Rocket Comics #2 - pt. 1

I don't recall a thing about reviewing #1 of this series, which doesn't bode well as we begin issue #2...

We start with Rocket Riley and pals crash landing on a surprisingly solid and foliage-covered Saturn. We can't necessarily call this bad comic book science, though; the term "gas giant" didn't even exist until the 1950s. 

YES! Oh, sorry, I got excited because this new alien starts with a Z, so I don't have to quickly add it to the Mobster Manual Vol. 1, which is just a few pages away from being completed now.

We don't know anything about Zarno yet except that they must fly very quickly, or have a higher chance of surprise, for it to pounce on Griselda before Rocket can shoot at it.

Sadly, the Zarno is shot dead on the first try on the next page and we learn nothing else about it.

Now this is nice; the big globe with chairs in it is a sort of floating elevator that doesn't need a shaft. It's the kind of trapping that would be perfect for an ultra hi-tech hideout.

Not every villain is so considerate to tell you what you'll encounter in his dungeon before you go there. Oh, interesting, giant leeches and - WHOA! HARPY-VAMPIRES?? I've gotta see this...

+

Huh, those do look like harpies. So they're harpies, and they have all the powers of a vampire? I've gotta put these in the Mobster Manual now. Sigh. More to do...

Oh come on! They're dead already? From an ice gun? Harpy-vampires must have some kind of special vulnerability to ice. 

Speaking of ice guns...it's powered by a detonator? Was the writer thinking of batteries, but couldn't remember the word?

Well, we lost the harpy-vampires already. Let's check in on the giant leeches and see if they're -- OH MY GOSH, the giant leeches are dead already too! How is he even killing them by hand? Are these some rare form of vertebrate leech and he's snapping their spines? Or is he squeezing them too hard, like a roll of Charmin's toilet paper?

In our next story, here's a pearl that's worth a fortune, when the average pearl is going to be worth $100. Statistically, the chance of its worth doubling that many times is highly unlikely.

Shadowy figures are a mobstertype since Supplement V. 

Lastly, this is a page from The Phantom Ranger. I'd previously added killer stallions to the Mobster Manual. I'll have to add a note about how lack of water and being driven crazy by heat can turn a horse into a killer stallion.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

 

Rocket Comics #1 - pt. 2

We're still looking at the first comic book of March 1940, from Hillman!

Hurricane Hart, High Seas Hellion, is noteworthy because of this note, or more specifically the riddle on it. My players have always hated riddles, and they wouldn't like this one any better.  Indeed, I doubt many of them would have figured this one out.

Spoilers abound on this page for the riddle.

---
Also note that, in Hideouts & Hoodlums terms, the monetary value in that treasure chest probably just bumped Hart up a level.

More riddle spoilers. The tide was so strong, it pulled his pants off between panels 1 and 3!

Moving on to the next story, this is Red Robert, the Electro Man. This guy kind of resembles Spider-Man's future foe, Electro too, though Red completely foregoes any kind of costume, and the Marvel comics version was over-the-top gaudy (in a good way).

Red is more powerful than Marvel's future Electro too, as in addition to (in H&H terms) Get Tough and wrecking things, Red can turn into electricity and travel through power lines, via the high-level power Teleport through Focus (more like DC's future Atom). Electro Man must be buffed a lot of brevet ranks.










Although buffed to the gills with brevet rank-enabled powers, Red is still a starting-level Hero and has starting-level funds; hence, his needing to borrow a car from his sister. And why would someone who can effectively teleport through power lines need to borrow a car? Because his H&H player wants to conserve his high-but-still-limited number of powers he can use per day for the big fights ahead.

Panel 4 is very confusing, as if panels are missing Where did that paper come from and what does it have to do with being too afraid to fight?

The villains' hideout just happens to be stocked with a vacuum-bell-drops-from-the-ceiling trap. Very dangerous, as long as one of the Heroes happens to step in just the right 5' x 5' square and -- oops, hasn't already demonstrated the ability to wreck things.

I need an invisibility power for superheroes besides Invisibly Fast...

Jumping ahead, this is The Steel Shark, which is the name of the villain, while the Hero is Lt. Dick Jones. You know you're dealing with a villainous mysteryman when they have a signature move like leaving a submarine-shape cut where they hit you.

Comics.org lists "?" for artist on this story, but I'll be darned if this doesn't look like our old friend John Paterson, so prolific at Centaur back in '38.

Bear in mind this was a coded message that's already been decoded; the decoders bothered leaving the "stop" words used in telegrams, instead of just writing periods.

I wonder if we should have a mobstertype called a suicide jockey -- a mobster who's not particularly tough, but never needs to check morale and will kill himself in the most spectacular way possible at the first sign of trouble.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)