What th' -- He's gone! -- I've been duped -- he didn't give the password -- 
Hit Comics #20 is an issue of the series Hit Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 1942.
Synopsis for Stormy Foster: "The Deadly Scheme of Dr. Bork"
Dr. Bork plans to start an epidemic by infecting the milk supply with Diphtheria, and he stands to make a fortune since he's cornered the supply of the treatment serum.
Appearing in Stormy Foster: "The Deadly Scheme of Dr. Bork"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Doc Vaughan
- Ah Choo
- Detective Ray Cooper
Antagonists:
- Dr. Bork
- Pincus
- Kritz
- Gaddis
Locations:
- Southern California
Synopsis for Bob and Swab: "Mail Duty"
Appearing in Bob and Swab: "Mail Duty"
Featured Characters:
Synopsis for Betty Bates: "Murder's Last Act"
Appearing in Betty Bates: "Murder's Last Act"
Featured Characters:
Synopsis for The Ghost of Flanders: "The Spy Snatchers"
FBI Chief Egbert Weever asks the Ghost to deliver sensitive documents to the War Department, which he does.....but only after battling a German brute, Haggenschmidt, a giant with near superhuman strength.
Appearing in The Ghost of Flanders: "The Spy Snatchers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Haggenschmidt
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- sensitive documents
Synopsis for Red Bee: "The Elevator Murders"
Over the course of three days, ten elevator crashes kill twenty people in Superior City, caused by racketeers trying to shake down Jasper Skinner of the Skinner Elevator Company. Skinner visits the D.A. seeking help, and soon these prosecutors are on the case, and headed for the elevator. Rick sees a thug loitering in the hallway, giving a signal, so he stops the D.A. from entering the elevator, which, sure enough, suddenly plunges away, just as the doors are opening. Rick punches out the hallway lookout, then sprints up four floors to the roof, where he's jumped by the cable-chopper stationed up there. He seems to get knocked out, but just then the surprisingly spry D.A. and the plump Mr. Skinner both arrive, and knocking out these two diverts this thug's attention just long enough for Rick to change clothes and attack.
The Red Bee tackles the cable chopper; they both fall over the edge of the roof; a jutting awning breaks their fall but the thug bounces out of it and drops to the street. His confederates drag him (unconscious not dead) into their car, where Skinner's tied-up daughter also has a seat, and they peel out from the curb. But by this time the Red Bee has landed on their roof. One thug sends a hail of bullets up through the roof, and the Red Bee drops to the street, apparently shot. The car stops and two thugs run back to make sure he's dead, which he's not, and neither is Michael the bee, so shortly later they've lost that fight, and the Red Bee is stealing their car, with Mary still in it, to deliver them all to the police.
Just then the knocked-out gunman, who had hit the sidewalk earlier, rallies up, pulls a gun, and orders Red Bee to drive the car to Abner Twist's palatial country estate. Twist directs him to shoot Red and Mary, but Mary grabs his gun then the Bee punches him out. Twist cravenly blurts out a confession, and the police are called in.
Appearing in Red Bee: "The Elevator Murders"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Michael the Red Bee's bee
- District Attorney Hawkes
Antagonists:
- Abner Twist, of the Twist Elevator Company
- at least four thugs
Other Characters:
- Jasper Skinner, of the Skinner Elevator Company
- Mary Skinner, Jasper's daughter
Locations:
Synopsis for Lion Boy: "The Photo Hunters"
Appearing in Lion Boy: "The Photo Hunters"
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Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for The Strange Twins: "Hot Rocks in a Lunch Box"
"Weaving a plot of clever deception, a cunning thief is convinced that he can beat the law, but he fails to reckon with Doug Strange, ex-Scotland Yard Inspector, and Rod, Doug's twin, who bossed a London gang before he enlisted in the war on crime."
Appearing in The Strange Twins: "Hot Rocks in a Lunch Box"
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Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Hercules: "Deviltry at the Defense Exposition"
Dressed in his cape and trunks, Joe Hercules saunters down the street outside the marquee lights of the Defense Exposition, while inside some bad guys are knocking out the security guards and getting up to some mischief. Overhearing a scuffle and finding an injured guard, Joe runs inside to investigate, and chases two thugs through some doorways, only to find himself locked in a gas chamber with cyanide gas pouring in; choking and gasping he collapses onto the floor. The bad guys drag him out and hide his body in a janitor supply closet, then go back to stealing artillery ammunition from the exposition displays.
The next day some British military dignitaries are touring the expo, unaware that a killer lurks in the turret of one light tank. But Joe now wakes up with a burst of energy that propels him through the supply closet door, and he runs onto the arena floor, picks the right light tank, and rips it apart like a match box, and yanks out the gunner. The boss and two killers try to bring a 105 mm gun to bear on Hercules, but he gets past two other bayonet-wielding thugs and bends the howitzer's barrel upward just as they're firing it; it blows up real good, killing the boss and his two underlings. The two bayonet wielders put on gas masks and throw some chlorine gas grenades among the assembled generals, who immediately start gasping and tottering. Hercules punches out the grenade throwers, then uses a field artillery piece to shoot a hole through the roof, creating a draft which disperses the chlorine fumes. Joe then rounds up the surviving saboteurs for the police.
Appearing in Hercules: "Deviltry at the Defense Exposition"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- one unnamed criminal boss (Dies)
- at least five henchmen (two or more die)
Other Characters:
- Tom, a security guard
- several American and British generals
Synopsis for Don Glory: "The War Games That Weren't Games"
Appearing in Don Glory: "The War Games That Weren't Games"
Featured Characters:
Notes
- Stormy Foster:
- The Great Defender gets shot in the face with a blast of live steam from a locomotive's boiler and has to fling himself off a moving train to survive it, but gets back up, unfazed, unscarred, and undamaged.
- He can scale the sheer wall of a brick apartment building like a human fly.
- Stormy gets konked out with two whacks from two pickaxe handles, this would be the (at least) 2nd concussion of his career.
- The Great Defender yanks one guy off a rooftop and lets him fall to the street, but it's not stated that this guy dies. Judging by the art, he'd be plenty lucky to survive, but he's not mentioned again by anybody, so lacking confirmation, (and generously assuming that last issue's shrieking "doomed" Tokoyans managed to escape alive), Stormy Foster's confirmed body count still stands at 5.
- This issue of Hit Comics also featured:
- Dan Tootin: "Elephant Extract", by Jack Cole
- Tommy Tinkle, by Arthur Beeman
See Also