Blackhawk #102, "The Doom Cloud!"

BLACKHAWK #102, July 1956; published by Quality Comics; Alfred Grenet listed
in the indicia as editor with Richard Arnold as Associate Editor;
cover-featuring "See the Fantastic Flying Airport in THE DOOM CLOUD!" Oddly, there's
not a cloud in the sky on the cover, but there's a lot of other stuff in the
sky, as a futuristic flying-wing type aircraft and some regular planes attack
a ship and the boat on which the Blachawks are riding with bombs and
gunfire. Blackhawk stands heroically shouting orders, to whom it's not clear, since
the Blackhawks are behind him firing a machine gun at the attacking aircraft.

Review by Bill Henley

Like a few of the reviews I've done, this one is technically off-topic,
since it's really pre-Silver Age rather than SA. I recently managed to acquire
DC's BLACKHAWK ARCHIVE volume, which I'd been wanting to get for a long time,
and it inspired me to pull out one of my collection of Quality BLACKHAWK
issues to review. There's little doubt that the first "Silver Age" issue of
BLACKHAWK was #108, Jan. 1957, the first DC published issue. This is a sign,
however, that "Silver Age" did not automatically mean "better comics" than
their predecessors of the Golden/Silver Age interregnum. The end of the Quality
run of BLACKHAWK may have been only a shadow of the days when Reed Crandall
led the team through WWII, but still these Cold War sagas are more interesting
and exciting than the Silver Age DC tales pitting the Blackhawks against
alien menaces and what Mark Evanier called "factory-second costumed villains".

There are no credits on these stories and I have no idea who the writers
were, but the art I'm pretty sure is by the regular team of Dick Dillin,
pencils, and Chuck Cuidera, inker (and, at least by his own account, creator of
Blackhawk).

On the splash page of the first story, the Blackhawks storm into a science
lab to find a white-coated scientist being held helpless by the tentacle-arms
of a robot mounted on tank tracks. The inventor screams, "EEEAHHH! You
wouldn't destroy your own creator? Where is your gratitude?" A voice emanating
from a nearby computer console coldly informs him, "I am only what you made
me....a THINKING MACHINE! I have no emotions!" The opening caption reads,
"ADAM X was an electronic brain... a complex marvel... in one hour it solved
problems that would take human brains a lifetime! It even had a solution for
the biggest problem of all...how to become ruler of the world! First, it
said, ELIMINATE THE BLACKHAWKS.... the ultimate machine that could become MASTER
OF MANKIND!"

As our story begins, a truck driver is making a regular delivery of brass
and copper and stainless steel to the lab of one Dr. Snye. The driver is
curious what the good (?) doctor is "cooking up"in his lab, and eager to make the
better acquaintance of "Vera, who works with him...boy, what a gal!" But
first he has to collect some cash, for it seems Dr. Snye has not paid yet for
his previous shipments of supplies. But when the driver knocks on the door, he
is met by a metallic creature who demands delivery and has no intention of
making a payment. While other robots unload the truck, the driver flees;
pursued by the lead robot. By happy coincidence, the Blackhawks just happen to
be passing overhead in their jets, and observing the drama below, Blackhawk
uses his guns while passenger Chop Chop enthuses, "Velly clack shot destloy
robot but not hit victim!" (Incidentally, Chop Chop here, while obviously still
a politically incorrect ethnic stereotype, is no longer quite the fat and
giganticaly bucktoothed monstrosity he was in the earlier Quality days. I used
to assume the humanization of Chop Chop was a DC innovation, but actually it
began in the latter days of the Quality run.)

Landing near the lab, the Blackhawks greet Dr. Snye, who emerges and thanks
them for preventing a possible tragedy. "I don't get this, Dr. Snye! You
talk as if you didn't have full control of your own robots!" Snye explains
that indeed he does not, as the automatons are under the direct control of Adam
X, his invention. "It isn't just another super-calculating machine. Adam X
can THINK!" And obviously not programmed for modesty, Adam X chimes in, "I
am Adam X-- world's greatest mind!" The Blackhawks respond with expressions
of amazement such as "Donnewetter!" and "Yumping Yudas!" They respond more
favorably to another occupant of the lab, Vera, Snye's shapely "niece and
assistant," especially Andre; "MMMM! Tres bien! Tres joli! Also oo-la-la,
M'amselle Vera!" Not one to be distracted by a pretty face, Blackhawk demands
further explanations, and Snye explains that Adam X is programmed to "select the
most direct solution" to any problem. In this case the problem was that
Snye had run out of money for supplies (what happened to those Pentagon research
grants?) and Adam concluded the most "direct solution" was to take supplies
without paying. Sternly, Blackhawk warns that Snye had better disconnect the
brain before it gets him in real trouble. Meanwhile, the still-panicky
truck driver is calling the cops.

After the Blackhawks depart, Dr. Snye is of two minds; he knows Adam X is a
threat, but "there is so much I need to know and only Adam X can give me the
answers1" Vera has no doubts about what should be done; "A brain without a
soul is....is evil!" Resolving to disconnect Adam, Snye goes to do so and
finds the brain is still cogitating on the problem of obtaining funds and has
decided on the ultimate solution; "Rule the world and everything you need is
yours for the taking!" Snye protests that he has neither the desire nor
ability to rule the world, but Adam has an answer for that too; "You have only
feeble human brain! Adam X has perfect mind! Adam X will rule world for you!"
Convinced at last that Adam must cease to function, Snye tries to pull the
plug, but too late, for Adam has had the robots rewire his control panel so
that anyone trying to disconnect him gets an electric shock. Pursued by Adam's
robots, Snye and Vera try to radio the Blackhawks for help. Meanwhile, the
local cops are mobilizing for action, having actually believed the truck
driver's wild story of rampaging mechanical men. And a gang of crooks, hearing
the reports on a police scanner, decides to try to beat the police to the scene
and seize the robots for their own criminal use. And Snye reaches the
Blackhawks and alerts them, just before the robots capture and silence him.

The criminal gang blocks the police by moving a disabled car across the only
road to the isolated lab. Observing the forces converging on the lab, Adam
X gives the order, "Destroy all police! Leave criminals alive till their
usefulness is over!" The Blackhawks land their jets, commenting, "Yas ban a
yigantic yoke on Dr. Snye!" "It will be a joke on the world, Olaf...a mighty
grim joke....if that mechanical genius takes over! And it could!" Rushing
towards the lab, the Blackhawks encounter the criminal gang; "The Blackhawks!
Now's our chance to get rid of them too and collect a fat bonus from the
boss!" But instead the black knights make short work of the gang, which flees,
only to be menaced by Dr. Snye's creations; "Yow! It's one of those roberts,
or whatever you call it!" "Robot, you fathead!" The crooks' getaway car
crashes into one of the robots and then is hurled over a cliff by the robot as
the crooks flee. Leaving the crooks to the finally arriving cops, the
Blackhawks hurry to Snye's lab. Eager to rescue "la belle Vera," Andre tries to
unplug Adam but is shocked into unconsicousness. "Dr. Snye! Compared to your
creation, Dr. Frankenstein was a two-bit piker!" Blackhawk sets out to try to
cut the cables feeding the brain power from outside, as the other Blackhawks
run interference by tackling the robots. Another squad of robots is foiled
in its mission to destroy the Blackhawk jets, as the Blackhawks have cannily
set the planes to take to the air again under remote control. Failing to
reach the outside cables, Blackhawk makes a try to reach the inside cutoff
switch using his "insulated boot" to protect against shock. One of the robots
blocks him, but Blackhawk somehow manages to grab it by the arm, swing it around
on its tank tread ("Wheee! Blackhawk play clack-the-whip!") and propel
the robot into Adam X's control panel, smashing the panel and short-circuiting
Adam X. All flee as the lab is destroyed by fire, and Dr. Snye mourns the
loss of his life's work, but there are no hard feelings on Blackhawk's part;
"You can start againon some safe project! We'll see that you get a spot and
funds to work with!" And as they take off in their jets, our heroes improvise
yet another verse of their endless song...."No evil mind can rule a land, as
long as we can take a hand! WE'RE BLACKHAWKS!"

