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"Starman: "The Menace of the Invisible Raiders!"": A new super criminal, the Mist, is stealing American secrets, and already has accumulated quite a few. He's embittered because he and his inventions were scoffed at by the military during the First World War. With his [[Earth-Two

Quote1 By my halidom! Quote2
Shining Knight

Adventure Comics #67 is an issue of the series Adventure Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1941.

Synopsis for Starman: "The Menace of the Invisible Raiders!"

A new super criminal, the Mist, is stealing American secrets, and already has accumulated quite a few. He's embittered because he and his inventions were scoffed at by the military during the First World War. With his Inviso-Solution he can render people and even airplanes invisible. The Mist and his band of Living Shadows plan to steal all of the U.S.'s secrets and sell them to its foreign enemies. He also intends to bomb U.S. factories in Pittsburgh and Bethlehem from invisible planes. The Mist's hideout is in Gigantic Cavern, Kentucky, and he has some invisible single-engine bombers down there, plus a secret hangar entrance, too. And a space-ship.

Ted Knight and Doris Lee are touring Gigantic Cavern, when Ted is contacted by Woodley Allen, via a flashing signal in his Gravity Rod. Ted does his hypochondriac act to ditch Doris, his new fiancee, and slips away to change clothes, then waits until nightfall, powers up his Rod, and flies off, following Allen's signal. Doris and the tourist group, and one guide, are trapped belowgrownd, by an artificial cave-slide, induced by the Living Shadows. Allen and Starman's meeting is interrupted by a radio news report of the cave-slide, and Starman flies back to Gigantic Cavern, like a bullet! Exploring the deeper parts of the cavern, he encounters and brawls with a bunch of invisible thugs, and eventually gets knocked out. At the Mist's direction, the Living Shadows get rid of Starman by dropping him into a very deep pit. And when she talks back defiantly to the invisible goos, Doris is also flung into the pit. But Starman recovers his senses and Gravity Rods his way out of there, catching Doris also. She tells him about the bombers, and Starman pursues and intercepts them, somewhere between Kentucky and Pennsylvania, and blows up all of the dive-bombers in mid-air; no parachutes are seen.

Back in the cavern, the Mist grabs Doris, and tries to escape in his personal spaceship, which Starman also intercepts, and also destroys. The Mist is punched unconscious and left behind in a disabled, plummeting spaceship, and afterward is presumed dead.

Appearing in Starman: "The Menace of the Invisible Raiders!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • The Mist (First appearance) (Apparent Death)
    • his Living Shadows (many die)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Shining Knight: "The Sky Pirates"


Appearing in Shining Knight: "The Sky Pirates"

Featured Characters:

Animals:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Sam Boggart
    • at least five aviator/thugs

Other Characters:

  • Professor Benson, City Museum Curator

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Boggart's convertible pursuit/autogyro aircraft (five are destroyed)

Synopsis for Hourman: "Reform School Racket"


Appearing in Hourman: "Reform School Racket"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mr. Meade, boss
    • Big Red, hench
    • more hench
      • reform school inmates (five die)

Other Characters:

  • Willie Jones
  • Governor
    • State Police

Locations:

  • Cosmos
  • Southern County
    • Meade Crop Dusting Airways

Items:

Synopsis for Steve Conrad, Adventurer: "Strange Secret of Greed"

Steve and Chang encounter a slave-labor ruby mine, and free all the surviving miners.

Appearing in Steve Conrad, Adventurer: "Strange Secret of Greed"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Chang

Antagonists:

  • Sidney Malcolm (Dies)
  • Gunner Smith

Locations:

  • Africa
    • Valley of the Sun
    • Trading Settlement, 30 miles away

Items:

  • Telephorous Beetle (always migrates south)

Synopsis for Federal Men: "The Proving-Ground Spies"


Appearing in Federal Men: "The Proving-Ground Spies"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Miss Burns, secretary
  • her two spy bosses

Other Characters:

  • Mr. Willkie, inventor
  • Captain Ernst
  • Sailor Firefighting Team

Locations:

Synopsis for Paul Kirk, Manhunter: "The Ten-Dollar Masterpiece"

Art burglars steal a valuable painting from the home of Paul Kirk's friends, despite Kirk setting an unsuccessful ambush for them. But soon Kirk figures out why they stole that painting, only, and from that he figures out who they are, and where they live, then goes there and, after a five-to-one fistfight, busts them.

Appearing in Paul Kirk, Manhunter: "The Ten-Dollar Masterpiece"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Colonel Hummer (Single appearance)
  • Orange (Single appearance)
  • 3 more hench

Other Characters:

  • Mary
  • Bob

Synopsis for Sandman: "The Secret of the Man in Miniature"

November 1st, 1940: In his secret laboratory in Manhattan, Professor Josephus Doombie perfects a fast-acting atom-compacting Elixer of Size, and its antidote, and decides to use these serums to commit crimes. Dian Belmont is present at the scene of a daylight home invasion of the palatial Hartford Mansion, and figures out who the perpetrator is, and calls in the Sandman, who breaks into Doombie's home/laboratory while he is still gloating over his stolen emeralds. Doombie sics two thugs on Sandman; Sandman beats them up while Doombie turns the tables by injecting Sandman, and Dian, with his Elixer. He captures them in two test tubes, then the gang leaves to rob a bank. Sandman and Dian escape, and find the antidote, and then pursue the villains in Sandman's powerful roadster. At the bank, Sandman again subdues both henchmen and this time grabs Doombie before he can use his formula to escape.

Appearing in Sandman: "The Secret of the Man in Miniature"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Mr. Hartford

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Notes

  • Published by Detective Comics, Inc.
  • Hour-Man is an expert pilot.
    • Rex takes two hits of Miraclo in this story, less than a day apart.
  • Sandman's villain is called "Doobie" in the opening caption; it becomes "Doombie" in his rant on page 2, panel 2.
    • Doombie's formula is swallowed, and it causes the user's clothing to change size along with him.
    • According to the calendar and clock on Doombie's desk, this invention takes place on 1 Nov, at 10:40. This would necessarily be 1 Nov 1940, based on in-universe evidence. That is, according to Jon Law's biographical flashback in All-Star Squadron #18, the Sandman abandoned his old double-breasted suit and adopted the caped version of the purple-and-yellow tights in late June 1941.[1]
  • The Shining Knight gets head-konked unconscious with a pistol butt. This is his first recorded blunt instrument head trauma.
  • Starman:
    • Persons and objects treated with The Mist's Inviso-Solution become visible by the lunar light of the Gravity Rod, or also by the queer blue light of a hand-held device of The Mist.
    • Starman's Gravity Rod can also eat thru stone, burn thru super-steel, and repel bullets.
    • Starman is knocked unconscious one more time, hitting his head on a stone floor.
    • Doris Lee (niece of FBI boss Woodley Allen) gets kidnapped, for at least the 3rd time.
    • It is revealed that Ted Knight and Doris Lee are engaged.
    • The deepest parts of Gigantic Cavern are inhabited by giant, prehistoric, vampiric Demon Bats.
    • "The Menace of the Invisible Raiders!" is reprinted in The Golden Age Starman Archives Vol. 1, The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told, and Superman #252.
  • Steve Conrad's sidekick Chang is not the same character as Golden Age Green Lantern character Chang.
  • Also appearing in this issue of Adventure Comics was:
    • "Good Books and Movies" (text article) by Josette Frank
    • Jest Jokes (one-panel gags) by Ray McGill
    • "Paint Job" (text story) by Edgar Weston



See Also


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