World's Finest Vol 1 5

"Superman: "The Tower of Terror"": The synopsis for this issue has not yet been written.

Superman: "The Tower of Terror"
Cover
World's Finest Vol 1 #5
March, 1942
Executive Editor	Whitney Ellsworth
Cover Artists	Fred Ray
Superman: "The Tower of Terror"
Writers	Jerry Siegel
Pencilers	John Sikela
Inkers	John Sikela
Editors	Whitney Ellsworth
Zatara: "The Man Who Stole a Bank"
Writers	Gardner Fox
Pencilers	Joseph Sulman
Inkers	Joseph Sulman
Crimson Avenger: "Crime's Stage Manager" or "Murder In Three Acts"
Writers	Jack Lehti
Pencilers	Jack Lehti
Inkers	Charles Paris
Letterers	Charles Paris
TNT and Dyna-Mite: "Case of the Crime Clown"
Writers	Mort Weisinger
Pencilers	Al Carreno
Inkers	Al Carreno
Red, White, and Blue: "Wings for America"
Writers	Jerry Siegel
Pencilers	Harry Lampert
Inkers	Harry Lampert
Sandman: "Gems of Jeopardy"
Pencilers	Cliff Young
Inkers	Cliff Young
Goggles: "Convict Escapes!"
Writers	Fred Schwab
Pencilers	Fred Schwab
Inkers	Fred Schwab
Letterers	Fred Schwab
The King: "Rubies for Ransom"
Writers	Gardner Fox
Pencilers	Harry Lampert
Inkers	Harry Lampert
Lando, The Magician: "Adventure of the Good-Hearted Gangster"
Pencilers	Louis Cazeneuve
Inkers	Louis Cazeneuve
Batman and Robin: "Crime Takes a Holiday"
Writers	Bill Finger
Pencilers	Jerry Robinson
Inkers	Jerry Robinson George Roussos
Previous Issue	World's Finest # 4
Next Issue	World's Finest # 6

How you like smack in the jaw, bad mans?

— Tong

World's Finest #5 is an issue of the series World's Finest (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1942.

Appearing in Superman: "The Tower of Terror"

Featured Characters:

• Superman

Supporting Characters:

• Lois Lane
• Perry White

Antagonists:

• Lemuel P. Potts, Indian Lore Specialist @ Mosely Museum (Dies)
  • his gangster accomplices (Some die.)

Other Characters:

• Brent Matthews, retired manufacturer
• Mastodon Lake Indians

Locations:

• Metropolis
  • Daily Planet
• Mastodon Lake
  • ancient Indian Tower (Destroyed)
• Matthews Estate
  

Appearing in Zatara: "The Man Who Stole a Bank"

Featured Characters:

• Zatara

Supporting Characters:

• Tong (Final appearance)

Antagonists:

• Elmer Lighton
  • his gang

Other Characters:

• Mayor
• Police Chief
• Officer Jim
• bank building occupants (all die)

Items:

• Lighton's Levitator Ray (ends up in government hands)
• Lighton's De-Levitator Ray (ends up in government hands)

Locations:

• New York City
  • Times Square
    • bank building (stolen)
• dense forest
  • Lighton's compound, w/ mansion & airfield
    • Bank

Vehicles:

• two 2-engine planes, with building-towing chains
  

Appearing in Crimson Avenger: "Crime's Stage Manager" or "Murder In Three Acts"

Featured Characters:

• Crimson Avenger

Supporting Characters:

• Wing

Antagonists:

• Rocky Roper
  • his gang: Tug, Shorty, Big Ears, Dopey, others
• Carl Corday, author and actor (Dies)

Other Characters:

• random theater-goer (Dies)
• stage manager (Dies)
• jewelry store customer (Dies)
• Marvo the Magician

Locations:

• New York City
  • Paradise Theater
    

Appearing in TNT and Dyna-Mite: "Case of the Crime Clown"

Featured Characters:

• TNT
• Dan the Dyna-Mite

Antagonists:

• Crime Clown (Single appearance)
  • his gang

Locations:

• New York City
  • Broadway
  • Gotham Bank

Items:

• Dyna-Rings
  

Appearing in Red, White, and Blue: "Wings for America"

Featured Characters:

• Red, White, and Blue
  • Red Dugan, USMC
  • Whitey Smith, USA
  • Blooey Blue, USN

Supporting Characters:

