Police Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1941.
Synopsis for The Firebrand: "The Revolt of General Muerte"
General Alfredo Muerte launches a coup in the island nation of Libertad, seizing the presidential palace and having his men round up European expats waiting to legally immigrate to the United States. Hearing about this over the radio, Rod and Slugger decide to fly to Libertad and overthrow Muerte's regime. He meets up with freedom fighters, tracks the general to his heaquarters in a tower at the national museum, is captured, escapes again and prevents the general frome escaping. Knocking General Muerte out after a struggle, Firebrand delivers him to justice at the hands of the island's people.
Appearing in The Firebrand: "The Revolt of General Muerte"
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- General Muerte (First appearance)
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Locations:
- Libertad
- United States of America
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Synopsis for 711: "The Retribution of Looey Lutz"
Dan Dyce meets a young inmate who says he was framed by the gang of Looie Lutz. With information the young con gives him, Dyce switches to 711 and sneaks out of the prison, tracks down and captures Lutz. The young inmate's freed and Lutz is put up in the pen in his place.
Appearing in 711: "The Retribution of Looey Lutz"
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- Looey Lutz (First appearance)
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Synopsis for "Super Snooper"
Appearing in "Super Snooper"
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- Super Snooper
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Synopsis for Eagle Evans: "The Mosquito Boat Raids"
Appearing in Eagle Evans: "The Mosquito Boat Raids"
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- Eagle Evans
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- Mosquito boats
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Synopsis for Chic Carter: "Tamara -- Marked for Murder"
Appearing in Chic Carter: "Tamara -- Marked for Murder"
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- Tamara (Single appearance)
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Synopsis for Plastic Man: "Duelling the Dope Smugglers"
Plastic Man applies for a job at the local police department, and is told that, should he break up a troublesome dope ring, he may join the force. As "Eel" O'Brian, he learns that the drugs are transported in coffins, thrown between cars, and otherwise exchanged in complex mechanisms. Then, as Plastic Man, he arrests the undertaker packing caskets, the drivers of the cars involved, and several other key members of the ring. He then returns to the police station and is given the job.
Appearing in Plastic Man: "Duelling the Dope Smugglers"
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Supporting Characters:
- Captain Murphy (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Cookie
- Dopey Joe
- Senator A.J. Simms
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Synopsis for "Dewey Drip"
Appearing in "Dewey Drip"
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- Dewey Drip
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Synopsis for Steele Kerrigan: "The Hijacker"
Appearing in Steele Kerrigan: "The Hijacker"
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- Steele Kerrigan
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Synopsis for The Mouthpiece: "The Hogan Brothers"
Appearing in The Mouthpiece: "The Hogan Brothers"
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- The Hogan Brothers (First appearance)
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Synopsis for Dick Mace: "Hollywood Stickup"
Appearing in Dick Mace: "Hollywood Stickup"
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- Dick Mace
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Synopsis for The Phantom Lady: "The Kidnapped Ambassador"
In Washington DC, the Hermese Embassy is destroyed, and the Hermese Ambassador dies, in a fire of unknown origin, leading to international tensions which bring Herma to the brink of war with the U.S. The State Department's counter-espionage division assigns Don Borden to the case, causing him to break off a date with his fiancee Sandra Knight. That evening, curious and suspicious, Sandra forms a hunch (based on details in the newspaper accounts, apparently) that the Ambassador is not really dead, changes to her Phantom Lady outfit, and scoops up her father's valuable collection of Kiolandese netsukes. The Knights' Oriental houseboy observes this by peeping through a keyhole, then telephones his secret boss, Tikoy, to warn him.
Phantom Lady drives to a local antique shop, which at this hour is closed, but knocks until the elderly, bearded proprietor answers. He's got a lit candle in a candlestick for illumination. She tells him that Senator Knight is selling his collection of netsukes, and he promises to get her a good price for them. But two knife-wielding Oriental assassins have followed her to the store, and slip inside with blades ready. But Phantom Lady and her lantern are also ready; she flashes a cone of Black Light onto them. They slash out blindly and ineffectually, but they do manage to steal all the little idols and escape. Phantom Lady is frustrated, but the shopkeeper claims to know where the thieves have gone. They get into Sandra's car, and he directs her to the Kioland Embassy. He also knows how to get into the Embassy undetected, via the basement door.
