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)

Marvel Mystery Comics #5 - pt. 1

We're heading back to check on Timely Comics today, back in (cover date) March 1940. This month, the Human Torch leaves New York City for the Midwest. It's the old story of a remote Alaskan village that needs urgent medical supplies but is cut off by the weather, only transported to a fictional island in the middle of Lake Superior because...I guess Alaska was too far? This weird island is covered in a glacier...I suspect Carl Burgos never visited Lake Superior and maybe heard some tall tales from Minnesotans about how cold and snowy it is there.

So HT leaves for the Midwest, but using the Newark Airport, which is an interesting choice. That's a real airport in New Jersey, and one New Yorkers still use today. The LaGuardia Airport had just opened months before this comic book would have been written.

HT, or Jim as his friends know him, has a supporting cast member named Johnson, who Jim isn't apparently on a first name basis with, but is still willing to come along on this dangerous flight to Lake Superior.

HT badly fails a skill check to pilot during a storm (probably at a penalty) and crashes their plane. In a rare occurrence, a Hero is knocked unconscious in a crash. The wrinkle here is that two hoodlums just got free from jail on the island (not sure how this island is big enough to have a jail, but okay...), they discover the plane, rob the medical supplies, and then set the plane on fire to get rid of the pilots.

I've never been fond of the Human Torch and reading these old stories make me less fond. It really bothers me how unscientific his powers work, that fire somehow answers to him as if it were alive. Nowhere is it more evident than in this story, where the fire forms a protective circle around HT, even while he's unconscious. So either he can subconsciously control fire in his sleep, which I think is way overpowered, or fire has some sort of collective consciousness, which is really weird and wonky. Now, once he's conscious again, using his Control Fire power to make the fire part for him -- that makes sense to me.

More wonkiness comes a bit later when HT falls into water and, instead of his fire being extinguished, the narrator says he was "ordering his flame out." Now, maybe there is a sensible explanation for that too. Maybe he extinguishes his flame voluntarily before the water extinguishes it because, if he turns it off then he can turn it right back on, while if it's extinguished, then he can't use his powers for a random amount of time.

Still more wonkiness is when HT searches a wooden cabin, while still ablaze, and doesn't combust anything. That Control Fire power really gives you complete control. But what you can't explain away with that power is towards the end when he encircles a pack sled and its dogs completely with fire, and the dogs keep running. That all six of them make their morale saves, at their Hit Dice, is rather incredulous.

There's an interesting wrinkle where HT flames on (he doesn't call it that; that's a Johnny thing) and his heat helps keep Johnson from freezing. Now, an Editor could hand-wave that as a common sense side effect...but it could also be a new power, Resist Cold, that a superhero can confer on someone else. We also see HT do sky-writing with flame, which I think we've seen before and needs to become a power in the Heroes Handbook.

Lastly, the two hoodlums plummet into the icy lake waters and die after HT melts the ice under their feet with a circle of fire. Whether he intended for that to happen is unclear...but he shows no regret, and we already have seen he has total control of his fire, so...

Next up is The Angel. The Angel's strength level is really up in the air in these early stories. Except for one text story that had him at Superman levels, he usually was only a strong human in most of his stories. Here, he can tip over a car with extreme effort (or a little help), so he can maybe lift 1,000 lbs. In Hideouts & Hoodlums terms, this is the Raise Car power, as there is no Can't Raise, But Can Tip Cars power (H&H deals more with abstraction than specific measurements). This isn't just a prank; it's all part of a plan to foil bank robbers by tipping over their getaway vehicle and any other vehicle on the street they can use to escape.

Angel then uses a length of rope (he must carry rope sometimes) to get to the roof and watch for them to come out. Note that he does not simply leap to the roof, so he has great strength, but not great leaping powers, again confirming that H&H is on the right track by making players choose which powers they have for each scenario.

Speaking of Raise Car, later in the scenario he is on top of a speeding taxi and pulls the driver out through an open window (if the taxi had air conditioning, maybe the hoodlum who carjacked it wouldn't have carelessly left his window down). Now, this seems to defy science, because you would think that even with great strength, someone with no way to brace himself would just fall over the side before being able to pull a braced man out the car window. Superpowers, luckily, defy science by their very nature. I might also, on a generous day, allow a Mysteryman using a stunt to do that as well.

For some reason, The Angel isn't wearing pants today.

