search skill check (or does so at a bonus, since the bubbles should be easier to see).

Finding the hole that is the source of the flood, Namor flies into it with "his usual impulsiveness," showing Everett had a strong idea of Namor's character that has stayed with him for 80 years. The hole was made by three robbers trying to drill into the "Treasury," which we would know today as Federal Hall National Memorial. When Namor comes across a vault door, he thinks it will be hard for him to open, but he rips it open easily. Inside he finds the men and beats them up, breaking their bones in the process. The gold vault under Federal Hall was protected by a reservoir of water that they drilled and drained into the subway tunnel.

Next up is The Masked Raider. MR comes to talk to a troubled sheriff, but the sheriff mistakes him for an outlaw and draws on MR. MR is able to close the distance and punch him, despite the gun being pulled on him at range. So, in H&H, random initiative has to take priority over a more reasonable order of attack (not all missiles first, then melee).

MR uses an interesting tactic to lure out the bad guys in town, hanging a threatening sign from an arrow in town as the bad guys have been doing, and then following whoever sees it and looks suspicious. The bad guys plan to off the sheriff with poisoned arrows (the plan is to make gullible locals think Indians did it), but the Masked Raider shoots the head off the first arrow before it's fired and the bad guys all fail a morale save. That was one lucky roll, particularly since MR had to have been at long range to be out of sight; I would have said only a natural 20 would have made that shot.

Next up is Electro, the Marvel of the Age. In it, Professor Zog summons two of his twelve agents (he must have an 18 Charisma to have such a large supporting cast -- unless Zog is a non-Hero character and only his operatives are being played) and assigns them an international mission. He must be using code, though, because he describes a country called "Molivia" being attacked by a country called "Torpis." Molivia is easy -- that has to be a poorly disguised Bolivia. Torpis is going to be trickier. If we go by number of syllables, it has to be Brazil, Chile, or Peru. And yet...if we go by history, this whole story was likely inspired by the Chaco War of 1932-1935, suggesting a renewal of fighting between Bolivia and Paraguay. And yet again...when they finally get to "Molivia" it looks very European, and has a king instead of a president, so...who knows!

The brutality of war is illustrated by dead women and children in the street -- though the figures lack any gory details.

The radio controls for Electro have fantastic range -- 4,336 miles, in fact, if the operatives are summoning Electro from Sucre, capital city of Bolivia (called "Braka" in this story). It is unclear how long it takes Electro to fly the distance; it is possible there is some story compression before and during the siege of the city. Regardless, Electro does make it the entire way without needing to refuel, or that, if statted as a superhero, his Fly power has a remarkably long duration.

At the scene of the siege, machine gun bullets bounce off Electro, suggesting he has the Imperviousness power activated. When cannonballs and bombs dropped from planes fail to harm Electro, we know he has the Invulnerability power activated. Electro's wrecking things ability makes short work of the army, allowing him to even wreck "huge" tanks. If the tanks are truly of abnormal size, I would shift them up one category to battleships. Tanks were not used during the real Chaco War.

In the end, Torpis' dictator, Kalph Belgri commits suicide when his invasion fails, perhaps anticipating Hitler's famous suicide. No one committed suicide after the Chaco War.

(Read at readcomicsonline.to)

Science Comics #1 - pt. 2

It's likely that Electro is expending the new power, Light, again. The light generated by the power can be set motionless and does not need to follow the superhero. Plus, in rest turns, the light spell will likely last for many hours.

Restoring power to the power plant, though...that might be a different power entirely. The 5th-level power Control Electricity (from Supplement I: National) might be able to cause this effect, at the Editor's discretion. Or maybe it's some lower level power, like "Recharge."

Then he hits five spies with a lightning bolt. Note the lightning bolt does not appear to need to emerge in a straight line from him, but strikes in a straight line perpendicular to him, passing through the conveniently lined up spies.

There's that Recharge power again? We also need a power that duplicates the effect of those rayguns we keep seeing that stall all mechanical engines. Maybe Stall Motor can affect one plane per level of the superhero?

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It should come as no shock that there is no town of Summerville within 20 miles of Washington, D.C., though there is a Springfield, Virginia, and a Silver Spring, Maryland, both representing a close season.

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Electro uses wrecking things on the door. He does not need to use the Wreck at Range power to shoot electricity at the door; since there would be nothing stopping him from stepping up to the door, the ray emanating from his forehead is pure flavor text.

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Since it is unlikely that a "little cottage" has a "huge, central hall" in it, it seems to be implied that Electro is exploring an underground hideout, which is very much in keeping with our game.

I'm not sure how this switch is going to cripple five dams in different locations all at the same time. Maybe it will signal saboteurs in each area?

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Electro uses Hold Person and then Protection from Missiles, followed by what appears to be a higher-level version of Hold Person (Hold Person II?) that can paralyze up to six people -- although, since he's able to compel them to answer questions, this is more like the spell Hypnotic Pattern.

