Mystery Men Comics #8 - pt. 2

Today we're looking at Cynde's behind in a bathing suit -- I mean, Rex Dexter of Mars!

Okay, I get why Rex is stripped down to his skivvies, because that's what you do to your prisoners to make sure they don't have hidden weapons or utility belts full of lockpicks on them, but Cynde is feeling unusually confident, or just hoping to catch some rays while saving Rex.

Actually, I further get that Dick Briefer could have been inspired by Burroughs' John Carter novels, wherein everyone on Mars feels more comfortable naked.

All that said, a deathtrap where you are just hung out in the sun and the bad guys wait for you to dry up and die - well, those are real patient bad guys! That's at least three days for Rex to have come up with an escape plan.

So, Reyni gave her a freeze-ray gun...that worked? Does that mean Reyni gave Rex one that didn't work, like as a prank? Or does Cynde (as a typical 1940-era woman, even in the future) think it's surprising anyone would give her a working gun?

Really unsure how that lever reverses the ozone layer depletion back on Earth so quickly, but it's good to know buildings aren't blowing up from the heat anymore.

"Surprised, Rex darling?"

"I'll say -- how did he install this shattering-ray on my ship without my knowing it, or noticing it on the way here? And why are you just telling me about it now? We could have blown up their lab before I went in there, got captured, and stripped down to my civvies!"

Shattering-rays, obviously use the wrecking things mechanic.

Anyway, we're going to jump into the Green Mask story in progress. Now, don't cry over spilled milk. I'm not; I'm wondering instead if milk operators protective associations were real things. Well, there was a Wisconsin Dairy Protective Association at least as late as the 1920s, so as much as this sounds like a shake-down racket, it seems to have been a legitimate thing.

I'm also wondering what Green Mask was doing in the district attorney's closet, and how long he was hiding in there.

Is part of that picture missing? Because that doesn't look like a hand to me. I suspect "Black Hand" might be a stand-in for "Brownshirts," particularly since it is said to be a foreign organization.

Even though Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson," it was already a catchphrase before 1940 and possibly even before its first known instance in print, back in 1909.

Putin's government still uses this same scheme today.

That cop is all bluster; Green Mask just stands there, daring him to arrest him, and the cop does nothing but stand there and watch him climb out the window.

What would be on the ledge for GM to hook his wire to? Does he visit the district attorney's closet so often that he's had time to screw a hook into the ledge?

Is a convertible really a good idea for being out for a drive when you're wearing a mask?

That said, I like how the hideout requires passes, and the skull is an interesting decoration for the business table. I wonder if it has any function, like a microphone connected to a dictaphone hidden inside. 

J.J. Ratfield was the head of the protective association -- so it was a shake-down racket after all!

Look at that panel 6 -- how is GM even keeping his foot on the gas while leaning out the far side of the car, let alone control the wheel? How embarrassing it would have been had he crashed into an oncoming car or ramped over the sidewalk while trying to do his cool move.

The note, I'll grant, is pretty clever. By offering himself as bait, it gives the police more incentive to come to this midnight rendezvous. He just has to hope they are more interested in catching him than they seemed at the window.

The Green Mask gets a surprise attack, though it looks like two surprise attacks here. I'm not comfortable with allowing a grappling attack and a punch on a separate opponent in the same turn in Hideouts & Hoodlums. I don't know what advantage the leap gives him either.

Having the drivers help out in the fight was a lucky break to make it go faster. Their cooperativeness could have been determined by an encounter reaction roll, even though GM didn't ask them to help him.

That's a really good ruse, so long as Ratfield falls for it. I would give him a save vs. plot to see if he's suspicious, unless GM uses a skill check for voice mimicry to sound like one of the hoodlums out on the road.

I'm not showing you the next page, but all you're missing is that GM puts the receiver to a dictaphone to record the confession.

We have just enough time left to peek in on the next story of Chen Chang. It seems pretty bold to kill the watchman outside the theatre, even if it is nighttime. But what I have a problem with is two men at the same time falling for the fake door over the 75' drop. One man, maybe, but...were they both going through the door at the same time? Is there more to the trap, like someone comes up behind them and pushes?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #7 - pt. 2

We're moving on through Mystery Men Comics and have reached the Rex Dexter of Mars feature now. There are some interesting predictions here, including automation replacing the workforce (coming true in the 21st century), a "people mover" (ala Disneyland), vitamins replacing food (never going to happen), and slide projectors in history class (occurred by mid-20th century).

That "high-powered machine" does look fairly realistic for a rocket car.

A truth ray gun is handheld, has a short range, but requires a save vs. science or the victim is compelled to tell the truth. The fatal ray gun is unseen, but the effect is save or die.

Moving right along, this is from Green Mask (what started out as the lead feature). The idea presented here intrigues me, that mobstertypes can be further broken down by geography-linked specialization -- so that a St. Louis hoodlum would be a kidnapper, but a Chicago hoodlum wouldn't be a kidnapper because their specialty is bumping off the competition. I think it's too late to restructure the hoodlum entries to fit this concept, but it could work for an individual campaign.

