Silver Streak Comics #2 - pt. 5

There's not much to learn from this page of Mister Midnite, but I'll spoil for you that Midnite escapes his bonds on the very next page, which means he was biding his time so he could hear more women screaming. This guy is definitely of Chaotic Alignment.

The horde of little men sure looks like six of them to me. The convenient strange gas disintegrates only the little men and leaves everyone else unharmed. I might put a Strange Gas of Slaying on a future trophy item list.

This is Joe Simon's Solar Patrol, and these are the Tree Men of Uranius -- the extra i keeps me from making all kinds of off-color jokes here.

The thought transmitter is a near useless trophy item in a game system where everyone speaks English.

There's a lot of threatening with the disintegrator raygun in this story, but it never gets used so I can't say if it does damage, or requires a save vs. science to avoid disintegration.

 I've written before about hiding weapons from captors (save vs. plot to conceal) and picking locks (expert skill check), but am sharing this because it's another example of alien Amazons.

We see the heat ray in use, but only hear about the ice ray. The heat ray does not seem to have much of a range on it, on this model. Editors, of course, have the discretion to add or subtract to the range of trophy items as much as they like.

In John Carter fashion, Ken Kurage becomes an alien on certain other planets, with all the special abilities that come with that race.

This is The Wasp, and that is one exceptionally wide cape to cover three people sideways!  It's almost like a magical Cape of Entanglement -- which would actually be a pretty handy magic item. If we don't treat it as a magic item, then we have to treat it as a net and an entangling attack that can affect multiple targets.

The Wasp's move looks like a Sleeping Nerve Pinch, but he's more of a mysteryman than a superhero, so this is a choke hold result during grappling.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Silver Streak Comics #1 - pt. 3

Capt. Fearless and Lt. Dugan are "hopelessly outnumbered" by what appears to be just five thugs, or yellow peril hoodlums (or do we need that distinction? Their stats were always similar...).

Boxes as a thrown weapon would seem to be not too effective, and thus probably the type of improvised weapon that only does 1-3 points of damage. But, depending on how heavy the box is, it might do 1-4 or 1-6 damage.  If the Hero has a Strength of 15+, I might even consider 1-8 for a really heavy box (but you can only attack with it once).

This is Calling the 'Duke', Ace Inspector, and this seems as good a time as any to point out that Heroes should not get saves vs. missiles to dodge attacks if they are surprised; Duke only dodges the falling bag because someone shouted and warned him. But do the rules really need to spell that out, or is it just common sense that you need to see it coming to dodge it?

There's interesting dressing here at the airport, from the catapult used to launch gliders (something Heroes who acquire glider trophy planes will probably need) and piles of balloon silk, which is apparently absorbs all falling damage.

This is The Wasp, another mysteryman. So far, he's recovered missing blueprints and found the mobsters who wanted to sell them. The Wasp could have simply handed them all to the police at this point, but instead The Wasp shakes down the crooks for $5,000 and gives them fake plans. Good way to find out how much treasure your opponents have!

This is Barry Lane the Adventure-Hunter, and it's another good example of how easy it is to slip into the "Mythic West" from any modern day state out west (see Supplement III for more on the Mythic West as a setting).

This is -- well, obviously, Spirit Man.  The TV that acts like a crystal ball is cliche already, but the new twist is that Spirit Man can apparently transport himself through the "futurescope" to whatever scene he's watching.

But wait, there's more!  The futurescope also turns you invisible after it teleports you!

The mistodine ray gun wrecks things as if a remarkable man (4th level superhero).

The futurescope bestows Passwall too? I'm beginning to think that the futurescope is just flavor text and Spirit Man is statted as a magic-user of 9th level or higher.

There's a peculiar trap here. I may not have been reading carefully, so I don't understand why the floor of the next room is electrified, or why the switch that keeps the current off is disguised as a folding chair.

Spirit Man kills!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)