Thrilling Comics #3 - pt. 3

Well I'll be...I called this issue #2 in my last two posts, but it's been issue 3 I've been reviewing all this time! Sorry if I confused anyone.

It's been a long while since we last visited The Ghost, but you might recall he was tossing around Wish-level spells all over before the scenario even got started. Now that he has mobsters to fight, we get - Knock, Mirror Images, and throwing a dagger instead of casting a spell. Wow, this is what a mid-level magic-user looks like!

In my current Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign, we just had a long scene of the Heroes mixing it up with police in a precinct house, so it's interesting to see how quickly The Ghost is able to muscle his way in to see the ...Captain? Commissioner? - after just levitating a beat cop out of his way.

That is a strange spell that gets cast mid-page. It's not a Phantasmal Image because The Ghost doesn't know what the spell will reveal. It seems closer to Object Reading, the psionic power. It's also unusual to have a golden age Hero's initial hunch turn out to be wrong.

Now this is interesting! Only some magic-users have ever shown Achilles Heels - like needing to be holding their wand, or needing the use of their hands - The Ghost has to be facing you.

Wall of Force stops the car. 

It's interesting how The Ghost only sometimes bothers to use his "ghost" look and other times just walks around like a normal guy. I wonder how he decides...?

I also wonder -- is that chair a Chair of Scrying, like a comfy Crystal Ball?

The Ghost uses Levitate to save himself from bullets. I find it so refreshing to see so many 2nd-level spells getting used!

Hypnotism, or Charm Person spell? 

We don't know exactly how many hit points The Ghost has, but a surprise head blow can take him out.

The Ghost casts Wizard Eye through the door.

I like the details of that trap; it's a trap that, if you play it just right, helps the Heroes free themselves from it. Of course, you need to have Heroes weak enough not to be able to break rope...

Normally, in a Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign, exploring an entire hideout from cellar to roof could take multiple play sessions; here, we see it come to pass in a single caption. It's rather remarkable, I think, that the only clue he finds in the whole building are the pigeons on the roof. I wonder how many "secret door" rolls he failed on his way though the house...

I'm not sure what to make out of a spell that makes pigeons leave flaming trails. Some sort of Feed Jalapenos to Birds spell? Or perhaps this is just a generous interpretation of the Find the Path spell?

I believe I already have a Detect Lie spell in my game (or should if I don't). Is there any difference between Detect Lie and Speak Only Truth?

Out of all the spells in The Ghost's repertoire, what impresses this guy is the Change Self spell. 

I've never heard of a trick gun like that, but now I think it should be a minor trophy item. 

When did The Ghost cast that spell, turning the bullets to vapor? While writing the suicide note? After grabbing the gun away? As the bullets are being shot? Possibly the first two options, if the spell was cast off-panel, but it's hard to believe Tanko didn't notice. I think he could realistically have cast it at the beginning of the melee turn before being grappled by Tanko.  

Also...Tanko? That's an African name. Is it a nickname here? 

Ignoring the panel where the lights go out, but we can see everything...there are some strange reactions to magic in this story. Like, the phantasmal faces trick the chief into confessing...instead of just running away?

Was the matchbox ever admissible evidence? I bet it's not now, since a roomful of witnesses saw this appear out of nowhere. How do you prove it's the same matchbox? 

Moving on...I'm more amused than anything else by this page of the next story. For one, the "Three Comrades" are hanging out in what appears to be a middle class German restaurant, and the two German spies dressed up for a fancy nightclub aren't attracting any attention to themselves. What amuses me even more is how much Books looks like Peter Parker.

At least Cal thought the spies were suspicious. You can always count on Non-Heroes controlled by the Editor to fail to notice anything suspicious about a name like Baron Von Sneer, even though that just screams "comic book villain!" to the rest of us. 

Wow...you can also always count on European villains to have castle hideouts, even when just visiting the U.S. The caption calls it a mansion, but I know a castle when I see one...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 

Weird Comics #1 - pt. 2

We're still looking at the Sorceress of Zoom -- well, not too much of her on this page; this is still focused on Tom like this guy is the most important person in the world. I still don't get what the Sorceress sees in Tom, except that this is Tom's story, and I suppose if I met Tom in person maybe I'd be wowed by his 18 Charisma. 

This stranger interests me - I like the idea of the heroes having a magic-user benefactor, but one who is not acting out of altruism, but to use the heroes as pawns against the villain. It's also worth pointing out that this stranger only has to make eye contact to cast spells. Are his eyes his wand?