Soon, when The Angel is swinging on that rope, one of the robbers manages to shoot the rope, and it seems to be merely accidental. There is some precedent for this, with firing into melee giving a chance of hitting a random combatant. For this to apply here, we would have to consider the rope and The Angel in "melee," which is a bit of a stretch. For the Editor to just randomly through in this complication would seem unfair in game play. 

The Angel joins a long line of comic book Heroes willing to use mobsters as living shields, but this might be the first Superhero to do so.

In the end, Angel decides to pummel the last of the hoodlums unconscious and he rains "blow after blow" on him. Now, in most game systems, a superhero's strength remains constant and the damage he would have done after just one blow might have knocked out an ordinary hoodlum. But here, a superhero has to buff his strength first before doing additional damage, so if he wanted the satisfaction of punching out a bad guy slowly with normal blows, that's very easy to do.

Next up is The Sub-Mariner, called the "Ultra-Man of the Deep" on the first page of his feature here. Demonstrating the difference in pace of Golden Age stories, the Angel story took place all in 10 minutes, while Namor accompanies a cargo ship to protect it for 3 days before the scenario even gets started.

Remarkably, Namor is said to communicate telepathically with the crew of his flagship submarine in this story. If you've ever wondered how Namor talks underwater...this would be how.

(Read at readcomiconline.to)

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.)

Marvel Mystery Comics #4 - pt. 1

The Human Torch has apparently stayed in Texas since last issue, as he's just coming back to New York now. New York is under martial law because of the attack of the green flames. The green flames are said to be goblin-like creatures with ice-cold green flame all around them. Their cold flame paralyzes and kills, but real heat kills them quickly. It's almost a shame that the "green flames" are actually just hoodlums in chemically treated asbestos suits that become surrounded by the green flame.

The Torch makes up the alias Jim Hamond (initially spelled with one m) in this story.  He also uses some now-familiar powers -- Wreck at Range, Leap II (he clears at least 60' vertically), and -- of course -- wrecking things (by melting).

The Torch is aided by Johnson -- an undercover cop who has helped the Torch before -- and a lady undercover cop named Mazie. Mazie worked undercover with Dr. Manyac, the creator of the green flame. Dr. Manyac only seems to have a gang of six, none tougher than gangsters, which hardly seems like it would be threatening enough to force the temporary evacuation of New York City -- yet somehow hysteria spread to the point where it did.

The Torch gets doused in water and doesn't get his flame extinguished in this story.  Evidence that he should get to save vs. plot for all possible vulnerabilities?

The Torch demonstrates a power again where he can hit someone with a fireball from far away. This time, though, he's shown to have so much control over the fireball that it can go around one target to hit another. That seems a lot like Magic Missile to me...

The Angel's story opens in a kitchen...well, not that kitchen, exactly, but a slummy area of Manhattan here called "The Devil's Playground." Avoiding real life place names allows the writer some latitude for swapping out the poverty that really defined the Clinton neighborhood and replacing it with mob corruption.

The mob has a new enforcer named Butch, a giant (from panel to panel his height seems to vary between 8'-12') that appears to be bulletproof. Now, my first thought was to stat Butch as an ogre and bullets just can't get past his decent Armor Class; but later, when armed militias start patrolling the streets searching for him and meet Butch, they throw "machines guns, revolvers, rifles, and grenades" at him with no effect. That means Butch has to be an evil superhero with some major defensive-buffing powers, possibly as good as Invulnerability. For some reason, though, the Angel's punches make Butch fail a morale save and flee. Is Butch confused, as the narrator says, or is he aware that the duration is about to end on his buffing power?

Somehow, Butch's mob is raking in $5 million a day, though we're given no explanation as to how that's possible.

Butch dies when he plows through an exterior wall on an upper floor and falls, perhaps no more than 40'.

In the Sub-Mariner's story, Namor draws a line -- he's fine with war and killing, but won't abide any nation preventing the delivery of food or medicine to other nations. To show the world how much that bothers him, he's going back to Antarctica to summon an army of sub-mariners and wipe out all the warring countries.

So Namor swims back -- that's over 8,300 miles from New York City, or over 9,000 miles from the English Channel, depending on where he actually was last issue. That's a lot of stamina, or another example of the Teleport through Focus power.

