Friday's Favorite OTR

 Dangerous Assignment: "Missing Civil War Map" 12/16/50

Why would an international spy steal a Civil War-era map that has no monetary value? Steve Mitchell is tasked with finding out.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Hijacked Spaceships, Asteroids and Secret Bases

 

When Thunderbirds were king--when the original "Supermarionation" show was on TV in 1965 and 1966--there was a slew of paperback novels featuring original Thunderbirds stories. This was, of course, inherently awesome.  A half-dozen of these books were written by John W. Jennison, sometimes under his own name and sometimes using the pen name John Theydon. Jennison was a prolific author during the 1950s and 1960s, turning out over 100 books under various pen names. Because he often did use other names, I had a bit of trouble finding a complete list of his work. He did do a lot of media tie-in work, especially for Gerry Anderson shows such as Thunderbirds, and I think that tie-ins might represent the bulk of his work.

The third Thunderbirds novel, published in 1966, was one of Jennison's best. There's a disaster at a moon base, with a worker buried alive with a limited oxygen supply. Thunderbird 3--the craft capable of space travel--takes off with Alan and Scott Tracy to mount a rescue.

It turns out the trapped guy managed to find his own way out, which is a good thing because the Thunderbirds crew never get around to mounting a rescue. Their arch enemy--a power mad villain called The Hood--uses his hypnotic powers to hijack a space freighter carrying special equipment to the moon to help with the rescue. He also captures another of the Tracy brothers, the scientist "Brains" and superspy Lady Penelope. 

Thunderbird 3 gives chase. The action moves to the asteroid belt. Several of the Tracy brothers end up stranded on the asteroid Ceres while the Hood escapes with three hostages after taking over Thunderbird 3. Back on Earth, Jeff Tracy--the father of the group--gets some time in the air taking over Thunderbird 2 as they search for the Hood.

Eventually, the action moves to a secret base in Tibet, with the Tracy brothers planning a raid to rescue the hostages and stop the Hood from carrying out a plan to take over the world.

It's all great fun. In the show, Jeff Tracy is a strong character (in one episode, giving a speech about the whole point of their operation being to simply save lives that is absolutely wonderful), but its great to see the former astronaut in a pilot's seat. Several of the Thunderbird vehicles play a part in the action. Parker, the reformed burglar who works as a chauffer to Lady Penelope, gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome when he volunteers to parachute into the Tibetan mountains to find the Hood's base.  Lady Penelope herself pulls off a daring escape from that base.

The ending, I think, was a little abrupt, but the novel as a whole is glorious. It accurately captures the personality of the various characters; and it is fast-paced, with the action moving from Earth to deep space and back to Earth in a way that makes sense in context. If you are a fan of Thunderbirds (and if you aren't, there's something wrong with you*), then this is a must-read novel.

*just kidding, of course. differences in personal tastes should always be respected.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--Chapter 3

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JlA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg. 

Today, we get to Chapter 3, in which Aquaman, Black Canary and Green Arrow travel to New York to follow up a possible lead to Dr. Destiny.

That lead involves several missing artists who are noted for the vivid imaginations. There's a chance their disappearance might involve the villain. And, in fact, it does. Dr. Destiny, monitoring the heroes from his secret HQ, strikes out at them for getting too close to a real clue.

He causes creepy-looking creatures to come into existence over equally creepy-looking statues created by the missing artists.

What follows is a short but really fun fight scene. I actually like it a lot better that the abrupt fight scene from the previous chapter. This time, we get to see each of the three heroes involved have a Moment of Awesome.

Aquaman lures his opponent into the harbor, where he then summons up electric eels to "disrupt the creature's unliving substance." I'm not sure that electric eels (which I THINK are exclusively a South American creature) would be living in New York Harbor, but what the hey. It's still a cool tactic and perhaps the eco-system in the DC Universe works a little bit differently than it does here on Earth Prime.

Black Canary takes out her monster with her sonic cry. Green Arrow repeats this tactic against HIS monster with a sonic arrow, then realizes taking out the statues will prevent any more monsters from appearing.

