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"The Red Bee: "The Swords of Death"": A dreary, long-unused hotel has been taken over by a gang of murderous swordsmen, wearing overcoats with big face-concealing lapels, and armed with electrified swords. They also have self-electrocuting suicide buttons in their belt-buckles, making them hard

Quote1 That's okay with me, but my ancestors like big strong men like you. Quote2
Red Bee

Hit Comics #6 is an issue of the series Hit Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1940.

Synopsis for The Red Bee: "The Swords of Death"

A dreary, long-unused hotel has been taken over by a gang of murderous swordsmen, wearing overcoats with big face-concealing lapels, and armed with electrified swords. They also have self-electrocuting suicide buttons in their belt-buckles, making them hard to capture. Their boss is a midget named Kulak, with a giant bodyguard named Rog, or sometimes Gor. Kulak has a hand-held electric device which melts anything it touches. The unarmed Red Bee out-swashbuckles the swordsmen, gets knocked out once and strapped into a chair, escapes when Rog foolishly releases Michael from his belt pouch, then teams up with Michael to out-fight Kulak, who (either accidentally or vindictively) kills Rog, then drops his melting gizmo onto the floor, destroying the foundation of his gloomy old headquarters, so that it collapses on him, while Red and Michael escape via a secret panel. The panel was found by Michael, who in some way managed to tell t.R.B. where it was.

Appearing in The Red Bee: "The Swords of Death"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Michael (the Red Bee's bee)
  • the D.A.

Antagonists:

  • Kulak (Single appearance)
    • Rog (Single appearance; dies)
    • Swordsmen (Single appearance) (one dies)

Other Characters:

  • Dr. Lotz (Single appearance; dies)

Locations:

Items:

  • Kulak's swordsmen's electrified swords
  • Kulak's electrical swordlike rod that melts everything it touches


Synopsis for The Strange Twins: "El Dorado, City of Gold"


Appearing in The Strange Twins: "El Dorado, City of Gold"

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Synopsis for Betty Bates: "The Case of Jimmy Meke"


Appearing in Betty Bates: "The Case of Jimmy Meke"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Jimmy Meke (Single appearance)
  • Mabel Meke (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Gorman Brothers (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Bob & Swab: "Ruckus at the Rubber Plantation"


Appearing in Bob & Swab: "Ruckus at the Rubber Plantation"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

  • Para

Items:

Vehicles:

  • USS Scarab

Synopsis for The Old Witch: "The Haunted Forest"


Appearing in The Old Witch: "The Haunted Forest"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Toni (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Hercules: "The Texas Oil Field Mystery"

Huge oil wells in a Texas field, belonging to the Central Oil Company, suddenly run dry; engineers are baffled; thousands of men are thrown out of work. At a company conference about this problem, the CEO's jaded heiress daughter Lois Nolan makes some frivolous remarks then sets out in her roadster to find Joe Hercules and bring him back, which she promptly accomplishes. Good sport that he is, Herk keeps the watchman out of trouble by sticking him and his overalls up on the plant's security fence, so see?, there's nothing he could have done about it. It's not clear why Lois can't just vouch for Joe and get him inside the even easier way; also, Lois is the first character we've met who addresses Joe as "Herk." Joe damages his blue business suit, then sheds it, as he uproots one oil derrick then excavates under it. He finds a secret horizontal pipeline, connected to the oil pipe, and diverting the product away. He yanks this apparatus apart, releasing enough pressurized oil to send him shooting up into the air for a very oomphy landing on the ground. He's of course undamaged by any of this, and they quickly call in Lois's dad Mr. Nolan, report their findings, then Herk goes underground again, this time to trace the siphon piping to wherever it goes. This subterranean trek takes him from Central Texas to the coast of Southern California, where he finds an undersea field of huge oil tanks, patrolled by a squadron of submarines. He breaks into one, by ripping through the hull, and repairing it behind him, undetected, and observes the crew. They spot him; mayhem ensues, in the course of which this submarine is well and truly rent asunder, and smashed into one giant oil tank. It seems unlikely that any of this boat's crew survives. Joe then finds the oil thieves' secret base, on the harbor bottom, and breaks into it, flooding the base and almost certainly killing this crew also. He then uproots one of the giant oil storage tanks, wades ashore with it, and carries it like a can of beans, from there back to Texas.