If I really wanted to apply science to this story, this would need to be a more powerful version of the Levitate spell that also protects the beneficiary from cold and lack of oxygen. That city is up really high! Better hope the spell duration doesn't end before you get up there, Tom!  

Spoilers: the Sorceress' spells require her concentration, including keeping the floating city in the sky (which makes you wonder how she ever sleeps...), so all Tom has to do is distract her and they all win.

So let's move on to Blast Bennett, because I think there's something interesting going on here despite these largely empty panels. Although Blast and his pal are interested in the meteor, neither is, understandably, interested in landing on it. Here's a little spoiler from the next page: the scenario requires them to land on the meteor. So what is a poor Editor to do if his players won't go where the adventure is waiting for them? You have four mysterious spaceships show up and push the location directly into the heroes' path, so they can't evade it!

The X-Men would sure like to have an anti-Magneto gun laying around! 

I was Googling "transverse valve" and the first hits were about rectums. I don't think I've ever stopped searching for something faster.

Let's talk briefly about "universe explorers," because that really seems like an all-encompassing job title. Unless they can access the multiverse in this future? 

The last caption we get just says "Later", with no indication how long it really took to build the gun. This is one of several reasons I've never been able to come up with inventing things rules for Hideouts & Hoodlums that satisfy me. Because, as easy as it is find examples of heroes kit-bashing things together, I seldom have any sense of time for how long it should take.

Now here's an interesting new mobster. I just wish it had a name! It's called "horrible monster" on the next page, so I'll probably have to go with that. Weird how this seemingly aquatic monster -- with its webbed hands and feet and sail, not wings, on its back - is on a waterless meteor, and it makes me think the space pirates either imprisoned it here, or planted it here expressly to kill Blast if he survived the crash. 

Although this page gives us a very poor sense of scale, the next page makes it clear the horrible monster is no more than 9' tall -- and strong -- as it clobbers Blast with one blow. The first panel on this page makes me think it can camouflage itself too, since Blast and Red don't notice it until it steps away from the wall. 

This page leaves the reader with way too many questions. Are they pirates or Canadian Mounties? Blast drops the monster on the pirate-Mounties? Is Blast super strong? Actually, they should all be near weightless on a meteor (there shouldn't be air either, but let's keep ignoring that), but if the monster is easy to pick up and drop because it's near-weightless, then it won't fall on anyone very hard either. And how does it happen to fall on all four of them at once? And how lucky are they that there were only four pirates on board when they confiscate the ship? And whatever happened to the other three pirate ships??

We're going to jump into the next story about Dr. Mortal, a character in the vein of Landor Maker of Monsters. The hero is Mr. Brent, who already knows something is amiss because Dr. Mortal, his girlfriend's father, has weird, malformed manservants with double thumbs. The scenario could go in several directions at the point where Mortal asks him to leave. Mr. Brent could have belligerently insisted he wasn't going anywhere until he got some answers. He could have decided Marlene wasn't worth this and started ghosting her. But I like this middle option he chose, of snooping around. At that point, it could have gone from roleplaying to exploration, with Mortal's house becoming a hideout.

However, this is just an 8-page story, so to move things along Mr. Brent just happens to see Dr. Mortal revealing all his nefariousness through the window.

Four mostly empty panels is really disappointing and tells me this was hastily made filler. 

I'm not sure what makes this guy a monster, other than having no hair, a super-long nose, and no memory of who he was until Mr. Brent, or Gary, does ...whatever it is he does here. Is he hypnotizing the monster to make him remember? 

That is one eloquent ex-monster there. 

What is up with how Dr. Mortal wants all his monsters in Speedos behind closed doors? 

Stray bullet, or intentional shot? If I was looking to make a fast escape, and I had, oh, let's say, consumed a potion of fire resistance recently, then filling the room with fire seems like a good way to safely cover my escape. 

On the other hand...if it's a pistol with six bullets, and there's only four monsters, why not use the last two on Gary and Marlene and skip escaping altogether?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 

 

Zip Comics #3 - pt. 5

More Captain Valor today, with Mort Meskin showing off his skill with crowd scenes, though hampered by some really racist depictions and sometimes sketchy details. I bring this to your attention, though, for panel 1, so we can talk about the two ways to set up a fight scene. Version 1 is that it occurs in "real time," with the crew arriving onto the deck in waves as they can reach it. Version 2 is that you set the scene with all the fighters already in the scene and then start the clock again. 

