Target Comics #3 - pt. 1

Welcome back to Target Comics! As you can see, Manowar, the White Streak, is in Chicago, planning to clean up the meat packing industry. Chicago's big three meat packers were Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Nelson Morris -- which one does Leighton represent, I wonder?

We also see Manowar activating his X-Ray Vision power.

As crazy as I think Manowar is for ignoring the fact that he's literally witnessed Leighton committing murder and going after more evidence from the inspector, I just saw this same thing happen in an episode of Superman & Lois last night, where Superman could stop Morgan Edge's scheme any time he wants by simply abducting Morgan and locking him away in a cave somewhere. But this is a trope of the genre, and so Manowar has to save vs. plot to go after Leighton directly. 

There is no game mechanic involved in a grappling match that would be a fumble, or other explanation for causing the car crash. This could be Editor's fiat. This could also be prompted by the player, who suggests, "You know, with all this tussling around in the car, does that make us crash?" And the Editor says, "Gee, I don't know, and either gives Manowar a save vs. plot, or perhaps a save vs. science for the driver to determine if his player was right or not.

Wha? No, I am not creating a new power called Create Ladder Out of Electrons. This is flavor text for the Levitate power, and I'm sticking to that story!

I've seen the need for a Messaging power before, as we see in panel 4. 

Manowar's earlier X-Ray Vision power is still active, even though this would seem to be a lot of turns later. 

Slipping on a greasy floor may seem silly by modern superhero standards, but it is just the sort of embarrassing thing that can happen in any RPG scenario where random dice rolls determine results.

A player would need to be a really good sport to put up with that headblow from a burning falling timber. 

It's a nice twist that Leighton shows no interest in monologing, or even putting Manowar in a deathtrap and then leaving the room. 

Unlike magic-users, superheroes don't need their hands free to activate their powers (normally; this could make a good weakness for alien superheroes) and here he uses Wreck at Range on that gun. 

Explaining how he electrocutes the door with an already established power is trickier. I'm thinking we might need a new power like Shocking Touch, that a hero can do hand-to-hand like Shocking Grasp or project it onto a nearby conductive surface. 1-6 points of damage +1 per level at a max range of 10' per level?

At first it seems like, to me, that Manowar is using Hold Person, but this is a more dangerous version of that where you can move, but take damage for doing so. But would that be a higher level or lower level version of Hold Person? On one hand it has an extra effect, but on the other hand you can simply choose to take the damage and escape the other effect. Aw, I'm going to split the difference and leave Minefield as a 2nd level power (and maybe set the damage at 2-8 points?). 

This is the second time in the same story Manowar is knocked out cold by a head blow. What terrible luck!

 

Hmm...I wanted to explain away that electricity ladder as flavor text for a power we already have, like Levitate. And it does look like levitation, until he goes sideways over the street. It doesn't look like Fly, but that is the only power that really fits, unless we accept this as a new power. Something like Create Normal Item? There is an AD&D spell like that, Minor Creation, but it's a surprisingly high-level one, 4th level. Even if we nudge it down to 3rd level, that's pretty high for Manowar, though a lot of our characters need to be explained with brevet ranks. 

One could argue that, if superheroes in their third issues can do these things, that maybe every superhero should be able to do these things, but it is important that some superheroes can't be able to do these things -- the "if everyone is special, then no one is" argument from The Incredibles.

 

We're going to jump into Bill Everett's Bull's-Eye Bill in progress. This page jumped out at me because of the "Bottles don't mean nothing" comment, and not just because it's a grammatically poor double negative. What it could mean, game mechanics-wise, is that the bottle hit, but didn't "hit" to the point where it did damage, or it could mean that it only did 1 point of damage, and Bill has so many hit points that he can confidently not worry about it. 

I also think it's interesting that Bill isn't the one who wins the quick draw contest, but the sheriff, who just conveniently appears in that moment. It's like the Editor saw where the dice were falling, was afraid Bill was going to get killed in this turn, and intervened on his behalf.