Appearing in Hercules: "The Texas Oil Field Mystery"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Lois Nolan (Single appearance)
  • Mr. Nolan (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Oriental pirate submariners

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Blaze Barton: "Mercury vs. Venus"


Appearing in Blaze Barton: "Mercury vs. Venus"

Featured Characters:

  • Blaze Barton

Supporting Characters:

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Synopsis for Jack & Jill: "Jill Doe--Kidnapped"


Appearing in Jack & Jill: "Jill Doe--Kidnapped"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Kidnappers (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Lion Boy: "Introducing Lion Boy"


Appearing in Lion Boy: "Introducing Lion Boy"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • John (Single appearance; dies)
  • John's wife (Single appearance; dies)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Tommy Tinkle: "Stoop-Pendous"


Appearing in Tommy Tinkle: "Stoop-Pendous"

Featured Characters:

  • Tommy Tinkle
  • Mary Lou

Supporting Characters:

  • Professor Grump

Antagonists:

  • Snipp

Other Characters:

  • Stoop-Pendous

Locations:

  • Toyburg

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Neon the Unknown: "The Invisible Ray"

A thunderstruck world hears news of at least four U.S. coastal forts blowing up simultaneously. In a secret glass fortress on an unexplored desert, Fritz Cardif, inventor of the Invisible Ray, gloats. His ray can ignite any explosive at any distance. On a television screen, he observes U.S.Naval warships putting to sea, in response to the emergency; he turns his ray on the fleet and destroys it with its own shells and torpedoes. Soon the U.S.Army discovers Kardif's fort and attacks it; but the soldiers are blown to bits by their own ammunition. An attacking squadron of bombers gets the same treatment. A joint session of Congress is convened, and Neon the Unknown streaks in in a flashing ball of fire, takes his human shape, and asks for 24 hours in which to get results. He then transforms into a speeding fire ball, and in less than a minute he's crashing through the glass wall of Fritz Cardif's fort. Kardif initially ducks behind a machine, then rallies his nerve and his wits, and offers to team up with Neon, and Neon pretends to go along with this. Kardif very soon gets behind Neon and pushes him into a pit of boiling liquid, expositing "That boiling oil was made especially to rob you of your neonic powers! I expected you, you see! When you emerge from that bath, you'll be an ordinary human being!"

Kardif stomps on Neon's fingers on the edge of the pit, but fails to dislodge him; soon the superhero has scrambled out of this deathtrap and briefly pursues Kardif through his base, catches him, and administers a partial thrashing, but Kardif presses a signal button, and three raygun-armed security thugs, in art deco outfits, run into the room and take aim, just as Neon is realizing that the vapors from the pit have had some effect; he's lost his neonic powers. They prepare to launch a rocket at Washington DC, with Neon strapped to the outside of it. The rocket is rigged with two sets of charges: some harmless fireworks (to attract attention to it) and some TNT (to blow up Neon before a lot of witnesses); all of these are to be ignited by the Invisible Ray. Meanwhile the cross-country high-altitude rocket flight at rocket speeds has somehow not killed Neon, but the fireworks revive him, shocking his system from the effects of Kardif's formula. Neon regains his neonic power and bursts into a fiery trail of light, flies free of the rocket, catches it in a field of his neonic energy, and sends it right back to Kardif's glass fortress, turning it into a smoldering mass of ruins. Neon then flies back to Washington, where there is great jubilation at his success.

Appearing in Neon the Unknown: "The Invisible Ray"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Fritz Cardif (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

Locations:

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Vehicles:

Notes

  • Includes the text story, "Blood of the Wolf", by Toni Blum.
  • In this issue's Red Bee story:
    • The hero is knocked unconscious when a person-sized statue is toppled onto his back, and breaks into pieces. A stone or metal statue would have pulped him, so this thing is probably just plaster. We don't actually see his head get hit by any of the pieces, but it does knock him out.
    • We don't actually see Kulak die, or see his body, and we know that there was at least one secret escape panel in his hideout.
    • The D.A. is again not addressed nor mentioned by name, and has not been since issue #2.
  • G-5, Super Agent is missing from this month's issue of Hit Comics. He returns next month.
  • In this issue's Hercules story:
    • The nationality of the Oriental oil-pirate submariners is not specified. They could be Japanese, but this is the Quality Universe; they could just as easily be Mongolian. Unlike most cartoon Japanese villains of this era, they are tall, non-bucktoothed, and non-nearsighted.
    • It's not stated whether any of these pirates survived Joe Hercules' destruction of their submarines and undersea base, but no mention is made of them being arrested. It's problematic how Joe himself survives any of this, but he's at least got superhuman strength and endurance going for him.
    • These pirates secretly laid a 1500-mile pipeline from the west coast to the mid-Texas oilfields. That's a lot harder work, and more of it, than just drilling for oil legally.
  • In this issue's Neon the Unknown story:
    • Fritz Kardif is the first villain of any kind, mad scientist or otherwise, to actually pose any credible threat whatsoever to Neon the Unknown.
    • Kardiff's fate is unclear. Comicbook mad scientists are notoriously hard to kill, especially in explosions. We see no sign of him escaping, but we likewise lack confirmation of his demise.



See Also


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