Before continuing with the Blackhawks' adventures, we get a four-page filler
war story, "Critical Target!" Set during the recent Korean War, the story
tells of Squadron Commander Dawson, whose dilemma in picking aircrews for a
vital bombing strike on a North Korean target is particularly acute. His best
flight leader is Captain Carroll, a former friend who is now his romantic
rival for the same girl back home. Because of Carroll's abilities, Dawson has
little choice but to pick him to lead the dangerous mission, but Carroll is
convinced Dawson is scheming to get him killed so Dawson can get the girl. The
anger gets even worse when Dawson returns from his mission alive, only to be
told the higher brass have ordered a second strike on the "critical target",
and Carroll is to lead that too. Once again, Carroll makes it back but is
determined to punch Dawson in the jaw, until he learns that Dawson is missing
in action-- refusing to order others to take risks he will not share, he has
taken a place on one of the bombers, and it was the only one not to return
from the second mission. After Dawson manages to bring his crippled plane in
on one engine, the two men are reconciled as "firm friends".

After fighting a sci-fi menace on American soil in their first story, the
Blackhawks return to more familiar ground for these pre-SA yarns-- battling
Communists in foreign territory-- in the cover-featured "Doom Cloud!" On the
splash panel, Blackhawk leaps from his own jet toward a Red plane, as Chop Chop
bemoans, "Oh woe! Blackhawk jumpee without parachute!" (Oddly, neither the
cover scene nor this splash scene exactly appear in the story.) "It's okay,
Chop Chop! I'm sure this joker will lend me his!" The freighter Lulane,
bound for Formosa (aka Taiwan), with "munitions for the Nationalist Chinese
defenders", is puzzled by the approach of a cloud in the sky moving against the
wind. Puzzlement turns to terror as the cloud spits out a swarm of gliders
carrying bombs to blow up the ship's volatile cargo. The Lulane radios the
Blackhawks for help before being blown up and sunk. Arriving in their jets in
time to investigate and help rescue survivors, the Blackhawks are puzzled by
the report, since gliders can't normally operate out at sea without the heat
waves that rise over land. They fly through clouds but find no trace of the
gliders, then receive a report that now the sinister gliders are attacking
Fushan harbor. Again failing to find the attackers, Blackhawk concludes that
the Reds have created a flying aircraft carrier which somehow conceals itself
within a cloud and pulls back its fleet of gliders-- "soundless, cheap and
expendable"-- when their mission is done. The Blackhawks decide to sleep on
the problem, but during the night the silent gliders make a landing on
Blackhawk Island itself (which somehow at some point moved from its original
Atlantic Ocean location to the Pacific). , and the pilots emerge to spray their
barracks with rifle fire. But to no avail, for the Blackhawks have been alerted
by "electronic detectors"-- "Yiiii! They were only dummies!" "We thought
the same thing about you and your mob!" While the Blackhawks battle the Reds
and send them fleeing to their gliders, their smallest member has a
brainstorm; "Oh woe! Chop Chop has fine idea....so good it scares honorable self...
but must do same for sake of Blackhawk victory!" While the Blackhawks find the
Reds have blocked the air intakes of their own jets, Chop Chop takes the
pilot's seat of one of the Red gliders so that he will be drawn up with them and
discover their secret. "Chop Chop, you crazy, nervy kid! Break off and
land again!" "So solly, but cannot control glider! It climbs without power!
Will keep belt radio open on guide beam so Blackhawks can follow!"

Arriving at the gliders' base, Chop Chop discovers, as Blackhawk suspected,
that it is a giant aircraft carrier held aloft by helicopter rotors and using
an electromagnetic generator to lift the gliders. Though he is Asian like
the Red Chinese pilots, Chop Chop is betrayed by his glider's lack on an
identification signal. "I am Comrade Nichivo, inventor of the flying carrier!
And you are one of the stupid Blackhawks!" "So solly! I am stupid all by self
to thlust head into noose in most unhappy manner!" After seemingly foiling
Blackhawk pursuit by releasing tinfoil strips to foul their radar, Nichivo
tries to force information from Chop Chop, but "Chop Chop velly solly but have
been bitten by mad Red! Have bad case of LOCKJAW! Cannot talk!" "He's as
stubborn as all the Blackhawks! Get rid of him! I have no time to fool with
stupid tools of capitalism!" Nichivo orders. But as Chop Chop is is about
to face a Red firing squad, the Blackhawks land their jets atop the carrier--
having been guided by Chop Chop's radio despite the tinfoil ploy-- and rescue
him and capture the carrier for the Nationalist Chinese. Flying off again,
they sing, "We did our jobs...we met the foe...we think we have a right to
crow.... AS BLACKHAWKS!'

In the days before letter columns became common, the one or two page text
story, required by postal regulations, was a common feature in comic books, but
rarely did this token text story feature the comic's regular character.
BLACKHAWK was an exception (and I'll bet that because of it, more readers
actually read the text story than usual). In "Intercepted Peril", while carrying
out a mission in Zingra City, where "the formal duel is not only legal but
practically necessary", Blackhawk is repeatedly challenged to duels and realizes
there is a plot for him to be faced by one challenger after another until
one of them finally kills him. He goads all thirteen of the plotters into
challenging him at once, and, as the challenged party, sets the conditions;
himself alone against all 13 at once, with fists, in a darkened room. Even the
Blackhawks cannot believe their leader can win against such odds, and they are
amazed when he emerges unharmed while his foes are all battered and beaten.
Blackhawk explains he simply withdrew into a corner and let all the
challengers beat each other to a pulp trying to find him.

Finally, in a regular comics story the Blackhawks discover "The Red
Professor's Secret!" In a castle courtyard, all the Blackhawks are covered by
purple-uniformed Red soldiers' guns, as Blackhawk moans, 'G-great guns, men! We've
blundered into a Red trap!" A beautiful woman named Fraulein Hegel is being
interrogated by West German law officers, but refuses to reveal vital
information to any lesser personage than Blackhawk. Accordingly, the Blackhawks
are summoned to the scene, with Hendrickson directed to handle relations with
the locals; "Ja, Blackhawk! Chermany is my old home!" (Hendrickson was
originally Dutch. I wonder when exactly he changed into an anti-Nazi German?)
The "distraught girl" reveals that her fiancee, physicist Professor Gartmann,
was kidnapped by Communist East German agents and is being held in a temporary
prison until he can be spirited behind the Iron Curtain Escaping
momentarily from his captors, Gartman called his fiancee on the phone and begged her to
obtain the help of the Blackhawks to rescue him, since only the famed black
knights can be trusted not to be Red agents. The Blackhawks agree to try to
rescue Gartmann from his prison at Todgraf Castle in the Bavarian Alps. On
the way, however, Blackhawk muses that he whole things seems a bit fishy;
maybe Gartmann is himself a Red who engineered his own "kidnapping" as a cover
for a plot. Nonetheless, they press on to Todgraf Castle, where they are
greeted by its master, Baron Von Horla, who seems to be hospitable and
cooperative-- until he springs a Red trap on our heroes. And the mastermind behind the
trap is none other than Fraulein Hegel herself-- she, not Professor Gartman,
is the Red spy. Gartmann is an innocent victim whom the Fraulein used as
bait to lure the Blackhawks, the Red's archfoes, into her trap (and so the story
title is in error, since he's not really a "Red professor".. Herded into a
cell along with Gartmann, Blackhawk incautiously drops a hint that rather
than being a mere pawn, Gartmann actually is developing a secret weapon for the
Allies. Intrigued, Fraulein Hegal demands that her former fiancee
demonstrate the weapon. But Gartmann has realized Blackhawk's real plan, and after
demanding "certain chemicals" in order to create his "weapon", he creates a
sudden explosion to catch the bad guys off guard. The Blackhawks subdue the
Reds with flying fists, and those who escape are caught by West German police
whom Blackhawk earlier alerted as a precaution. The Blackhawks win again, but
they don't sing about it this time, or at least we don't get to "hear" them.
(Earlier in the days of the Quality BLACKHAWK, the beautiful woman who turns
out to be an evil schemer was an almost invariable figure of the stories--
someone involved with the series must have been a real misogynist. This tale
is a throwback to that era.)

