Master Comics #31 is an issue of the series Master Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1942.
Synopsis for Captain Marvel Junior: "The Case of the Missing Ambassador"
Freddy Freeman is selling papers near Camp Gaines, and he gives away some papers to some soldiers. One soldier carelessly blabs that their unit is shipping out that night for Australia; a pretty refreshment-stand waitress jots down a note, sneaks out the back, and hands the note to Mr. Macabre, the green-faced fiend, who now gets ready to shoot the waitress and ensure her silence. Freddy has overheard, and marvels up, foiling the murder attempt; he's very startled to see Mr. Macabre alive. Macabre claims to have buried tons of explosives under the refreshment shack, and threatens to pull a lanyard and detonate them if Junior moves another step, then changes his mind and decides to blow it up anyway, and escapes amidst the noise and chaos while Junior saves the girl, who turns out to be Dolores Mills, daughter of missing Ambassador Thomas Mills.
Macabre meets up with his associates Hans and Mako, tells them about the troop movement, and they head for the waterfront to meet up with their sub commander, a German who is concerned about the accompanying convoy and the skillful American gunners, but the three spies stress the importance of stopping this shipment. At 7:00 20,000 troops have embarked for Australia, right on time. Freddy has stowed away on one of the ships, and is soon discovered, and lies his way out of trouble but the C.O. and his crew are preparing to send him back to shore in a small boat. As soon as their attention wanders, however, Freddy has swiped a pair of binoculars and is scanning the surroundings for signs of trouble, and right away he spots a submarine lurking below a harbor buoy. It fires a torpedo, but Captain Marvel Junior intercepts it, then follows up by grabbing the sub out of the water, dragging it to the surface, and capturing the German crew. But the sub's captain has escaped in a one-man submarine. Junior flies out and quickly finds it, then follows it to the spies' hideout. The captain runs inside and reports to the three main bad guys; Macabre is displeased with his performance and shoots him dead. Captain Marvel Junior arrives, and finds Ambassador Mills tied up in another room, and starts to untie him, but Mr. Macabre cuts a rope that sends a massive block of metal with spikes on its bottom plunging towards them both. Junior easily catches this, then easily beats up the three spies, but Macabre almost gets away, then Junior easily catches him.
Appearing in Captain Marvel Junior: "The Case of the Missing Ambassador"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Mr. Macabre aka Filpot
- Hans, a German spy
- Mako, a Japanese spy
- unnamed U-Boat Commander (Dies)
- * Nazi submariners
- Japanese agents
Other Characters:
- Thomas Mills (ambassador)
- Dolores Mills (ambassador's daughter)
Locations:
- Camp Gaines
- port city near Camp Gaines
- Korao (Mentioned only)
Synopsis for Bulletman: "The Swing King"
Jimmy Shay, a starving musician living in a dingy garret, writes a pop song that he believes will make him a fortune, but he sells it to a crooked publisher (Max Curt) who scams him out of the rights. A few weeks later his song is on all the radio playlists and in all the record stores, but he's still starving. Shay snaps, and invades Curt's gaudy mansion, and hangs him in his own fancy bedroom. He's "swinging" now, gloats Shay.
Soon at police HQ Sergeant Kent comes into the forensics lab and tells Jim Barr to accompany him on the investigation of Curt's death; Susan Kent is there too and she accompanies them. This is interrupted with more news; bandleader Jay Jones has been found in his dressing room, also "swinging" on a noose. Jim slips away and changes clothes and flies to the new crime scene, while Susan stays behind to monitor the first investigation and report developments. At Jones' murder scene, a record player is playing "You Gotta Be Neat," the stolen song, which come to think of it was also left playing at Curt's murder scene, and which also come to think of it is the title of a new musical comedy opening that very night in a theater in the same town. Bulletman flies there and arrives in the nick of time to stop Shay from murdering a famous girl singer; there's a short fight but the wily killer flees thru the chorus girl's dressing room and Bulletman is too embarrassed to pursue him there.
