Comic Cavalcade #5 is an issue of the series Comic Cavalcade (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1943.
Synopsis for Wonder Woman: "Mystery of the Crimson Flame"
Helene Armstrong, daughter of an important Senator, becomes entangled in a new faith known as The Cult of the Crimson Flame. When the Senator denounces the Cult, he - like all of its previous opponents - falls ill from a supposed curse. Scared and desperate, Helene approaches the Army Intelligence Service and begs Diana and Steve to investigate.
Soon after investigation begins, Helene disappears; meanwhile, Diana and Steve find themselves beset by threatening messages from the Cult. When these messages fail to intimidate, the Cult's high priestess Zara kidnaps Diana and smuggles her into the Cult's local meetinghouse for execution. Upon arrival, however, Diana surreptitiously changes into Wonder Woman and violently scatters her would-be killers.
Unfortunately, the Amazon Princess fails to capture Zara, who escapes through the meetinghouse's tunnel network with Helene as a captive. By the time Wonder Woman has finished searching the tunnels, Zara has already fled the United States with Helene; undaunted, Wonder Woman, Steve, and the Holliday Girls launch an invasion on the Cult's headquarters in the Arabian Desert. Though they fight well, the makeshift legion is soon captured, and Wonder Woman herself fitted with shackles designed to burn off her limbs if forced.
Now overconfident, Zara prepares to force all her captives into the Cult, on pain of death. However, a split-second oversight allows Steve to steal the shackle keys and free Wonder Woman, who quickly binds Zara with the Lasso of Truth. Under the Lasso's power, Zara confesses the Cult's "curse" is only chemistry-assisted showmanship, which generates a nocebo effect on selected victims. Once the Cult has been exposed and detained, and its captives freed, all of these victims swiftly return to health.
Appearing in Wonder Woman: "Mystery of the Crimson Flame"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- U.S. Army Intelligence Service
- Holliday Girls
Antagonists:
- Cult of the Crimson Flame
- High Priestess Zara (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Senator Armstrong (Behind the scenes) (Single appearance)
- Helene Armstrong (Single appearance)
- Santa Claus (Cover Only)
Locations:
- United States of America
- Saudi Arabia
- Temple of the Crimson Flame
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Mutt & Jeff / Cicero's Cat"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in "Mutt & Jeff / Cicero's Cat"
Featured Characters:
- Mutt
- Jeff
- Cicero's Cat
Synopsis for Real Life Story: "Technical Sergeant George Phillip Corl"
Appearing in Real Life Story: "Technical Sergeant George Phillip Corl"
Featured Characters:
- George Philip Corl
Synopsis for Hop Harrigan: "Combined Operations"
Appearing in Hop Harrigan: "Combined Operations"
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Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- P.T. Boat Captain
- U.S. Soldiers
Locations:
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Vehicles:
Synopsis for Green Lantern: "Hold on to Your Hat"
Doiby's indulging in his usual enormous meal, when suddenly a gangster called Knuckles Bombast starts a fight with a transient who's been following him around. In the course of the ruckus, Doiby and the gangster accidentally switch hats. He quickly learns why the transient was following Bombast: it's Alan Scott in disguise, trying to get clues to what crime Bombast is planning to pull next. Strangely, the criminal was hanging around a lot of women's clothing stores, and the duo ambush Bombast as he and his gang rob Mme. Modiste's dress shop. Mistaking them for a mannequin in the dark, Doiby slugs a real woman, who explains she's Mme. Modiste, and the crooks were stealing the designs for her new line of fashions.
Green Lantern and Doiby pursue, but are knocked out with wooden weapons and taken to the gang's next stop. The heroes regain consciousness and escape from their bonds. After the gangsters are knocked out, Mme. Modiste comes forward to collect her designs, but Green Lantern stops Doiby from handing them over and arrests the woman instead, declaring her the real leader of the gang. He's remembered something he forgot in the heat of the moment: Mme. Modiste is a man.
Appearing in Green Lantern: "Hold on to Your Hat"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- A female criminal impersonating Mme. Modiste (Single appearance)
- Bombast (Single appearance)
- thugs
Other Characters:
- Mme. Modiste (male fashion designer) (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Lavaliere Bar
- Mme. Modiste's shoppe
- Manhattan
- Gramercy Park
- Chez Chic chapeau
- Gramercy Park
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Sargon: "Curious Case of the Missing Magic"
Thieves hit upon the idea to steal props from stage magicians, put real stolen gems in place of the cheap replica stones on them, then steal them back and reclaim the loot once the heat's off. Unfortunately for them, Sargon realizes the diamonds on his trunk are shining as they never have before, and uses his Ruby of Life to animate the trunk to tell him about what happened to it recently. However, the crooks' names weren't mentioned around it, so it can't tell him who's behind the racket.
The thieves show up at Sargon's apartment to steal back the gems on his trunk, but are attacked by all his performance props, brought to life by the ruby. One of them manages to shoot Sargon, but he casts a spell to make them ravenously hungry as he passes out. When he wakes up, he finds his plan worked, and the thieves ate so much on their trip across town to escape on a commercial airliner that they've gotten extremely fat and the plane would be overloaded with them on board. Thus making them easy to spot. Then he magically makes them giant and compels them to carry him to the mastermind of the outfit, who becomes imprisoned in his own drapes.
Appearing in Sargon: "Curious Case of the Missing Magic"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Diamond Dan
- his gang
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
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Synopsis for O'Malley: "The Pickpocket's Dilemma"
Appearing in O'Malley: "The Pickpocket's Dilemma"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
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Other Characters:
Locations:
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Synopsis for Red, White, and Blue: "Reel Life to Real Life"
Appearing in Red, White, and Blue: "Reel Life to Real Life"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
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Other Characters:
Locations:
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Synopsis for Flash: "The Plant that Challenged the World"
Appearing in Flash: "The Plant that Challenged the World"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Phineas Burton
Locations:
- Keystone City
- Columbine University
- Good Time Clock Factory
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Published quarterly by Jolaine Publishing Co. This 92-page magazine sold for fifteen cents a copy, in an era when almost all other comics were 64 pages, for ten cents.
- "The Mystery of the Crimson Flame" was reprinted in Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Omnibus, Vol 1.
Trivia
- Green Lantern recites Hal Jordan's oath to recharge his ring in this issue, although Hal Jordan has yet to make his comic debut.
- Thugs knock Green Lantern out with wooden clubs, but it is not explicit that wood is his only weakness, just is commented that he is not impervious to it. In this point of time, any non-metal objects could hurt Green Lantern, not only wood. In fact, a woman manages to wound him by biting his hand. Wood begins to be depicted as the only weakness of Green Lantern in Green Lantern Vol 1 10.
See Also
Links and References