Doom Patrol #121 (last issue)

DOOM PATROL #121; DC Comics; Sept.-Oct. 1968; Murray Boltinoff, editor;
featuring "The Death of the Doom Patrol?", written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Bruno Premiani.

(This review by Bill Henley is a rerun of sorts. I reviewed this issue
years ago in the SAR list's pre-Yahoo days. That review was long ago lost in a
hard disk crash, but some interest was recently expressed in seeing this
unusual issue reviewed again, so I've pulled out my copy to reconstruct the
review.)

Traditionally, from the Golden through the Silver Ages, comic books and
ongoing series cancelled by the publishers went quietly, with no official
announcement to the readers and no attempt at "closure" for the series. (EC was an
exception in this as much else, as several of their titles featured
"farewell" notices in the last issues.) The remaining fans of a dead series might
become aware only gradually that it was gone, as a new issue failed to show up
on the newsstands for months....or as something else showed up in the slot of
a cancelled series (as with the experience that seems to have scarred Roy
Thomas' childhood, when he subscribed to ALL-STAR COMICS and received only one
issue before the title converted to ALL-STAR WESTERN featuring "a bunch of
cowboys and Indians" in place of his beloved JSA. ) This may be because when a
publisher decided to cancel a title or series, they immediately stopped
production of new stories, giving no chance to write an "ending"; or because the
publishers and editors didn't want to be bothered with complaints and protests
from diehard fans of a cancelled series.

However, during the Bronze Age and later, it became increasingly common for
publishers to announce in the last issue (or even before) the cancellation of
a title, and sometimes to produce some sort of wrap-up to the series. That
trend may have started with this issue of DOOM PATROL. The DP launched in
1963 (initially as a feature in MY GREATEST ADVENTURE, which converted to DOOM
PATROL keeping MGA's numbering) as a team of freakish, bickering superheroes
strongly resembling Marvel's Fantastic Four. However, the early issues had a
pleasing combination of DC and Marvel styles and carved for the series its
own niche in the Silver Age. Later, DP suffered from an overdose of "camp"
humor during the Batmania era. With "camp" waning, the DP stories got more
serious again, but sales declined nonetheless. But editor Murray Boltinoff
seems to have had a special fondness for the title, and decided to make an
unusual effort to save it. And so, we come to this issue.....

On the cover (signed by Joe Orlando) spectral figures of the four original
Doom Patrol members-- Negative Man. Elasti-Girl, Robotman and The Chief--
stand (in the wheelchair-bound Chief's case, sit) despondently amidst their own
tombstones and open graves. "Death" covers were common in DC comics around
this time, but this time they meant business. The blurb is, "Is This the
BEGINNING or the END of the DOOM PATROL? YOU DECIDE!"

The splash page depicts story artist Bruno Premiani completing a panel of
the shocked DP members facing oncoming doom, and anxiously asking editor
Boltinoff, "It's true, Murray? They will die? You didn't tell me how to finish
this page? You're gonna kill our-- Doom Patrol?" Addressing Bruno but
pointing a finger directly at the reader, Murray Boltinoff replies, "I don't know,
Bruno! It's not up to me! Unless the 'Marines' send help, the Doom Patrol
will die after this issue! And you, jolly reader, YOU are the Marines! Only
you can save the Doom Patrol now-- and I KID YOU NOT!"

(Reportedly, this page was originally drawn to include writer Arnold Drake,
who had scripted every issue of DP, with help from Bob Haney on the debut
issue. But Drake was on the outs with DC management, possibly because of an
attempt to form a writers' and artists' union. Drake moved on to Marvel for a
while, and his image was retouched out of this story panel. Apparently, if
DOOM PATROL *had* continued, it would have been with a new scripter.)

Artist Premiani continues to lament the impending loss of the Doom Patrol;
Robotman, "tin man with a human brain"; Elasti-Girl, who gave up a movie
career for superheroics, "the biggest star role I ever played"; Negative Man, who
gained the power to control the super-fast energy being Negative Man at the
cost of being radioactive; "You win some, you lose some, Bruno!"-- and the
Chief, "greatest brain in the world!" Premiani again protests killing these
great guys off, but Boltinoff reiterates their fate is up to the readers; "Later
we'll tell them how they just MIGHT save the DP!"

As the actual story begins, a fiendishly grinning Madame Rouge-- the French
villainess with elastic powers who in previous issues had wavered in loyalty
between the Brotherhood of Evil and the DP's Chief-- prepares with her
henchmen to release a bomb on "Target Zero", an unassuming-looking house.
Meanwhile, her former Brotherhood of Evil colleagues, the disembodied Brain and the
intelligent gorilla Monsieur Mallah, wonder what Madame Rouge will do. Mallah
is pleased she has clearly turned against the Doom Patrol, but the Brain is
convinced she poses just as much of a threat to the Brotherhood. And he is
proven right sooner than he knows, since "Target Zero" is the Brotherhood
headquarters and the Brain and Mallah are literally blown sky-high by Rouge's
bomb. At Doom Patrol headquarters, the Chief learns of the apparent death of
their archfoes. Robotman and Negative Man are unfazed-- "There goes another fun
group!"-- but the Chief warns that the DP, and he personally, will be
Rouge's next target. "The only woman I ever-- loved-- is out to destroy me!"
Robotman scoffs, "Baloney! The Brain was probably knocked off by some other
criminal genius-- like the Kidney or the Lung!" Once again, Rouge proves him
wrong very quickly, as a car passing the DP headquarters rains machine gun fire on
the building. The DP members escape harm, but an innocent bystander on the
street is wounded. As Negative Man carries the man to the hospital.
Robotman gathers the spent bullets for ballistic analysis. But the Chief shouts a
warning, and Robotman shoves a "dud" shell under a sofa cushion just in time
to muffle an explosion. Knowing that the Chief would gather the bullets for
analysis, Rouge set up one as a "mini-bomb". "She knows all about us! Didn't
I generously take her into our little nest and teach her? GAAAAAD!"

Meanwhile, the remaining Doom Patrol member Rita Farr, aka Rita Dayton, aka
Elasti-Girl, is trying to spend some quality time with her husband,
millionaire Steve Dayton (an occasional DP ally, as the psychically-powered Mento,
but not a member). But between Dayton's financial dealings and college
teaching hobby, and Rita Farr Dayton's DP duties, the recently-weds don't get much
down time together. "Listen, sweetie, when are you gonna leave that gang of
far-out Boy Scouts!" "When they no longer need me, you know that!" And a
radio bulletin about the machine gun attack on DP headquarters tells Rita that
the team still needs her. As she puts on her DP uniform and rushes out,
Dayton gripes, "Marconi, drop dead!" Arriving at DP headquarters, Elasti-Girl is
startled to find Robotman and Negative Man aiming heavy guns at her. "Put
down those shooting irons!" "Not on your life! Madame Rouge just declared
all-out war! So if you want to sign up, this is the recruiting office!" But
a caption warns, "If you knew what was ahead, girlie, you'd burn your draft
card!"

As the story continues following a house ad for a "Lois Lane Wedding 80 Page
Giant", Rita learns how Madame Rouge is targeting her one-time lover for
death and confesses, "For the first time in the history of the Doom Patrol--
I'm REALLY scared!" The Chief tries to be reassuring; "As the youngsters say
today, don't lose your cool!" Then three mystery "blips" on the DP's
oscilloscope turn out to be helicopters dropping incendiary bombs on the DP's
mansion. Fortunately, the mansion itself is completely fireproof (I guess Rouge
didn't notice that when she was hanging out there) and two of the enemy choppers
are brought down by the DP's "hunter rockets", while Negative Man blows up
the third. But the attack leaves a scene of chaos in the surrounding
neighborhood; Negative man compares it to "London after the Nazi blitz", and Rita
thinks it resembles "Dante's nightmare of Hell", while to Robotman it just
reminds him of "my pal P. J. O'Mara's bar and grill after a Saturday night
fun-fest!" But the Chief is not feeling jocular and warns that Madame Rouge's
vendetta against the DP "endangers every living thing in the city!" Wilmer Boggs,
a representative arriving on the scene from the Federal government in
Washington DC, agrees, and delivers government orders for the DP to leave the city
and seek sanctuary until "the woman called Rouge can be hunted down!"
Robotman does not react well to the thought of running from a fight, especially
when Boggs threatens the DP with "deportation" if they don't leave voluntarily.
(Legally, of course, U.S. citizens can't be "deported", though they could be
arrested or placed in 'protective custody".) But Rita breaks up a
confrontation between Robotman and Boggs, and the Chief agrees for the team to
evacuate the city, much to Cliff's disgust. The disgust is increased when, as the
DP members board a plane, their adoring fans see them off with jeers and signs
reading "So Long Scared Patrol" and "Bye-Bye Cry Babies". But Robotman and
the others are mollified when the Chief reveals their destination-- not a
government hiding place, but an "impregnable fortress" on a Caribbean island,
previously prepared for just such an emergency, with its own nuclear power
plant and heavy weaponry, from which the DP can prepare its own counterattack
against Madame Rouge.

