Synopsis for Doctor Fate: "Mr. Who"
This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #73.
Dr. Fate encounters Mr. Who for the first time. Mr. Who has invented and taken Solution Z, which transforms him from a stunted weakling into a large strong man, and energizes him with super-human powers (including regeneration of lost limbs, ability to grow gigantic, and invisibility). He and his art-museum-robbery gang encounter Dr. Fate, who disrupts two armed robberies and catches several henchmen, with Mr. Who escaping, both times, with expensive loot. Fate tracks down Who, and confronts him in his laboratory, fisticuffs ensue, and Fate is left, stuck in a giant cobweb, (but unsupervised), at the mercy of a giant spider. Fate sends rays of pure force beating outward from him until the spider is stunned, then strangles it with its own web. Who ends up fleeing in a speedboat, out onto a large body of water, with Dr. Fate in aerial pursuit. There is a short scuffle, punctuated at the end by Dr. Fate hurling Mr. Who right through the hull of the boat.
Appearing in Doctor Fate: "Mr. Who"
Featured Characters:
Other Characters:
- Hadow (a wealthy businessman)
Antagonists:
- Mister Who (First appearance) (Apparent Death)
- henchmen
Items:
Synopsis for The Green Arrow: "Case of the Namesake Murders"
This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #73.
Green Arrow and Speedy, armed with conventional arrows, and equipped with a super-streamlined powerful car called the "Arrowplane", uncover the identity of a cunning murderer, and take him down in time to save most of the threatened members of "the famous History Club". The villain, Ezra Samson, dies in a high-speed hot-pursuit car crash, when Green Arrow punctures a tire, causing Samson's car to crash through a barrier and off an embankment.
Appearing in The Green Arrow: "Case of the Namesake Murders"
Featured Characters:
- Green Arrow (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Speedy (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Ezra Samson (an embezzler and murderer) (Single appearance; dies)
- Mugsy Smith (a hoodlum)
Other Characters:
- Amos Socrates (a History Club member)
- Anthony Caesar (a History Club member) (Single appearance; dies)
- Frank D'Arcy (a History Club member)
- George Lincoln (a History Club member) (Single appearance; dies)
- John Hale (a History Club member) (Single appearance; dies)
- Leonard Achilles (a History Club member) (Single appearance; dies)
Locations:
Items:
- bows and arrows (no trick arrows)
Vehicles:
- Arrowplane (Green Arrow's automobile) (First appearance)
Synopsis for Radio Squad: "Murder Takes the Spotlight"
This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #73.
Larry Trent, his partner Sandy Keene, and Larry's girlfriend Lorna Drake attend a rodeo. Sparky Sanders, the rodeo owner, performs a steer-bulldogging stunt which goes wrong, when the animal is shot with an arrow and goes wild. Larry leaps into the corral to save his life. Sparky is the brother of Lorna's best friend Emmy, who suspects that her former suitor, wealthy Jasper Rawdon, was behind the near-deadly stunt. Larry and Sandy investigate, develop a theory about one of the musicians (a guest violinist whose name nobody had caught), and follow up on a hunch, by visiting the Rexbilt Apartments, where Sparky lives. The house detective lets them into Sanders's apartment just in time to interrupt three burglars (the Second Story Mob), and catch at least one of them. On the sidewalk out front, the burglars' boss kidnaps Emmy, and Larry sees this happen from upstairs. Sparky joins Sandy and Larry to chase them. Emmy is driving, allowing the villain, (who turns out to be Rawdon, armed with an arrow-shooting trick violin), to take a shot at the pursuing cops, but he misses. Rawdon gets lassoed by Sparky, and Emma busts his violin over his head.
Appearing in Radio Squad: "Murder Takes the Spotlight"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Emmy Sanders
- Lorna Drake (Larry's girlfriend)
- Sparky Sanders
Antagonists:
- Jasper Rawdon
- Second Story Mob (3 burglars)
Locations:
- Rexbilt Apartments
Items:
- arrow-shooting trick violin
Vehicles:
- Radio Squad patrol car
Synopsis for Johnny Quick: "The Black Knight"
This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #73.
In Manhattan, at dawn, a mysterious figure in black medieval armor, wielding a big spiked club, attacks a cop and beats him unconscious or dead, then clanks away. The Black Knight is bulletproof, and talkative, and smashes some expensive statues belonging to very wealthy art collectors (Sam Porter, Harrison Camden).