Here Bill, by virtue of being a played character, and possibly because of his level title, is able to tell the sheriff what to do. The sheriff, for his part, is perfectly fine with locking the bad guys up, not for disorderly conduct or anything like that, but for being strangers. In the Mythic West, it's important to know someone!

That "trip" into the ravine just reeks of plot convenience. I would normally never require a saving throw to stay on a trail unless it was extremely narrow.

Huh? Okay, it wasn't a plot convenience at all; the fall was just to fill panels. I seem to recall a recent Amazing Man story by Everett had a similar thing where a giant ball of ice was blocking his way for no other reason than to slow the pace of the story down. Of course, in a RPG, random setbacks occur all the time, but you're not as used to seeing them in stories, especially ones with such tight page counts as golden age stories. 

I can't decide if that is a caricature depiction of a black man or as realistic as Bill could draw him; his art can be quite stylized sometimes, and I want to give him the benefit of a doubt. Also, I'm quite familiar with the "girl pretends to be kidnapped to get the western hero's attention" story because I had re-published an old Centaur story very similar to this in Funny Picture Stories. Order your copy today!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Slam-Bang Comics #1 - pt. 3

Hello! We're back, still looking at the Lucky Lawton feature. We could talk about the oddly rectangular word balloons (the very next page goes back to rounded corners), or the terrible coloring job on this page, but I'm going to focus on the "no guns" law, which was actually quite common in the "Old West," and is something we badly need more of today. Personally, I would like to run a "no guns" H&H campaign, but I know that wouldn't emulate the comics well.

If you've followed this blog long enough, you've probably seen plenty of examples where the artist just seems to be guessing what an animal looks like without using a reference. The artist here is Hal Sharp, and I have a feeling Hal owned a dog; Pal is in real dog poses every time we see him.

Lucky does the smart thing, circling the perimeter instead of barging right into the bank. 

Also note how not going solo gives Lucky twice the chance to detect the activity in the bank that he would have had walking along alone.

There are two ways to achieve Lucky's noiselessness. One, he can make a skill check to move silently. The other is that he trust to his surprise roll and, if successful, means he must have been moving silently. Since chance of surprise is normally 2 in 6, it seems like that would be easier for most Heroes (unless Lucky is a mysteryman using a stunt, but I doubt it). 

Combat in the dark adds a greater level of challenge, what with the -4 penalties to hit. Just by not flipping the lights on, every unarmored combatant is now effectively at AC 5. Now, from the panel art it appears that there is plenty of light coming in through those front windows, making the scene only dimly lit, but this could just be artistic license so we can see more than five black panels with word balloons in them.

And yet, in this scene, the bandits are silhouetted in front of the windows, so it wasn't really that dark after all? And the remaining band sees Lucky in the darkness now? To emulate this scene, we need a new mechanic for eyes adjusting to darkness after a certain, or maybe random, number of combat turns. 

Although the rest of this story is seemingly set in the Old West, the remaining bandit's hat looks suspiciously modern.

The bad coloring job on the lower half of this page might be fooling me, but it appears that the rancher is wearing his bandana up over his mouth. I only mention it because I see so many people wearing their masks wrong like that these days...

There aren't game mechanics on display here, but I like how Lee is a scientist/explorer. Both were classes in Hideouts & Hoodlums 1st edition, and while both classes did get playtested in my campaigns, no one ever thought to combine those two.

My initial reaction was that having the slavers be Arabs was racist, but while there have been many white slavers through history, there was a strong tradition of slavery in the Middle East, with several countries not outlawing it until 1970. Also in the writer's favor, Ali and Hassan are real Arabic names, and not gibberish names meant to sound Arabic (I know, some golden age writers set the bar really low!).

Wow, we're in pure fantasy territory at this point. First, there's no way a plane explodes, and someone sitting in that plane falls from that wreckage completely unharmed. This should be a save for half damage situation at best. 

Then, there's no way someone's coat would be big enough to create enough wind drag necessary to cushion his fall, so there's more damage Lee should have taken by now. I think we're looking at the tune of 55d6 damage at this point - and that's assuming the plane was at a near dangerously low altitude for flying.