In Antarctica, we see more of the Sub-Mariner's kindgom, The palace is carved out from an anchored iceberg. The realm is ruled -- not by a king, but by an emperor. The emperor has a "court of three," who could themselves be king-vassals of the emperor, and perhaps one of them is brother to Namor's mother. The emperor is held to be a holy figure.

The mermen who are not half-human like Namor and Dorma have large saucer eyes and catfish mustaches, They appear to be blue-skinned, but Namor is colored blue when underwater too.

What power does Namor have over the Emperor? Intervening in the wars of the surface world is apparently against the rules of the empire, yet the Emperor breaks the law and gives Namor carte blanche to do just that. In a week, he has a fleet of "hundreds" of submarines that can also fly via steam jets, and fire steam weapons (instead of direct hits, the weapons create hot clouds of steam and the victims are driven into the clouds).  The metal of their hulls has a "repellent quality", whatever that means. Magnetic repulsion? Probably means a low AC for the planes.

Namor, normally happy to parade around in trunks, wears a full-dress uniform while commander-in-chief of his naval air force.

The narrator makes some rather hard-to-believe assertions, like the aerial-subs move at the "speed of light" and Namor can telepathically communicate with the other ships (is it that hard to use a radio?).

"Great sharks!" is Namor's next colorful exclamation.

(Read at Marvel Unlimited.)

Marvel Mystery Comics #3 - pt. 2

There are at least 12 cultists, probably more, in the mansion/castle. We never see the drummers, though as loud as those drums are, I wonder if they were using a record and loud speakers.

The Angel demonstrates that he can climb walls and search for secret doors at the same time.  He also demonstrates the ability to catch thrown objects in mid-air -- this could be a stunt burned for a save vs. missiles.

The cult leader is a hypnotist, or perhaps just a slick hoodlum. The Angel clobbers him, as well as the cultists, pretty easily, with his bare fists. The hypnotism seems particularly strong, though, as the hypnotized cultists follow the leader into the pit, even though putting them at risk like that should give them all fresh saving throws.

The Angel breaks the bonds holding the abducted woman with his bare hands and makes a 10' standing high jump while carrying over 100 lbs. -- blurring the lines again between Mysteryman and Superhero. The Angel may need to be statted with both classes.

Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner's story continues, but he's clearly meant to be a villain here, referred to as an "amphibious demon" by the narrator no less!  This issue makes it clear that his people are based out of Antarctica.

Policewoman Betty Dean debuts in this story. New York had policewomen since 1918. Betty is fearless, tough as nails, and calls her gun "Roscoe." Betty has to patrol the waterfront for a week before finally spotting the Sub-Mariner off the shore of the Battery.

Betty gets surprise on Namor, claps Roscoe to his temple, and tries to trigger a morale save. Namor easily disarms her, grapples her, and then drags her out to sea. In fact, he drags her so far that they witness a U-boat skirmish in the Atlantic between the Germans and either England or France. This is particularly weird because, in 1939, there were no U-boat skirmishes anywhere near the U.S. So, either Namor dragged them reallly far, or for some reason the War in Europe is a lot closer to the U.S. than it should be.  Later in the story, Betty says there is a German flotilla and minefield further southeast of where they are. Ignoring for the moment that Betty seems to have secret military information -- where can this flotilla and minefield be? There's no geologic feature to blockade with mines within hundreds of miles of New York...did Namor really swim all the way to the English Channel?? That's like teleportation, or Teleport Through Focus, with water being his focus.

I'm not sure if we need a game mechanic for Namor grabbing onto a torpedo and turning it back at the U-Boat, but if we did, the power Turn Gun on Bad Guy would do fine. Once Namor is on board the sub things get a little simpler. Possibly buffed with a Get Tough power, Namor wades through the crew and punches out at least five of them before the remaining two crew members fail their morale saves and surrender. After that, Namor goes back on deck and uses the deck gun to shoot a bomber out of the sky. Thankfully, Namor likes to fight with his bare hands and never carries a deck gun around with him all the time (which I do worry about superheroes in H&H doing -- anti-aircraft guns are fearsome weapons).

"Great gar-fish!" was Namor's first catchphrase.

Namor displays the power Push Ocean Liner.  Between that and teleport-swimming -- Namor must be...at least 8th level?

Betty Dean's stroke of genius is to convince Namor to fight Nazis first and judge the U.S. later -- turning Namor from villain to anti-hero.