But once again Rouge-- and her new ally, Captain Zahl, a former Nazi U-boat
commander with his own longstanding grudge against Niles Caulder aka the
Chief-- seem to be a step ahead. They are lurking near the DP's new island HQ in
Zahl's submarine, and launch an attack before the DP can settle into their
new "fortress". A missile from the sub blows up the plane the DP just arrived
in. Zahl's frogmen from the sub attack on the beach, but are easily
defeated by an angry Robotman. But then Zahl surfaces the sub and launches a trio of
weapons specially designed to counter the DP's powers. A cannon blasts
Larry Trainor with irradiated sand, which at first seems harmless, but then Larry
finds "The sand blasted into your skin is completely radio-resistant! Your
Negative Man is imprisoned within you!" Elasti-Girl grows to giant size but
is trapped by a giant steel net which will not allow her to grow further and
which is too strong for her to break out of. (Why she can't *shrink* out of
the net isn't clear.) Robotman starts to free Rita from the net, but he in
turn is immobilized by a "magnetic charge" fired from the sub which
"permanently magnetized half of the tiny motors that activate you!" And so, with the
Chief helpless in his wheelchair, the Doom Patrol seems to be at the mercy of
Captain Zahl and Madame Rouge. But Zahl has a fate literally worse than
death in mind for our heroes....

The sneering ex-Nazi sub commander notes that what the Chief values most is
his reputation as a defender of common humanity. "You vould love to die for
'glorious mankind', ja? But vould you die for the smallest part of it? Vould
you die for a handful of stupid, ordinary men?" It seems that Zahl has
wired explosives to Codsville, Maine, "a small crumbling town in New England",
home to "14 useless fishermen! They die in two minutes-- or YOU do!" Zahl
holds one plunger which will blow up Codsville, and another which will destroy
the DP in their traps. The Chief must choose. Zahl fully expects which
choice the Chief will make, and then "Every vord we say is being broadcast to the
world! Ven you make der LOGICAL choice-- all vill know dot der great Chief
loves HIS skin first-- like any man!"

The Chief asks his DP comrades to share in the choice; shall they die for
"14 ORDINARY men-- STRANGERS to us"? "Strangers, Chief? Didn't you teach us--
ALL men are our brothers?", Negative Man replies. Elasti-Girl and Robotman
cite the Pilgrim Fathers and the "Hebrew children", once "ordinary men", now
figures of history and legend. And so the choice is clear. And now
dissension appears amongst the DP"s foes, as now Madame Rouge insists that the plan
was for the Chief, whom she once loved and perhaps still somehow does, to be
humiliated but not actually killed. Zahl is still convinced that the DP will
save their own skins, but he is proven wrong; "Here is our answer, Zahl!
FIRE AWAY!" "Fools! HEROIC FOOLS! So be it!" And, over Rouge's protests,
Zahl hits the plunger which causes the DP's island to blow up in a gigantic
explosion. Rouge screams, "You betrayed me! You killed heem-- a man who was
worth 100 of you!" "Stupid voman! What do I care for your childish love
affair! Even till der last minute he taunted me! But he vill not taunt me again!
Niles Caulder and his Doom Patrol-- are dead!"

Dead, perhaps, but not forgotten, as the news flashes around the world;
"Could all the super-deeds of this astounding group equal this single lesson in
courage?" The people of a tiny New England town agree, "Codsville is dead!
But our renamed village of FOUR HEROES, Maine, is just beginning! And we'll
make it one THEY could be proud of!" And the next day, Steve Dayton orders
his yacht close to the destroyed island despite the still "boiling ocean
floor", in order to drop a memorial flower into the water; "Goodbye, my love! This
is not your last resting place! Your shrine is within me!" And then Dayton
speeds away to begin a grim mission; "I'll spend every part of a billion
dollars to do it-- to destroy those who took her from me! NOT A SINGLE ONE
SHALL ESCAPE!" (Curiously, we don't see how the DP's one-time junior member
Beast Boy reacts to the loss. Perhaps it was thought at that point BB was a
better-ignored remnant of the team's "camp" era.)

The Doom Patrol seemed to react in an oddly passive fashion to the traps and
ultimatum of Zahl and Rouge. Certainly they had overcome worse dangers in
their career. And indeed, Boltinoff and Drake must have had some idea at
least vaguely in mind as to how the heroes could actually escape their apparent
doom. But whether they would get the chance, lay in other hands. For the
last panel, we return to Boltinoff and Premiani, as the Argentine artist asks,
"Then it IS true? They are dead? The Doom Patrol would never fight again?"
"It would take a miracle to change that ending, Bruno! A tougher job than
even the DP ever faced! And only you out there-- the reader-- could do it!
You always wanted to be a superhero didn't you? Okay, Charlie-- let's see you
try!" "THE END-- or IS it, CHARLIE?" This is followed by a truncated
half-page letter column. After a few comments on preceding issues, editor
Boltinoff addresses the readers again; "So where do we go from here, all you
disciples of the Doom Patrol? Do you believe that they must never be banished from
our midst, that theirs has been a soul-stirring, provocative, exciting and
unique contribution to comicdom, or do they perish with this issue, fade
ignominiously from the scene? Does it really make no difference, or will it feel
as if you suddenly lost five trusted friends? You, and only you and your
pals, have the answer, and that answer is in a sudden spurt in sales! So tell
your friends! Tell your enemies, even... to buy, BUY this issue.... or it's
bye-bye Doom Patrol!"

But if any readers respondied at the time, going out and buying multiple
copies of the issue or urging their buddies to buy copies, there apparently
weren't enough of them to make a difference. DOOM PATROL was cancelled and, for
the time being, stayed cancelled, and the DP members stayed apparently dead.
Almost ten years later, in 1977, a revived version of the DP started
appearing, in SHOWCASE and later in its own title, but Robotman (who was salvaged
and rebuilt by none other than the Metal Men's Doc Magnus) was initially the
only carry-over member. That revival series eventually mutated from a
conventional superhero series to a bizarre semi-absurdist series written by Grant
Morrison and others. I didn't really follow that series, but I gather that during
its course the Chief and the other original DP members were eventually
brought back to life, though in weirdly changed forms. Much more recently, the
Doom Patrol was "rebooted" by John Byrne, with the Chief, Negative Man,
Robotman and Elasti-Girl starting their careers over from the beginning, and the
original series, apparently including their "deaths", retconned out of DC
continuity. The new series wasn't a sales success (personally I thought it was
OK, and I didn't object to the retcon/reboot, but somehow it never quite
caught the spark of the original series) and was cancelled in its turn, but at
least the heroes survived the cancellation this time....

Metamorpho #17, "Last Mile for an Element Man!"