And we're jumping out of Captain Valor already into the next story, Mr. Satan. Holy cow, this scene is gory. There's actual blood everywhere! These bad guys are brutal...but the point of sharing here is the second to last panel, where Mr. Satan runs out, grabs the girl, and escapes unseen. But unseen by how many? We only see that one guy, but there must be a lot of other killers around. Is it fair to say this can be explained away as a surprise turn, a moving silently skill check, or maybe both to reflect the difficulty of no one happening to see him?  
 

The panels seem to be in the wrong order here...Mr. Satan should probably try to get that woman to safety first, instead of leaving her alone in a tunnel and going out to look for clues. 

What else can we gather from this page? Superhero costumes, despite appearing to have no pockets, must have room for matches or a lighter on them somewhere, or Mr. S would never have got that giant fire lit so fast. 

Also, we learn that rocks used as improvised weapons don't have to be very big.

That seems, at first, to be a clever twist about the sheriff, and having them both wind up on the tracks makes it seem extra surprising when the big reveal happens, but...why did it happen? Is he showing off his confidence in his men, that they would not betray him by tying him up for real? Is the deception part of trying to get Mr. Satan to reveal when the payrolls are "going to ride," and if so, why not try to trick him into telling while still on the tracks? Or he could have revealed himself as leader sooner, never been tied down, and still used the threat of the train to coerce Mr S into giving up the info? But on the other hand, if the robbers don't know when the payroll is coming, why are they so sure a train is coming soon? 

And if Mr. Satan knew the national guard was coming, why go back early to scout with the sheriff without them?

If it wasn't already obvious, Mr. Satan would be statted as a mysteryman. His "spectacular leap" and snatching Doris out of the car and jumping out in time both qualify as mysteryman stunts.

Now we're going to jump into the next story with Zambini the Miracle Man, and this is a prime example of everything wrong with the magician genre: if your magic-user is so powerful that Satan himself has to plot against him while he's on vacation so his guard is down -- then your magic-user is too powerful.

As if to illustrate this, Satan causes a tidal wave to threaten Zambini's ship and, instead of simply calming the waters, Zambini freezes "the oceans." Way to alter Earth's climate there, Zam! 

More interesting are these devil men...let's see if I need to stat them! Hmm...I guess not -- they get mass polymorphed into penguins on the very next page before they can do anything!

Mass Polymorph is, of course, going to be a Hideouts & Hoodlums spell. I think I've determined before it would have to be a ninth level spell, even though it gets cast an awful lot in comic books.

Sure, Zambini could have just cast Resist Fire on himself instead of conjuring asbestos...although, perhaps he did cast Resist Fire and this is how it manifested? Previously, we've seen Zatara cast a healing spell that made a first aid kit appear. The conceit here is that magic takes whatever form is most familiar to the caster. 

Really, Zambini? You're traveling into Dante's Inferno and your only concern is how long the trip is taking you?

And is he really trapped in a net, or just relaxing on a hammock?  

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa - take a close look at that Cage of Flesh. The bars are made up of human forearms, each grasping the next one in the row. That is crazy grizzly -- but also just the thing to impress veteran D&D players, accustomed to dungeons full of grizzly things. That it seems to contain an anti-magic field is just icing on the cake.

Who's the fool, Satan? You just told them to push the flammable cage into fire. 

The "docile" rabbits tracks with how polymorph works (or at least the spells of 4th level and above; H&H has lower level polymorph spells this won't apply to), as there should be a chance of losing your mind/personality to the new form. Otherwise, these would be satanic rabbits!

I'm not going to show you the rest of this crazy story, but here's two spoilers: one, Zambini meets a dinosaur down there, either brought down there in prehistoric times as a pet, or the story is suggesting that's where dinosaurs all went when they died?

Lastly, Satan is killed, which is a pretty crazy ending for just your third issue. 

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Prize Comics #2 - pt. 3

One last page of Jupiter to look at. It should surprise no one that microzoric isn't a real thing. The effect of the ray is impossibly fast, but consistent with how illogical comic book science works. 

Ganging up on the mad scientists, though, that seems like pretty sound psychology. I can also understand the mad scientist, overpowered by all that magic, committing suicide to regain some control.