Namor tricks the German flotilla by moving their mines around on them, and there's no power needed for that other than breathing water. He does rip the rudder off a second U-boat, using wrecking things, and then flies away with another power.

In The Masked Raider's cowboy adventure, we learn that he's wanted by the law, dead or alive -- meaning Timely has yet another anti-hero here.

(Read in Marvel Unlimited.)

Marvel Mystery Comics #2 - pt. 3

And we return with the Angel's second adventure. The Angel, great guy that he is, threatens to throw a rickshaw driver in the river if he doesn't drive fast enough.

Last post, we had already met the gruely stranger. Now we find out how strong gruely strangers are, as the man is able to tip a rickshaw with just one hand.

The Angel saves Ms. Framan by using a disarming attack to relieve the gruely stranger of his knife, and then pushing attacks to move the gruely stranger away from her and into the river.

Curiously, Hong Kong doesn't have a river, though it does have a lot of channels, harbors, and bays. The Angel may be referring to the Pearl River Delta that Hong Kong is in.

The Angel makes his save vs. plot and sees through the disguise of an alleged Samaritan on the scene, but instead of dealing with the disguised man right away, the Angel allows this man to take Jane Framan and put her in danger. Chaotic Alignment, Angel?

The Angel is able to trail the gruely stranger from the rooftops without being seen. This is an occasion when I would apply the height advantage, normally received in combat, to surprise rolls as well.

Mr. Sumner claims he can throw a knife and never misses. That is impossible, game mechanics-wise, since there is always at least a 1 in 20 chance of missing.

The Angel grabs Mr. Sumner and flips him across the room. This isn't a special new move, though, this is the pushing mechanic from 2nd edition, with the grappling damage exchanged for distance moved. That it then takes four punches to take Mr. Sumner down suggests that he has about 8 hit points.

The Sub-Mariner story starts with Namor looking at the island of Manhattan before getting sucked into a tube. Somehow the Sub-Mariner, for all his strength, isn't able to fight the current. He wrecks his way out of the tube and is strong enough to rip girders apart. An extraordinary man (3rd level superhero) could wreck this well. When he brings down an entire hydroelectric power plant building, that suggest he's more in the range of an incredible man (6th level superhero).

Namor steps on a live wire and the electricity only makes him mad, suggesting he's good for hit points.

Namor uses the power Wreck at Range while demolishing the power plant. It isn't clear how fast he's flying, but he's definitely using a Fly power, and probably at least Fly II. Surprisingly, he appears to use Race the Bullet to catch one bullet in his hand. Namor never demonstrates super-speed again after this.

Familiar landmarks like Central Park, 5th Avenue, the East River, and the Battery figure prominently into the story. This sets a precedent for all future Marvel stories being grounded by real world locations.

A tramp humorously calls Namor "Tarzan," suggesting that Tarzan is a fictional character in the Timely/Marvel universe. Namor steals the tramp's clothes so he can walk around town inconspicuously (the tramp is apparently uncompensated for his forced nakedness).

Again, in a never-repeated power, Namor is able to release water from his body to douse flames when exposed to their heat. It must be the 3rd level power Control Fire.

Namor saves a woman's life purely by accident, then considers coming back to her house later because he thinks "there are riches to be found in this house!" Then he decides he wants her. She trails her in an ambulance to the hospital, then threatens to kill the orderlies there if anyone tries to stop him. At least he doesn't kill them, but leaves them tied up. Namor still believes at this time that he is in a crusade against "murderous Americans." He does not qualify as a Hero during this adventure; if being played, his Editor is allowing the player to play a villain at this point.

The Sub-Mariner is said to have "alligator-tough skin" in this story. That sounds a little like the power Super-Tough Skin, though alligator hide would not normally qualify for even Nigh-Invulnerable Skin. The fact that it deflects sub-machine gun fire makes me think Namor is actually using the Imperviousness power.

Namor uses Vehicular Weapon to turn a car into a deadly missile, a rare instance of him demonstrating a 4th level power already. He kills more than one policeman with the car, possibly up to three of them. Now, a single hit normally doesn't kill in H&H. I have considered adding a new power called Killing Blow that would allow for supervillains to deliver a kill-in-one hit to an opponent with low enough hit points, but it is not in the rules yet. And even then, this would be an even higher level power like Mass Killing Blow, and that would need to be maybe an 8th level power.

