Wow Comics #6 is an issue of the series Wow Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of July, 1942. It was published on April 17, 1942.
Synopsis for Mr. Scarlet: "The Voice"
Appearing in Mr. Scarlet: "The Voice"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- The Voice (First appearance)
- large gang of subway pirates
Other Characters:
- Stimson's three partners: Halloway, Jones (Dies), Baxter
Locations:
- Gotham City, on Earth-S
- Brian Butler's office
- supposedly-abandoned subway tunnel, between two stations
- George Stimson's office
Vehicles:
- subway trains
Synopsis for Commando Yank: "We Dare Death"
Appearing in Commando Yank: "We Dare Death"
Featured Characters:
- Commando Yank (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- British Commandos
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Hans (Behind the scenes)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- motorized fishing skiff
- two British "beetle boats"
- two British destroyers
- some British Hampden bombers
Synopsis for Phantom Eagle: "The Phantom Eagle's First Flight"
Appearing in Phantom Eagle: "The Phantom Eagle's First Flight"
Featured Characters:
- Phantom Eagle (First appearance) (Origin)
Supporting Characters:
- Sergeant Flogg
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Fate (Cameo)
- recruiting officer
Locations:
- jungle
- U.S. airfield
- hidden mountain cavern, ten miles away
Items:
Vehicles:
- Japanese dive bombers (some destroyed)
- "Phantom Eagle" fighter
- Japanese "Skeleton Plane" (Destroyed)
Synopsis for Spooks: "The Skeletal Return of Professor Willard"
Professor Oscar Willard learns that Mr. Schorr is embezzling from the Scholarship Fund of the college that employs them, and confronts him about it. Schorr pulls a pistol out of his desk drawer and shoots Willard dead.
In the Afterlife, Willard protests that he's much too busy to be dead because he hasn't yet stopped Schorr from embezzling the funds. The Keeper Of The Gate accepts this argument, and sends Willard back to Earth, on the condition that he should stop as much evil as he can. He's accompanied by the heavenly Messenger Boy who conducted him from the scene of his murder to the shining gates, and on Earth, several months have passed. Oscar Willard's skeleton has been preserved, per his instructions, as an educational exhibit in the Anatomy Department. His spirit enters into the skeleton and animates it. He learns from a drunk janitor that expelled student Jimmy James has been framed, by Mr. Schorr, for Willard's murder, and is scheduled for execution at midnight that very night!
Spooks encounters James' grief stricken girlfriend Vivan and, from hiding, reassures her that everything will be all right, then visits Mr. Schorr at his home. Schorr is counting down the minutes to midnight, and gloating it up with evil glee, when the skeleton of his dead colleague climbs in thru his open window and confronts him. Schorr does some useless shooting then sprints down a long staircase, but Prof. Willard's Messenger Boy trips the fleeing murderer, and Willard grabs him and terrorizes him into confessing. A cop happens along and listens to Schorr's babbling, as Spooks sprints to the State Prison. That's too slow, so he steals a taxi, but the skeleton makes it to the prison, barely in the nick of time to stop the execution switch from being thrown. And "short minutes later" the authorities are busy setting Jimmy James free, and his girlfriend has shown up at the prison too.
Appearing in Spooks: "The Skeletal Return of Professor Willard"
Featured Characters:
- Spooks (dies, returns) (First appearance) (Origin)
Supporting Characters:
- Heavenly Messenger Boy (not yet named, see Note below)
- Heavenly Keeper Of The Gate
Villains:
- Mr. Schorr
Other Characters:
- janitor
- Jimmy James
- Vivian Giblin
Locations:
- "one of our more popular colleges"
- Anatomy Department
- Heaven
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Mr. Scarlet: "Murder Without Clues"
To prevent leaving clues, a murderer poured molten lead into a blackmailer's ear. Then to cover his tracks, he broke into the Special Prosecutor's office and stole his own police record (one copy of it, anyway) from Brian Butler's files. This backfired on him; Mister Scarlet soon figured out who it was and turned him over to the police.
Appearing in Mr. Scarlet: "Murder Without Clues"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Thomas Mandel, blackmailer (Dies)
- Ked Allen, playboy actor
Other Characters:
- medical examiner
- many cops
- Mr. Fromton, formerly Mandel's partner
- Grace Fromton, former Mrs. Mandel
- Townsend Twidell, business associate
Locations:
- Gotham City, on Earth-S
- East Side
- in the "Upper 50s"
- East Side
Notes
- The artist who created the cover image has not yet been identified. See the page for Wow Comics #6 at the Grand Comics Database.
- Commando Yank, Phantom Eagle, and Spooks all appear for the first time in this issue.
- Mr. Scarlet:
- In "The Voice", Mr. Scarlet gets head-konked unconscious. This is the fifth cranial concussion of his hero career.[1][2][3]
- In this issue's first story, Brian Butler is practicing law in the private sector. In the fifth story, he's a Special Prosecutor.
- The Voice will return, in Wow Comics #9.
- In the final panel of the first story, Pinky breaks the Fourth Wall by winking at the reader, over his shoulder.
- Commando Yank:
- In "We Dare Death", Chase Yale gets his first bullet wound.
- In the final panel, Commando Yank breaks the Fourth Wall and asks the reader how we liked the story, then promises plenty of thrills ahead.
- Phantom Eagle:
- In "The Phantom Eagle's First Flight", Fate appears in the splash panel, in the role of Narrator. In this depiction, Fate has eyes and skin; in other appearances, he lacks them[4].
- Mickey's "Phantom Eagle" fighter plane looks very much like a Bell P-39 Airacobra, a low-altitude fighter-bomber introduced in 1941.
- In the final panel, Mickey Malone breaks the Fourth Wall and winks at the reader, while conversing with Sergeant Flogg.
- The Sergeant's name is spelled "Flog" in this issue, is not mentioned in the next issue, and is changed to "Flogg" by issue #8.
- Spooks:
- In "The Skeletal Return of Professor Willard", the title character isn't really referred to or addressed as "Spooks" throughout the whole story.
- In the final panel, Oscar Willard breaks the Fourth Wall, and tells the readers that he expects to have some exciting adventures.
- In later issues, the Heavenly Messenger Boy is named Bensonhurst.
- Also appearing in this issue of Wow Comics was:
- Table of Contents page
- four full-page ads for other Fawcett titles: America's Greatest Comics, Master Comics, Captain Marvel Adventures, and Mechanix Illustrated
- "Murder At the Hazing" (text story), by Carl Formes
See Also
Links and References
Look at how sad this is making Batman. You did this.