We get a Mass Teleport spell again, suggesting Jupiter is actually 16th level. The spell he hints at in the end is a much simpler spell-version of Sense Friend in Need. 

That looks like it might actually be a map of the Congo, showing the lost city of Tsul in the southeast corner, in the Mitumba Mountains, which actually makes sense for hiding a city. 

But the real reason I took a close look at this page was the notion of a collapsible canoe. I wasn't sure that was a thing, but apparently it is, and that would be a handy thing to put on an expanded starting equipment list at some time.    

This is interesting to me, as it seems there was a good chance Laura would have drowned had Jaxon not saved her, as if Jaxon made a save vs. science to avoid drowning and Laura didn't, but him helping her convinced the Editor to give her another save?

"Who are those strange creatures?" "Whoa, Laura, that is uncalled for and horribly racist! Those are just black men, not strange creatures! Geez!" Laura might be racist, but the artist treats them pretty decently, with un-typically realistic depictions.

A jaguar is pretty cool for a boss monster's pet.

The start of this story was pretty solid, but it got downright weird by now. The story here is that she's leading them to the secret exit only she knows about to get of Laura, so her husband can't replace her with Laura...but killing Laura would do the same thing, and sending her to walk into fire would sure accomplish that. And yet, amazingly, there really is an exit behind the ever-burning cave mouth. There should be no save for this one, running through fire automatically does damage in Hideouts & Hoodlums.

It gets weirder to find the lost city's treasure is sitting in a cave halfway to the exit instead of, you know, somewhere in the lost city. 

And then there's the matter of how they're even seeing the treasure and the snakes...in a cave, in complete darkness. I think I count nine vipers in that last panel.

It keeps coming. The twist ending of the disguised professor comes out of nowhere and throws everyone off so much that they forget all about the fact that there is still another way into the city of Tsul, so dumping the dynamite into the hole and caving in the exit caves doesn't really hide anything. And that's not even bringing up the racist depiction marring the last panel, after blacks were treated fairly normal the rest of the story.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

  

 

 

 

Prize Comics #2 - pt. 2

We're still visiting with Ted O'Neil in Mexico. He's dealing with diamond smugglers, but pretty poor smugglers. Are they really about to brag about having $1,000 in diamonds? That should be easy, even in 1940. 

Here we have an uncommon instance of a whip being used as an entangling weapon. 

Just as rare, we have a missile weapon -- a rock -- being thrown into a melee to great effect.

Here we're told these are poor smugglers again, willing to kill over only thousands of dollars. 

They're slow smugglers too, though that is because of Hideouts & Hoodlums' initiative system. Even though Bates should be able to pull a trigger before Ted can reach up and grab that beam, he can't if Ted out-rolls him.

The smugglers are also poor shots, missing despite the +2 bonus they should have for attacking from behind, and while Ted can't move too much.

Tossing a lasso over someone while flying by in a fast-moving plane strains cred -- oh, who am I kidding? This whole story is straining me. This lasso trick would need a natural 20, over a result over 20, to pull off. 

And how dark is this ending? It's implied that Ted landed so rough that Bates' face is smashed in by the fall. 

You know, this issue really isn't winning me over, and Jupiter, Master Magician isn't helping. Let's ignore for the moment that Jupiter's antennae look like pencils sticking out of his hair. Let's pretend that monster is drawn less goofy-looking and more like the D&D gargoyle it superficially resembles. Let's even try to ignore the fact that, if the city is shielded by rays so he can't locate it, then how does Jupiter know it's far away? Instead, let's talk about how dumb your supporting cast member has to be to volunteer to be a decoy, while you watch a monster carry him away, even though you have no idea if the monster is going to eat him the minute it leaves town with him. And even if they're convinced from the crystal ball that the monsters are taking their abductees to this far away city, maybe the abductees don't need to show up alive, or with their heads still on. 

Okay, I lied -- let's go back and talk about the crystal ball shielding too. We need a Protection from Scrying spell for H&H

to simulate that.

On this next page, we learn how gargoyles are made. Ouch! And made by mad scientists...or is the old man a magic-user? It seems he is if he knows about white magic and shielding his location from scrying.

Jupiter here casts Hold Person, Knock, and ...Clean Room? Or just a use of Telekinesis maybe? Oh, and previously he used a Fly spell I forgot to note! It's worth noting that the Fly spell for magic-users is slower than gargoyles fly (12 vs. 15), so it would be hard for Jupiter to keep up, unless he has a faster Fly spell.

