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"Bulletman: "Showdown With Blackmask"": Bulletman the Phantom Foe of Crime has a "Showdown with Blackmask," who is after a diamond shipment. He's also trying to kill Bulletman, which he attempts with: 1/ a boobytrapped armored truck with poison gas followed up by a traditional trip to th

Quote1 I haven't time to get this concrete off my feet -- so I'll take a taxi ..... Sorry, Bud! Quote2
Bulletman

Nickel Comics #3 is an issue of the series Nickel Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1940. It was published on May 31, 1940.

Synopsis for Bulletman: "Showdown With Blackmask"

Bulletman the Phantom Foe of Crime has a "Showdown with Blackmask," who is after a diamond shipment. He's also trying to kill Bulletman, which he attempts with: 1/ a boobytrapped armored truck with poison gas followed up by a traditional trip to the bottom of the river with feet in a bushel of concrete, and later, 2/ his own boobytrapped radio-HQ with poison gas followed up by high explosives, and later still, 3/ his own other boobytrapped radio-HQ, in a steel room with hydrochloric acid covering the floor and an electrified ceiling.

After escaping trap #1, Bulletman straight-up carjacks a coupe, and drives it, with big hunks of cement on his booted feet, then rips the fire-escape off one building and uses it to climb another, and foils the diamond-shipment-thieves's rooftop getaway by wrecking their autogyro. After escaping from trap #2 and rescuing it from a big explosion, Bulletman carries Blackmask's cat around for an extraordinary length of time, possibly hoping to use it later, in identifying Blackmask.

Bulletman follows-up a squealer's tip by using a directional antenna and testing various wavelengths, while speeding thru the city, to locate Blackmask's secret radio station. Blackmask escapes from his own HQ via a chute accessed thru a man-sized circular porthole in one wall. Blackmask's submarine getaway is foiled by Bulletman dumping 3 truckloads of cement into the river; he turns out to be newspaper publisher Stephen Doone.

Appearing in Bulletman: "Showdown With Blackmask"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Blackmask's submarine


Synopsis for Jungle Twins: "Valley of the Giants"

Bill masquerades as his savage brother Steve, so that he can infiltrate Steve's tribe and rescue his friends.

Appearing in Jungle Twins: "Valley of the Giants"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Ali-Bekr
  • a race of giants

Synopsis for Warlock the Wizard: "The Tenement Firebug"

A tenement firebug (seemingly accompanied by a supernatural salamander) disguises himself as Warlock the Wizard, and frames the wizard for his own crimes. He also hypnotizes a newly-homeless young kid into believing that Warlock did the arson. Warlock just says "ABRAXAS" and summons forth the giant Golden Hand to put out fires and rescue windowjumpers and to smash jailhouse walls and to escape from his own completely unnecessary kidnapping and to accomplish every other function which any other hero would need to exert some grit or cunning or strength to accomplish. Refusing to escape from the cops renders Warlock momentarily unable to prove his innocence, and he ends up busting out of jail anyway. The firebug turns out to be slumlord George Ducain, out to collect insurance on his properties.

Appearing in Warlock the Wizard: "The Tenement Firebug"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Hugin, Warlock's raven

Antagonists:

  • George Ducain, the Tenement Firebug

Items:

  • the Golden Hand
  • the Lamp of the Gods

Notes

  • Nickel Comics is published every other Friday by Fawcett Publications, Inc.
  • Bulletman
    • The villain Stephen Doone is an eerily precise lookalike for 1960s Marvel Comics character J.J.Jameson.
    • Doone's/Blackmask's main secret radio HQ is in an undescribed and undisplayed building in the unnamed city in which he and Bulletman live, and he has several other secret radio HQs around town too; one is near the great cement plant on the river bank, with a private dock for his getaway submarine. City containing all this is unnamed.
    • Sgt Kent & Susan Kent get kidnapped (Susan's 1st kidnap) and rescued.
    • Jim Barr fakes a headache to avoid a date with Susan Kent, freeing up his evening to protect a diamond shipment.
    • Enough poison gas to kill ten men will knock Bulletman unconscious.
    • Submersion in water makes Bulletman's gravity regulator helmet useless, but only until it dries out. Indeed, Bulletman can climb an anchor chain from the bottom of a river, carrying half a bushel of hard cement on each foot, without sinking the boat at the top end, so maybe that helmet is kind of working after all.
  • Warlock the Wizard.
    • Warlock gets head-konked unconscious, with a pistol-butt; this is the first known concussion of his short career.
    • Ducain has a 3-foot-long purple lizard, origin unknown, purpose unknown, name not stated.
    • Warlock the Wizard smashed his way out of a big city jailhouse, yet at story's end, when they're arresting George the firebug Ducain, the cops don't have anything to say about that.



See Also


Links and References

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