As unlikely it is that all the spear attacks Lee left himself open to while charging the pygmies missed, it is even more impossible for him, game mechanically, to push the leader onto a spear, unless the Editor was house ruling a fumble mechanic. More likely, this is just a freebie from the Editor.

Neutralizing poison is really easy in Lee's world. All you have to do is stick someone with a knife and the poison leaks right out of you! If I was willing to implement this as a new rule (and I'm not), for every point of damage you do to the wound, you would give the recipient a new saving throw. 

The pygmies are very patient in indulging Lee's rampant passive-aggressive racism. "Uh...ever heard of donkeys? The domestication of donkeys started in Africa. And we know what iron is, iron smelting and forging technologies were discovered in Nigeria as early as the 6th century BC. Bricks too, since about 7,000 BC. And just what are you whittling? A giant banjo?"

I am so torn on this page. On one hand, I think it's great that, for once, a lion shows up in a story and the Hero wants to capture it alive instead of stabbing it to death, or snapping its jaws, or shooting it. But that he wants it so he can perform experiments on its brain doesn't sit well with me, even though I get that the author is trying to offer a scientific explanation for how the jungle Hero is able to talk to animals. 

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Whiz Comics #2(b) - pt. 2

Before I get back to the next feature, the discerning reader may be left wondering how this issue can be #2(b). That's because they printed two #3's, forgetting that they started numbering the series with #2! This is actually the first #3...but I'm calling it #2(b) because I can.

Next up is Ibis the Invincible! Again, this story proves problematic for H&H, or rather, we have to make allowance for Ibis' wand, the Ibistick, to have extra powers of its own besides holding Ibis' allotment of magic spells, and it can transfer magic-user abilities to anyone who holds it. The nameless thief who swipes the Ibistick is able to cast Wall of Stone and something that seems like an advanced version of the Dig spell, since it makes a chasm between him and Ibis -- although cast at a high-enough level, maybe there is no difference.

More difficult to explain is when the thief is using the Ibistick to make piles of gold for himself, as there's no spell for that -- or is there? Maybe the Ibistick interprets what you ask for into the closest equivalent spell. So it's casting Fool's Gold for him, or maybe creating illusionary gold with a Phantasmal Image spell.

Somehow, Ibis trips on a loose floorboard while charging up to tackle the thief. I'm guessing that's flavor text associated with a botched die roll, though if I was playing Ibis, I wouldn't be too happy if my Editor told me I tripped like a clumsy idiot just rushing into a room.

The Ibistick has another nice feature: it has decided that Ibis is its true owner, making it the first intelligent magic item in comic books (not a magic sword!). As such, any spell cast with the Ibistick at Ibis is turned back on the caster. The spell is Turn Flesh to Gold, a variant on Turn Flesh to Stone.

Meanwhile, Ibis' love Taia is trapped in an airtight glass case, but with enough air that she is little harmed during the long minutes Ibis is chasing the thief. Once he has the Ibistick he dissolves the glass. It is not clear why he didn't just break the glass with a rock.

Ibis is correct that the ancient city of Thebes is gone, though how he learned that when he had just recently awoke in this millennium. Ibis recreates the city of Thebes, which could be nothing short of a 9th level Wish spell.

I'm sure I've shared this opinion before in regards to Zatara, but comic book magic-users are usually ridiculously broken, and Ibis is strongly in that category. Sure, breaking out a 9th level spell to make Taia happy is deeply romantic and probably worthwhile to both of them, but after she is foolishly kidnapped by Arabs, Ibis polymorphs their plane into a falcon and then a horse -- all to do what he could have accomplished by simply following the plane in the first place. This new Chain Polymorph spell (for lack of a better name) is probably also 9th level.

Ibis has little to worry about from desert nomads, but he still wastes powerful polymorph spells on them, including a Mass Polymorph spell (also 9th level?) that turns a group of armed men ("Arab cut-throats" = bloodthirsty hoodlums?) into geese. Polymorphing a bullet into an apple is an unusual trick -- and there is more to it than transformation, because Ibis' spell is able to drain it most of its momentum. He casts the same spell soon thereafter, turning a dagger into a dove. This must be another new spell, Polymorph Missiles (5th level spell?), and perhaps it is not a one-shot spell but a duration spell that allows him to temporarily transform any missile weapons aimed at him into living things and steal them of their momentum until the spell ends.