As I said, it's a cool fight. Each hero uses his or her brains as well as individual powers/weapons to deal intelligently with the threat. That's how a battle in a comic book universe SHOULD play out.

The chapter ends with Dr. Destiny remarking that he's found something "drifting in the dreams of Wonder Woman" that will destroy the Justice League. We'll find out more about that when Wednesday posts resume after the holidays.

Cover Cavalcade

 DECEMBER IS DICK TRACY MONTH!!!

This very cool cover from 1957 is by Joe Simon, ghosting for Chester Gould. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Escape: "The Footprint" 8/18/50

A group of men search for a fortune in rubies, supposedly guarded by a fanatical Chinese cult living in the Mexican desert. 

Click HERE to listen or download. 

It's the Little Things

 

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had quite an expanded universe (though, of course, that term didn't exist in the 1960s and there was a lot less worry about continuity between different media). Aside from the TV show, there was a very successful series of paperbacks and an U.N.C.L.E. magazine that ran for 22 issues. Gold Key Comics published an U.N.C.L.E. comic book.  

Today, we are taking a peek at one of the many often excellent crime and spy stories that ran in the magazine in addition to U.N.C.L.E. novellas. "How the Cookie Crumbled..." by Ed Lacy, appeared in the May 1966 issue.

It's a fun story, written in the form of a letter a man named Lenny is writing to his wife. Lenny, currently on the lam, is explaining to his wife that he's always been a part-time criminal. She didn't know it--but every so often, Lenny and his two friends (Tom and Charlie) would pull a low-key burglary for extra spending cash. They never stole anything but cash--no merchandise that could be traced. And since their crimes were always minor, the cops never expended a lot of energy trying to identify and catch them.

But that's all gone to pot. Tom hit it big at the race track and took a cruise from New York to Nassau. During the trip, he came up with a clever plan for robbing the purser's office. And the plan really is pretty clever. In fact, most of the story consists of Tom explaining the plan.

Which is what makes the story itself clever. We know from what Lenny tells his wife that something goes badly wrong with the robbery. But the plan seems airtight and, initially, the execution of it seems to go without a hitch.

So we are reading the entire story knowing that something will go awry, but we don't know what.  The story is constructed expertly enough to generate a lot of suspense with the reader. Something goes wrong--but what? 

I don't want to hint at what it is, but it's a fair play story with the seeds of the thieves' downfall hidden within the tale. "When the Cookie Crumbles..." is a lot of fun. You can read it yourself HERE. 

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--chapter 2

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

Chapter two of JLA Annual #1(plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg) picks up with the JLA's efforts to track down Doctor Destiny. The first team we follow is Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Adam and Firestorm, with Firestorm carrying the others in a "nuclear air-bubble." Gee whiz, I love Comic Book Science!

Hawkgirl has rigged up a sensor to detect Delta Waves, brain waves that are generated when we sleep. So there are moments when Comic Book Science sort-of, kind-of matches up with real-life science. Of course, in this case, we have an alien with a delta wave detector being carried in a bubble made of nuclear energy--proving that in the end Comic Book Science beats the snot out of real life. 

The detector brings them to a sleep research facility at Ivy University. It's not Dr. Destiny's HQ, but he is still monitoring the League. So he brings the dreams of the sleeping subjects to life and has those now solid dreams attack the heroes.

The heroes fight back against the dreams until Firestorm puts a stop to it by freezing up the mind-machines to which the sleepers are attached, waking them up in the process. This causes the dreams to fade away. The heroes are victorious and have confirmed that Dr. Destiny is definitely out to get them.

It's a good chapter, which includes some fun banter between the Hawks while they are in the air bubble. A longer fight scene would have been nice, giving a greater sense of a real threat to the heroes, but what we have looks cool and I do appreciate that the story as a whole had to fit into a certain page count.

Next week, we travel to New York City to see what Aquaman, Green Arrow and Black Canary are doing. 

Cover Cavalcade

 DECEMBER IS DICK TRACY MONTH!!!