• Doris West, G2

Animals:

• Henry, Blooey's parrot

Antagonists:

• Nick, foreign agent
• other foreign agent

Other Characters:

• Mrs. Blue, Blooey's Ma

Locations:

• California
  • Airport
  • Montin Airplane Plant

Vehicles:

• Montin B-19, experimental heavy bomber
• G-2 airplane (Mentioned only)
• Army training biplane
  

Appearing in Sandman: "Gems of Jeopardy"

Featured Characters:

• Sandman

Supporting Characters:

• Dian Belmont

Antagonists:

• Gay Thompson's brother

Other Characters:

• Gay Thompson
• Fred Thompson
• Billy Thompson

Locations:

• Manhattan, New York City
  • Dodds' Penthouse Apartment
  • Walmont Hotel
  • Belmont's Mansion
• Thompson's Estate

Items:

• Thompson's collection of diamonds
  

Appearing in Goggles: "Convict Escapes!"

Featured Characters:

• Goggles

Supporting Characters:

• Pappy
• Giggles

Antagonists:

• Convict

Other Characters:

• Cop
• Cecil
  • his pals
    

Synopsis for The King: "Rubies for Ransom"

The King and the Witch team up to bring together two star-crossed young lovers, by proving fugitive Johnee Unger to be innocent of an earlier crime. In hopes of revealing the truth, they disguise themselves as Johnee and Elena, and fool both of them. But King and Elena get kidnapped by the real felons of the earlier crime, one of whom stupidly blurts out a confession, including the part about framing Johnee, in front of Elena. These creeps have come to Elena's Gypsy camp in order to steal a valuable ruby, the "Gypsy Luck." Standish and Elena are tied up and left unguarded, so they escape, and catch up to the crooks. Standish beats up all four of them; the Witch recovers and returns the ruby; Elena and Johnee get back together.

Appearing in The King: "Rubies for Ransom"

Featured Characters:

• The King

Supporting Characters:

• The Witch

Antagonists:

• 4 cheap hoods

Other Characters:

• Johnee Unger
• Elena

Locations:

• New York City Area
  • Gypsy Camp

Items:

• "Gypsy Luck" ruby

Vehicles:

• Gypsy Wagon
• Crooks' sedan
• Farmer's roadster
  

Synopsis for Lando, The Magician: "Adventure of the Good-Hearted Gangster"

Embittered but brilliant young scientist Joe Pell decides to get even with society by involving himself in organized crime. His wealthy girlfriend Donna Van Dyke asks Lando, the Man of Magic, to intervene. Using extraordinary magic and ordinary cunning, Lando makes complete fools of Joe's new friends, and exposes them as the craven, untrustworthy dirtbags they are. When Dukar, the gang boss, makes the mistake of manhandling Donna, Joe punches the daylights out of him, while Lando brings in a detail of cops to defeat and arrest his gang. Lando lies to the authorities about Joe's involvement with the gang, preserving the lad's reputation, and Joe gets back together with Donna.

Appearing in Lando, The Magician: "Adventure of the Good-Hearted Gangster"

Featured Characters:

• Lando, Man of Magic

Antagonists:

• Dukar, gangster
  • his gang
• Doc Spilz

Other Characters:

• Miss Donna Van Dyke
• Joe Pell, good hearted gangster
• many cops

Locations:

• Dukar's Headquarters, w/ hidden laboratory

Items:

• Lando's crystal ball

Vehicles:

• "Stonewall Express" passenger train
  

Synopsis for Batman and Robin: "Crime Takes a Holiday"

The great crime lord Brains Kelley gathers all the other known crime lords in Gotham City and informs them of his latest plan. From that day forward, all the criminals in Gotham go straight and become legitimate businessmen. However, this new behavior doesn't convinve Bruce Wayne, who believes there's something hidden behind it all.

While the crime in Gotham is reduced to zero, the crime in other cities has increased. Tired of waiting around, Bruce puts on a disguise of a criminal and decides to steal from crime lord Big John. Using the alias of The Gold Coast Kid, Bruce's attempt to steal from Big John impresses the whole gang and they decide to take him in. Bruce then learns the truth behind the "Crime Holiday". All the criminals in Gotham have been going to other cities, impersonating the local criminals and committing every sort of crimes. During their next hit, Bruce calls Robin and informs him about the plan while also telling him to tip off the police.