In Lance O'Casey, we learn that Lance's home is on Maloana Island, which isn't a real island as far as I can tell -- but it does have a nice South Seas sound to it. Lance's boat is called the Brian Boru; I don't recall if we learned that last time or not.

Lance gets a visit from a plot hook character, a native who says he knows where to find giant pearls -- and then conveniently gets lost during a typhoon. At this point, out in the ocean and surrounded by islands, Lance could be at the beginning of a "sandbox"-type campaign, where he could explore the islands in any order he wants. And maybe it was meant to be that way, except that he finds the "giant pearls" island first try out of the box.

On the island, Lance encounters a "renegade half-breed." Golden Age comic books seemed to love making half-breeds villains, but we're going to rise above that and ignore it in Hideouts & Hoodlums. Instead, we're going to stat him as a pirate, because he looks like a pirate. Actually, with an eyepatch and skull and crossbones tattooed on his chest, he would look like a pretty fearsome villain had he been drawn better.

The story takes a surprise twist when, instead of rescuing slaves from the pirate-slaver, one of the slaves frees himself, captures the pirate, and tosses him to the sharks -- then Lance finally takes action and dives in to save the pirate! To save the pirate, he has to kill a shark and punch out the slave who justifiably wants this bad guy dead. This is not that rare in RPG scenarios, that you just don't know what is going to motivate your players, or at least it's not what you planned.  Unfortunately, what's really going on in the story is that Lance saved the half-breed because he was half-white, and he likes how the natives call him "white master" now.

Further disgusting me about this story, Lance is rewarded by the slaves with a giant pearl, despite the fact that he just sided against them. And it turns out that he didn't even want to keep the giant pearl, he just wanted to find one. I do not like Lance O'Casey...

From a telegram, we learn that Dan Dare is based out of Sea Castle, Florida, another of those places that sounds real but really isn't. This might also make Dan the first comic book hero based in Florida.

This month's adventure takes Dan to San Francisco, California. Dan wisely takes a plane to California, since it's such a long trip, and appears to have a small passenger plane of his own that he pilots on the trip. A truck tries to hit his taxi once he's in San Francisco, seemingly on purpose, but Dan simply notes the event and does nothing about it (once again, not that rare for RPG players to ignore your planned encounters and just keep moving!). 

Dan, being a renowned private eye, was summoned to investigate an extortion letter that's surprisingly easy to figure out, as the dumb hoodlums (should that be its own mobstertype?) left a fingerprint on the letter -- that amazingly wasn't obscured when Dan held the letter with his own bare hand.

The next day, Dan tours San Fransciso's "Barbary Coast" neighborhood, a red-light district that hadn't actually existed since the 1910s, but was still featured in popular culture into the 1970s.


The villain, at least, is memorable. Dynamite Davis was horribly disfigured in an explosion and now has gray skin, no hair, and no ears, and not much left of a nose. Yet he compensates by wearing nice suits and sitting in a throne in his underground hideout, just waiting for someone to accidentally find him. He even has his own Asian sidekick named Taxi.

Dan seemingly just happens to stumble across the barbershop over Davis' hideout by dumb luck. The solution of how he got there comes at the end and, while slightly more satisfying, is still suspect. Somehow, Dan recognized the paper the ransom letter was written on as the kind of paper used in barbershops (and even if that was a thing, who's to say Davis didn't just steal the paper from one?), and on just a hunch he suspected the chauffeur was in on it and trusted the chauffeur would drive him to a trap (which was true, the barber had a trapped chair on top of a pit trap, just in case something like this happened).

(Read at readcomiconline.to)

Keen Detective Funnies #18 - pt. 2

This is still Spark O'Leary, that famous Irish newshawk who doesn't look remotely Irish. In fact, doesn't he look Asian to you? I wonder if he was drawn with the intention of him being Asian, and the publisher decided to paste an Irish name onto him instead, thinking no one would notice or care.