This high-impact cover from 1948 is uncredited.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Lone Ranger: "Prunella's Chickens" 1/21/48

A henpecked husband, a nagging wife, some wayward chickens and a pair of murderous outlaws all lead up to a tense hostage situation.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Cute Girls and Corpses

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #175

Rare book dealer Joel Sloan and his wife Garda have one last mystery to solve. And for the third time in three movies, there are different actors bringing the Sloans to life. This time around, it's Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern.

I don't have a lot to say about this one, because after two fast-paced and entertaining comedy/mysteries, Fast and Furious (1939) is a bit of a dud. 

I don't blame Tone and Southern for this. They play against each other nicely. But their dialogue fails to sparkle the way it did in the first two films. One major problem is Garda's almost obsessive jealousy. In the earlier movies, this was an occasional running gag. Here, it pretty much defines every interaction they have.

Also, the movie takes a half-hour (nearly half of its 73-minute run) to set things up and actually get to the murder. And that murder does not involve stolen or missing rare books, meaning that Joel's special skillsets are not used and he becomes a more generic amateur detective. Joel is asked to help judge a beauty contest, allowing this Busby Berkely-directed movie to fill itself up with pretty girls in bathing suits.

There's also a sequence in which several trained lions end up in the Sloans' hotel room. It's a funny scene, but seems a little too slapstick to fit into a comedy that depends on sharp dialogue for its humor.

The mystery itself (involving missing money and the murder of the guy who originally embezzled it) is pretty good and the resolution is satisfying. But we simply don't have as much fun getting there as we did in the first two movies. Though, to be fair, there is a pretty nifty scene in which the Sloans have to escape a death trap.

This wraps up our examination about how being a rare book dealer inevitably leads to investigating murders. We also finished up the Tom Corbett novels a few weeks ago. At this moment, I have no idea what the next Read/Watch 'em In Order subject will be, but I'll think of something.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

Two weeks ago, we finished a detailed look at an Avengers Annual from 1967. Justice League of America Annual #1, which we will look at beginning today, is from 1983. The 16-year gap means we aren't comparing and contrasting what Marvel and DC were doing at the same time. Instead, we've just looked at a fun book set in the Marvel Universe. Now we're looking at a fun book set in the DC Universe. Like most of my choices of what comics to review, it's pretty much just a whim.

Anyway, this JLA story was plotted by Paul Levitz, written by Len Wein and drawn by Rick Hoberg. It begins in the JLA satellite, which is being attacked by super-powerful robots. One of the JLA members in the fight is Elongated Man, who realizes he's outclassed in a fight where the bad guys can go toe-to-toe with Superman and Flash. And when Ralph is unable to stop one particular robot, the satellite is torn open and the JLA is blown into space.

Well, this turns out to be a dream. Ralph is having a nightmare--a manifestation of his fears that he's not able to contribute anything significant to the League.

Unknown to Ralph, someone else is observing his dream. The villainous Dr. Destiny has watched the dream in a monitor. When the scene jumps to his point-of-view, we also learn that he's operating a research clinic somewhere, giving himself the illusion of a normal appearance when interacting with the nurses. His research is studying dreams, with one of the nurses mentioning that patients who are kept from dreaming are "becoming pale and taunt, their faces almost skeletal."

Well, by golly, Destiny has a skeleton face because he's no longer able to dream! And he blames the JLA for his condition. He was only observing Ralph's dream, but he's now planning on using the dreams of the heroes against them.

The scene changes to the JLA satellite--not in a dream, but in reality. The JLA is meeting with Commissioner Gordon, who has a problem and can't get hold of Batman. (A line of dialogue and a footnote tells us the Caped Crusader is busy with a mission in Batman and the Outsiders.) Gordon brings them evidence that Dr. Destiny has recently escaped from Arkham Asylum, leaving an animated illusion behind to prevent his escape from being quickly noticed. Finding him is clearly a job for the Justice League. 

This brings us to the end of the first chapter. It's a strong opening for the story. It starts with the action in full swing--that the initial battle turns out to be a dream doesn't distract from it. It's still exciting with Hoberg's art bringing it all vivid life. Finding out its a dream leads us to Dr. Destiny, introducing us to the villain. If a reader doesn't know the details of Dr. D's backstory, that's okay. We know he's an enemy of the JLA, that he can access their dreams and that he holds them responsible for his skeletal appearance because he now lacks the ability to dream. That's sufficient for telling this particular tale.

