Police Comics #4 is an issue of the series Police Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1941.
Synopsis for Firebrand: "Herr Strasse's Sea Island Spy Ring"
Appearing in Firebrand: "Herr Strasse's Sea Island Spy Ring"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Joan Rogers, Rod's fiancee
- Slugger, ex prizefighter, Rod's manservant
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Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- Reilly's prototype fighter plane
Synopsis for 711: "The Van Dern Pearls"
Dan Dyce overhears some of his fellow cons discussing Boots Carver's plan to steal the Van Dern Pearls, while they're being repaired. As soon as lights out comes around, Dyce becomes 711 and slips out to intercept the Carver gang. He catches the last member of the gang sneaking out and works a little fist-style persuasion to find out where the gang's hideout is. Once there, he puts his hat and cloak on a coat rack to trick the gang members into tackling it and knocking themselves out on the wall.
Appearing in 711: "The Van Dern Pearls"
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Synopsis for Plastic Man: "Crime School For Delinquent Girls"
Madam Brawn runs a farm that's secretly the training ground for female criminals looking to toughen themselves up. On graduation day, Brawn announces she's sending her army of felonious females into Windy City to take over Lefty Goon's protection racket to pay her back for everything she's invested in them. Lefty isn't pleased to hear this, but when his visit to Brawn's hideout sees him and his men quickly sent packing by Brawn and her hellions, Lefty decides to stack the deck in his favor by coming back after stealing some army tanks. This disquiets Plastic Man, who's undercover as a member of Lefty's gang.
Plas heads back to the farm as himself, to warn Brawn of Lefty's plans for revenge. The female gangsters tie his body in knots and get ready to meet the attack. Eventually Plas is able to get himself free, and by then Brawn and her followers have managed to obliterate Lefty's mob even with the edge of heavy artillery. Plastic Man tells them to clear out and stay out of trouble, after Madam Brawn fails to beat him to a pulp, but she secretly plans to get revenge on the pliable hero instead.
Appearing in Plastic Man: "Crime School For Delinquent Girls"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Madam Brawn (First appearance)
- Lefty Goon
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Windy City
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Phantom Lady: "The Dirigible of Doom"
Sandra Knight and Don Borden have lunch and a chat with the Anglian Ambassador, at a restaurant in Washington DC. Sandra notices that they are being observed from another table, by two shady looking characters, one of whom wears a monocle. Ignoring this, they drive to the Capitol Airport, where Don and the Ambassador and some high-ranking naval officers board an experimental dirigible, for a well-publicized test flight. Sandra waves to them then walks back to her car but along the way she finds a young Navy officer in a ditch, dying of a bullet wound. He describes his attackers, one of them had a monocle, then he dies. This reminds Sandra of the two creeps in the restaurant, and at that very moment, they drive past in a big sedan. She stealthily pursues them in her roadster.
The chase leads to a small cabin, with an airplane in the yard, in the thick woods near Washington DC. Parking at a discreet distance, Sandra changes clothes, then sneaks up to the cabin, to eavesdrop on the two spies inside. Except really there are three spies, and Phantom Lady gets grabbed and stuffed into a closet. On their way out the door, the bad guys blab their plan, which is that (a) they have already planted a time bomb on the dirigible and (b) that they'll now be blowing up this shack with Phantom Lady still inside it, and also (c) the dead man by the roadside was the dirigible's captain. The villains leave but they have a little trouble getting their airplane started, which gives Phantom Lady time to pick the closet door lock, with a hairpin. She still has her Black Ray lantern with her and she uses it to blind the spies, who yank out pistols and fire wildly until one of them is hit. The Lady meanwhile boards the plane, starts it up, and takes off.
She flies to the dirigible's position, but is unable to signal the crew about the bomb on board. Frustrated, she aims the plane at the zeppelin, sets the robot pilot, climbs onto the top of the cabin, and sky-surfs just beneath the larger craft. The crew has dropped a rope ladder for her, and she catches and climbs it, then at the entry hatch she meets Don, her fiancee, face to face up close, and he doesn't recognize her. She tells him about the bomb, and they rush the commanding-officer-impersonating spy, who yanks out a pistol and points it at them. Before he can fire, a blinding cone of black light envelops him, and he tries to step out of it, but falls out the hatch instead. But before leaving, this enemy agent has also maneuvered the dirigible to transit close to an anti-aircraft gun battery. Evidently it's not an American military gunnery exercise, because the guns keep shooting at the zeppelin after its markings are visible. Phantom Lady finds and lifts the time bomb, and cheerfully drops it onto the battery, destroying it.