Spark has such an easy time following these clues that it's amazing the feds asked him to pursue this instead of just figuring it out themselves. In fact, there was so much evidence immediately pointing to Kurt that I immediately suspected a red herring; maybe the FBI did too!

---

It's rare to see ordinary mobsters with a really cool trophy weapon, but this unnamed spy has a tear gas gun! I would imagine it has the range and area of effect of a sleep gas gun, but is less effective (temporarily stunning anyone who fails their save vs. poison?).

It's remarkable that as dramatic an escape to a deathtrap as we get on this page is all recapped in panel 4 alone. I'm not sure how you could dodge out of the way fast enough to make someone pushing you fall out of a plane...but it does create a precedent for fumbles being allowed on push attacks!

But panel 5, with him knocking himself out, Scotty in Star Trek V style?

There's no way to emulate that in game rules; I'm not going to make people roll for movement, with a chance of fumbles and hurting themselves. The only way that makes sense is if there was a lot of turbulence on the plane and the Editor required saves vs. science to keep from falling sideways.

Seditious pamphlets is minor loot you can find with certain types of mobsters.

Setting fire to the ship you're standing on is a ballsy move!

Speaking of ballsy playing, I think we all know the real reason Spark wants to find the hideout -- he burnt up all the trophy items on the ship and he needs more loot to level up!

Rigging an entire hideout to blow up is not a recommended tactic, unless you didn't have time to design anything before the next session and you really don't want the players going in there.

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I'm never sure how much faith to have in these "fact" filler pages, but there's some interesting stuff here, including number of teens arrested in a year (I suppose I could verify that in the FBI's Crime in the U.S. serial, but I'd have to find a depository library to get paper copy of the 1940 issue; I can't find it that early online), where the term "gumshoe" comes from, and which states had no capital punishment circa 1940.

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C-Man shows the value of questioning, not just one witness at the scene of a crime (and expect the Editor to feed all the information you need through one character -- that's lazy game-mastering!), but up to seven witnesses. Actually, if the Editor assigned a 1 in 6 chance for each witness to have valuable clues, there would be a good statistical chance of getting the information in just 6 witnesses.

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Cigars with distinctive wrappers, fresh car tracks, footprints, broken twigs, and heel marks are all good examples of clues to use when Heroes are tracking.

Going to jump ahead now to Dudley Dance, a feature about "the greatest crime chaser of all time" and not, as one would expect, a dancer. Here, Dudley tackles -- or rather is tackled by -- one of the earliest werewolves in comics. Or is it another case of a fake werewolf?

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"Leather hardness of Dance's cheek"? What does the man do to develop such thick cheek calluses that they count as armor? Seems like an Editor that had trouble coming up with believable flavor text on the spot.

Hmm...six shots in rapid succession is possible in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but not for low-level Heroes. I hate giving firearms any advantage, actually, as my personal preference is for two-fisted fighter types, but there is plenty of gun-toting Heroes in these early comic books the H&H game has to emulate.

The story ends with a lot of attempting to explain away the werewolf as something non-supernatural, but it just sounds like he's just describing a tribe of werewolves that live in India to me...and that sounds like a pretty good adventure location for high-level Heroes!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #7, 10

Moving through Tip Top Comics quickly...

Hawkshaw the Detective introduces us to the idea of non-classed characters/mobsters being able to "level up" certain skills.

The Captain and the Kids reminds us that stilts could be a good way for Heroes to enter hideouts on an upper level.

Chris Crusty gives us a good idea for a trap; the Hero touches something and a paralyzing electric current keeps him there (on a failed save vs. science, of course).

One does not normally run the risk of having to roll again to see if you hit a random target after missing in melee, but if the Editor wants to run a campaign with the feel of Phil Fumble, he can add that rule.

I think bison are way too cute to be shooting at, but a bison could be a fierce opponent for low-level Heroes, so I'll make sure they're statted in the Mobster Manual.

$2 is a sufficient bribe for a waiter at even the fanciest of restaurants, according to Looy Dot Dope.

