Pep Comics #2 - pt. 1

We're back to MLJ and my second favorite MLJ superhero, The Shield!

As you can see here, today's adventure is going to take place in (and en route to) "Porto Rico."  Now, this may seem on the face of it to be one of those times where the comic book writers fictionalized a country name by changing it slightly, but it actually was called Porto Rico from 1898 to 1931! (Our author here, Harry Shorten, may have been just nine years behind the times...)

I understand the cabin doors on a boat are pretty thick, so maybe it makes sense that the Shield needs a special device to listen at one. It might make even more sense when you consider that the Shield is wearing a mask with extra ear covering on it. Yet, I am hesitant to introduce too many negative modifiers to skill checks. I would especially hate to penalize someone for coming up with an inventive, but impractical, superhero costume.

Instead of referring to the villains outright as Germans, they are just called "Nordics" here.

We've been seeing superheroes jumping out of planes in movies a lot lately, but the Shield might have been the first. He lands safely, partly because he's landing in water and water landings are almost always safe in comic books...but, just in case, it might help to have a Feather Landing power activated.

I'm sharing this page, not so much because it informs us, so much as because it confuses me. In panel 5, a man yells, "A hit!" but we don't actually see the shell connect. Does the man just think it was a hit, but is mistaken? What does it mean that the Shield "escaped?" Did he dodge, or did the shell bounce off him?

I'm going to have to toss out here now that I'm not really a fan of the earliest Shield stories, and I can't wait for Irv Novick's art to improve (it does, later).

The Shield has the Super-Tough Skin power activated, or his armor grants him the Super-Tough Skin power. We also have examples of Wrecking Things being used (door category, mainly), and possibly a stacking of Extend Missile Range I and Multi-Attack to get that throw that knocks over multiple crew members (should be no more than three, though).

"Done Went McGinty" is a 1889 song written by Joseph Flynn; this is its comic book debut, and possibly only appearance of the song.

Shield is likely protected by one of the higher level defensive buffing powers, at least Imperviousness, to shrug off grenades like that.

I'm not really sure what the Shield's plan is here...but I suspect he buffed himself with Resist Fire, and then figured if he had flaming kerosene all over his body...he would set the enemy ship ablaze and sink it? It seems like it would be a lot easier just to land on the other ship and start wrecking it, but I have to admit this is pretty visually interesting.

That paralysis raygun sure came out of nowhere -- but that's very appropriate for Hideouts & Hoodlums, a game where you might not even know what trophy items are going to come into play until you roll up the encounter. Or, to look at it from the other direction, golden age comic books like this are perfectly emulated through randomness. 

The sharks are encountered in a group of at least four.

Being moist protects you from rays? I'd have an easier time believing that he just made his saving throw this time.

Panel 4 shows off the awkwardness of the Shield's thong-back costume.

Speaking of his costume, where do you suppose the pocket is located where he kept that shield-shaped calling card?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Pep Comics #1 - pt. 1

We've seen some MLJ comics already here, but this is arguably their very first good comic book.

The Shield also starts off with one of the longest narrative captions ever written for a comic book splash page.  In it, it already makes some serious boasts about the Shield's abilities. The speed of a bullet is easy to simulate in the game with the Race the Bullet power. The "strength of Hercules" sounds entirely subjective and impossible to quantify.  That his costume is bullet- and flame-proof illustrates Hideouts & Hoodlums' flexibility.  When statting The Shield in H&H, is he a fighter wearing trophy armor with all these properties, or is he a superhero buffed with powers, and that they stem from his costume is only flavor text? That both are equally valid in H&H is one of its strengths. 

Although unnamed, the FBI chief is even drawn to resemble J. Edgar Hoover.  "Stokians" is going to clearly mean Germans.

The spies show above average skill at shadowing, gaining surprise, and attacking from behind -- though all of those skills have already been given to the assassin mobstertype in the upcoming Mobster Manual.

I don't think the H&H unarmed combat rules should account for fumbles where one opponent accidentally punches an ally. Maybe for other weapons, but there is already enough working against punching in the game.

The striking of the head on the ground is not a separate attack, but flavor text explaining why the tackle did so much damage.

The Shield demonstrates Wall-Climbing, a pretty rare power this early in the genre.

The radio sound detector could be a trophy item allowing for better than average hear noise skill checks, or it could be flavor text for the Super-Senses power.

Again, either The Shield came with vials of really strong acid recorded on his Hero record sheet, or this is flavor text for wrecking things.

What seem to be examples of the Imperviousness power in play (note that the sword is even blocked by the mask, even though it appears that the really protective body armor is down below; this seems like more evidence that the armor is only flavor text for the power).

That The Shield is able to dig through the files directly to the papers he needs, during combat, is the surest example of the Find Evidence power I've seen yet.

I don't have an exact mechanic for how much damage TNT does per pound, but 20d6 for that much seems reasonable. If The Shield survives it (which he does), then he might (see below) be using the Invulnerability power instead of the Imperviousness power. That means this novice-level superhero must have five brevet ranks (since he's acting as a level 6 superhero with access to 4th level powers).

Now this could set an interesting precedent.  An attacker can choose to push a target instead of inflict damage -- can a target choose to accept pushing instead of damage?  If the Editor says, okay yes, you can switch -- but you have to accept being pushed straight up into the air and then be susceptible to falling damage -- it at least buys the player a little more time to figure out how to survive. 

Here, The Shield appears to demonstrate Feather Landing, Outrun Train, and Leap I. Coming down from his fall and just happening to land right next to the spy he was after? That's got to be a freebie from the Editor.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)