Champion Comics #3 - pt. 1

We return to the adventures of The Champ. A wrinkle on the cliche of "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" is that the walking stick with the treasure hidden inside is missing (it turns up later in a secret compartment; a second compartment inside a secret compartment).

Here we see a shadow figure, which was a mobstertype introduced in Supplement V: Big Bang and will be returning in 2nd edition.

The Champ laid a trap for the missing assistant by pretending to already have the formula.

Pointing a gun and delaying still means that you have to roll for initiative to see who goes first, at least if your opponent is withing charging distance.

Chloroforming your opponent should be an automatic action if you already have an ally pinning him down. The Champ still gets a save vs. poison for each turn he is pinned, though. Looks like he rolled poorly on the first try.

This may be the first time a length of chain is used as a whip in comics.

I have serious reservations about this supporting post and how easily the champ broke it. Now, if it was not a supporting post, and just ornamental, then maybe I could see The Champ wrecking it as a door (or as a machine, as a penalty for being tied to it and lacking leverage). This has to be at least wrecked as a generator, which a fighter has no chance to do (even in 2nd edition) until at least 3rd level.

 

The Champ takes 1 point of damage from the fire, but it burns his bonds alright.

Again showing wrecking abilities, the Champ makes mincemeat out of that door, but that is something a 1st level fighter can do. By the end of this adventure, the Champ will likely be 2nd level.

He shows he is Lawful by going back in to save the bad guys.

At last, we have a clue that several of these orientals are thugs. In the past, I would have statted them as yellow peril hoodlums, but I'm thinking it's time to lose that mobstertype. I wanted them, initially, as a way to build something like the monk class into Hideouts & Hoodlums, but orientals in the Golden Age are rarely martial artists. Instead, they are usually wimpy hoodlums or bloodthirsty hoodlums.

You would think Katsu would have learned by now not to try firing a missile weapon while in melee range.

Katsu, incidentally, is an actual word, a word shouted out in Zen Buddhism. It's not an authentic Asian name, but it's closer to being one than the usual fare, like Fang Gow.

It's an interesting tactic to have reinforcements riding in the car behind you, in this case a "horde" of five "yellow men."

The Champ has been in a lot of fights so far in quick succession in this story, suggesting that he has an awful lot of hit points. At 1st level, he could have a maximum of 9.

In Neptina, we learn that the fish men have the ability to surgically remove human lungs and install gills. They must have high Intelligence (and be of Evil Alignment).

The fish men have a fog-making machine that they can use on the surface (it would, understandably, be pretty useless underwater).

It's not clear, but it seems to be implied that all fish men are male, and the mermaids are all the females, of the same species. Or did the fish men just capture human women and convert them into mermaids?

Fish men (and their merwomen) are telepathic, but they have the technology to block telepathy. Not only to block it, but apparently to make people forget they can read minds -- since Neptina doesn't seem the least but suspicious when she cannot read Brad's mind.

This is Penny Wright, Feature Writer. Penny wanted to find stories in South America to write about, but winds up getting kidnapped by an unnamed country's rebel leader. Santos is, curious, not a fighter but a robber -- a strange position for leadership.

Penny tries for a surprise attack but fails. She loses initiative and Santos delivers a grappling attack. Now Penny can't attack with her knife; she can only defend herself from the grappling attack and try to escape it or reverse it.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Flash Comics #1

All-American Comics, which will become half of DC Comics, debuts one of their better titles this month with Flash Comics #1.

This was the birthplace of several major DC franchises, most notably the Flash. I had reviewed the Flash story already in the very first issue of The Trophy Case, though not with the level of specificity I've achieved since on this blog, so I will have some more notes here.

First off is some more consideration of where the Flash's stories were located. I had written before about how the Flash could have been a Midwestern hero. He does move to New York City to attend Coleman University for his graduate studies, but at the start of his origin story, Jay Garrick (the Flash) went to Midwestern University -- and there was a real Midwestern University already in 1940, then in Chicago, Illinois.

Jay is so addicted to cigarettes that he has trouble waiting for his smoking break; indeed, one could argue that it is Jay's anxiety about being without a cig for so long that leads to the accident that gives him his powers.

Professor Hughes, the teacher supervising Jay's experiments, and at least one doctor at this unnamed Chicago hospital, are the first to learn Jay's secret, even before he tells his friend Joan. Then he reveals his super-speed to an entire football stadium, completely tossing out the pulpish trope of keeping a secret identity.