And here Electro seems to be casting Cure Light Wounds -- Electro is actually a Magic-User/Superhero (which explains how he had Light prepared before).

This power was something I already needed to work on for my upcoming high-level campaign, because Green Lantern also uses this Mass Flight power (by 1950, anyway). Bonus content follows:

Spells

Seventh Level

Mass Flight: The magic-user can move in any direction through the air at a movement speed of 192 (93 through water), and can by the same power move up to 1,100 lbs. of cargo with at the same speed, or up to six other people if they remain motionless (either willingly or forced into motionless, say by a Hold Person spell). Anyone else can try to opt out of being transported by making a saving throw vs. spells, but any modified saving roll still less than 20 results in the victim being moved 10-40’ per number of the result below 20 (falling damage may ensue). Duration: 1 turn per 2 levels. Examples: Science Comics #1, All-Star Comics #52.

So now the last issue is, how many brevet ranks is Electro boosted? Because he's clearly not a 1st level Hero. He must be an 8th level Superhero/15th level Magic-User (that's some lop-sided XP distribution!).  So, not as ridiculously powerful as Stardust, but still brokenly powerful, and not one campaign friendly.

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Moving on quickly now, we check in on the next feature, Cosmic Carson.

And I share this page, not because the idea of aliens populating our solar system is that new -- and definitely not because "Fang Men of Jupiter" are so new they deserve statting -- but I did want to point out another staple of the early science fiction genre, that imagined there would be unique elements on other

worlds -- unique elements which can serve as treasure, or power trophy devices.

Although visually exciting to see rocket ships blasting out of the roof of a building, one has to wonder about the grasp of science that would lead someone to think this would not blast the whole building into scrap.

Coupled with this is either the inability or the patience to deal with the vast size of space. Even if the ship traveling from Mars to Earth was passing by at the upper edge of the atmosphere, it would take these rocket ships so long to reach it that it would probably pass them by -- unless we imagine some fantasy propellant that is not only non-destructive, but faster than any modern mode of travel known to us.

And I haven't even brought up yet -- where is this pirate base?

surely not on Jupiter, or it wouldn't be anywhere near the shipping lane between Earth and Mars. Maybe it's based on an asteroid...?

I share this page mainly for the overhead map showing us the layout of the pirate base, as well as demonstrating the VTOL capabilities of the pirate rockets.

Also, that these reinforcements are able to reach the battle in the span of combat turns just reinforces how fantastically fast they must be.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Science Comics #1 - pt. 1

This is an exciting day for me; in the past, I have been reading comic books where I was familiar with at least one character from every issue, but now we finally reach Fox's Science Comics, I title I have never sampled before, with forgotten heroes I've never read and, in some cases, never even seen pictures of before!

But, I think I will ultimately wind up feeling disappointed instead of feeling like I've found hidden gems. Because we're starting with the Eagle, a character whose artificial wings make him look more like a hummingbird than an eagle.

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Game mechanics: The Eagle's player will not need to keep a running tally of how much anti-gravitation fluid he has left, as I suspect this is just flavor text explaining how his flight powers work.

As I showed an example of a Supporting Cast Member being used well yesterday (emergency evacuation from a hideout), today we have another good use of one, as a plot hook collector/dispenser.

Here is a clear example of a wandering encounter; something uncommon in normally tightly plotted eight-page adventures. I can't even say that's an example of a drunken hoodlum in the car; the situation as a whole, more so than the occupant, is what the Hero can choose to deal with.

Here the Eagle makes an unusual choice. He could have tried just following the car from the air -- unless his flight power is so slow that he cannot keep up with a car in city traffic. Instead, he decides to target just one mobster and force information out of him. Now, perhaps he chooses this method just to get a feel for the opposition first. If the hoodlum blows his morale save immediately, chances are the Eagle is going to be facing some very low Hit Die mobsters. This could be especially important in a "sandbox" campaign setting where the hideouts of various challenge levels are all preset and the players won't know which are which.

I included this page, not to ridicule it (though it may be deserving), but to discuss old school maps and the scale of hideouts. Bear in mind that, to keep the aesthetic of old school D&D maps, many rooms in the hideout are going to be 20' x 20' at the smallest, and many 30' x 30' or even 40' x 40'. These larger rooms give you a lot more leeway to stage encounters in -- as you see here -- even though the room dimensions are not realistic.

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And now we move on already to the second feature, Electro! This superhero is tied with Timely Comics' robot Electro, who also debuts this same month, and waayy before the Spider-Man villain. 

Here we quickly get his origin story -- Jim Andrews is electrocuted, but instead of killing him he gets superpowers. Right off the bat, he's lifting heavy machinery that looks heavier than a car -- Raise Elephant power?

And he can do the Light spell too, unless we make a power for that.

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Here we find an interesting rationale for why superheroes wear distinctive uniforms -- because they can't live as normal humans anymore, they don't want to dress like them. Doesn't explain why so many maintain secret identities, though.