METAMORPHO #17; Mar.-Apr. 1968; DC Comics; George Kashdan, editor; featuring the Element Man in a tale written by regular Meta-scribe Bob Haney, drawn by new artist Jack Sparling, and given the unintentionally-- or was it?-- prophetic title, "Last Mile for an Element Man!" On the cover by Sparling, Metamorpho is on trial. He is surrounded by an angry crowd pointing accusing fingers at him, and a figure with a robe and gavel-- who wears a helmet with "see no evil" fingers covering his eyes-- shouts, "Justice is not blind, FREAK! Anyone can see you are...." Metamorpho himself finishes the sentence; "Guilty! Yeah... I'm guilty...GUILTY!" Review by Bill Henley On the splash page a prison guard with keys walks towards a cell as a clock ticks. It is ticking down the moments till a scheduled execution, and the condemned prisoner is none other than Metamorpho. ""All right, it's time...are you ready?" "Ready as I'll ever be, chum! Let's get it over with!" "What amazing turn in the fabulous life of the Element Man has brought him to this...the last mile? Walk with him toward death's bony embrace-- if you dare-- and all shall be utterly revealed!" As our hero walks toward his scheduled doom, he passes the witnesses to the execution, who include his former closest associates-- grim-faced tycoon Simon Stagg, a black-veiled Sapphire Stagg, and an eager grinning Java the caveman. Asked if he has any last words, Metamorpho says, "I'm glad it's over! I'm glad to be going! My real life ended a long time ago!" A tearful Sapphire suddenly breaks down, crying, "NO, REX, MY DARLING! IT CAN'T END THIS WAY! I LOVE YOU...I'LL ALWAYS LOVE ONLY YOU" But her father Simon Stagg holds her back, sternly warning her not to "besmirch the Stagg name" and reminding her that she herself "helped put Metamorpho here!" The means of execution is a "cryonic deep-freezer which alone can stop his unique life". As Metamorpho steps into it, he thinks, "So long, Sapph baby", as she continues to sob, Simon tries to comfort her by reminding her that she remains heiress to the Stagg "power and glory", and Java exults that Sapphire will now be his (yeah, right); "Has not Java waited a million years for this?" But how did Metamorpho get into this meta-mess? To find out, we go to a flashback to the end of the previous issue, in which the Element Man's foe Queen Jezeba suddenly aged thousands of years and died and her lost city of Ma-Phoor collapsed around her. Then a dark-cloaked figure called Mr. Shadow appears announcing, "Destiny has played its hand! Now you will do as I say!" But before our hero can hear Mr. Shadow's demands, someone else wants to give him orders. Two "international police agents" appear on the scene, accompanied by Simon, Sapphire and Java, and accuse Metamorpho of "murdering one Wally Bannister, husband of Sapphire Stagg!" "Yes, you beast, Rex, you killed my husband before the honeymoon even started! I HATE YOU, YOU INHUMAN MONSTER!" The police agents candidly admit they do not have the power to arrest the chemical-powered Element Man if he doesn't want to submit, but "appeal to (his) belief in law and order!" Metamorpho agrees, "I dig the law and order bit-- and I'm going to show you all this is just a crazy mistake!" He hopes not only to save his life but to "turn off that hate-light in Sapphire;s eyes!" But as the trial proceeds, a string of supposed eyewitnesses swear to seeing Metamorpho push Wally Bannister over the rail of a ship; Java gleefully testifies how Metamorpho was supposedly insanely jealous of any rival for Sapphire's love; and Simon Stagg as defense attorney (where did he get his law degree?) makes only a lame effort to defend his client by tacitly admitting guilt but urging the court to remember his client's past heroics and "judge him as a super-hero gone astray!" Our hero has no proof of his claim of having been far away in a now-destroyed lost city, and even Rex Mason himself begins to question his own innocence, wondering if he really killed Bannister in a "chemical blackout" and concluding despairingly, "Sapph...the whole world...they hate me now! No use going on living!" The story goes on, however, but not till after house ads for the new series HAWK & DOVE ("Steve Ditko, Like Lightning, Strikes Again!" and an ACTION COMICS/SUPERGIRL 80 Page Giant, and a page of "Contest Winners" suggesting creative ways for Metamorpho to use his chemical transformation powers, such as forming a clear glass safe for Stagg's money, a "beauty chair" for Sapphire, or starch for caveman Java's shorts. Following this frivolity, back to the grim business at hand, as Metamorpho freezes solid with a last thought of Sapphire and the "execution box" is given a burial at sea. He is remembered with mixed emotions, some people still hailing him as a hero and others rejoicing at his death. But one remaining admirer has the ability to do more than mourn, as Urania Blackwell, the former secret agent who in a previous issue gained Metamorpho-like powers as Element Girl, goes underwater to find and revive the man she too loves. But as she finds Metamorpho's sunken grave and turns her hand into an acetylene torch to free him, she is confronted by a new figure-- the guy from the cover who wears the "see no evil" helmet (along with skin-diving equipment) and declares that he is "The Prosecutor!" His "mission is this world" is to make sure anyone accused of a crime is found guilty-- regardless of whether or not they actually are guilty. The Prosecutor, working for a mysterious, unnamed "client", saw to Metamorpho's execution, and now his task is to make sure our hero stays dead. An angry Element Girl uses all her abilities against the Prosecutor, but he has powers of his own which threaten to overwhelm Element Girl in the underwater battle. But as they fight, seawater enters the crevice Element Girl made in Metamorpho's deep-freeze box and jams the cold-producing mechanism. Just as The Prosecutor is on the verge of defeating Element Girl with a force field, a pair of "magnetic armatures" appears to create a counter-force and stymie the agent of injustice, sending him fleeing on his "automated sea sled". Metamorpho has revived and acted to rescue his would-be rescuer. But he's not sure he's grateful; "Why didn't you just leave me in the 'Big Cool'? I'm a murderer... a stupid freak who commits crimes and doesn't even remember them!" But Element Girl reveals what The Prosecutor told her about his role in framing Metamorpho, and our revitalized hero vows that he will make The Prosecutor "clear the old Metamorpho name.... or I'll make buzzard bait of him!" Element Man and Girl follow Prosecutor's sled, hoping to trail him to his mysterious "client". His destination proves to be a barren volcanic island; "That joker's client couldn't hang out here...there's nothing on this burnt hunk of real estate!" But The Prosecutor summons a strange figure who arises out of smoke and flame from a volcano and is addressed as "Algon". Watching invisibly in the form of a cloud of hydrogen gas, Metamorpho remembers where he heard the name Algon before... Algon was the first Element Man, who had chemical powers ages before in the city of Ma-Phoor. Now he exists in a bath of lava which he hopes will fully restore his former powers, and he wants to be the only Element Man left standing. It was he who was recruited by The Prosecutor to pose as Rex Mason and murder Wally Bannister so that Metamorpho could be framed. Algon retreats into the lava bath, but Metamorpho does not fear to pursue him there, and the younger, stronger Element Man defeats his predecessor in battle. Then Algon starts to disintegrate, for the lava bath he thought would fully restore him to life is instead destroying him. In his last moments, Algon reveals how he was an ancient Roman soldier who entered a pyramid and gained element powers (just as Rex Mason did centuries later) until the treacherous Queen Jezeba of Ma-Phoor destroyed his powers with the Orb of Ra. The repentant, dying Algon urges Metamorpho, "Now you are the only Man of Elements! Do not abuse your sacred powers....use them for good!" As he dies, Algon sees the ghostly face of Jezeba, whom he still owes though she betrayed him. Metamorpho resolves to keep his vow by using his powers solely for the good of humanity and never again as "Stagg's errand boy! I'm gonna play it alone....my way...all the way!" Not alone, Element Girl reminds him, for she will be at his side. Our hero agrees, deciding he has been a "sap" about Sapphire, who failed to defend him when he was accused of murder. But the two of them will have "every cop in the world on our necks" unless Rex Mason can prove his innocence-- with his only defense witness, Algon, now dead. His only hope is to track down the Prosecutor again and learn the identity of his true "client". Meanwhile, the Prosecutor himself is entering a "hidden fortress" and confronting his "client", who can be seen only as a figure inside some sort of strange cocoon and surrounded by giant insects. Prosecutor confesses that he has failed to destroy Metamorpho for good, but vows to finish the job with some additional help from his "client". Nothing doing, says the "client", who has no tolerance for failure and is concerned that the Prosecutor may lead his enemies to him before he is ready to strike in person. The "client" summons a swarm of giant bees to penetrate Prosecutor's protective force field and sting him to death. And at this point, Metamorpho appears as closing narrator; "HOLY BLUE HANNAH, METAMANIACS! We gotta stop right now until next issue! Looks like my pal, the Prosecutor, is in large trouble! And like, who in blazes is this weirdo 'client' of his? I gotta find out to survive! Stick with the old Element Guy, kiddos, 'cause I'm gonna need all the help I can get in the next adventure of the world's most fabulous freak-- ME, METAMORPHO!" But if anybody waited eagerly for that next issue to learn more about the Prosecutor and his insectoid "client", they waited in vain. That next issue never showed up on the stands, and Metamorpho's subsequent adventures-- Batman team-ups in BRAVE & BOLD and a series of backup stories in ACTION COMICS and WORLD'S FINEST-- never picked up on the Prosecutor plotline. Nor did Metamorpho keep his resolve to operate strictly as a fighter for justice and renounce his love for Sapphire and his servitude to Simon Stagg. Element Girl vanished from sight after this issue, and later Metamorpho stories went back to the status quo of Rex Mason loving the flighty Sapphire and working, on and off, for Stagg. In my recent review of DOOM PATROL #121 I noted that that last issue of that series broke with an earlier tradition, in which cancelled comic-book titles would vanish abruptly without any warning and with no closure of any ongoing storylines. Obviously, this last issue of METAMORPHO follows that earlier tradition. The plug was pulled suddenly on the title and nobody in the editorial office cared enough to make an announcement in the last issue (the lettercol also makes no mention of the title ending) or rewrite the story to tie off the dangling plotlines. Conceivably, the "Last Mile' story title and opening scene of Metamorpho's "execution" reflected inside knowledge by writer and editor that the title was about to end, but more likely it was just standard fake jeopardy. (Some time later, METAMORPHO was mentioned in a Mark Hanerfeld "Wonderful World of DC" fan column in other DC books, among other vanished/cancelled titles whose fans had asked "Whatever happened to....?")