An entire year seems to pass during The Flash's origin story!

How fast is the Flash? A caption already describes him as moving at the speed of light, but it sure seems like the Flash only sprints at under Mach 2; that means he's using the Race the Bullet power.

Next up is Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent. Cliff is revealed to already have some field experience, as the Army borrows him from the FBI for this mission because of his reputation.

Cliff requisitions a monoplane fighter, with a machine gun mounted over the single prop, for the flight out to Alaska. And he's just 1st level?  I suspect some brevet ranks here.  I also can't identify the plane type. It looks like a Blohm and Voss Ha 137 because of the wing configuration, but that was a German plane.

The biplane that attacks Cliff gains surprise, demonstrating that surprise rules even apply to vehicular combat.


Mount Logan is a real location in Alaska; it is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest peak in North America, after Denali.

It seems awful convenient that the enemy aviators who shot down so many planes then left them all lying in a valley, still flyable, and stocked with bombs. But it is still a smart tactic of Cliff's to bomb the enemy runway first, so none of their planes can take off.

Cliff's reward for helping the captured Army flyers escape is to get more work from the Army in the future. He also got a Supporting Cast Member out of the deal, Lys Valliere, an Alaskan native who can shoot, fly a plane, and doesn't mind being called "honey girl."

The Hawkman is next. Carter Hall is said to be a wealthy research scientist, though this origin story does not specify the science. Later stories will tell us it is archaeology, though perhaps metallurgy would be more appropriate. Also, like Jay Garrick, we see Carter Hall is a pipe smoker.

Carter has discovered the "ninth metal", that defies gravity; this is a reference to the John Carter of Mars books and the metal hull of their airships.  We also find out later that ninth metal repels electricity, though I don't know how many comic book writers have remembered that since.   

Magic is subtle in Hawkman's world; his knowledge of his reincarnated past comes to him like a dream, and Hath-Set's most impressive spell seems to be Darkness 15' Radius.  Borrowing a trope from science fiction, magic is said to be one of the "older sciences."

At least one of the soldiers fighting Prince Khufu (Carter) is armed with what appears to be a period-accurate khopesh sword.

Abydos is a real place, and is indeed one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt. Khufu apparently ruled from there.

The hawk helmet is implied to be an Egyptian relic, a ceremonial mask of the Egyptian hawk god.  The hawk god is called Anubis by the narrator, though who he meant was Horus.

On the other hand, perhaps Carter's field of study is electrician, as he invents a "dynamo detector" that tells him exactly where his enemy is using one, miles away.  It isn't clear what Dr. Hastor's plans are, exactly, or how channeling electricity through subway tunnels is going to help him rule the world. I guess extortion is his game? 

Hawkman's initial weapons are a wooden quarterstaff (wise against a foe wielding electricity, I suppose) and a crossbow.

It is unclear what caused Carter, Shiera, and Hastor to all remember their earlier reincarnations around the same time. 

Johnny Thunder's real name is John L. Thunder. He was kidnapped by Badhnisians in August 1918, for having been born at precisely 7 am on the 7th of July in 1917.

The island kingdom of Badhnisia is fictional, as are their enemies, the people of Agolea. But we know this is somewhere in Asia because a woman flees from their war with Johnny to nearby, and real-world, Borneo.  

The story picks up with Johnny at the age of 23, in 1939. He inadvertently casts Charm Person to make a man "go jump at a duck."  He inadvertently makes a falling man stop falling with Levitate. On another day, he inadvertently casts  Gust of Wind by telling two Badhnisian agents to "blow away."

There is no mention or appearance of Johnny's Thunderbolt in this story. For now, Johnny's power only works one hour per day, which does not exactly fit with how magic-users work in Hideouts & Hoodlums. But Johnny is still clearly a magician.

Johnny has two siblings who we only hear about.

Next is a one-shot story called "The Demon Dummy."  The villain is a corrupt (private) detective and the hero is a ventriloquist.  But this is no hero like Dean Denton; our ventriloquist gets framed for murder, arrested, and pines for the girl he lost until finally being released from prison the month after she died.