It's not a very successful ambush if the other side is able to attack first, is it? 

Jupiter's next spell is a new one and I'm inclined to call it Jupiter's Disarming Hand. It creates one invisible hand per level of the caster that can all make attack rolls vs. visible targets within a, oh, let's say 20' diameter area of each other and if the roll succeeds the target is disarmed of a weapon. The range is, let's say, 60' + 10' per level. It's a pretty weak spell, weaker than Sleep, so I think I'd put it at 1st level.

I'm not clear about how to describe the next panel. Is Jupiter using Hold Person, and then loading the paralyzed gargoyles onto Floating Disc spells? Or is there a new spell in play here (actually, Floating Disc would also be new, to H&H)? Maybe something called Jupiter's Delivery, where 1 inanimate, or paralyzed animate, object per level will float to any location you name for them to go, as long as the caster knows the location,

and it is within, oh, let's say 200' + 25' per level? This is maybe a 3rd level spell.

Then Jupiter scrys the bad guy's location with his crystal ball. "Wow! I still don't know how you do it!" "Really? Really? I'm holding a crystal ball right in front of you. How was this not a big clue for you?"

Up to this point, I could still pretend Jupiter is 3rd or 4th level with a Crystal Ball trophy item, but then he casts Earthquake and I'm just rolling my eyes at how many brevet ranks I have to throw at comic book magic-users. 

Now this turn of events starts out pretty cool; we get a nice visual of a paralysis raygun. And then...whaaaat? Instead of Jupiter thinking his way out of this trap, they luck into a stupid gargoyle tripping over the cord and unplugging it? They're miles underground -- why are there even wall plugs down here? 

It's unclear how Jupiter wrecks the raygun (and a lot of wooden rafters around it). Some spell version of Wreck at Range? Or a Fireball spell? 

It's worth pointing out here that Jupiter has either cast Fly twice, or has a Mass Fly spell that let's them both fly separately. He also has a higher level version of the Strength spell that boosts multiple (at least 2, let's say 2-5) targets' STR scores. This spell is going to be level 3. 

"Hey, watch where you're grabbing with that hand, mister!" You know which panel I'm talking about.

That is one funky ramp onto the plane. And for that matter, why are subterranean monsters using a plane?

Uh...H&H already has an Enlarge spell, but the size of Jupiter's hand is pretty ridiculous there. More so because we're lead to believe it's only his hand that gigantic and the rest of his body, off-panel, is normal size. 

Jupiter demonstrates a Mass Teleport spell that, gosh, that would have to be a 7th-level spell, especially since Johnson isn't anywhere near them when Jupiter and the mad scientist teleport. Johnson is, of course, only there to either witness Jupiter's victory (because Jupiter needs it for his ego) or -- as happens -- to give the mad scientist one last chance to threaten them. Polymorph is already a 4th-level spell. Based on the 7th-level spell alone, we know Jupiter is at least 15th level, and that's with 13 brevet ranks, just for what we see in this story. And I don't even remember how many brevet ranks we had to assign him last time!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 

More Fun Comics #53

This issue begins with the Spectre! The story picks up where it left off last issue, with Jim Corrigan (the Spectre, when he still looks like a person, but he's a ghost either way) uses the spell Passwall to appear in the mobsters' hideout. After one of the mobsters spots him, Jim turns invisible (shown visually by shading him out on the page). That first mobster is now dead -- Jim has used a new spell called Death Gaze that requires a save vs. spell or the victim dies in 1 turn (similar to Finger of Death, but not instantaneous). This needs to be a 5th level spell.

Jim ends his invisibility (confirming that magic-users can end spells before their duration ends at will) and one of the remaining two mobsters opens fire; the bullets pass right through Jim. This is in keeping with the ghost race presented in Supplement V: Big Bang Comics and its ability to go ethereal a few times per day.

Then Jim uses another new spell, Withering Touch. This happens to the next person who touches the magic-user. Unless a save vs. spell is made, over the next three turns, the person touching withers away until only a skeleton remains, remains alive and aware in that third turn as nothing but a skeleton, but then dies. Further, the victim has to save vs. spell for every item on his person or those items wither to nothingness too, with a +1 to +5 bonus for magic items, depending on how powerful they are. This probably needs to be a 7th level spell.