Giving us a Commissioner Gordon cameo is fun and a logical way to bring the JLA up to speed on Dr. Destiny's escape. All of this together is a prime example of strong story construction. 

Next week, we'll look at Chapter 2 and find out if the story continues to be fun.

Cover Cavalcade

 DECEMBER IS DICK TRACY MONTH!

This 1950 cover was drawn by Joe Simon, who was ghosting for Chester Gould.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Archie Andrews: "Helping Dad at the Office" 1953

With his secretary out sick, Mr. Andrews has to leave Archie and Jughead to run the office while he picks up a client at the train station. What could possibly go wrong?

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Thanksgiving Week Break

 

I've noticed readership always drops over Thanksgiving week and Christmas week, so I've decided to start skipping the holidays. No new content this week. Have a happy holiday regardless. 

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!!!

From 1958, this cover is tentatively credited to Dick Giordano.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Whistler: "Bright Future" 8/18/48

A man moves into a new apartment and finds $35,000 hidden behind a picture. His future looks bright--but is it?

Click HERE to download or listen. 

The Robot Rocket

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #174

We--sadly--come to the last Tom Corbett novel, published in 1956, about six months after the TV show had been cancelled.

It is, in fact, based on one of those final episodes, though the ebook edition I own does not include a credit. "The Space Projectile," written by Richard Jessup, was broadcast on April 30, 1955. Jessup, by the way, had a successful career as a novelist and screenwriter, with his best known book being The Cincinnati Kid (1963).

Here's the episode:

The novel takes the idea of recovering a robot rocket that is about to crash into a star and adds a couple of villains out to hijack that rocket to the mix. 

Also, during the last season of the TV show, Jan Merlin (who played Roger Manning) left the show. He was replaced by Jack Grimes, who played Cadet TJ Thistle. I don't know if the TV show gave a reason for Roger's departure, since, as far as I can tell, the early episodes from the final season don't exist. Or at least I can't find them streaming or on YouTube. In the early days of episodic TV, cast changes were often made without explanation.

But the novel dives head first into this. We find out that Roger has been reassigned to the Mars Academy, while a Mars Academy student (Thistle) has been transfered to Earth and takes over for Roger aboard the Polaris.

This is a big deal for Tom Corbett and Astro. Roger's abrasive personality brought him into conflict with the other two in the first novel, but since then they've all become best friends and trusted each other completely. They hate the idea of Roger leaving and Astro at least is resentful of his replacement.

But soon, they are on a mission to recover a possibly malfunctioning robot rocket, orbiting a world near the star Sirius. A cadet trained in astrophysics--Alex Monroe--joins them for the mission. Monroe is openly disdainful of the other cadets, allowing Astro and Thistle to bond over their dislike of the guy.

More serious problems soon arise, though. Aside from the discovery that the robot rocket is hurling towards Sirius, there are a couple of crooks following the Polaris. They plan to hijack the information contained in the rocket and use it to lay claim to a planet rich in uranium. This, of course, means they can't leave any witnesses behind.

Several nifty action sequences follow one after another. Astro and TJ crash in a jet boat on a dangerously radioactive planet where the atmosphere is thick with methane and visibility is virtually nil. 

This is followed by an attempt to capture the off-course robot rocket before it crashes into the star. This is a particularly good sequence, with each cadet (including Monroe, who is finally proving his worth) to use their respective skills to both reach the rocket in time and recover the information it contains. Skill, training, intelligence and determination are emphasized perhaps more effectively than in any other novel in the series except the first.