In the time of Zorro, or circa 1840 anyway, El Castigo -- The Whip -- also protected the people of Mexico.  He could use a whip to disarm a gunman or unhorse a rider.  A century later, Rod Gaynor is a bored rich boy on the road, brought by random coin tosses to the real community of Seguro, California (though, here, it seems to be an incorporated town). He is moved by the plight of the local poor and the legend of The Whip and dons century-old gear just in time to stop a lynching.

As The Whip, Rod can entangle someone with a whip and drag them.  He can make a horse break down a door.  He defeats the corrupt sheriff (equal to a captain, so 5th level?), though a lot of that is because of superstitious locals shouting that this is the ghost of The Whip unnerving the sheriff.

Don's disguise is supplemented with an outrageous fake accent.  Marissa, a local girl, guesses Rod is the new Whip.  Rod also has an Asian manservant named Wing.          

(Flash story read in Golden Age Flash Archives vol. 1; the rest read at readcomiconline.to.)

Amazing Man Comics #8 - pt. 3

Dr. Magno turns on his own hoodlums and kills them with gas; bear in mind this is 20 years before the novel Goldfinger.

If Dr. Magno is statted as a superhero (or supervillain in his case, making him one of the earliest in comics), then his redirection of the bullet could be flavor text for Nigh-Invulnerable Skin. With his Armor Class buffed, Dr. Magno simply made the bullet miss.

It's time we dealt with the elephant in this room -- why didn't Iron Skull wreck his way out of this trap before now? After all, a lot of people are dead now for his inaction, including an innocent museum guard. Remember that, last post, I said the magnet's effect seemed like Hold Person, which is much different than just immobilizing someone with chains. If he was not paralyzed, I could see two other factors in play; both the electromagnet and the lack of leverage could be giving IS some serious negative modifiers to his wrecking things roll vs. the chains, perhaps as much as -6.

But assuming he is paralyzed, how does the chains breaking have anything to do with him breaking free of the electromagnet? It doesn't; the chains breaking is just a coincidence. The duration ended on the Hold Person effect -- more evidence of durations in comic books.

Here we see (turn 1) punching (Dr. Magno being knocked prone doesn't seem to affect the combat and may be flavor text), (turn 2) grappling (Iron Skull definitely knocks Magno prone this time), (turn 3) Magno reverse-grapples and establishes a choke hold (with some lucky rolling), (turn 4) Magno breaks loose of hold, (turn 5) delivers 2 punches (both of the final panels are in the same turn).

Jane, the Magician from Mars, looked like a magic-user/superhero last time, but she is all-superhero in this issue.

This page explains how she's half-alien, and how using more of her brain gives her super powers.

Immortality is going to be a high-level power, if it's needed at all.

Telekinesis arrests the jumper's fall? It says Jane jumps down, grabs him, and then bounces back up off one of the boats. It's possible that happened exactly like that, since half-aliens can have fantastic jumping ability.

Jane and the Suicider take an air taxi, as shown here. It seems to be a self-driving vehicle (those Martians sure are advanced!).

Jane displays the power Raise Building. Then she appears to use Super-Punch to knock the Crook into the sky. Of course, there's no way he would still be conscious after a Super-Punch unless he is a high-level Fighter, so perhaps something else like Telekinesis is going on here.

Jane keeps really busy! Now she's helping out at a rodeo (Martians love Earth culture). She grapples with a bull and tosses it pretty far (Extend Missile Range?).

Later, while flying around in her rocket ship, she gets in an aerial dogfight with another rocket ship. The saboteurs' ship has a melting ray mounted on the front, while her ship has some sort of "slices ships in half" ray (or is she Wrecking at Range with her powers?).

We see that trains on Mars travel through pneumatic tubes.

There is a Stop Train power and this seems to be that power reversed.

Jane remembers she's also a magic-user and finally uses a Minor Polymorph spell.

It seems unlikely that we need a Create Ink spell. Jane would probably not ruin the entire lobby just to teach this one guy a lesson, so I'm guessing this is an illusion spell.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #3 - pt. 1

I've talked before on this blog about feeling free -- as many Golden Age comic book writers did -- to mine classic literature for story ideas. Here, The Green Mask borrows heavily from Oliver Twist.

The Green Mask seems to "suddenly appear". It is likely that he merely achieved surprise when encountering them, though he might have used the move silently skill to sneak up on them, or even (in 2nd edition) burned a stunt to perform it extra well.

"Talk up!" seems to have been a common way of saying "Speak up!" back in 1939.

