Who's a wasp? I'm the Red Bee. Howd'ya like this sting? 
Hit Comics #15 is an issue of the series Hit Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1941.
Synopsis for Hercules: "Cave-In at the Wolf Gulch Gold Mine"
An earthquake caves in the Wolf Gulch Gold Mine, and many miners are injured and lost. Joe Hercules shows up, on foot, wearing his superhero suit, and asks a few questions. Suddenly an aftershock sends an avalanche sweeping toward the mine's powder shack, but Hercules uses a big timber to lever an even bigger boulder into the path of the landslide, diverting it, and saving the shack from blowing up. Still a whole section crew is trapped below ground, so Hercules digs mightily into the crashed-in mine.
Right then Jake and Dead Eye Buzzard, and their gang, ride up and take a good shooting position uphill from the miners, and Dead Eye gets ready to start picking them off, but Hercules has already spotted them, and still has the big lever from before, which he hurls javelin-style, across the canyon, at the Buzzard Brothers, who are lucky to avoid it, and who quickly ride away. Joe lets them get away because he's still got some miners to rescue.
A sleek roadster pulls in from the mine road, bringing the mine-owner's daughter (Rosemary Cabot) and her boyfriend (George Marlin) onto the scene. But the Buzzards have also returned to their spot on the canyon's opposite rim, and now open fire. George gets out of the car and is immediately shot. Hercules gets him to safety and patches his wound, while the miners, and Rosemary, pile into Rosemary's car to charge after the outlaw gang. Joe gets back to work and soon has shoveled his way down to Level Four, where the miners are trapped. When the miners see Joe, they at first mistake him for a local legendary character, "Jeb the Giant," kind of like the Paul Bunyan of "49ers".
Back on the surface, Joe learns that Rosemary has gone with the posse of miners, and they have a big head start. Hercules leaps into an ore bucket, suspended on rollers from a cable across the gorge, forcefully enough to send it careening to the other side. The Buzzard Gang shoots desperately at the onrushing steel bucket, but stupidly stay bunched up around the cable's support tower, and Hercules crashes into them, scattering them every which way. While he's beating up some of them, others escape on horseback down the road, but they soon encounter the roadster full of armed miners. One or two of the outlaws are shot dead, while the last two flee back the way they came. They encounter Hercules, who grabs their horses by the forelegs, and sends the riders crashing to the ground. They shoot him, a lot of times, but he wades into them and has them both knocked out by the time the roadster arrives with reinforcements.
Hercules slaps some info out of one of the outlaws, and it turns out that George, the boyfriend, was behind the plot to fake an earthquake with explosives and end up taking over the mine. When confronted, Marlin briefly threatens to blow up the powder shack with a pistol shot, but Hercules races back to Wolf Gulch in the roadster and arrives in time to subdue him.
Appearing in Hercules: "Cave-In at the Wolf Gulch Gold Mine"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- the Buzzard Gang
- Jake Buzzard
- Dead Eye Buzzard
- about four more outlaws
- George Marlin
Other Characters:
- Jed Archer, foreman
- Rosemary Cabot
Locations:
- Wolf Gulch Gold Mine
Vehicles:
- open-top roadster
Synopsis for Betty Bates: "The Payroll Plunderers"
Appearing in Betty Bates: "The Payroll Plunderers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Jimmy (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- payroll robbery gang boss
- two payroll robbers: Spike, other (both die)
- third gunman (Apparent Death)
- at least seven hobos (arrested)
Other Characters:
- two plainclothes cops
- many more cops
Locations:
- New York City
- factory, robbery scene
- hobo jungle outside of town, beside railroad track
Vehicles:
- Betty's open-top roadster
Synopsis for The Strange Twins: "Dead River Lou"
Appearing in The Strange Twins: "Dead River Lou"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Dead River Lou (First appearance) (masked outlaw cowgirl)
- her pistoleros: Pedro, Joe.
- her Chicago gunsels, two of them
Other Characters:
- Doug's wealthy rancher friend
- Sheriff and Posse
- Rod's nightclub girl friends
Locations:
Synopsis for Bob and Swab: "Boris and Morris"
Appearing in Bob and Swab: "Boris and Morris"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
Locations:
- Atlantic Ocean, off Cape Hatteras
Vehicles:
- USS Scarab
Synopsis for Lion Boy: "Battle with a Lion"
Appearing in Lion Boy: "Battle with a Lion"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- his lion pack: Topaz, Numea, others
Antagonists:
- Chief of Bama People (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Chief
- his black-maned lion
- Bama People
Locations:
Synopsis for The Red Bee: "War with the Madden Gang"
Leo Madden is acquitted of murder, much to the chagrin of Rick Raleigh and his boss the District Attorney. That night prosecution witness Ed Brown is murdered in his own home; the gunman (Gus Lund) is pursued by the Red Bee; he flees into a fenced-in factory and locks the gate behind him, but t.R.B. sends his trained bee Michael in after him. Lund prepares to ambush the Red Bee with a beaker of sulphuric acid, but is stung by Michael, causing him to flail about, splashing acid into his own face; he dies. Red Bee catches up, goes thru his pockets, identifies him, and connects him to his boss, Leo Madden. Two more hoods show up; one has a lariat and a knife, the other has a length of pipe; mayhem ensues and these two are quickly defeated. One of the two is still conscious, so t.R.B. drags that one back to the scene of the crime, where they find that the dying Ed Brown has used his own blood to scrawl a clue on the floor: "47-A", which Red deduces is the address, on Carlton Avenue, of the diamond shop where Madden had committed the murder of which he was acquitted. On the way there, he stops and leaves the sniveling hoodlum with a cop. Inside the diamond store, Madden and two thugs are using a welding torch to break into the bank-vault-sized safe. More mayhem ensues, during which the gas jet burns thru its feed hose, causing an explosion which wrecks the store and kills the two safecrackers, but Madden had fled into an adjoining room, and now returns, shooting, but the Bee disarms him with a flung chair and then punches him out. As things shake out, it looks to D.A. Hawkes as if Madden will soon be convicted of ordering Ed Brown's murder.