I'm also intrigued by this, where the bad guys use the Hero's own stool pigeon to invite him to meet with them. Everything I've written to date about supporting cast members is from the player's perspective, but the Editor can have villains using or manipulating those same SCMs too. 

Note just that last panel -- it's very rare for us to see a knife-wielder disarmed by an attack, while the gunman manages to hold onto his weapon. This points to the randomness of disarming attacks and that gun disarming should not be automatic, despite how often it happens in other instances I've cited here.

$50 million might just be the biggest jackpot any bad guys have talked about going after to date.

These same bad guys are stupid enough to discuss their secret plan without checking to see if Green Mask really left first, or if he might be listening in.

I just spoke the other day about complications in vehicular combat. I need to compile a lot more of them; here is the best/worst case scenario (depending on your point of view -- the direct hit, which automatically (?) destroys the vehicle.

This is an unusually racist installment, even for Chen Chang, but long-time readers know I'm a sucker for this Munson Paddock artwork. There have been some efforts to portray the Chinese-Japanese conflict of WWII in the early comic books to this point, but none that portrayed the savagery of the fighting with the intensity that Munson manages here. Bear in mind how rare 3-panel pages were in comic books of this time; the creators of this story really wanted to highlight how terrible the war over there was by making it impossible to ignore on this page.

But the rest of the story focuses on Richard Kendall's efforts to save these school teachers from Chen's clutches. Just out of sheer malice he tortures them in a spiked-descending-ceiling trap, and then instead of tying them to railroad tracks, ties them to the front of two trains and plans to smash them into each other. That is EVIL!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #5 -pt. 1

This is a deceptively simple-looking page of The Green Mask, that takes some explanation for Hideouts & Hoodlums.

Where is The Green Mask going? He's just walking down the street from the house where a murder has occurred, in broad daylight, in full costume. I presume he has a vehicle parked somewhere in the vicinity and did not leave it too close to the scene of the crime to draw attention.

Until now, I'd never seen the term "prowl car" for squad car. It seems the prowl car is just a random encounter, especially since the police don't know about the murder yet.

If Green Mask is a mysteryman, then I can't explain how he manages to trip two opponents in the same turn, especially since one of them is armed (so GM shouldn't get the "two attacks vs. unarmed opponent" bonus). Unless, he's burning a stunt slot (this is 2nd ed. talk) to give himself a chance to attack twice, which is a precedent I'll need to consider for my upcoming campaign.  Of course, if he was a superhero instead, he could easily be using Multi-Attack.

Green Mask has no qualms with stealing cars from the police.

I get that Green Mask confronts, but doesn't stop, Janette because he doesn't have enough evidence yet -- even after searching her room (which I assume he did while waiting for her).

But, bear in mind, a cruise ship to Africa is going to take about a week -- that's at least two weeks Green Mask plans to be away from home and crimefighting, all because he has such respect for due process that he won't keep a suspect from leaving the country. Don't expect this from your players.

The consequences of Green Mask's inaction -- and blatant racism -- can be seen here, when native assassins are mowed down with sub-machine gun fire because Green Mask let things escalate to this point, but he only intervenes when white lives are at imminent risk.

The shot in the back cliche is given two twists here -- one, it's a poison arrow instead of a bullet, and two, Green Mask didn't need information from Janette before she was killed from behind.

The entry for natives should maybe mention something about a chance of using poisoned weapons...

Here is a nice bit of continuity that is very much Hideouts & Hoodlums -- Green Mask kept a villain's weapon for himself and uses it, despite the fact that it doesn't fit the theme or motif of his character. He hasn't changed his name to The Paralyzer; he's just the Green Mask, with an extra weapon.

It is implied that the paralyzing raygun can hit multiple targets and lasts for hours (which would be true even if in turns, if the time switches to rest turns).

This installment of Rex Dexter talks about 5,000 miles as if it was a big distance -- but if this ship was traveling at light speed, it would cross 5,000 miles in 1/37 of a second. Interstellar ships must travel in a solar system at something more like Mach 10.

Cosmic storms sound pretty bad...

Other planets don't have to follow natural laws -- hence, you can have worlds where time flows differently, like this one.

The machine apparently protects people from unnatural aging, with a permanent duration.

The alien mad scientist (who looks suspiciously like Marvel's Loki in the future) seems to be a superhero buffed with Super-Tough Skin, but is actual a robot (perhaps buffed by the same power, though).

While it would be a fun project to try and stat these monsters from just one panel, given the context of the story it seems these are just imaginatively designed large robots.

The sliding panel is a secret door. The Hero's roll to discover a secret door can be to find a mechanism to open one, or it can be to find the secret door at all; the Hero should not have to roll twice for both.

There's no reason for a robot to need to drink oil this often. It could be something about the unnatural flow of time on this world, or it could be a glitch in the robot's programming that makes it think it needs oil this much. Either way, it's good to give a villain a weakness clever players can exploit.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)