At one point, Monroe asks permission to do something very dangerous to ensure success. Tom tells him no, which sets off the normally easy-going Astro, who gives an absolutely epic speech on the responsibilites of leadership:

“I know my job,” Astro continued, “Roger and T.J. know their jobs, but I’m beginning to doubt if you know yours! Being in command of a ship and of men, being responsible for the lives of your passengers and crew is more than just turning a few switches and giving orders on the control deck. We’ve got automatic gear that can handle a ship better than you or anyone else. They put a commander on a ship to make decisions! Big decisions like the one you’re avoiding right now. Have you ever thought about what it’s going to be like when you get that black-and-gold officer’s uniform? You think it’s all going to be a bed of roses? You’re going to have to tell me to do things that are dangerous and that you want to do yourself, but you don’t dare, because if you’re lost, then the crew is without a skipper and the ship is lost. Of course it’s dangerous for Monroe to go out in the rocket— of course you want to go yourself and would go, if I wasn’t big enough to stop you. So what do you do? Instead of facing the decision of sending a man— possibly to his death— so he can find out the depth of his courage, you back out! You haven’t got the guts to be a commander, Corbett!” roared the big cadet. “You haven’t the courage to be able to tell a guy ‘Go out there and get yourself killed, because I’m the commander and I’m telling you to!’”

I love that this is included in a novel aimed at kids. It doesn't hold back at all in its lesson about leadership and trusts the kids reading the novel to get it.

In the meantime, the bad guys have hijacked the Polaris and captured Captain Strong. They plan to lure Tom and the other cadets into a trap, but Tom deduces what's going on and lays a countertrap...

It's a good novel and a solid ending to the book series. It would have been nice if we could have seen Tom, Astro, Roger and TJ eventually graduate, but with the TV series gone, it was inevitable that the books would come to an end.

Here, by the way, is the Tom Corbet fan page, which has good information about the TV show and its various iterations on radio, comic books and novels. 

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 5)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

We come to the last chapter of Avengers Annual #1 (1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck.

While all the other Avengers have spent the previous chapters fighting for their lives, Captain America and Quicksilver have been sitting on their duffs back at the Mansion.

Actually, that's not quite fair. What they've been doing is tracking Mandarin's transmissions sent to the various super villains. They've finally discovered the source of those transmissions, so they borrow a rocket from NASA and blast off into space.

Because the Mandarin's secret lair is a giant space station. The villain allows Cap and Pietro to board, because he wants the satisfaction of killing them personally. It's a tactically silly thing to do--he could have easily blown up their rocket while it approached the station. But this sort of ego-based decision fits a lot of master villains, including Mandarin. What could have seemed like a cheat by the writer comes across as an acceptable way to progress the story. 

Mandarin and the two heroes go at it for a round or two in another nicely choreographed fight scene--with everyone using tactics that make sense in a world ruled by Comic Book Logic. Then the other Avengers show up. Cap had, of course, sent them the coordinates.

But it's at this point that Mandarin unveils his master plan, showing off the big diamond we saw back in Chapter 1. It emits a hate ray. Mandarin wanted at least one of his villain teams to bring some diamonds back to him, which would have allowed him to amplify the power of the hate ray and blanket the Earth with it. All three of his teams failed, but the hate ray will still work at short range. The Mandarin pulls a lever and the Avengers are soon pounding away at each other. This allows Don Heck to give us a magnificent splash page.

 

In an ironic twist, the Mandarin doesn't stop to consider that one of the hate-filled Avengers might attack HIM. He soon finds himself bowled over by Wasp's sting, knocking the hate-ray lever to the OFF position as he falls. Before he can recover, Quicksilver wrecks his equipment at super speed. This causes some violent explosions, which tear a hole in the space station wall. The Mandarin is hurled into space, probably dead but one never knows about villains. 

In another nice ironic twist, the Avengers plug up the hole with the giant hate-diamond. They then rig the station to explode, crowd into the space craft that brought Cap and Pietro to the station, and head on home. 

It's a great climax to a great story. Don Heck gives us some superb fight scenes and the script is solid--with the action following Comic Book Logic in a way that allows us to follow the story as it jumped from one location around the world and off the world. The Mandarin's plan makes perfect sense within the confines of a Comic Book Universe and the characters are all given appropriate personalities and dialogue. This was fun from start to finish.

Next week, we'll take a break for Thanksgiving. (Readership always drops during the big holidays, so I've planned to begin skipping Thanksgiving week and Christmas week from now on.) In two weeks, we'll jump to the DC universe and look at a Justice League annual. 

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!