Appearing in The Red Bee: "War with the Madden Gang"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- District Attorney Hawkes
- Michael, the Red Bee's bee
Antagonists:
- Leo Madden, notorious thief
- Madden's gang
- Gus Lund (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Ed Brown (Dies)
Locations:
Synopsis for Hell Diver: "The Canada Convoy"
Appearing in Hell Diver: "The Canada Convoy"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Herr Commander, C.O. of KMS Hof Spee (wears an ascot AND a monocle) (Apparent Death)
- Max, recon pilot
- pocket battleship crew (Dies)
- two U-boat crews (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Ally Pilots
Locations:
- North Atlantic Ocean
Ships:
- USS Gettysburg, aircraft carrier
- convoy of freighters (one destroyed)
- KMS Hof Spee, light pocket battleship (Destroyed)
- two British cruisers (one destroyed)
- some German U-boats (two destroyed)
Aircraft:
- Hell Diver's dive-bomber
- two Canadian dive-bombers
- German scouting seaplanes
- ME-110s (one destroyed)
Synopsis for Neon the Unknown: "The Plot to Blow Up New York City"
Herr Shickler's agents planted bombs of the basements of many skyscrapers in New York City, and prepared to detonate them with a radio signal from Europe. Neon the Unknown noticed some suspicious activity at a New York manhole, and investigated. He and his incredible Neonic powers put an end to the threat, by flying to Shickler's European home base and confronting him in person. There Neon destroyed the Leader's transmitting equipment, scolded Shickler sternly, then left.
Appearing in Neon the Unknown: "The Plot to Blow Up New York City"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Otto Shickler
- his secret agents in New York (two die)
Locations:
Synopsis for G-5 Super Agent: "The Masked Agent"
Aboard a cargo ship at sea, G-5, the mystery man of foreign intrigue, pits his wits and nerve against agents of the Sixth Column. Using knock-out gas, he captures the captain and crew of an enemy submarine.
Appearing in G-5 Super Agent: "The Masked Agent"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Sixth Column
- a masked agent (Dies)
- U-boat captain (captured)
- U-boat crew (captured)
Other Characters:
- cargo ship bosun
- cargo ship captain
Locations:
- West Africa, origin port, (Mentioned only)
- Atlantic Ocean, 500 miles off Sandy Hook
- New York City (destination)
Items:
- knock-out-gas grenade
Vehicles:
- S.S. Excelsior, en route to NYC
- U-boat (captured intact)
Synopsis for Don Glory: "Return to the Ring"
Appearing in Don Glory: "Return to the Ring"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- June Brent
Antagonists:
- Heinrich Hauptmann (deported)
- Bo, Kayo's corrupt manager
Other Characters:
- Kid Kayo (First appearance)
- Important members of the American Defense Board
Locations:
- railroad trestle outside of Washington, D.C.
Vehicles:
- Don's open-top "Glory Roadster" (with running boards)
- Hauptmann's open-top roadster (also with running boards)
- Mercury Limited
- (crack streamlined passenger train, to Washington, D.C.)
Notes
- Also featured in this issue of Hit Comics wereL
- Dan Tootin: "The Life-Speeding Pills", by Jack Cole
- Tommy Tinkle, by Arthur Beeman
- "A Scrap of Paper" (text story) by Toni Blum
Trivia
- G-5, Super-Agent, smokes a pipe.
- Al Bryant signed his Betty Bates artwork as "Stanley Charlot."
- Arthur Peddy signed his Don Glory artwork as "Lincoln Ross."
- Mort Leav signed his Hell Diver artwork as "Ace N. Hoell."
- George Appel signed his G-5 Super-Agent story as "Cary Weyte."
- Henry Kiefer signed his Lion Boy artwork as "Merton Holmes."
- Jack Cole signed his Dan Tootin story as "Ralph Johns."
- Jerry Iger and Alex Blum signed their Neon the Unknown story as "Tagor Maroy."
- Jerry Iger and Alex Blum signed their Strange Twins story as "S.M. Regi."
- Reed Crandall signed his Hercules artwork as "Gregg Powers."
- Toni Blum signed her text story as "Toni Boone."
- Toni Blum and Witmer Williams signed their Red Bee story as "B.H. Apiary."
See Also