Meanwhile Susan has seen and overheard enough clues to figure out what's going on and she flies to Shay's dumpy apartment address to look around. Returning home, Shay sees the light on in his room, sneaks in thru a window, konks Bulletgirl unconscious, and hangs her from a rafter in his own room. A few hours later Jim Barr notices that she's not at police HQ, finds Shay's address, makes the connection, and flies to the scene of Susan's hanging; he's overcome with grief. But wait! She wakes up! She was only half unconscious, thanks to her helmet, and only half strangled, thanks to partially using the helmet's antigravity system. They compare notes and figure that the next murder target will be Singing Sanders, at the local radio station, and they fly there. Much punching and shooting and chasing ensues, with Shay finally cornered atop the transmitting tower, which he falls off of, catching his neck on an electric line, fatally.
Appearing in Bulletman: "The Swing King"
Featured Characters
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Swing King (First appearance) (Dies)
- Max Curt, crooked music publisher (Dies)
Locations:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Minute Man: "... Leads a Commando Night Raid"
Private Jack Weston arrives at the American Expeditionary Force's encampment, from which, that very night, a hand-picked flying commando squadron is headed by air into Czechoslovakia for a raid. Jack's tentmate Joe Czermack wants to go; his wife and child are in that country, but orders are orders. Jack changes into his Minute Man costume and stows away aboard one of the 2-engine bombers. The parachute attack is detected by the Nazis; the captain catches a bullet on the way down. Unarmed costumed masked Minute Man charges into the fray, overrunning a machine gun nest with his fists, then resorts to using a hand grenade to blow up an ammo dump. Minute Man takes it upon himself to declare the mission accomplished and orders the commandos to rally at the pick-up zone; they cheer. Minute Man hangs back and changes back into Private Weston's uniform, and is scurrying to catch up to his unit when he meets a little girl, and her mother, who soon turn out to be Joe Czermack's missing family. The mother is sad because her father is a hostage of the Nazis and now that the ammo dump has been blown up he'll certainly be shot. Jack changes clothes again; he's got a big idea. At dawn, as the Nazis prepare to do their execution, Minute Man shows up on the wall of their compound with a .30-cal. machine gun and mows down the firing squad. He tells the old man to get his daughter and granddaughter and meet him at the German airfield, which they do. Minute Man punches out two sentries with one punch, and steals a Focke-Wulf, into which his three passengers also somehow fit, and flies it to the U.S. commando base, where they don't shoot him down because of a signal that he gives them, by which the U.S. soldiers know that this is Pvt Weston flying the German plane. He lands and the Czermacks are reunited while Minute Man gets out of the plane. It's not clear whether his masked identity is still a secret at this point.
Appearing in Minute Man: "... Leads a Commando Night Raid"
Featured Characters
Supporting Characters:
- General Milton
- U.S. Army Intelligence, G-2
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Joe Czermack
- Olga Czermack, her daughter, and her father
Locations:
- AEF encampment in Europe
- occupied Czechoslovakia
Synopsis for El Carim: "The Double of El Carim"
El Carim is entertaining at an Army officers' club on payday night. Or is he? A trick is played on the officers and their wages are stolen. Just as the soldiers are figuring out what happened, the real El Carim walks into the building, and meets his exact double on his way out. The double escapes down a fire-escape, just before the angry officers crowd into the room and cover El Carim with a pistol. They don't buy his story, and neither does the cop who quickly arrives to arrest him. El Carim has no time for this; he's got a big show for the troops in half an hour at Madison Square Garden, so he says "CIGAM!" and vanishes, leaving Officer O'Toole holding only his bowtie and the collar of his shirt.
The cops go to M.S.G. to bust El Carim, and the doppleganger goes there to rob the box office, some confusion and foot- pursuit ensues, until El Carim confronts the impostor in the treasurer's office. After a short pistol-versus-rapier duel, the con-man Slippery Snead flees but is quickly caught.
