Police Comics #19 is an issue of the series Police Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1943.
Synopsis for Plastic Man: "The Forest of Fear"
A Mr. Gridley stops to talk to Hadley, owner of some prime virgin forest. Gridley points out there must be something wrong if he's selling it for a dollar an acre, which makes Hadley break down and confess that the lumberjacks he sends into the forest never return. He's sure his rival, Ratter, is responsible. When Ratter shows up to remind Hadley of his offer for the land, the two start brawling and Gridley slips away.
In the forest, he finds a group of lumberjacks being menaced by attacking ambulatory trees. Though Gridley picks up an axe and starts defending them with inhuman ability, he takes a sock to the head and his face changes, revealing to the men it's really Plastic Man. Fleeing the trees, they come upon a house surrounded by an electrified fence (Plas borrows a knife and relies on his rubbery body to insulate him when he short-circuits it), a wall of flame, and a wall of whirring saws, and helps the surviving lumberjacks over them. The house's occupant proves to be a botanist who gave the trees animal-like qualities, which is why they now walk and hunt like animals. Furthermore, he has a bear and birds in his lab that have taken on the qualities of plant life. His greatest experiment will be to do the same to humans, which he intended to do after he drops the lumberjacks through a trapdoor, and sics a tree-henchman on Plastic Man. The battle continues until the henchman attacks Plastic Man with an axe, which just bounces off and splits him in half.
Meanwhile, the trees have tried to breach the scientist's defenses and caught fire, soon turning the entire forest into a blaze. Seemingly trapped, all the surviving lumberjacks confess that they're criminals, even getting Plastic Man to confess he's secretly wanted felon Eel O'Brian. The scientist, unable to cope with the loss of his life's work, dives into the flames and is instantly consumed. The others manage to escape when Woozy saves them by piloting the Goodyear Blimp overhead.
Appearing in Plastic Man: "The Forest of Fear"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Killer trees (Dies)
- Unnamed Scientist (Dies)
- Hugo, tree-man (Dies)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- Goodyear Blimp
Synopsis for Spirit: "The Haunted House"
Appearing in Spirit: "The Haunted House"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Ebony White
Villains:
- common criminals
Other Characters:
Locations:
Synopsis for Destiny: "The Sherlock Doyle Story"
A bank teller out on bail for embezzling goes to the detective Sherlock Doyle for help, but is shot before he can reveal anything. The cold specter of death draws Destiny's attention and he transports himself there, arriving in Doyle's office. Doyle and Destiny know each other as fellow crimefighters by reputation; this includes Destiny knowing that Doyle is actually blind. Whoever attacked before attacks again, but Doyle is prepared because he smelled cheap liquor and tobacco, deduces when to attack their assailant by counting shots, and subdues the hood with some judo.
While Doyle's leaving to get paper to write down the killer's story, his boss shows up and shoots him to silence him. The dying killer, eager for revenge, tells Destiny and Doyle that this is Galor, head of the bank where the embezzling had happened. He'd really done it, and framed the man who'd come to Doyle for help.
Appearing in Destiny: "The Sherlock Doyle Story"
Featured Characters:
Locations:
Synopsis for Manhunter: "Here Lies Manhunter"
Corrupt lawyer Max Suttle awakes to find a note on his nightstand extorting him for $100,000 or he'll be buried alive, signed by an ominous personage calling themselves the Sexton. When he brings it to the attention of the police, Detective Clancy's hired to watch over Suttle, but Clancy drinks himself into a stupor on watch and only gets coshed on the head when the Sexton shows up to collect his victim. Officer Richards' beat passes Suttle's house, and when he spots a pair of gravediggers digging a plot on Suttle's property he investigates as Manhunter. The Sexton clubs him over the head, and the crimefighter comes to next to the filled grave.
Coming to himself, Det. Clancy arrests Suttle's butler, the only suspect. Soon the Sexton overpowers radio broadcasts to deliver a warning: Suttle's buried but alive, but his grave is rigged with a bomb. He and other millionaires will have to meet the Sexton's threat or they'll all suffer a similar fate. However, Thor, as dogs do, starts digging up Suttle's grave. When the gravediggers from the night before attack to stop him, Officer Richards plays a hunch and digs up the grave. As he suspected, it was empty, but the Sexton himself attacks to silence Richards then. Pursuing the villain into the coal cellar, Richards knocks him out after a fist fight.
In the middle of the butler's interrogation, Richards walks in with the Sexton and unmasks him: Max Suttle himself. The gravediggers wanting to keep the grave from being disturbed to the point of willing to resort to violence tipped him off it was only a ploy. Suttle needed money, and arranged his own attack by a supervillain to make the threat seem real to the people he was intending to blackmail. The butler's set free, with the police's apologies. Which he takes advantage of to slam an ashtray down on Clancy's head.
Appearing in Manhunter: "Here Lies Manhunter"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Max Suttle/The Sexton
Other Characters:
- Evans, Suttle's butler
- Det. Patrick Clancy
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Phantom Lady: "Murder on the High Seas"
Appearing in Phantom Lady: "Murder on the High Seas"
Featured Characters:
Synopsis for Flatfoot Burns: "Flatfoot Burns Is Heading This Way"
Appearing in Flatfoot Burns: "Flatfoot Burns Is Heading This Way"
Featured Characters:
- Flatfoot Burns (First appearance)
Synopsis for Human Bomb: "Aunt Sofie's Haunted House"
Jean and Roy are brought to the door by a horrific shriek, which turns out to be coming from Jean's aunt Sofie. She just bought the "Mallow house", a derelict old place that's been abandoned for 20 years (although even Sofie doesn't know quite why, owning 8 other houses she never stays in). However she's been chased out by ghosts, and Jean dragoons Roy into helping them investigate.
As soon as he steps inside someone shoots the flashlight out of his hand and runs upstairs, with Roy in hot pursuit. He finds out the "ghost" is actually Sofie's husband, who puts on the ghost act in the houses she's bought to try to curb her spendthrift ways.
Appearing in Human Bomb: "Aunt Sofie's Haunted House"
Featured Characters:
Villains:
- common criminals
Other Characters:
- Jean, Roy's fiancee
- her aunt Sofie
Notes
- The Forest of Fear is reprinted in Plastic Man Archives Vol. 1.
- Plumes of smoke partially obscure the brandname on the blimp.
- Roy Lincoln doesn't use his explosive touch or become the Human Bomb at all in this issue.
See Also
Links and References