Afterward, the Anglian Ambassador is very effusive in his praise of Phantom Lady's heroics.
Appearing in Phantom Lady: "The Dirigible of Doom"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Kurtz
- Heine
- third spy (Dies)
- dirigible commander impersonator (Dies)
- antiaircraft artillery crews (Dies)
Other Characters
- unnamed Anglian Ambassador
- unnamed U.S.N. officer (Dies)
Locations:
- Washington, D.C.
- Capitol Airport
- Anglian Embassy
Items:
Vehicles:
- Sandra Knight's sleek black roadster
- U.S.N. experimental dirigible
- high-wing single-engine observation airplane
Synopsis for Human Bomb: "The U-Boat Battle"
Experimenting in his lab, Roy Lincoln discovers an ordinarily harmless chemical mixture that magnifies the power of his explosive touch when his hands come in contact with it. Jean comes to collect him to fly to Havana to meet up with her parents. On the way, he spots a Nazi submarine about to torpedo an American tanker, changes to his Human Bomb outfit and jumps out of the plane to intercept the projectile. When the sub itself proves too tough for even the Human Bomb to crack open, he uses his newly-discovered chemical weapon to produce a blast big enough to send it to the bottom of the ocean.
Appearing in Human Bomb: "The U-Boat Battle"
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Synopsis for The Mouthpiece: "The Flash Photo Fixers"
At a boxing match, Bill Perkins is in the crowd and observes as boxer Young Willard is surprisingly defeated by Dumb Dan Dugan. Willard was shot with a dart from a tricked-out flash camera, which is what turned the fight in Dugan's favor. Perkins walks thru a labyrinth of darkened alleys and changes identities along the way, so that soon the Mouthpiece arrives at the dumpy rooms of Dumb Dan Dugan, who is splitting up some money with ill-known photographer Weasel Gaunt. Perkins sneaks in thru a window for a closer look, but is spotted; the bad guys flee to the roof, with the Mouthpiece close behind. They are getting away onto the neighboring roof when the Mouthpiece starts shooting. He hits the camera, knocking it out of Gaunt's grasp, then stops to examine it, as Gaunt and Dugan scramble up a ladder to a water tank. Mouthpiece breaks the ladder loose and yanks it away, stranding them there.
From Dugan's apartment, Mouthpiece telephones Young Willard and tells him where to find Dugan and Gaunt, and what kind of evidence will be on the scene, then returns to the roof and watches. Willard arrives, figures out how the camera works, props up the big ladder, and climbs up to have it out with Dugan once and for all. One fistfight later both bad guys are knocked out and the tricked-up air-pistol/flash-camera is on its way to the D.A.'s office.
Appearing in The Mouthpiece: "The Flash Photo Fixers"
Featured Characters:
Other Characters:
- Young Willard, boxer
Antagonists:
- Dumb Dan Dugan, boxer
- Weasel Gaunt, photographer
Synopsis for Chic Carter: "Dr. Scratch of Demon Hill"
Chic's mystified when the police haul a headless corpse out of the river, assistant of the renowned Sir John Nienstine. Just as puzzling is when a man bumps into Chic outside the morgue and runs away at high speed, dropping his machete in the process. They're going to the same place, Chic to question Nienstine about his assistant's death, and the machete-carrying nutjob to kidnap him with knockout gas. From red clay on the perp's shoes, Chic figures he must be hiding out on Demon Hill and hurries over there as darkness descends upon the city. The guilty party turns out to be twisted brain surgeon Dr. Scratch, who wants Nienstine's brain to complete a collection of other brilliant brains he's collected in an electronic thinking machine. Chic and Scratch's assistant duke it out, in the process accidentally starting Scratch's "rotating machine" in motion, which shakes the house to bits with the demented doctor inside just as Chic and Nienstine manage to escape.
Appearing in Chic Carter: "Dr. Scratch of Demon Hill"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Dr. Scratch
Other Characters:
- Gargoyle
- Sir John Nienstine
- Gay Nolan
- Monahan
Locations:
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Notes
- Firebrand: Some time early in his career, Slugger's last name changes from "Shea" to "Dunn". In this issue's story, Slugger's last name is not used at all.
- Mouthpiece: Some time between page 2 and page 4, Young Willard's blond hair turns black, but by page 5 it's blond again.
- Phantom Lady:
- Plastic Man: "Crime School For Delinquent Girls" is reprinted in Plastic Man Archives Vol. 1.
See Also
Links and References
Look at how sad this is making Batman. You did this.