More evidence of 1) how easy it needs to be for Heroes to climb. If there's less than a 50% chance of scaling nine stories to that window, then Green Mask here -- who can't be higher than 2nd level, tops -- would find this a very dangerous fall. And 2) it's ridiculously easy to knock someone out from behind. I have added a combat rule about this for 2nd edition, but it's only good during a surprise attack, not during regular combat.

Okay, now that's just silly. Pushing their guns into their chins is just going to make them look at you funny, not knock them out. Sometimes players get bored with their normal combat options and try new things like this. Well, not exactly like this, but it reminds me of the old "Can I stab him with my arrow instead of shooting it?" question.

I've talked about this before on the blog too, weapons that aren't really weapons, and having them do 1-3 points of damage instead of a full die.

Where did that air pocket come from? A freebie from the Editor when the player seemed stuck? A random encounter? The player asking for something to happen, and using asking the Editor to allow the save vs. plot mechanic to determine if it happens?

Also note the handwritten letter from Green Mask, now in police custody. Golden Age Heroes don't have to worry about anyone being able to trace their identity from even fairly obvious clues.

It's amazing how prescient Dick Briefer was about watches being able to make phone calls, and then how goofy he was with the cone-shaped planet. Don't be afraid to mix stuff we know now makes sense with stuff that we know now is just plain crazy talk.

I'm sharing this page because I love that crazy ship design. Spaceships designed like giant shovels -- why not? It reminds me of TSR's Spelljammer setting. I wonder if H&H will ever have a supplement like that someday...

Although the last panel calls those things "creatures", the next page reveals them to be more spaceships. Perfect Spelljammer fodder.

Yeah, don't worry, players, I'm not including a 150' giant in the 2nd ed. basic book. The story only ever calls it a "beast" or a "monster".  I'd probably call it something like a "gargantuan" to distinguish it from a normal giant.

Chen Chang's men are consistently called bandits in this installment of Chen Chang, but stat-wise they seem more like nomads.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Detective Comics #19 - part 2

In the adventure of Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise, the bad guys have a seaplane (called an amphibious plane in Supplement III: Better Quality) at their island base. Who knows what else they have for Cosmo to loot; Cosmo does the one thing guaranteed to ruin any game session -- he turns the problem over to the authorities (in this case, the U.S. Air Corps) and then sits back and watches non-Hero characters solve the scenario for him. How boring!

In the adventure of Steve Malone, District Attorney, Steve's opponents have a smokescreen ejector in their car (as found in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies).

Steve offers a bribe for tips to help him gather information faster, feeling $100 is a good deal for valuable information.

When Steve and his supporting cast member, Jim, are about to raid a hideout and split up, Steve says he has a whistle he can use to summon Jim if he needs help. This seems like a good idea for any Heroes to have.

When the boss mobster flees to his private airplane, Steve jumps up, grabs the underside of the plane, and then clambers up into the plane.  I'm not even sure how to handle that game mechanic-wise. Sure, I suppose you could break it down into smaller components -- roll to hit the plane, save vs. plot to reach the top of the plane -- or just assign what seems like a good random chance, like a 1 in 10 chance of success.

Jerry Siegel liked to start his Slam Bradley stories with a bang and this one has Shorty walking into their shared apartment to find an ape!  An Editor can keep things moving in the campaign with random encounters, even when the Heroes are being relatively stationary. This is especially good for when the Editor doesn't know what to do next; just toss a wandering encounter at them and, hopefully, by the time the encounter is resolved you may have thought of a good reason for it to have happened (or your players will come up with something even better while they're guessing!).

Disguise works both ways; not only does a little domino mask or a pair of glasses keep people from learning the good guy's true identity, but a bad guy can disguise himself with just a fake mustache and avoid detection by Slam and Shorty.

In Africa (man, this story sure went a long way from an ape in his living room!), Slam and Shorty find a hidden city behind a waterfall, and across a chasm spanned by (of course) a rickety bridge. The city is called the City of the Ape-Men, but it seems to be a city of apes and men instead of ape-men. The tribesmen keep and control the apes and have Slam fight them with whips. How the Man in the Tall Hat controls the tribesmen, how he found them, and what he was doing in the U.S. is never explained. That the Man in the Tall Hat resembles the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George is purely coincidental; Curious George came out in 1941!

(This issue can be read at Comic Book Archives)