Smash Comics #36 is an issue of the series Smash Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1942.
Synopsis for Midnight: "The Death of Midnight"
Midnight pursues Cyclops Ceylon and his mob into the mountains, and in the process of scuffling with the Cyclops, both fall of a cliff to their doom. In the afterlife, Midnight's many victories over crime automatically award him passage into Heaven, but he asks to be sent to Hell to try to clean up the devil himself! It turns out the real evil in the world is concocted by Mrs. Satan, who's planning a blockbusting German invasion of the United States. Midnight convinces the souls of the damned to revolt and do some good, and Midnight personally punches out the Prince of Darkness.
Meanwhile, a mad scientist has visited Doc Wackey and Gabby, and makes a deal: Wackey's life in exchange for bringing Midnight back. Just as Midnight is about to have his head clubbed in by a vengeful Mrs. Satan, the treatment kicks in and he finds himself alive again. He learns a German invasion of America began, and just as it seemed their victory was imminent, they retreated into the ocean "as if by magic". The mad scientist reminds them of the deal, and turns to the reader to check back next month to see what he means.
Appearing in Midnight: "The Death of Midnight"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Cyclops Ceylon
- Satan
- Mrs. Satan
Synopsis for Espionage Starring Black X: "The Vengeance"
Appearing in Espionage Starring Black X: "The Vengeance"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- The Vengeance
Synopsis for Wildfire: "Mickey Kane"
Appearing in Wildfire: "Mickey Kane"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Mickey Kane
Synopsis for The Jester: "The Tiny Bank Robbers"
A fortune suddenly seems to get up and run out of a bank all by itself. It turns out a criminal scientist invented a gas that shrinks thieves to inches in height so they can sneak past any security.
Appearing in The Jester: "The Tiny Bank Robbers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Professor
Other Characters:
- Detective Hustace McGinty
Synopsis for Bozo the Robot: "The Scrap Metal HiJackers"
Appearing in Bozo the Robot: "The Scrap Metal HiJackers"
Featured Characters:
Synopsis for The Ray: "Hammer Hand"
Happy's editor is fed up with how there's no news to report except "war and Hollywood divorces". Happy jokingly promises to rob the Fifth National Bank to break up the monotony. The next morning he's arrested when he walks into the editor's office, because the bank was robbed the night before. But what the editor's really annoyed about is Happy didn't even have the decency to wire in the story, because every paper in town's carrying it except theirs!
Happy of course doesn't sit in jail for long, instead beaming through the bars as the Ray to look into his framing. Inspecting the body of the cashier killed in the robbery, Ray's sure it's the work of the nefarious Hammer Hand, Nazi spy. Who at the moment has captured Bud. Fortunately, with the help of a hidden microphone, Bud's able to make Hammer Hand think he's being confronted by the ghost of his dead son, which gets the villain to confess to the theft and murder.
Appearing in The Ray: "Hammer Hand"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Bud
Villains:
- Hammer Hand
Synopsis for Wings Wendall: "Diane's Revenge"
An enormous Axis air raid strikes the Westcott Aircraft Company. Mr. Westcott the famous industrialist is killed, right before the eyes of his daughter Diane. Wings Wendall and other defenders, soon reinforced from other air bases, turn the tables on the attackers; many many aircraft are shot down.
Hours later, a bomber full of military officials arrives to inspect the attack scene. It's a B-17 Flying Fortress. Diane Westcott stealthily and single-handedly loads a large number of bombs aboard it, and pumps in all the fuel it can carry. Then she steals it.
As she is taking off, Wings gets himself aboard the plane, reaches the darkened cockpit, and without quite seeing who she is, tries to stop her, but without looking closely enough to recognize him, Diane knocks him unconscious with a blunt object. When he regains his senses, they are both very surprised to be meeting like this. Diane tells him her plan, which is to fly directly to Berlin and bomb it. Wendall does some quick math; she does not have enough fuel to get back to any Allied territory. She knows this and doesn't care.
Diane Westcott flies her B-17 across the Atlantic Ocean. At the French coast, they are jumped by three ME-109s; Wendall mans one of the gun turrets and shoots down two of them. From there, across France, across the Rhine, and up the rail line from Essen to Berlin, they soar at 40,000 feet, virtually invisible to German air defenses, but they need bottled oxygen to stay alive. Approaching Berlin and dropping to a good bomb-dropping altitude, they share one kiss, then Wendall takes the controls.
Wings bombs Berlin! The Fuehrer is seen being arm-carried out of a crumbling building. A stupendous barrage of antiaircraft fire rakes the skies, and their plane is severely damaged. Wendall is wounded and blacks out; Diane flies the bullet-riddled plane to Sweden, and just barely makes it. There both she and Captain Wendall are hospitalized.
Appearing in Wings Wendall: "Diane's Revenge"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Luftwaffe
- Adolf Hitler (Cameo)
Other Characters:
- Diane Westcott (Final appearance)
- Diane's father (Dies)
- Swedish Doctor
Locations:
- Westcott Aircraft Factory and Airfield (mostly destroyed)
- Atlantic Ocean
- Berlin
- Sweden
Vehicles:
- over a hundred assorted German warplanes
- stolen B-17 Bomber
- three Me-109s (two destroyed)
Synopsis for Marksman: "Kill the Marksman"
Appearing in Marksman: "Kill the Marksman"
Featured Characters:
- the Marksman, as Major Hurtz (wears a monocle)
Supporting Characters:
- Vorka
Villains:
- Occupation Troops
- Adolf Hitler (Cameo)
Locations:
Notes
- Wings Wendall ends up in neutral Sweden at the end of this episode, where he would presumably be impounded or otherwise thwarted from returning to the war. He'll be back next issue.
- Wings Wendall gets head-konked unconscious by Diane, with a blunt object.
- Also appearing in this issue of Smash Comics were:
- Rookie Rankin: "The Whiner", art by Arthur Peddy
- Purple Trio, art by Alex Blum
See Also
Links and References