Sgt. Fury #8, "Death Ray of Dr. Zemo!"

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #8; July 1964; Marvel Comics Group;
featuring "The Death Ray of Dr. Zemo!", edited and written by Stan Lee (credited
as "Ex-Sgt. Stan Lee"), pencilled by "Ex-Corp. Dick Ayers", inked by "George
Bell" (no military rank given, and actually a nom de guerre for George
Roussos) and lettered by Sam Rosen. (This review actually based on the reprint of
the story appearing in SPECIAL MARVEL EDITION #6, Sept. 1972.)

Review by Civilian Bill Henley

The EC war comic books edited and written by Harvey Kurtzman, probably the
best examples of the genre ever done, were justly famed for their sense of
realism and historical accuracy. DC's war comics edited by Robert Kanigher had
less to do with historical reality, but at least claimed a certain gritty
pseudo-realism. Marvel's Silver Age entry in the war genre, SGT. FURY (and its
shorter-lived spinoffs, CAPT. SAVAGE and the Bronze Age COMBAT KELLY) made no
such claims. As I noted in my previous review of a SGT. FURY issue (of
issue #4, review now available on the Silver Age Reviews Yahoo site), SGT. FURY
was pretty much unabashed war fantasy, having about the same relation to the
reality of World War II that the New York City seen in the contemporary Marvel
stories, with their superhero vs. villain battles and alien invasions, had
to the mundane reality of 1960's New York. This issue was a particular
example, featuring not only the fantasy element of a "death ray" that was unknown to
real-life WWII ordnance, but the introduction of a villain who
simultaneously appeared, older but no wiser, as a costumed bad guy in the Marvel comics of
the "present".

This issue was also notable for the intro of a new Howling Commando--
perhaps the *only* one who had a *genuine* claim to the name "Commando", as it
happened-- and a new artist. After seven issues drawn by Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers
took over with this issue and stayed with the SGT. FURY title for almost the
entire remainder of its run (which totaled 167 issues through Dec. 1981,
though the later issues were predominantly reprints). Ayers was a mainstay of
the tiny "Marvel Bullpen" at the time the Silver Age superhero titles were
launched, and in addition to inking early issues of Kirby's Fantastic Four, he
pencilled many early issues of the Human Torch and Ant-Man/Giant-Man superhero
series. However, Stan Lee seems to have felt that Ayers' style wasn't flashy
enough to sustain a superhero series, and as new artists joined the Bullpen
they got the superhero assignments, while Ayers was shunted to the small war
line and the fading Western genre.

On the splash page, Fury and his Howlers are trying to advance up a castle
stairawy, opposed by a Nazi SS squad led by the fiendishly grinning Zemo,
firing the "death ray". Fortunately for our howling heroes, though the range is
nearly point-blank, Nazis have just as bad aim with death rays as they do
with more conventional weaponry. Alongside the story title there is a blurb;
"Special Notice: Pay Particular Attention to DR. ZEMO! You'll Also See Him in
Other Marvel Mags Such As AVENGERS #6 (dated the same month, July 1964).

As our story begins, "a company of crack S.S. troops are marched into (a
U.S. Army camp on the east coast of England) as prisoners of war!" As the
once-mighty Aryan supermen are herded into prison camp with their hands clasped
behind their heads, watching soldiers speculate just who was able to capture
such "big, mean and well-trained" enemy troops in one piece. The answer, of
course, is Sgt. Nick Fury, along with his squad of Howlers, which at the moment
is a man short, having lost a member, Pvt. Junior Juniper (the only Howler
to die permanently in the run of the series) in issue #4. Spottng a new
promotion list, Pvt. Izzy Cohen complains that other guys got the promotions while
the Howlers were "makin' like heroes across the Channel". Cpl. "Dum Dum"
Dugan suggests, "Relax, Izzy! We're waitin' till they need SIX-STAR GENERALS!
They wouldn't embarrass us with anything less!" Hearing the rumor that they
are due for a replacement for Junior, the Howlers comment that "he better be
a real fire-breather!" Hearing the comment, Sgt. Fury's response is,
"ANYBODY'd seem like a fire-breather next to you goldbricks! Ya capture one crummy
S.S. company, and ya think you're heroes!"

Fury's growling is interrupted by the appearance on the scene of a British
soldier whose style of uniform is unusual even by the standards of the
Howlers, who aren't exactly sticklers for the details of proper uniform. The Brit
wears a brown British uniform with red beret, glasses, cravat and, as an
accessory, an umbrella. Dum Dum comments, "Ain't that about the CUTEST-LOOKIN'
soldier you ever did see!", but Dino Manelli warns, "Don't let him HEAR ya, Dum
Dum! Some of those British guys are tougher than they look!"
Southern-fried Reb Ralston concurs, "Maybe he IS tough! AH wouldn't have the nerve to
carry an ol' UMBRELLA lak that!" The Howlers' ragging on the new guy is
confined to sotto voce comments, but some other G.I.'s start engaging in open
mockery. One of them asks if the fey-looking Britisher has a name, and gets a
reply: "My name is PERCIVAL PINKERTON! My most intimate friends and immediate
family call me PERCY!" "Do they call ya that before, or after they stop
laughin!" Perceiving that the feckless G.I.'s are "making sport of me", Percy
decides to deliver a lesson that "good manners are the mark of a gentleman".
Using his umbrella as a weapon, Percy grabs his tormentors and hurls them
around until they beg for mercy. This display of prowess impresses the onlooking
Howlers, and Dum Dum asks, "Say, Percy, you're okay! What outfit are ya
with, anyway?" "Oh, didn't you KNOW? I've been transferred to the First
Attack Squad of Able Company! I'm your new REPLACEMENT! I assume that makes me a
Howler...whatever on Earth THAT means!"

I mentioned earlier that Percy could be said to be the only *real* Commando
in the whole First Attack Squad. The reason is that, in the real WW!!, the
word "Commando" was used only for British and British Commonwealth troops.
The U.S. Army equivalent special forces were known as "Rangers".

I seem to remember reading recently a comment by Stan Lee that his intent in
introducing Percy was an early effort at political correctness, introducing
a character who was implied (though certainly not, under Comics Code rules of
the time, ever specifically stated) to be gay, but was still tough and
brave. I don't know whether that was really Stan's intent at the time, or for
that matter whether gay activists would consider being represented by a
character with Percy's fey mannerisms to be a compliment. But anyway....the Howlers
decide they approve of their new addition and carry him to their barracks on
their shoulders; "Percy, you aint exactly what we EXPECTED, but you're
OKAY!" "Too bad he talks a foreign language!" "It only SEEMS foreign 'cause yoah
from BROOKLYN, Iz!"