This 1961 cover is tentatively credited to Jack Abel.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "Cricket" 3/15/45

A dog can be heard moving around a house and occasionally howling. The odd thing about this is that the dog is dead.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

The Advantages of Having a Brain Tumor

 

The Thrilling Detective website refers to the short story "Prognosis Negative," by Floyd Mahannah, as a "quick mean blast of nastiness." That's an accurate description of the tale. And that's a good thing.

The story appeared in the March 1953 issue of Manhunt, the source for some of the best hard-boiled short fiction ever written. It's narrated by a private detective named Jim Makin. Makin is sad, because he's just found out he has an inoperable brain tumor. 

He's also working on a tough case, looking for the husband of a Mexican woman who is, in turn, being looked for by a local mobster. She worked as a housemaid for the guy, but when she found out that some of her expected duties were rather... intimate, she grabbed sixty grand in cash and ran for it.

A thug shows up in Makin's office, looking for the woman. Under normal circumstances, Makin would have been terrified and tried to talk his way out of trouble. But now... well, his prognosis is negative. He has nothing to lose.

That leads to a beaten, unconscious thug. Later, when the woman is found by the mobster, that negative prognosis leads to Makin charging into the mobster's home. That plan doesn't work out well, but as long as Makin has nothing to lose, he might still find a way to dig himself and the woman out of trouble. If he gets killed, he only loses a year at the most. He might as well go for broke--even if there are four armed bad guys and he no longer has a gun...

It's a brutal story, but that's a strength. Hard-boiled detective tales normally take place in a brutal, cynical universe, often reflecting the worst aspects of human nature. But the good guys in this universe fight back--heroism exists side-by-side with corruption. Makin fights back because he no longer has a reason not to fight--but he does fight. 

You can read the story online HERE. 

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 4)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

Avengers Annual #1 (1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck, was epic. It's even--on its own--made me a fan of Heck's art. I had always thought of his work as good, but a little stiff. But he was simply killing it here. I need to go back and look at some of his other work--it's possible I've been way too harsh on him.

In this chapter, Thor and Hawkeye confront the Living Laser in an unnamed African city. No country is given either--the city seems to have a mostly white population, which might have still be possible in a few places in 1967. This is another fun chapter, but if I were going to criticize it, it would be to point out that the setting is pretty generic. It is indeed supposed to be Africa, which gives room for a lot of different cultural styles. But, from what we see, this story could have been set in downtown Trenton without making a difference to the plot. It's a minor point, though, since the enusing fight seen is pretty darn cool. 

When L.L. is confronted by the two Avengers, the villain manages to dodge Thor's hammer. In turn, Thor blocks return laser fire. Hawkeye then claims first crack at the bad guy. 

It actually makes sense that Thor's sense of honor would cause him to hold back after Hawkeye states he wants to go first. It's an excuse to give us some Hawkeye vs. Living Laser scenes without Thor (whose raw power would bring the fight to an end quickly) taking part. But its a reasonable excuse that fits the characters.

And the Hawkeye/Living Laser fight is pretty cool, with both of them using intelligence tactics and counterstrikes against one another. In the end, though, the archer manages to pin the bad guy to a wall.

But it's at this point that the Mandarin's big, giant android Ultimo bursts out of a pit and changes the odds. He manages to knock Mjolnir out of Thor's hands, which means the Thunder God will turn back into Donald Black in 60 seconds. Hawkeye distracts Ultimo long enough for Thor to retrieve the hammer (in the absolute nick of time--Thor even changes back into Black for a moment before recovering Mjolnir). Thor then batters the android back into the pit from which he emerged, then uses lightning to seal the pit shut.

So all three of Mandarin's schemes have been foiled (and keep in mind that we have been given no clear idea of what the villain's goal might be). 

So we get another fun chapter with another well-choreographed and nigh-epic fight scene. My only minor complaint was that it was stressed in an earlier chapter that this was taking place in Africa, but then we were given no real sense of place when the action starts.

In the next chapter, Captain American and Quicksilver will finally get off their lazy butts and track Mandarin to his lair, bringing us one last epic chapter before the story ends. We'll look at the final chapter next week. 

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!!!

From 1960, here's a Sam Glanzman cover.