Late that afternoon at a big gallery, Johnny Chambers and Tubby Watts are filming the opening of an art show, when the Black Knight shows up to smash the rare sculptures. Johnny Quick, still in civvies, thwarts him,but the knight escapes out an upper-story window, into an open sedan, and away, with no pursuit. Back at the art show, Johnny overhears a conversation between Amos Green and some other secretive rich guys, and follows up to visit them, in costume, at the very exclusive Century Club. According to these guys, Black Knight is the real name of a formerly-wealthy art collector, who had gotten screwed over in a high-stakes art transaction, by another art collector, Sam Kirby, who turns out to also be a member of this club, and who runs into the room at this moment, with a small broken statue. According to Sam, the Black Knight has just attacked him and is now leaving the building; Johnny chases and catches the knight but gets punched out and abducted. (Johnny Quick loses his super speed powers when he's knocked unconscious.)
On the outskirts of town, this Black Knight has got a castle with a dungeon with a pit and a pendulum, where Quick regains consciousness, escapes from the deathtrap, removes his gag, and regains his super speed. The Black Knight has stayed on the scene, to properly gloat, and there's a second fistfight, which Johnny isn't really winning, until a nearby lightning strike interferes with the knight's motor skills, but the knight quickly recovers and uses a trapdoor to drop Johnny into a lower level of his dungeon, into an elaborate hall of mirrors. He also announces his next target, a statue owned by Mr. Green. Quick uses high-speed trial-and-error to find his way out, then meteors his way over to Green's house, arriving just as the knight is confronting Green. He modifies an ordinary radio set to create an electrical disturbance which paralyzes the Black Knight, which turns out to be a radio-controlled electronic robot, and which was used by Sam Kirby in a plot to conceal his theft of some very expensive statues.
Appearing in Johnny Quick: "The Black Knight"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Sam Kirby (an art dealer)
- Black Knight (a robot) (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Harrison Camden (an art collector)
- Sam Porter (an art collector)
- Amos Green (an art collector)
Locations:
- Manhattan
- the Century Club
- medieval castle on the outskirts of Manhattan
Items:
- Sam Kirby's robot-controlling radio belt
Synopsis for Clip Carson: "Secret Mission in Honduras"
This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #73.
Clip Carson, dba "Mr. Jones", travels on a secret mission to Honduras, hotbed of revolution and counter-revolution. A spy, working for "the Avenger" begins to shadow him as he checks into a hotel. The spy is caught by Clip, in his room, and gets punched out; hotel staff call the authorities; soon Capitano Pardi is in charge of the scene. Along with taking charge of the suspect, Pardi requires "Mr. Jones" to register, like all foreigners, at his headquarters, as was recently directed by General Almoz. Pardi departs with the captured spy, with whom he soon turns out to be in cahoots; the spy tells him Carson's real identity.
Clip proceeds to visit President Camapo, in whose office he meets Gen. Almoz, and Mr. Mavilla, a very frustrated and angry importer. Camapo briefs Carson about the local guerillas, led by "the Avenger", who are receiving arms from an unknown source. Leaving this meeting, and at Capt. Pardi's orders, Clip is detained by a Honduran soldier, to be escorted to HQ for registration. Except really he's led into an alley and ambushed by at least three more soldiers; in the brief scuffle, he's konked over the head with a pistol butt and captured. He's whisked into the Avenger's hideout and tied to a chair. The Avenger is Gen. Almoz; the Avenger's big plan is to take over the presidency, and to export Honduran rubber and tin to a new foreign buyer. He and his men then leave Carson, guarded by one rifleman, and not a very bright one at that; Carson lures him within chin-kicking distance by bumming a cigarette, and knocks him out, then escapes, then based on some fairly improbable clues, he figures out that the Avenger and his gang are at Mr. Mavilla's importing facilty.
At the warehouse, the treasonous conspirators are in the midst of unpacking their shipment of weapons when Clip bursts in, finds a pistol, wins a very short shoot-out with Gen. Almoz, and arrests Mavilla, and at least two soldiers. Later, he and President Camapo discuss the plot, and indulge in some mild gloating.
Appearing in Clip Carson: "Secret Mission in Honduras"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- General Almoz, aka The Avenger (Dies)
- Capitano Pardi
- some Honduran enlisted soldiers
- a spy
Other Characters:
- President Camapo
Locations:
Synopsis for The Spectre: "The Vanishing Menaces"
This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #73.
