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"Green Arrow: "The Mystery of the Mathematical Master"": In order to secure the funds required for an enormous matching grant ($50,000!) for James College, the mild-mannered Professor Million puts his prodigious perspicacity to work on devising profitable crimes. He hires a crew of thugs, robs a

Quote1 Let me repeat again! There must be no violence! And you are not to take over $30,000! More money would take more time and increase the risk! Quote2
Professor Million

More Fun Comics #88 is an issue of the series More Fun Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 1943.

Synopsis for Green Arrow: "The Mystery of the Mathematical Master"

In order to secure the funds required for an enormous matching grant ($50,000!) for James College, the mild-mannered Professor Million puts his prodigious perspicacity to work on devising profitable crimes. He hires a crew of thugs, robs a bank, then immediately returns to the same neighborhood to rob a brokerage. They clash with Green Arrow and Speedy, and one disobedient lieutenant, Horse, tries to murder them both. Professor Million returns to the scene and saves the archers' lives, and an uneasy truce is made. After tricking the gang's new leader into a an ambush and busting the gang, Green Arrow and Speedy advise Professor Million that the rewards outstanding on his own hirelings would total to the $50,000 he needs; Green Arrow bargains with the professor: he can claim the reward in exchange for returning the gang's loot and going straight.

Appearing in Green Arrow: "The Mystery of the Mathematical Master"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Mr. Voston, donor

Locations:

  • James College
  • Corn Bank
  • 120 Black Street

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Doctor Fate: "The Victim of Dr. Fate"

Although still just an intern at his hospital, young Dr. Nelson must operate on an important witness in a murder trial, who dies afterward, and Kent wrongly believes himself responsible for the man's death. Actually he was murdered by Mad Dog McBain, who impersonated the anesthesiologist on that operation. Using his Magic Crystal, Doctor Fate unravels the truth, and captures Mad Dog and his gang.

Appearing in Doctor Fate: "The Victim of Dr. Fate"

Featured Characters:

Other Characters:

  • Doctor Roland

Antagonists:

  • Mad Dog McBain (Single appearance)
    • his gang

Items:

Synopsis for Aquaman: "The Man Who Chased the Rainbow"

Aquaman meets John Wilson, a treasure-hunting deep-sea diver who has roamed the world's oceans for several decades, seeking out seven colored lenses, in each of the principal colors of the rainbow, of which he has so far found three, and with Aquaman's help, now finds the fourth. These seven colored lenses are each in a different one of the seven seas, and Wilson knows about them by reading an old diary. Aquaman curiously joins the search, and in the South Pacific Ocean they find the fifth lens. Also joining the hunt is Rocky Logan, a seagoing gangster with a pirate crew, in his rakish craft the "Tommy G." Logan's hoods board Wilson's ship, the "Wanderer," and set the crew adrift in lifeboats then scuttle the ship. Aquaman does some rescuing, then races to the places where he already knows (from reading the diary) the remaining two lenses are.

One is in the Indian Ocean in the crater of a volcano that is just about to explode as he arrives there, but he gets away with the lens. The other is sunken deep within an enormous mass of ice floating in the Arctic Ocean, and as Aquaman approaches it, the "Tommy G" also heaves into view. With help from a large group of seals, the Tommy G is toppled onto an ice floe. Soon Logan and his crew are adrift in a their own lifeboat, while Aquaman burns the "Tommy G" to melt the ice berg enough to reach the final colored lens embedded deep within it.

Once all seven disks are assembled, Wilson inserts them in a special telescope, and aims it at Mars. That planet's reflected light shows words, written on the individual lenses, forming a message, describing the location of a cave, within which is an iron pot filled with gold coins. They go there, and again encounter and defeat Logan and his crew, and Wilson claims the gold. "John Wilson" turns out to be a guilt-ridden descendant of Blackbeard the Pirate, who now will be able to carry out his larger plan, to return this gold to the descendants of Blackbeard's victims.

Appearing in Aquaman: "The Man Who Chased the Rainbow"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Rocky Logan
    • Tommy G crew: Legs, others
  • Blackbeard (Mentioned only)

Other Characters:

  • John Wilson
    • Wanderer crew

Animals:

  • many seals

Locations:

Items:

  • seven colored lenses

Vehicles:

  • Wilson's "Wanderer", steamship
  • Logan's "Tommy G", a rakish craft

Synopsis for Johnny Quick: "Tubby Watts, Hero"

At the executive offices of More Fun Comics, Tubby Watts has a talk with his writer/artist, Mort Morton, and complains about being the butt of all the endangerments, indignities, and jokes in this feature. Then he tells Mort a story, in which he, Tubby, acquits himself much better than his typical portrayal. The cartoonist likes the story and agrees to produce it, then gets roped into buying lunch for Tubby, a daunting prospect.

Appearing in Johnny Quick: "Tubby Watts, Hero"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Mort Morton, Jr., cartoonist
  • Army Officers
  • Railroad Engineers

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • 2-engine German bomber (captured)

Synopsis for The Spectre: "Crime Makes A Movie"

The Spectre busts some of Dollar Dan Dewey's very bold, broad-daylight armed robbers. The cops don't even want to process the arrest, but Percival Popp steps in to act as the complainant. Dollar Dan Dewey is able to intimidate cops and other city officials with the threat of "exposure," using faked-up movies of their victims, appearing in compromising situations. He's gotten some cops fired, with his manufactured evidence, and is universally feared.

This doesn't work on the Spectre, who even in his Jim Corrigan persona is unphotographable, but it creates big problems for Percival Popp. The Spectre invades Dewey's gang's movie studio and finds abundant evidence of Dewey's complex blackmail scheme, which he presents to the Police Commissioner. The Commissioner orders the reinstatements of all the unjustly fired officers, and sends a raiding squad, along with Popp and the Spectre, to visit Dollar Dan. They bust his gang but Dollar Dan has already run out on them. But the Spectre easily tracks Dan down, because of his nervous habit of tearing up one-dollar bills in moments of stress.

Appearing in The Spectre: "Crime Makes A Movie"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Dollar Dan Dewey
    • his gang: Looie, "the Snapper", others

Other Characters:

  • Police Commissioner
    • Sgt. Jim Casey
      • GCPD cops

Locations:

  • Gotham City
    • 5th Precinct Police Station
  • Midtown Central Railroad Station

Vehicles:

  • passenger train

Notes

  • "The Victim of Dr. Fate" is reprinted in The Golden Age Doctor Fate Archives Vol. 1.
  • Johnny Quick
    • A framing story takes place partly out-of-universe, in the offices of More Fun Comics, with fictional cartoonist "Mort Morton, Jr." filling the role of Mort Meskin.
    • Johnny gets knocked unconscious by having his skull get grazed by a bullet. And he gets amnesia.
  • The Spectre

Trivia


See Also


Links and References

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