Smash Comics #32 is an issue of the series Smash Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1942.
Appearing in The Ray: "Ancient Greece Speaks"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Sue Saunders
- Bud
Villains:
- Baron Hoff
- Syrian gangsters
- Nazis
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Prophetic Scroll of Hippotius
Vehicles:
Synopsis for The Ray: "Ancient Greece Speaks"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in Espionage Starring Black X: "Great Arizona Desert"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Batu
- Colonel Atwater
Villains:
- Nazis
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Espionage Starring Black X: "Great Arizona Desert"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in Wildfire: "The Murderous Frog of the Mardi Gras"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- The Frog (Apparent Death)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Date:
- 17 February 1942
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Wildfire: "The Murderous Frog of the Mardi Gras"
After getting booted out of the Army, for cowardice and theft, Froggy Miller adopts a frog-themed costume and embarks on a life of crime, striking first during the Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans. He murders Mr. Meredith, the local Veteran’s Legion Post Commander, with an oversized, needle-sharp, barbed, frog-gigging stick, thrown with deadly accuracy. Wildfire is at the parade, and flies in pursuit of Froggy, whose weapons are useless against her flame shield. She corners him in a hotel hallway but there is a firehose mounted on the wall, and Froggy buys himself a few seconds by hosing her down, then fleeing down a stairway. On the way he encounters three cops, leaps into them, and steals a pistol from one, then he’s gone. One Legionnaire from the parade thinks he knows who it was, and names Froggy Miller.
That night Wildfire stakes out the hotel where most of the Veteran’s Legion members are staying, and she spots Froggy sneaking down a hallway, but Froggy’s henchmen have also arrived, and it turns out that stealth and chloroform are effective against Wildfire. While Froggy commits a series of murders upstairs (five of them), in the basement, Froggy’s henchmorons decide to kill Wildfire by tossing her into a furnace. That backfires on them, and they receive a beating from Wildfire, who then flies upstairs and catches Froggy in the middle of murder attempt number (at least) six, beats him up, and leaves him for the police, pinned to the wall with his own eccentric weapon.
Appearing in The Jester: "The Body Snatcher"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Detective McGinty
Villains:
- Doc Reinhart
- Sarcoris
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for The Jester: "The Body Snatcher"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in The Purple Trio: "The Botanical Gardens"
Featured Characters:
- The Purple Trio
- Tiny Todd
- Warren
- Rocky Hill
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for The Purple Trio: "The Botanical Gardens"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in Midnight: "War Over Iceland!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Doc Wackey
- Gabby the monkey
Villains:
- Nazi Party
- Hienrich (Dies)
- von Kamp (Dies)
- Hans (Dies)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Wackey's Atom Reviser Machine
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Midnight: "War Over Iceland!"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in Bozo the Robot: "Defense Plant Explosions"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Bozo the Robot: "Defense Plant Explosions"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in Wings Wendall: "Red Menace Is Alive!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Incomplete Tunnel beneath the Pacific Ocean
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Wings Wendall: "Red Menace Is Alive!"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in Invisible Justice: "Waxman"
Featured Characters:
- The Invisible Hood (Final appearance)
Villains:
- Waxman, saboteur
- Rollins, sniper (Dies)
- at least four other henchmen: Roxi, etc.
Other Characters:
- Superintendent White
- Sam, Crane Operator (Dies)
Locations:
- Giant Eastern Steel mill
Vehicles:
- Wasman's Sedan
Synopsis for Invisible Justice: "Waxman"
The Giant Eastern Steel plant works round the clock, and several officials and industrialists, including Kent Thurston, are being toured through the place by the Superintendent. Meanwhile Waxman, Roxi, Rollins, and several other saboteurs have already infiltrated the plant's work force. One of them is careless with an uncoded message, and Thurston figures out that something is wrong. He gets invisible, and looks around.
Around midnight, the Invisible Hood spots a rifleman in the upper catwalks, and attacks him, but by wildly swinging his rifle around, the gunman, Rollins, knocks him reeling invisibly backwards. The rifleman then shoots a crane operator, causing a ladle full of molten metal to pour out onto the factory floor! Waxman the foreign agent leaps up and yells at the scattering workers, spreading rumors and fomenting rebellion, and quickly persuades a number of them to walk off the job right then and there.
Meanwhile on the high catwalk, the Invisible Hood regathers his wits, and re-attacks the rifleman, this time punching him over the handrail, to his death. Hood grabs the rifle and uses it to get Wasman's undivided attention, in front of an audience of factory hands, and they converse. Waxman completely panics and runs away, gets into his own car, and drives directly to his hide-out. The rest of the gang is inside, and once they are all together, the Invisible Hood, using Rollins' rifle, and some invisible fisticuffs, subdues the gang.
Appearing in Rookie Rankin: "Tis an ill and cold wind"
Featured Characters:
- Rookie Rankin
Supporting Characters:
- Sgt. Burns
- Pat
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Rookie Rankin: "Tis an ill and cold wind"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Notes
- Black X wears his monocle in his right eye; this issue's cover has it in his left eye.
- Invisible Justice:
- This is the final appearance of the Golden Age Invisible Hood.
- Kent Thurston kills one more villain in this final story.
- This Quality Universe character had an Earth-Two counterpart Kent Thurston, who participated in Uncle Sam's Freedom Fighters and fought alongside other Quality heroes during the Pearl Harbor attack.[1][2]
- His feature would be replaced in this anthology title by The Marksman by Ed Cronin and Alex Koda.
- Wildfire:
- This issue's Wildfire story, set during Mardi Gras, takes place on Shrove Tuesday, 17 February 1942.
- Froggy Miller might or might not be alive at the end of the story. The final panel is ambiguous; Froggy might be pinned by his costume, or he might be dead.
- Wings Wendall's villain, "Red Menace", is Japanese.
- This issue of Smash Comics also featured:
- Archie O'Toole: "Bus Stop- No Parking", by John Devlin
- Wun Cloo by Jack Cole
- "Flight To the Unknown" (text story, featuring Jimmy Christian)
Trivia
- Lou Fine signed his work on The Ray as "E. Lectron".
- Alex Blum signed his work on Purple Trio as "S.M. Regi".
- Art Pinajian signed his work on Invisible Justice as "Art Gordon".
- Jack Cole signed his work on Wun Cloo as "Ralph Johns".
- George Brenner signed his work on Bozo the Robot as "Wayne Reid".
See Also
Recommended Reading
- "The Murderous Frog of Mardi Gras" and "War Over Iceland!!!" are both reprinted in The Quality Companion (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2011).
Links and References
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