A volcano erupts in the center of Cliffland. Jim Corrigan rides to the scene in the police chief's patrol car, while the invisible Spectre rises out of Jim's body and flies ahead to the scene of the emergency, and finds "a huge, ephemeral volcano looming high over the metropolis' sky scrapers, discharging real rocks and lava upon the helpless town." The Man of Darkness uses his powers to turn the advancing wave of lava into a brilliant display of fireworks, then he leaps into the crater for a closer look. But the volcano vanishes, leaving behind only destruction. The chief characteristically blames the Spectre, and Corrigan vows to renew his efforts to capture him.
That evening Jim and Clarice go on what may be their final date; Miss Winston has made up her mind that Jim must propose to her or else. That awkward conversation hardly gets started when a lion attacks them; Jim fights and defeats the lion with his bare hands, then a giraffe runs by. In fact a large number of wild animals are suddenly running amok through the city. Corrigan drives Clarice home, changes identities, and invisibly intervenes, by growing to a tremendous size and plucking the animals off the streets, and depositing them at the city zoo, where he is surprised to learn that these beasts have not escaped from there.
Later at police HQ, Jim and the Chief are surprized by a visit from Matt Tyler, the famous explorer, who is himself surprized to be in Cliffland instead of Africa. A purple haze had formed around him, and suddenly he was thousands of miles away. Jim leaves that meeting, gets a phone call from somebody who claims to know the reason for the mysterious goings-on; he dematerializes and flashes along the telephone wires toward the source of the call, but before he can arrive, the phone connection is broken, and the Spectre is momentarily stymied. He ghosts his way into the telephone company's building, glances through some records, and gets an address, 2411 Lebanon Road. Arriving at the darkened house, the Spectre finds a chained-up man and a ray machine inside, and just then the ray shines on the man, engulfing him in a purple haze. The Spectre leaps into the haze; they both vanish from Cliffland and materialize in Africa, in the path of an elephant stampede. One rapid rescue and a high-speed intercontinental flight later they are back in Cliffland, where the man turns out to be Morton Kirk, inventor of a space-folding machine, and accidental creator of the day's earlier havoc. Kirk claims that his assistant, Nat Rhodes, captured him, set him up in front of the teleportation ray, and now plans to blackmail the entire city. At that moment, Rhodes is on the radio, broadcasting his demand for one million dollars. He rains giant icebergs onto the city, crushing several skyscrapers. The Spectre streaks in and hurls the icebergs into outer space, but Rhodes uses the ray to purple-haze him away to some distant place. Instead, through some freak law of the universe, the Spectre is hurled into the occult void, in a paralyzed state.
At a radio station in Cliffland, the mayor voices the city's defiance of Rhodes' extortion, so Rhodes teleports a gigantic volume of ocean water into town, wreaking further havoc. Rhodes no longer cares whether he himself lives or dies, when Morton Kirk breaks into his lab and attacks him. Meanwhile in the occult void, an occult monster attacks the Spectre, who rallies up one final effort, and punches the monster into tiny pieces. He streaks back to the material world, finds Cliffland flooded, waves his hand, and sends all the water back to its source, then flies to the lab where Rhodes and Kirk are fighting. The space-folding ray is activated and both men are transported to a distant ocean, both plummet into it, and both die, taking the secret of the invention to the grave before the Spectre can interfere. The Spectre then smashes the space-folding mechanism with his fists, declaring it to be too dangerous to exist.
The Chief reluctantly comes to understand that the day's horrendous events can not be blamed on The Spectre, but Corrigan's standing orders are still to arrest him.
Final panel: "Hey, fellers! Watch for Percival Popp the Super-Cop, coming in the next issue with the SPECTRE!!!"
Appearing in The Spectre: "The Vanishing Menaces"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Nat Rhodes (a lab assistant) (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Matt Tyler (an explorer) (Single appearance)
- Morton Kirk (an inventor) (Dies)
Locations:
- Cliffland, New Jersey
- Police Headquarters
- 2411 Lebanon Road
- Africa
Items:
- Morton Kirk's space-folding machine
Synopsis for Aquaman: "The Submarine Strikes"
This story is reprinted from More Fun Comics #73.
An unarmed ship carrying refugees and hospital workers is torpedoed by a submarine, U-112, which surfaces to open fire on the last of the escaping lifeboats. Aquaman arrives and tows this boat away from the scene at an incredible speed. He then leaps aboard the sub and beats up one crewman, but the rest escape inside the hatches as the sub dives below the ocean.
