Motler – the world is now rid of its worst enemy, and no one will ever know how it happened. 
Smash Comics #9 is an issue of the series Smash Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1940.
Synopsis for Espionage Starring Black X: "Proxoff the Revolutionary"
Black X takes on Proxoff the Revolutionary, a warlord who has built his own private army of suicidal fanatics, with which he plans to take over the world in the aftermath of the present war. His soldiers and assassins don't fear death, and when caught they ingest a suicide drug that turns them into skeletons. According to Batu, in India, there is a legend about an herb found in northern Siberia that does this. Camouflaged artillery batteries are installed on the eastern coast of Siberia, but it's NOT the Russians, according to Major Gates, it's "something or someone far deadlier."
Black X & Batu fly to Alaska but their 2-engine commercial airliner is hijacked by a glamorous lady spy; they both are captured off the plane at a remote field; the plane takes off again and Ling, the pilot, takes a suicide pill, then the plane crashes, killing everybody else. They're in Siberia; the lady spy has a car under canvas at this field; they drive ceaselessly for two days and arrive at a fortress wedged between two cliffs. We meet Proxoff and his aides: Von Damm and Count Trini. Trini has a monocle. The Big Plan: while Russia, Finland, Germany, England, and France destroy each other, Proxoff waits. He's built "secret airports in the mountains" and has an army of fearless fanatics. His first target is America, (which actually is the only big nation that's NOT getting destroyed right then). Proxoff wants the famous secret agent Black X to defect to his project, and gives him time to think it over, apparently unsupervised. Right from that moment, we see that Proxoff's judgement is so bad, and his security team is so inept, that the reader has to figure that Batu is screwing with them telepathically.
Soon the good guys grab a soldier hostage and almost escape, but they're caught by the lady spy. She says the trigger word "NOMIKAY!" and the hostage shoots himself dead. Point made, but Batu puts a hypnotic telepathic whammy on the spy, and she tells them an escape route, past the big coastal fort to a submarine pier, where these two guys steal a very small submarine, and shove off into the Bering Sea. The sub has a crew of at least four, on board, but they're all sitting still under a telepathic whammy (also shortly later they skeletonize themselves). Black X & Batu are operating the sub 2-handed. Also it has portholes, so soon they can see that they're under an ice shelf, then they're in a minefield, then they're backing out of the minefield and using paravanes to cut loose the floating naval mines so that they bob to the surface and explode underneath Proxoff's pursuing cutters. Then they take out the shoreline artillery battery with one torpedo, then they surface and shell Proxoff's control tower with the sub's deck gun.
Proxoff is caught in the wreckage; Black X clambers into it to capture him alive, gets shot at and missed, then Proxoff takes a suicide pill. There are no clues to the fate of the glamorous lady spy, and we never did catch her name either. It takes Black X and Batu "several weeks" to get back to Washington and apparently there aren't any telephones out west because Major Gates is real surprised when they show up.
Appearing in Espionage Starring Black X: "Proxoff the Revolutionary"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Batu
- Major Gates
Antagonists:
- Proxoff, the Revolutionary (Dies)
- Von Damm
- Count Trini
- unnamed female spy
Other Characters:
Locations:
- easternmost Siberia
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Flash Fulton: "The Revolutionary Papers"
In an unnamed nation in Europe, Flash is handed some secret papers that incriminate the national military leadership in a plot to overthrow the government, and exposes the plot.
Appearing in Flash Fulton: "The Revolutionary Papers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Gabby
- Andy
Antagonists:
- corrupt generals
Other Characters:
- unnamed lady spy
Locations:
- New York City
- Acme Newsreel office
- unnamed European nation
Synopsis for Clip Chance at Cliffside: "In the Decathlon"
Appearing in Clip Chance at Cliffside: "In the Decathlon"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Coach Barr
- Spud
- Slim
- the Boss
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Wings Wendall: "The Espionage Planes"
Appearing in Wings Wendall: "The Espionage Planes"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Captain Cook of Scotland Yard: "Case of the Roving Taxicab"
Appearing in Captain Cook of Scotland Yard: "Case of the Roving Taxicab"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Sgt. Kelly
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Sir Thomas Wentworth (Dies)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for John Law, Scientective: "The Phantom Fog"
Appearing in John Law, Scientective: "The Phantom Fog"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- June Carter
Antagonists:
- The Avenger
Other Characters:
Locations:
- New York City Area
- John Law's Law Office / Laboratory
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Chic Carter: "The Marijuana Ring"
Appearing in Chic Carter: "The Marijuana Ring"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Prof. Hayes (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Mary Neel
- Blackie Norton
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Invisible Justice: "The Treasure of Hawk Island"
Off the coast of Florida, on Hawk Island, three people (Dexter, Dexter's daughter Joan, and Dexter's secretary Phil Slade) have searched and dug for a month; today they finally find an iron chest. Just then a crew of 18th-century-looking cutlass-wielding pirates swarms out of the woods to steal it. Joan is dragged away in one direction, by the pirate leader (Mike), Phil is dragged away in another, and old Dexter is tripped, to fall into some quicksand. (It soon turns out that he was tripped by Phil, his secretary, who is in cahoots with the pirates.)