Jim toys with the remaining mobster, confounding him with a Mirror Images spell, but this leaves the mobster free to shoot his prisoner, the unconscious Clarice (from last issue). Jim thinks Clarice is going to die from a critical wound, but Jim casts Cure Critical Wounds just by touching her.

When police show up, Jim casts Raise Dead on the mobster he killed with his death gaze, but not the one that withered to a skeleton -- perhaps Jim has finally hit his first limit, that he can't raise someone without a complete body. We also clearly see that Jim can cast spells without anyone around him knowing he's doing it. This runs counter to how most magic-users operate in comics, so maybe this needs to be a new special ability of ghosts.

We see a disadvantage of being a ghost, that Jim doesn't breathe anymore and can't even appear to be breathing (no air exhales from his nose or mouth). Since he will be unable to hide his deathly state from Clarice for long, he breaks up with her.

Although his powers are supernatural, the Spectre's costume is sewn by hand. At this point it's unclear if his body is white and he's only wearing green shorts, or if he's wearing a white bodysuit under the shorts.

The rest of the issue is unavailable to me. From some vague descriptions on a Wiki, it seems that Biff Bronson, in his story, goes up against the "mechanical men" (man-sized robots) of a villain called the Wizard and Captain Desmo, in his story, runs afoul of the Society of Assassins in Bombay.

(Spectre story read in Golden Age Spectre Archives Vol. 1.)

Science Comics #2 - pt. 2

We're still on Dynamo's story and, if you remember where we left off, Dynamo had just palmed off the entire scenario onto the FBI -- and now they drop it back in his lap where it belonged. There are arguments in gaming circles from both sides on the fudging issue. Is it right for the referee/Dungeon Master/Editor to fudge dice rolls, even if it's just to nudge the story along? Normally I would urge an Editor to fudge rolls sparingly, but when you need people to fail search results just so your player will go back and try, I think the fudging is worth it.

Here's a peculiar power. It looks like Dynamo has cast the magic-user spell version of Hold Person, but in addition, the victim is moved across the room as if under a Telekinesis spell. On one hand, the placement of the victim seems unimportant enough, in this instance, that it could just be flavor text. On the other hand, I could see a more powerful version of Hold Person that let's you choose where the victim is held at could be even more useful, like if you positioned the victim to block a doorway.

Speaking of more powerful versions of Magic-User spells...it seems like Dynamo is using the spell Shocking Grasp here, only he can use it more than once per spell.

Hoodlums almost never feel confident enough to make fun of the heroes in Golden Age comics, but here we have an unusual instance of a hoodlum making up a clever nickname for the hero.

Wow, okay, way to rub their failure in the G-Men's faces, Dynamo! But...you do know that you likely just killed all those bad guys you're turning in, right? I mean, if being immersed in molten gold didn't burn them to death, they must have quickly suffocated...

Now we're on Cosmic Carson. Here we have a twist on the "ray that freezes your motor" -- the ray that literally freezes your whole ship -- and I think we've seen this twist only once before (always in sci-fi stories).

We don't know how much time passes between panels 5 and 6, but it seems like Carson has just arrived at the planet and immediately spots the lost rocket. Unless he's locked onto a transponder signal or some such, there's no way it should be possible to visually inspect a planet in less than weeks.

Also curious is that Carson's rocket gets much closer to the planet before being detected than the first ship. Are the aliens relying on visual detection too?

Thermo-rays look an awful lot like acetylene torches. In future settings, you can rename ordinary objects and make them seem futuristic.

It's interesting how they capture Carson, but just leave him trapped for hours, as if the aliens got too busy and didn't have time to take care of him.












Late in the story, we're finally told that the aliens are skull-men. They don't seem to be native to this world, since we only ever see four of them. They must be pretty good in a fight, since it only takes three of them to capture Carson. I'd say they have at least 1+1 Hit Dice.

This is likely the earliest reference to Popeye in a comic book not to feature him. Popeye has been getting stronger by eating spinach since mid-1931.

Clever strategy for convincing the bad guys to destroy their own weapons, but most Heroes simply capture the raygun and turn it against the enemy. Instead, Carson is content to fight with his fists, and the prisoners he rescued have to use clubs.

The reference to skull-men being weak doesn't jive with how they took down Carson earlier.

"No one will miss them, so it's okay that we killed them! Besides, they were weak!"

Hey, Carson, you're free now -- you can put a shirt back on!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)