(Read at Marvel Unlimited)

Marvel Comics #1

And now we finally reach this milestone. Until now, half the Hideouts & Hoodlums Hero races didn't make sense!

The Human Torch story that starts this issue is the inspiration for the android race. The special abilities of the android race emulate the ability to burst into flame, shoot flame, and take off into the air on a fiery jet -- though all these can be disguised through flavor text (like turning "Fiery Jet" into spring-loaded feet). Androids are H&H's verion of dwarves.

That The Human Torch is of the superhero class is evident by how much wrecking he does in this story (as if wrecking trucks, if not tanks). He's encased in a 10' cube of cement and busts out, he melts bars (as if wrecking doors).  He sets a warehouse and a regular house on fire (automatic, if around combustibles). He melts three doors, a truck, and the roof of a building (treat as a car). The amount of wrecking suggests to me that The Torch has three brevet ranks right here, despite being first level.

Other than wrecking, The Torch seems to demonstrate Fly I and possibly Nigh-Invulnerable Skin. At one point he badly scalds the mobsters who fled from him into a swimming pool by boiling the water -- I don't have a power yet for that one. Heat Water?

Sardo (that's an Italian name, apparently, though it always seemed science fiction-y to me), the villain in this piece, has a wealth of trophy items at his disposal -- he has a diving suit, a glass tube large enough to contain full-grown man, a gas mask, a gas bomb, a tank of liquid nitrogen, a tube of nitro gas, and a tank of sulfuric acid.

Likewise, The Sub-Mariner is the first merman hero in comics, and the inspiration for the merman race. Being able to breathe underwater was a given. We may or may not see faster swimming in this story. Later stories establish that mermen are weaker out of water, hence the wrecking things penalty out of water. And as for the magic resistance...it doesn't really emulate Namor at all, but mermen are H&H's version of elves, and I figured it helped round out the race and maybe would make it a more appealing choice to play.

Speaking of swimming faster, at one point Namor and Dorma travel from Antarctica to New York City in two days. That means they were traveling at, at least, 190 MPH -- way faster than I let mermen swim. That means they were either boosting their speed with a power, like Outrun Train, or -- even more likely, were using some sort of underwater vehicle we didn't see.

Wrecking wise, Namor crushes a diving helmet (wrecks as machine?), and he jams a rudder on a huge ship (maybe treat as a generator?). Curiously, Namor uses an axe to break glass at another time -- perhaps the only so far we've seen any kind of a limitation to how often a superhero can wreck.

Power-wise, he uses a leap power (probably Leap II) to catch a plane and Extend Missile Range (at least I, possibly II) to throw a man out to sea. Not a lot, so even though Namor surprises wrecks very little, he probably also has three brevet ranks even at first level.

Lastly, it is worth noting that Namor is actually only a half-merman. H&H works under the assumption that all half-mermen have the abilities of full-blooded mermen, though in actual comic books a half-merman is apparently more powerful than a full-blooded merman (this discrepancy could just be from Namor being higher in level too).

Both The Torch and The Sub-Mariner are also killers, or at least we know for sure that Namor is and The Torch very probably killed some people. They are Chaotic in Alignment.

The Angel also debuts in this issue. In many ways The Angel is typical of the Mysteryman tropes, particularly with how criminals fear him by reputation. For the most part, The Angel could even just be a Fighter, as he solves almost every problem with fists. But there is one instance where he leaps from the roof of a courthouse and lands safely. We never actually see the courthouse; we're just told this. So, maybe this courthouse has a really low roof, keeping The Angel from taking falling damage. Or maybe The Angel has unusually high hit points for a low-level Hero (high Constitution score?) and just absorbed the damage. Or maybe The Angel has a leap power and is actually a superhero? I'll watch for more evidence in future installments.

In the one-shot "Jungle Terror", the story's macguffin is a lost diamond in the Amazon and the apparently false rumor that the diamond can "enslave people". Rumors are good -- they get Heroes to go do things, and you only have to pay out on the rumors half the time! The twist in this story is that, instead of one diamond with special powers, our heroes find lots of ordinary diamonds. However, the Editor wisely doesn't give them time to collect them all, throwing endless waves of natives at them so they'll just snatch a few and run.

Lastly, I reviewed this issue on one of my Scottenkainenland blog.

(Issue read in Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Comics v. 1.)