By absolutely pure coincidence, Kent Thurston is nearby, setting up a camp site. He hears the ruckus and scouts around, gets invisible, and follows the trail of the bad guys. He finds Dexter in the quicksand, alone, and pulls him out, then they keep on trailing, to an old stockade in the woods. When they approach the front door, a big trap-door dumps them into a basement. One pirate shows up to check out the trap-door, and gets punched out by the Invisible Hood.
Upstairs four of the pirates are gloating about how well their plan is going, pretty much spelling it out in the process, while the Hood invisibly pries open the iron chest, right in front of them. This shakes them up, and they all run out of the room, and into another room, which Dexter closes and locks behind them. But Slade has run in the other direction, and bursts in on Mike, the pirate leader, and Joan, who doesn't seem to like Mike very much and is very shocked to learn what Phil's been up to. The Invisible Hood steps into the room and talks some smack; Mike instantly figures out who this is, and aims a pistol in just about the right direction, and shoots until he's out of bullets, missing completely, then flees the room, but is quickly tackled by the Invisible Hood. Slade grabs a cutlass and steps in, but he gets punched out also. Joan plants a big thank-you smooch on the Invisible Hood.
Appearing in Invisible Justice: "The Treasure of Hawk Island"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Pirates
- Mike, the leader
- Phil Slade
- five others
Other Characters:
- Mr. Dexter
- Joan Dexter
Locations:
- Hawk Island, Florida
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Hugh Hazzard and his Iron Man: "War"
A map shows war-torn Europe: Germany now includes Denmark; Russia now includes most or all of Poland and everything east of it; Hatvia is about where today's Czech Republic is, bordered and menaced by both of these aggressive nations. President Hatchec of Hatvia sends a goodwill ambassador to the USA to appeal for US support. Dictator Motler of Germany [Germany is now being called Germany, and Motler looks exactly like Hitler.] sends two agents (Fritz Goeing and Hans Gonn) to whack the diplomat's airplane, equipping them with an unsafe prototype of an airplane-engine-killing death ray. Motler promises the agents that their families will be taken care of if they don't make it back from this dangerous mission. The minute they leave, Motler orders his aide Voll to have their families imprisoned and their houses looted, and reveals that their weapon will also destroy their own aircraft.
The next morning, on his short wave set, Hugh Hazzard picks up a distress call from the flying boat Yankee Clipper, which is under attack; he robots up and zooms out to sea, to the rescue! At the scene, he finds two aircraft, applies his sound detector, identifies the problem, and smacks into the attacking plane, which knocks Goeing loose from the cockpit. Bozo the Robot catches Goeing, and has a few questions for him. Gonn presumably goes down with the broken plane; we do not see a parachute. Goeing rats out Motler, while squirming loose from Bozo over the ocean, into which he falls and is not seen again. The Iron Man catches the stricken Yankee Clipper (a 2-engine flying boat), and easily carries it to its landing wharf (in which city?). Bozo flies to Motler's stronghold, a castle atop a cliff beside the ocean, and enters by plowing into the cliff and digging upward. Some guards along the way ineffectually shoot at him and set off bombs near him, but Bozo soon reaches Motler's suite, in the north wing of the castle, where Motler is being entertained by a dancing girl. Bozo tells the girl she should get on a boat to America, where she'd be appreciated, then turns to Motler, threatening to put him in exile. Motler panics, backing away through a door, onto a balcony, over the handrail, and onto the rocks far below. The next day's headlines: "Motler's Death a Mystery. Body Found at Base of Cliff. World Peace Proclaimed. Hatvia Hails Motler's Death. Poland Restored. ?Was Motler Mad?"
Appearing in Hugh Hazzard and his Iron Man: "War"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Herr Motler (Dies)
- Officer Fritz Goeing (Dies)
- Officer Hans Gonn (Dies)
- Officer Voll
Other Characters:
- President Hatchec of Hatvia
- An unnamed dancing girl
Locations:
Items:
- German prototype airplane-engine-killing death ray
Vehicles:
- Yankee Clipper flying boat
- North German military plane
Notes
- Bozo:
- Invisible Justice:
- We never do find out what, if anything, was in that iron chest.
- Also appearing in this issue of Smash Comics were:
- Abdul the Arab: "The Khabib Gang", by Vernon Henkel
- Wun Cloo: "Professor Ratheart", by Gill Fox
- Small Stuff, by John Devlin
- Philpott Veep: "The Case of the Proxy Burglar", by John Devlin
- Kidding the Kids, by Arthur Beeman
- Archie O'Toole: "Cousin Montgomery", by Will Eisner
See Also