Appearing in El Carim: "The Double of El Carim"
Featured Characters
Antagonists:
- Slippery Snead, "cleverest impostor in the rogues' gallery"
Other Characters:
Locations:
- New York City
- An Army base
- Madison Square Garden
Synopsis for Buck Jones, Frontier Marshal: "The Black Gauntlet Gang"
Appearing in Buck Jones, Frontier Marshal: "The Black Gauntlet Gang"
Featured Characters
Locations:
- American Old West
- Big Savage County, Arizona
- Big Savage County, Arizona
Synopsis for Companions Three: "The Nazi Invasion of Greenland"
Nazis invade Greenland and cruelly oppress the people. The Companions Three fly there in a seaplane; Eskimos joyously greet them with a feast of whale blubber; it's an awkward moment. They proceed inland to a trading post, where Anderson the trader is using a radio to keep the Allied convoys and warships posted on weather conditions. Just then some German submariners show up to commandeer this guy's transmitter in order to set a trap for some cargo ships. Don, Nifty, Spike, and the trader's daughter Sigrid are tied to chairs in the next room then left unguarded; pretty quickly they escape. Sigrid lures one lonely seaman into the room and the Companions jump him. They all run for their kayak to return to the Eskimo village for help; one German spots them running down the hill, Anderson takes advantage of the momentary distraction to transmit a warning to the Merchant Marine, which act of bravery gets him shot by the Nazi captain. The boys plus Sigrid get back to the village, borrow a whole lot of whale blubber, and kayak their way out to the surfaced U-boat, which seems to have no topside watch posted. They drop a whole lot of blubber down the top hatch into the tightly-enclosed space, and it smells really really bad. The Germans flee up the ladder, directly into the grasp of the Companions, who beat them up and capture them. The Eskimos take the submariners back to their village while their chief, Krupik, accompanies the boys back to the trading post, where they find old Anderson, not quite dead after all, and the German captain's party gone. There are tracks outside, but Krupik senses a trap. They sneak around another way, and push the two remaining Germans into the bay. Then some Coast Guard planes arrive, and take charge of the situation, and the Companions Three get back into their seaplane and return home.
Appearing in Companions Three: "The Nazi Invasion of Greenland"
Featured Characters
- Companions Three
- Don
- Nifty
- Spike
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Chief Krupik
- Anderson the trading post proprietor
- Sigrid, Anderson's daughter
Locations:
- Greenland
- Gottsshabn Bay
- an Eskimo village
- a trading post
- Gottsshabn Bay
Items:
Vehicles:
- U.S. Seaplane
- German Submarine (captured)
Notes
- Captain Marvel, Junior:
- Closing caption: COMING SOON! Captain Marvel Junior in his own magazine for the first time! Watch for it!
- "The Case of the Missing Ambassador" was reprinted in The Shazam! Family Archives Vol. 1.
- Bulletman: Closing panel is an advertisement for "Jungle Girl or the Perils of Nyoka", both a new Republic serial and a Fawcett comic book.
See Also
Recommended Reading
- Marvel Family Recommended Reading
- Whiz Comics (Volume 1)
- Captain Marvel Adventures (Volume 1)
- Captain Marvel, Jr. (Volume 1)
- Mary Marvel (Volume 1)
- Master Comics (Volume 1)
- Wow Comics (Volume 1)
- The Marvel Family (Volume 1)
- Hoppy the Marvel Bunny (Volume 1)
- Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Shazam!: The New Beginning (Volume 1)
- The Power of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder (Volume 1)
- Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil (Volume 1)
- The Trials of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Shazam! (Volume 2)
- Shazam! (Volume 3)
- Shazam! (Volume 4)
- The New Champion of Shazam! (Volume 1)
- Shazam! (Volume 5)