If taken seriously, Billy Make Believe would definitely need to be statted as a magic-user -- but note the peculiar effect here, where shrinking Bub ends his invisibility. What that suggests is that spells cannot be stacked, but casting one ends the duration of the previous spell on that person. Luckily for magic-users, I don't intend on making magic work like that in Hideouts & Hoodlums -- unless I see a lot more evidence of this happening...

Peter Pat is going to require more watching, as this dinogator is rather interesting. The lights shining from its eyes reminds me of the blindheim, a monster in the old AD&D Fiend Folio. I'm thinking I would stat a dinogator as a ...6 HD mobster?

From issue #10...I thought this was good, subtle humor.

And, coming full circle back to Hawkshaw the Detective, we learn that laughing gas (nitrous oxide) can be mixed into milkshakes and retain its properties. Who knew? (Actually only works in comic books -- in real life nitrous oxide is a safe food additive and is even used as a propellant in whip cream cans!).

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Action Comics #20 - pt. 1

And we're back to Superman! This is the first Superman story of 1940 and the last Superman story in DC's Action Comics Archives vol. 1.

Superman starts it off with the Raise Bridge power, then becomes Clark Kent for the main plot. As Clark, he lassos an assassin and pulls him off a high ledge (for 1-6 falling damage). This is the plot hook to get Superman to meet actress Dolores Winters. When he next meets Dolores and she does not recognize him, there is no game mechanic involved in that -- it is a purely role-played situation.

Then something very unusual happens for Superman -- he misses a plot hook. When he sees that Dolores is having a big party on a yacht, he decides not to go. Most players would see that as a plot hook. By passing it up, Superman misses an easy chance to stop the Ultra-Humanite early.

When Superman says Ultra's request for $5 million is the "greatest mass kidnapping ever attempted," I can't find any evidence to prove him wrong.

Superman does a minor leap, wall-climbs up to a high window, and "X-ray visions" a piece of paper inside (though I'm not sure how he would read using X-rays, maybe he is actually using his telescopic vision, which would fall under the Super-Senses power in 2nd edition).

It was never explained how Ultra made the paper materialize in the room. Or why an invention that could do that would not itself be worth $5 million.

Superman is able to stay underwater for over 2 hours. This is the Hold Breath power.

Ultra has a submarine that can fire magnetic ray beams. This invention is also, apparently, not worth $5 million. When assigning $ values to trophy items in 2nd edition, I did hesitate to set them too low, but comics bear out that mad science is never as valuable as crime.

Superman stops Ultra by using the Wreck at Range power to smash a generator at a distance. Then he uses Gust of Wind to blow out Ultra's torch.

Ultra manages to elude Superman by simply jumping into the water. You would think that this would not be much of a stumbling block for someone who can move at super-speed, use telescopic vision, and hold his breath for hours, but clearly Superman's power durations had ended already and he was all out of prepared powers that would help.

And that's the Superman installment.

In Pep Morgan, Pep not only saves the life of racing pilot Jimmy Dee but, recognizing him as a plot hook character, invites him to stay at his house. Jimmy uses some slang, such as the common "crate" for plane, and the uncommon "cop" to mean win (as in "cop that race"). Pep has to climb out onto a plane in flight, later, and climb up to the pilot's seat. In 1st edition, this would have been an aviator stunt called Wing Walking. Now, it's an expert skill check. We know Pep is not a mysteryman (or at best a low-level mysteryman) because he does not have a stunt to burn for an automatic skill check at the end, and he has to wake up Jimmy to get him to land the plane.

Speaking of slang, "Chuck" Dawson uses the phrase "fade out" to refer to his horse not wanting to approach something (so "fade out" must mean "back off" or "back away"). Another cowboy refers to Chuck's gun as his "hardware."