Aquaman and some porpoises speed the lifeboat to the nearest land, where the Captain asks him where he's from and how he does these miracles. Aquaman tells him that his father, a famous underwater explorer, found an ancient sunken city, built himself a watertight home within one of the palaces, and lived there, studying the records and devices of the ancient race. Here, he found wonders that the upper world had never known. Aquaman names neither of his parents in this telling, noting only that his mother died when he was a baby. He also mentions that his father used a hundred scientific secrets to enable him to draw oxygen from the water to develop his speed, strength, and mental powers. His father then died.
Having told his tale, Aquaman leaves to hunt for U-112 and finds it docked at its base, a little-known island near the sea lanes, with the captain already ashore, reporting to his superior officer. Aquaman punches his fist through the steel hull, and the sub sinks right there at the pier. There is no sign of any escaping crewmen. On the pier, the captain and his boss run away to hide in the base arsenal, and, as Aquaman is about to batter down the door, the sub-captain's boss manages to drop a hammer onto his head, knocking him senseless. Then, they load him up with weights and drop him into the ocean.
At first, the extreme pressure at this depth prevents him from bursting his bonds, but he exploits a bulb-like undersea plant, which gives off a bright greenish fluid. This acts as a signal for Aquaman's porpoise friends, who propel him into shallower water, where the lightened pressure enables him to burst free. Aquaman knifes through the water like a flashing silver scimitar back to the enemy base, where he punches out the U-112's captain and chases the captain's boss into the arsenal. He throws a hand grenade at Aquaman, who catches and returns it; the grenade detonates the munitions supply, and the high official is killed.
Appearing in Aquaman: "The Submarine Strikes"
Featured Characters:
- Aquaman (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Aquaman's father (Single appearance) (Flashback only)
Antagonists:
- U-boat crew of Nazi submariners (Dies)
- U-boat commander
- U-boat squadron commander (Dies)
Other Characters:
- relief ship captain
Locations:
- Atlantis (Behind the scenes) (Flashback only)
- Atlantic Ocean
Vehicles:
- U-112, a U-boat, sunk
Notes
- This issue reprints More Fun Comics #73.
- Like the reprint in Secret Origins #7, this comic recolors Aquaman's gloves from the yellow seen in the original printing to green.
- For further notes, see the original comic.
See Also
Recommended Reading
- Green Arrow Recommended Reading
- More Fun Comics (Volume 1): More Fun Comics #73–107
- Adventure Comics (Volume 1): Adventure Comics #246–269
- World's Finest (Volume 1)
- Action Comics (Volume 1)
- Detective Comics (Volume 1): Detective Comics #521–567
- Green Lantern (Volume 2): Green Lantern (Volume 2) #76–124
- The Flash (Volume 1): The Flash #217–219
- Green Arrow (Volume 1)
- Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (Volume 1)
- Green Arrow (Volume 2)
- Green Arrow: The Wonder Year (Volume 1)
- Green Arrow (Volume 3)
- Black Canary (Volume 3)
- Green Arrow and Black Canary (Volume 1)
- Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood (Volume 1)
- Justice League: Rise and Fall
- Green Arrow (Volume 4)
- Green Arrow (Volume 5)
- Green Arrow (Volume 6)
- Event Leviathan
- Justice League (Volume 4) #59-75
- Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League - Green Arrow
- Green Arrow (Volume 7)
- Green Arrow: Year One (Volume 1)
- Black Canary (Volume 1)
- Black Canary (Volume 2)
- Doctor Fate Recommended Reading
- The Book of Fate (Volume 1)
- Countdown to Mystery (Volume 1)
- Doctor Fate (Volume 1)
- Doctor Fate (Volume 2)
- Doctor Fate (Volume 3)
- Doctor Fate (Volume 4)
- Fate (Volume 1)
- The Flash (Volume 1): The Flash #306– #313
- Helmet of Fate (Volume 1)
- Immortal Doctor Fate (Volume 1)
- JSA (Volume 1)
- More Fun Comics (Volume 1)
- The Spectre Recommended Reading
- Adventure Comics (Volume 1): Adventure Comics #431– #440
- Countdown to Mystery
- Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre (Volume 1)
- Day of Judgment
- Day of Vengeance
- Final Crisis: Revelations
- More Fun Comics (Volume 1)
- Spectre (Volume 1)
- Spectre (Volume 2)
- Spectre (Volume 3)
- Spectre (Volume 4)
- Tales of the Unexpected (Volume 2)
- Wrath of the Spectre (Volume 1)
- More Fun Comics (Volume 1)