In an upstairs office in the Embassy, the Ambassador examines the precious idols and gloats that they are now returned to Kioland. A cloaked gaunt, hooded, silent figure stands over him. Suddenly the Phantom Lady is in the room, shining her thick black light onto the table, but just as suddenly a Kioland agent grabs her from behind, while the unspeaking hooded man gathers the little idols into his cloak and slips out of the room. Phantom Lady wrenches herself loose from the security thug and pursues the cloaked man, but the thug doesn't pursue her, as the chase leads out the front door. Amid this, Sandra deduces (based on nothing), that the Hermese Ambassador is alive and has been kidnapped, and that this business with the netsukes is just an opportunistic side-crime. The cloaked man drives away and the Lady drives in pursuit. She uses her black light to cause her quarry to sideswipe a telephone pole but the chase continues, to an out-of-the way and decrepit dock on the river, where a seaplane is moored. Again the black light shines on the fleeing figure, who unluckily falls through some rotten timbers and gets stuck. Phantom lady recognizes him as "ex-Navy man Todd", steals his cloak and the stolen curios, boards the seaplane, and fools the pilot into flying her away.
The chatty pilot spills the villains' main plan: They HAVE kidnapped the Hermese Ambassador, and plan use him to coerce Herma's government into declaring war against the U.S., allowing Kioland to step in and "protect" Herma. They fly to a the gang's remote hideout, he lands the seaplane, she konks him unconscious with a wrench, and approaches the only structure around, a small fishing shack. Inside is the missing Ambassador Kivoya, and nobody else. Kivoya is reluctant to return to Washington with her, but she loses patience and punches him unconscious, drapes him over her shoulder, loads him into the seaplane, takes off, and flies back to Washington DC. She cooks up a cover story, involving amnesia, to keep Ambassador Kivoya from losing face with his own government, and gets him safely to DC.
The Hermese government buys Kivoya's alibi, and war is averted, so Don and Sandra go on a date to celebrate.
Appearing in The Phantom Lady: "The Kidnapped Ambassador"
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Antagonists:
- unnamed houseboy
- Tikoy
- other assassin
- Kioland Ambassador
- Todd, ex-U.S.Navy
- seaplane pilot
Other Characters:
- antique dealer
- Ambassador Kivoya, of
Locations:
- Washington, D.C.
- Hermese Embassy (Destroyed)
- Kioland Embassy
- Senator Knight's mansion
- antique shop
- U.S. Atlantic Coast
- small island off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
- Herma, a tiny, neutral nation.
- Kioland, a giant, Eastern nation, dictator to a host of tiny countries such as Herma.
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- Sandra's black coupe
- seaplane
Synopsis for "Presenting Burp the Twerp"
The entire offensive line of a football team is killed. Burp the Twerp happens to be floating by, sees them with his telescopic eye, and inhales hard enough to suck the bullets out of the bodies for analysis. He catches the guilty party, cartoonist Ralph Jones, who never gets his work for Police Comics in on time. He committed the murders to be able to "see how it felt to make a dead-line".
Appearing in "Presenting Burp the Twerp"
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- Burp the Twerp (First appearance)
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Synopsis for The Human Bomb: "Evil on Calona Island"
Roy Lincoln comes by the war office to deliver the formula for the 27-QRX explosive. When it's being put into the vault, a subversive type shoots both Roy and the major he delivered the formula to. Roy secretly survives, because his explosive powers made the bullets explode before they could injure him. The dying major tells Roy to get to Calona Island, and Roy makes to do so by putting on his Human Bomb armor and blasting his way out of the vault the spy locked them in. The spy's already caught a sub, but Bomb gets to it by using a blast of his powers to blow himself across open water and hitch a ride with the sub to Calona.
On the way, Bomb remembers Calona: it's an island that sank 50 years ago. German spies found an underwater cavern that made a prime location for a secret submarine base. He easily sinks the submarine and captures the spies, then radios the navy to come pick everyone up.
Appearing in The Human Bomb: "Evil on Calona Island"
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- Calona Island
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Notes
- All Quality Comics characters and the distinctive likeness(es) thereof were originally Trademarked & Copyright © 1951 Quality Comics. The characters and the distinctive likeness(es) thereof were acquired by DC Comics in 1956. While some of the properties acquired did not have copyright and trademarks renewed, some of those depicted here are Trademarks & Copyright © 1973-2008 DC Comics, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- "Duelling the Dope Smugglers is reprinted in Plastic Man Archives Vol. 1.
- First issue for Burp the Twerp by Jack Cole.
- Phantom Lady
- Phantom Lady wore no mask. By the end of this adventure, both the treacherous houseboy and the enigmatic antique dealer would have to have figured out that the Phantom Lady is Sandra Knight. One of them actually watched her change clothes, and the other met her face to face while she was fencing Senator Knight's curios.
- The reader never does learn how this elderly antique dealer has so much inside knowledge about how to break into the Kioland Embassy. He drops right out of the story as soon as she's inside the place.
- The treacherous houseboy either escapes, or is one of the two knife-wielders in the antique store, both of whom also get away, unarrested.
Trivia
- Jack Cole is also credited as Ralph Johns in this issue.