But while the Howlers prepare a reception for Percy, Sgt. Fury gets the word
from Capt. Sam Sawyer about the real baptism of fire for their new
replacement; a mission into Nazi Germany to capture "from under Hitler's nose" a
scientist named Dr. Zemo who has "invented something that could beat us if he
isn't stopped!" As the Howlers are rousted from their plans for a trip to town
and put aboard a PT boat for a nighttime run to the Nazi-occupied Continent,
Dum Dum becomes momentarily disenchanted with their new recruit when Percy
asks, "I SAY, Corporal! This is devilishly exciting! Do you chaps ALWAYS have
such colorful missions?" "Percy, do me one little favor, willya?" "Of
course, Corporal! What is it?" "SHADDUP!" But the Howlers may never even make
it to the starting line of their mission, as a Nazi sub periscope pops up in
the path of their PT boat. Nick Fury (who seems somehow to have acquired
naval rank and command of the PT boat) orders, "Open your throttle...full speed
ahead...COLLISION COURSE!" The onrushing boat snaps off the sub's periscope,
leaving the sub crew blind. Then, when the sub surfaces and starts to aim
its deck guns at the PT boat, Fury sends the German-speaking Dino Manelli on a
mission to the onshore German gun battery. Scragging an unwary Nazi guard
("Bah! A vaste of time! Who vould dare to attack US? The Fuehrere sad the
enemy has no will to fight! They KNOW ve are the master race!" Dino takes
his helmet and shouts orders in German for the gun battery to attack the
"English submareine" out in the water. The German artillery, supposedly trained to
"obey first and think later", obligingly fires at and sinks their own sub.
(Actually, real WWII historians report that Nazi German soldiers were trained
to react with initiative and not just obey orders blindly. They served a
dictator, but they didn't conquer half the world by acting like badly
programmed robots.) Dino then puts the gun battery itself out of action by tossing a
well placed grenade, and the Howlers can land on shore. Of course, if
they've only crossed the English Channel in a PT boat, they're in occupied France
and have a long, long way to go before reaching a target somewhere in Nazi
Germany, but such geographical technicalities are of no concern to our Howlers.

What is of concern is an oncoming Nazi tank on the roadway, and the
trumpet-tooting, African-American Howler Gabe Jones decides it's his turn to be the
hero. (Gabe's presence is, of course, yet another historical anomaly in SGT.
FURY; in real life the U.S. Army was still segregated during WWII, and black
troops tended to be relegated to support roles rather than combat. At one
point Robert Kanigher boasted that he introduced the black Jackie Johnson into
Sgt. Rock's Easy Company before Gabe appeared in SGT. FURY-- and didn't make
Jackie a horn-blowing stereotype-- but he too ignored that a typical Army
outfit wouldn't had a lone African-American soldier serving with it back then.)
Gabe hurls a grenade into the hatch of the tank and disables it, but gets
blown sky-high himself. He miraculously survives, but needs immediate medical
attention. (Gabe himself however is unfazed; "How about that? My horn's
not even scratched! How lucky can ya BE?") Carrying Gabe to a nearby town,
the Howlers break into a Nazi first aid station and demand that the German
medic in charge treat Gabe, or else. At least in comic books, even Nazi doctors
are mean mothers; "Your threats do not frighten a member of the MASTER RACE!"
However, when Fury lights a stick of dynamite and threatens to blow them
all up together if the good (?) doktor doesn't help, he breaks down; "NO!! I
don't want to die! I'll do ANYTHING!" (Why it wouldn't be just as effective
to threaten to shoot the Nazi doctor himself, without threatening the rest of
the Howlers with mass suicide, isn't clear.) Gabe submits to treatment, but
asks, "Here, Percy! Hold my horn! I don't want that Ratzi breathin' on it!"

While all this has been going on, however, other Nazi troops pursuing the
Howlers have caught up with them, and in order to make their escape, the
Howlers dress in the clothes of the German medical staff and take the doctor
hostage driving a staff car,, demanding that he help them get past a checkpoint.
(How they are going to explain Gabe as a German medic is an interesting
point....as is the fact that even in disguise, Dum Dum is unwillig to remove his
battered derby with the U.S. Army corporal insignia on it.) Under the Howlers'
guns, the doctor tells the Nazi guards that they are escaping a commando
attack and that the commandos are holed up at the corner of Blitzen Lane. The
German commander is puzzled, "Why did he keep VINKING at me? Must be
something wrong mit his eye!" but nonetheless obligingly fires his heavy guns at the
corner of Blitzen Lane, thereby blowing up the German ammo dump located
there.

At last, after letting their medical hostage go, our heroes arrive at the
castle where Dr. Zemo is doing his dirty work. But how will they gain entrance
to the heavily guarded facility? Now Percy is the one who has an idea.
Approaching a German guard armed only with his umbrella, Percy boldly claims,
"Why on Earth are you still doing guard duty, old man? Haven't you heard that
the bally war is OVER? We've WON, y'know! That's why I'm here!" "Ach du
lieber! It MUST be true! No Britisher vould be able to get this far mitout
even carrying a GUN!" The guard doesn't actually surrender, but he lets his
guard down enough to allow Percy to hurl him out of the way with his
indefatigable umbrella. (There is a tiny grain of authenticity in this otherwise most
improbable scene. Until very late in the war, the Nazis had more respect
for the British as adversaries, who they had been fighting since the very start
of the war, than for the Johnny-come-lately Americans who were considered
untrained and inept soldiers. If such as ruse was going to work at all, it had
a better chance of working with a British soldier than an American G.I.)

Next, Dum Dum distracts the rest of the guard force by firing two submachine
guns at random. As the guards lower the drawbridge and race out to deal
with the "crazy man", the rest of the Howlers enter the castle, followed by Dum
Dum who doubles back behind them. Fury gives the order, "Lower that
drawbridge, soldier!", and the Howlers, not being mindless automatons like the
comic-book Nazis, oblige by *raising* the drawbridge, which was what Fury actually
had in mind, in order to keep the Nazi guards from re-entering the castle.

And so at last, with six pages left in the story "The Death Ray of Dr.
Zemo!", we finally encounter Dr. Zemo, who has been watching all this on an early
model TV set in his lab. "They outsmarted my sentinels! But I still have my
PERSONAL GUARD! Zemo sends his guards off with the warning, "if ONE
commando escapes, you'll all pay with your LIVES!", but despite this incentive, the
Howlers manage to subdue the guards with flying fists and shouts of
"Wah-hooo!" Zemo's response, watching on his TV hookup, is "BAH! They fight like
DEMONS! They have overpowered my elite guard! [but] It is all IN VAIN! Much as
I dislike soiling my own hands on inferior beings, I, PERSONALLY, shall
destroy them mercilessly!" Meanwhile, the Howlers are conducting a door-to-door
search of the castle. One door, tried by Reb Ralston, turns out to be an
electrifed booby trap. Fortunately, "If Ah wasnt wearin' RUBBER-SOLED BOOTS,
Ahd be colder than a carpet-bagger's heart!" When Zemo addresses the Howlers
directly on his intercom system and invites them to surrender and receive as a
reward a "quick death", Gabe Jones (miraculously recovered from his earlier
injury) sends a blast from his horn into the intercom speaker that is so
powerful it disables the entire system, robbing Zemo of his ability to track our
heroes by sound. When the Howlers are trapped within one of those
moving-wall rooms so beloved of movie serial writers, the mechanically minded Izzy
Cohen manages to disable it.