During the hit, the police arrive and finds the Gotham criminals disguised as another gang. A fight between the law enforcers and the criminals begins, and soon Batman and Robin join the fight. However, most of the criminals manage to escape and the dynamic duo follow them back to Gotham, where they try to stop them, but they are outnumbered. The thugs place them inside a van and they push it to the water of a nearby shore. Using their gadgets and skills, Batman and Robin manage to break free. As they reach the surface, Batman has an idea to capture all the gangsters.

The next night in Gotham, some of the criminals from other cities have arrived to Gotham and are stealing from the local criminals' business. The Gotham gangs get together and after they are challenged to go to a market place by the foreign criminals, they decide to take all their members. As soon as the arrive, they are greeted by Batman, Robin, and the entire GCPD, and the whole gang is arrested. The police take away the criminals and they also thank Batman for his smart plan to capture the gangsters.

Appearing in Batman and Robin: "Crime Takes a Holiday"

Featured Characters:

• Batman

Supporting Characters:

• Robin

Antagonists:

• Big John (Single appearance)
• Brains Kelley (Single appearance)
• Pete (Single appearance)
• Slinky (Single appearance)
• Snipe (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

• Gotham City Police Department

Locations:

• Chicago
• Detroit
• Gotham City
  • GCPD Headquarters
  • Wayne Manor
• St. Louis

Items:

• Utility Belt

Notes

• Published by World's Best Comics Company, on sale 13 February 1942, 96 pages for 15 cents.
• Batman and Robin: "Crime Takes a Holiday" is the first Batman story not drawn by Bob Kane.
  • It is reprinted in Batman: The World's Finest Comics Archives Vol. 1.
• The King:
  • King Standish gets punched unconscious, one more time.
  • At the end of the story, Johnee is still a hunted fugitive.
• Lando is well known to the underworld and the police of his city; the former all fear him and the latter are big fans of his.
• Sandman:
  • This issue went on sale in February 1942, thus "Gems of Jeopardy" marks the final Golden Age appearance of Sandman's double-breasted business costume. It would not be seen again until Justice League of America #46, in 1966.
  • It also marks the last Golden Age appearance of Sandman's girlfriend Dian Belmont, who would not be seen again until All-Star Squadron #18, in 1983.
• In Superman: "The Tower of Terror", Lois Lane is kidnapped for the 19th time.
  • This story is reprinted in Superman: The World's Finest Comics Archives, Volume 1, using the title "The Case of the Flying Castle".
• TNT and Dyna-Mite
  • This is their second story, after Star-Spangled Comics #7, which was copyrighted two days earlier than this issue of World's Finest. However the closing caption in the final panel says "And so ends the first adventure of the TNT Team!", so maybe it's not.
  • Already Tex and Dan are customarily wearing their costumes under their street clothes, which are treated with a special solution that causes them to spontaneously combust when the two invoke their atomic powers. Over the coming months, these two will be blowing up a lot of clothing. The costumes themselves are made of shock-proof asbestos.
• Zatara: "The Man Who Stole a Bank" marks the final appearance of Zatara's assistant, Tong. We're not told why he leaves or where he goes; he simply doesn't show up for the next Zatara story.
  • Zatara gets head-konked unconscious with a pistol butt.
  • Lighton's antigravity equipment is turned over to the War Department, but it's not seen or referred to ever again.
• Also appearing in this issue of World's Finest Comics were:
  • Table of Contents
  • "Tactical Error" (text story) by Eric Carter, illustrated by Cliff Young
  • Private Pete by Henry Boltinoff
  • "Vengeance" (text story) by John Hilton
  • full page ad for the "BIG EIGHT" monthly DC comics: Action Comics #47, Flash Comics #28, Detective Comics #62, Star-Spangled Comics #7, All-American Comics #37, Sensation Comics #4, More Fun Comics #78, and Adventure Comics #73
  • full page ad for five quarterly DC titles: Batman #10, Leading Comics #1, Superman #16, All-Flash #4, and All-Star Comics #10.

Trivia

• That crazy-looking passenger train on page 9 of the Superman story is actually a reasonably accurate depiction of the Union Pacific Railroad's pioneering M-10000, built by Pullman-Standard and the Electro-Motive Corporation in 1933.

See Also

• Cover gallery for the World's Finest series
• Images from World's Finest Vol 1 5

Links and References

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Look at how sad this is making Batman. You did this.