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 #6 - pt. 3

This is Lt. Drake of the Naval Intelligence.  The grappling rules, as written, do not specify, but strongly imply, that both combatants have to be mobile and non-prone. In this case, I would give Drake a penalty of -4 to his attack roll and his opponent a +4 bonus to his save roll. With lucky rolls, Drake could still get this head lock.

The thug (there's that very common mobstertype again!) "sees Drake's shadow and wheels," meaning that Drake didn't manage to get a surprise action. The thug got to go first (this could have been the result of a dice roll-off, or the Editor making a common sense ruling that a missile weapon should go before an unarmed tackle).

The tackling attack -- a grappling attack, really -- caused a disarm (you automatically get that as a bonus when your opponent has a firearm).

Then Drake trades damage for pushing distance to get the thug knocked down the stairs. That's a sweet trade-off because he still gets some falling damage out of it, and it leaves the thug prone at the feet of the "black gang."

This is from Inspector Bancroft of Scotland Yard. We see the work of a sniper here, who are statted as assassins in 2nd edition.  The mobster entry will even mention how they always hit and kill non-Hero characters about to reveal crucial plot information.

I've never owned an umbrella made in 1940, so I can't say for certain, but I have this suspicion that there were no parts inside an umbrella sharp enough to cut rope. I'm also suspicious of how long the mobsters hung around before driving away, giving Bancroft so much time to get free and catch up to them. Still, an Editor who hadn't done a lot of planning on how to get the Hero from point A to point B might need to allow for this much leniency.

Speaking of leniency, it looks like either Bancroft got lucky on saves vs. science to keep from being thrown off the back of the car and vs. plot to keep from being spotted, or was given this as another freebie. Speaking of freebies -- that's exactly what the dropped bomb is, as there's no game mechanic for mobsters accidentally dropping trophy items while fleeing.

I'm amused by that ending. "I'll take care of the rest of your report. No reason to investigate me for reckless homicide. No reason at all!"

This is Secret Agent D-13. It's true, the British were not loved by the Egyptians, and understandably so; since the 1890s, Britain had been increasingly taking over the Egyptian government, cutting out self-representation of the ethnically indigenous population.

I'm much more skeptical of machine guns being able to be fired from camel-back. For one thing, the camels are just not going to like that, and I suspect the recoil from a machine gun might throw the camels off their feet.

This is Blue Beetle. I did eventually settle on what class to stat Blue Beetle as (for spoilers, see Supplement IV: Captains, Magicians, and Incredible Men), but this early in his career it was still hard to pin down what BB was, as it changed from issue to issue.  This page, with Blue Beetle playing along with being a ghost, makes me feel like he's using the Spook Bad Guys power, making him a superhero -- for at least this issue. 

This is Denny Scott and the Bengal Lancers. I've been wondering how I would stat a femme fatale differently from a vamp. This page makes me think that a Hero will always have to save vs. plot to go first against a femme fatale, even when you know she's a femme fatale.

This is Zanzibar.  It's weird how Zanzibar just happens to be there at the time of the crime, and it's unclear if this is just coincidence, or Zatara somehow mystically sensed this would happen. Perhaps he even just goes around town randomly casting Detect Evil on people and follows the ones he gets readings from...

At the bottom of the page, it seems Zanzibar has cast Poof!, although we don't see the poofing part. It also looks like, since Zanzibar is able to keep dodging around the room on the following page, that this could be our first evidence of the Blink spell being cast.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)