Next is "Clip" Carson, Soldier-of-Fortune. Summarizing his recent adventures, we see he has dealt with a wild lioness, hostile natives, and a "gigantic" serpent (though it does not look like a particularly large constrictor snake). The narrator claims Carson keeps his native porters loyal through "iron will," but actually he threatens to shoot them like a cold-blooded killer any time they talk about deserting him. Carson somehow escapes the stabbing he kinda deserves by "luckily" rolling over in his sleep just in time. It seems like a generous Editor to even require an attack roll in such a situation; I would personally rule it as an automatic hit for maximum damage. Carson gets away with the "last request" stalling tactic when about to be killed by making a successful encounter reaction roll. Carson's trip during the final battle is dramatic, but unsupported by the rules, since it looks like he fumbled (and Hideouts & Hoodlums uses no fumble charts for combat).

(Superman read in Action Comics Archive v. 1; the rest read at fullcomic.pro.)





 

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.)

Wonderworld Comics #7 - pt. 2

Let's look at what spells Yarko the Great is casting today. Some sort of untying spell? Floating through the bars might just be a generous interpretation of the Knock spell, or maybe Yarko is really showing off and cast Passwall on the gate. And what has he done to to the rifle -- melted it? Bent it with Telekinesis?

And then we get some more great Eisner room layouts. Good enough to use as a player handout!

Here, Yarko uses some sort of Teleport spell. Like Telekinesis, Teleport is a high-level spell that needed a low-level alternative for Hideouts & Hoodlums, as these sorts of spells get cast all the time in comics. A lower-level Teleport would only have teleported the tortured person a short distance, like to the next room.

The next spell is very clearly Hold Person, and other uses of the spell have set a precedent for the magic-user being able to allow the held victim to still speak.

Here's a puzzle, though -- Projected Image should be visible to everyone; why is Yarko making his image only visible to Burke? Another lower-level version, like a Message spell that only reaches one person (but is still visual to that person)?

Burke's "much persuasion" must have been multiple encounter reaction rolls -- though if Burke is a supporting cast member, then the Editor could just choose to hand-wave the rolling for this scene, as no Hero is actually present.

There is also evidence here of spells having random duration that magic-users cannot always predict.

So it turns out that approaching the ruins normally is a suicide run without large numbers, great stealth, and maybe magic or powers as there's large open space with no cover around the ruins and multiple concealed machine gun nests inside. Heroes just trying to waltz up to the front door would face a frightening amount of potential damage if not bulletproof, making this a challenging scenario for even mid-level Heroes.

Shorty Shortcake walks an interesting line between being a humor strip and an adventure strip. Some of it isn't appropriate for H&H, like suggesting that a pin to the butt would do enough damage to distract a hardened fighter. But other things ring true, like trying to grapple with an opponent from behind and slap handcuffs on him. I've had the same technique tried in some past H&H sessions.

Similarly, there are both things appropriate and inappropriate for H&H here. A chair that misses your target should not break and bounce back in your face -- it would make sense if H&H had a fumble mechanic in combat. Fumbles are funny, and some players like them, but I don't think it's a good fit for H&H despite pages like this.

Using pepper to stun opponents is appropriate and has been talked about on this blog before. It would require a successful attack roll and a missed save vs. science.

The chandelier coming down seems a lucky coincidence. However, the Editor would be in his rights to consider the weight of the Hero and the quality of the chandelier and judge that a save vs. plot is in order. Or, the player could ask for a save vs. plot to see if the chandelier comes down or not.

The mayor falling through the ceiling feels more like a wandering encounter to me.

This is the original meaning of "thug" -- professional murderers with skills like hiding in shadows and climbing walls. These will be called assassins in H&H, to distinguish them from hoodlum-thugs.

One of the earliest appearances of slings in comic books. It can, surprisingly, do enough damage to take down Dan, who should be at least a 2nd-level fighter by now.

But what the heck is up with Dan's long, luscious eyelashes? Has he been dressing up as a woman lately?

How this is going to work from now on is that, after being knocked unconscious, if Dan makes his save vs. plot, he'll recover with 1-6 hit points back in 1-6 turns. Here, it seems only one turn has passed and the Editor has, generously, decided to still keep this in melee turns even though there's no fighting left.

The Editor's generosity has its limits, though, as he has five yellow peril hoodlums jump a Hero with no more than 6 hit points.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)