Of all the fake names for Germany I've seen, Moronia is still my favorite, but Gerlandia might be my second favorite.

Although you don't often hear about FDR's children, Franklin Roosevelt did have a then-33-year-old daughter, Anna. He also had four sons, so it's more than a bit sexist to ignore them and go after the one daughter.

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Here Electro is shown how he flies by riding on electric beams -- not that it makes any sense, but hey, you can explain your powers anyway you want as long as you filled one of your power slots with it.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Marvel Mystery Comics #4 - pt. 2

We return to the Sub-Mariner as he makes war on Germany, not unlike what you see on this cover.

Namor says normal mermen can't live outside of water for more than five hours. I hesitate to include that in their H&H stats because it seems unique to Antarctic mermen. Of course, Namor also says his conscience can't abide 38 Americans being held prisoner, after just ordering his men to kill lots and lots of Germans, so maybe being out of water too long affects his thinking (which is actually a similar conclusion to what John Byrne proposed in his 1990s' Namor series).

Namor's quest for the missing Americans means taking a two-week leave of absence from his own navy as he searches the North Sea ship by ship (if the Emperor wasn't in his hip pocket, Namor would probably be facing dereliction of duty charges).

Namor's trunks are described as "woolen" in this story, defying the Silver Age practice of drawing them with scales.

The admiral of Namor's fleet is named Naka. Somehow, Namor contacts Naka telepathically. He never displays this ability again.

So anyway, the scenario is that Namor has found the Americans on a freighter guarded by two submarines and needs to get them all safely out of the North Sea. Namor could probably just smash both submarines on his own, but for some reason he frees the Americans first and lets them capture one of the two subs and attack the other, while Namor stays busy breaking the chains that hold the freighter and telepathically contacting Naka -- stuff he could have been doing either before or after.

Players may be tempted to take fewer personal risks and leave supporting cast in charge of side missions -- and it's their right to do so. Such side missions should not be guaranteed success, however, or players will always rely on them.

In the Masked Raider's story, the Raider is on his way to help old prospector Luke. Luke is distracted by one outlaw in front of him while two other outlaws sneak up behind him. When Luke loses the surprise turn to them he surrenders...but why? We've seen plenty of examples of bad guys coming up behind Heroes with guns, only to have their guns swatted away after a fast pivot. But...what if that was only available to Heroes? What if facing was only an issue for non-Heroes, and they automatically lose initiative when facing the wrong way...?

The new feature in this issue is Electro, the Marvel of the Age. No, not the Spider-Man villain -- this is a robot. Dr. Zog can control Electro long distance with his thought transfer helmet.

Previously, size was always relevant with robots, with larger robots being more powerful, but Electro is man-sized and super-powerful because it has levels in the superhero class. We observe it not only wrecking things, but using the Outrun Train power to hit 100 MPH. Since robots aren't a playable race, but androids are, I would probably build Electro as that.

I find it interesting that, when Zog wants to recruit men of good character to help him in his campaign as operatives, he doesn't pick them out himself -- he contracts an employment agency to find them. This could be something other Heroes might try.

Zog gives each of his operatives a wireless telephone apparatus -- basically a tiny cellphone.

Electro's first mission is to rescue a kidnapped child actress being held for ransom in a deserted roadhouse. While you'd imagine most deserted buildings used as hideouts to be run-down or ominous-looking, this one -- The Purple Slipper -- appears only recently closed down and still has a huge, gaudy cut-out of a shoe up on the roof.  The roadhouse is one-story, with a smaller extension of the building on one side.

Dick Gardner, Zog's Operative #3, is a rare hero who checks keyholes. Curiously, Dick tries to save the girl himself without summoning Electro, only calling for help once he's captured. If Dick is a Hero character being played, then this could be an example of a greedy player wanting all the trophies for himself (he wouldn't have to worry about splitting XP in first edition, when it wasn't divided between Heroes). If Dick is Supporting Cast, then this could be a good example of SCM's being unreliable help sometimes.

When Electro shows up at the Purple Slipper, the robot crashes through a window rather than a wall. Which makes sense -- it would have been more dramatic to come in through the wall, unless he failed his wrecking things roll against the harder obstacle.

Bullets don't faze Electro, but this is probably the Nigh-Invulnerable Skin power if Electro is an android superhero (androids don't have an Armor Class as good as robots do). That would make two powers observed, so Electro would be a 2nd level superhero (since superheroes start getting powers at 1st level in 2nd edition).

Ferret, Mystery Detective, is the first Hero to make Greenwich Village his home. He's a well-known author and private investigator -- and players are free to choose occupations like that at the time of Hero creation.  Ferret is friends with the police commissioner, which a player can also choose in 2nd ed. because humans get a free SCM at the start of the game (to balance against the other character races).

(Issue read at Marvel Unlimited.)