"Those accursed commandos have beaten me at every turn! But STILL I shall
destroy them! I have the greatest weapon in history at my command!" And so,
with 3 pages left, we finally get a glimpse of... the Death Ray of Dr. Zemo!
"This is the new weapon that shall win the war for the glorious Third Reich!
It took me YEARS to create! It is the only one of its kind in existence!
And now, it shall serve its master by DISINTEGRATING my enemies!" Curiously,
however, when Zemo faces his foes from the top of a staircase as they
advance up the stairs, he does not literally disintegrate his enemies by using his
ray on their fragile human bodies. Instead, he disintegrates the marble
staircase beneath them, causing them to fall in disarray. But now it is Reb's
turn to be the hero, as he pulls out his trusty lariat (isn't he a Southerner,
not a Westerner?) and uses it to grab the death ray out of Zemo's grasp. The
now unarmed Zemo flees and persuades one of his last remaining guards to
cover him while he reaches a small airplane, promising the guard great rewards
for helping him escape. However, not only does Zemo not come through with the
reward, he even takes off without the hapless "dolt" of a guard, leaving the
disillusioned guard to sob, "You are a NAZI! When you make a promise, you
cannot break it...you cannot...." (Again, this depIction of a typical Nazi
officer as despising and betraying his soldiers is not very historically
accurate. Descriptions of the German SS and Wehrmacht indicate that there were
fairly good relations between officers and soldiers in those forces, with
actually *less* tendency for the officers to regard themselves as a superior and
privileged class over mere enlisted men, than in the Allied armies. It's a
mistake to assume that the bad guys are bad all the time about *everything*.
Again, an army which not only trained its soldiers to act like mindless morons,
but alienated its common soldiers by treating them like scum, probably
wouldn't be as successful as the Nazi Germans were.) Reb thinks they have
succeeded in their mission anyway, since they have the only working model of Zemo's
Death Ray. However, Fury orders Reb to "DROP IT!" and all the Howlers to
flee the castle. "Due to months of intensive battle training, on record, Fury's
squad obeys him blindly!" (Lesson of this story; blind obedience is bad for
Nazi bad guys, but good for us good guys.) The whole castle blows up, and
Fury explains he figured correctly that given all Zemo's remote controls, he
figured the mastermind would have a means to blow up his death ray by remote
control if he lost it. And so it seems the Howlers have actually failed in
their mission, since they don't have the death ray and there's no clear reason
why the escaped Zemo can't just build another one (and then, presumably,
thousands more to arm the Nazi armies). Nonetheless, our heroes seem pleased
with themselves as they make their way back to England ("another adventure in
itself, but we'll save that for some other time!", the caption advises.) Back
at base, some of the other soldiers ask Percy how his first mission with
Fury's squad went, and the overhearing Howlers wonder, "Here's where we find out
if we inherited a loud-mouthed bragging wind-bag!" But Percy insures his
fellow Howlers' continued affection by modestly demurring, "Dont ask ME, chaps!
Ask the Howlers! THEY did all the work!" "And so it was that a quiet
Englishman, with an ever-present umbrella, joined the ranks of the most colorful,
fighting squad in the annals of World War II!"

Come to think of it, compared to this story's depiction of World War II, the
average Marvel superhero yarn was a sober and accurate depiction of typical
American life during the 1960's. But speaking of Marvel superhero yarns, as
promised on the splash page, Zemo showed up the very same month as leader of
"The Masters of Evil" in AVENGERS &6. It was revealed that after escaping
the Howlers, the Nazi scientist had a further encounter with Captain America,
during which a red mask got permanently stuck to his face by "Adhesive X".
(From what we see in this story, Zemo didn't have such a handsome face that
losing sight of it was a permanent loss to male beauty.) After spending the
postwar decades hiding out in South America, Zemo emerges to get revenge on
Captain America by melding the Avengers' greatest foes into a super-villain team.
After several more AVENGERS appearances, Zemo eventually dies in battle
with Cap, but his son reappears to become a nuisance up to the present day, as
leader and then adversary of the villains-turned-heroes, the Thunderbolts.

Sub-Mariner #39, "And Here I'll Stand"

THE SUB-MARINER #39; July 1971; Marvel Comics Group; Stan Lee, editor;
featuring "...And Here I'll Stand!", written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Ross
Andru with inks by Jim Mooney.  On the cover, Namor is lifting a military
truck and threatening to hurl it at the U.S. Army soldiers attacking him; "I
WARNED the surface world-- not to ATTACK me!  Now I shall DESTROY you--
destroy you ALL!"  One of the soldiers shouts, "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! 
The Sub-Mariner's gone BERSERK!"  (For several years during the mid-late
60's Marvel avoided using word balloons on its covers.  When they changed
their policy, they often went overboard with the balloons, as
here.)

Review by Bill Henley

For a time in the late 60's/early
70's, Roy Thomas eclipsed Stan Lee as my favorite Marvel writer, and, along with
DR. STRANGE, SUB-MARINER (a character for whom Roy evidently felt a special
attachment) was my favorite Marvel title.  This issue made a special
impression on me at the time.  In previous issues, Namor witnessed the
murder of his beloved Lady Dorma by the villainess Llyra (is Dorma still
dead?  I'm sure she'd be alive again by now if Sub-Mariner were appearing
in his own series regularly) and renounced his Atlantean throne, seeking instead
to make a new life for himself among surface-dwelling humans.  As this
issue opens, Namor climbs ashore in Florida onto an abandoned seaside
installation of some sort (its nature isn't clear from the visuals) and succumbs
to a monumental temper tantrum over Dorma's murder.  "LLYRA!  Stand
you FORTH, murderess!"  When Llyra doesn't make an appearance, Subby takes
out his frustrations by smashing things and ultimately bringing down the whole
abandoned facility with a Samson-like feat of strength-- "an act of unrelieved
VIOLENCE-- which is FORGOTTEN before it is finished, strangled by its own cosmic
FUTILITY! "  Namor returns to his natural habitat; "Once more that brief,
eternal trek into the lapping WAVES-- into the SEA, which drowns both hopes and
fears alike-- the sea, where even TEARS are laced with salty brine..." 
(One of the reasons I liked these Thomas scripts as a teenage fan was the
quasi-poetic turn of phrase in the dialogue and captions.  I have to admit
that when I reread these stories now, most of this purple prose doesn't wear so
well.) 

Some time later, Namor arrives at the city of New York on a
moonlit night.  After some musings about how the city is little changed and
yet much changed from when he first saw it (and tried to wreck it) back in 1939,
Namor decides that he needs some place where he can "dwell apart" while he tries
to convince the surface-dwellers to accept him.  He thinks he has found it
in an abandoned prison island in the city harbor.  "Once it was a PRISON,
where land-crawling humanity locked away its failures, its MISFITS... (now) none
has any USE for it... none but the SUB-MARINER!"  He may have abdicated his
undersea throne, but Subby still seems to view himself as entitled to live in an
imposing, palace-like setting.  He sets out to transform the crumbling
prison into a more appropriate venue for himself, starting with reshaping a
statue of a lion into the likeness of a leaping fish.  Namor spends the
night carrying out a massive remodeling job with his bare hands.  And as
the sun rises, a couple of previously bored cops in a police helicopter are
startled by the sight of Prison Island made over with a Sea World-type decor--
and by "the crazy in SWIMMIN' TRUNKS, standin' on top of the wall!" 
Recognizing him as the Sub-Mariner-- who, undeniably, had attacked and invaded
the Big Apple on several previous occasions-- the cops alert the authorities,
and radio disk jockeys arouse the populace at large.  And, before long, a
Harbor Police speedboat arrives at the island.  "All right, Namor-- let's
hash this out before any of the TV CREWS get here!  You got an INVASION
FORCE hid in there, or what?"  Once again resorting to  verbiage as
purple as his royal lineage, Namor explains his intentions: "Bear this word back
to a city which will rise FEARFUL this morn... Namor has come ALONE to this
rock-strewn isle, where none but HE would wish to set foot.  There is no
song of WAR in Namor's heart... but only a prayer for PEACE."

As the TV
crews, reporters and an assortment of curious civilians arrive on the
scene,  Subby attempts to explain his unthreatening intentions.  After
making a play for sympathy by telling of the death of his intended bride
(shocking news for Diane Arliss, a human friend of Namor's from previous Thomas
stories), Namor tells the crowd that he wants to "claim the human half of his
heritage" from his father, Capt. Leonard McKenzie.  All he wants from
humanity for now is the ownership of the "tiny island" as a "place to think",
and in return he will offer "knowlege... the secrets of the sea-bottoms!" 
But one onlooker is unwilling to let a "half-breed freak" lower the property
values on New York's East Side, and he grabs a pistol and pops off at
Namor.  Sub-Mariner is unhurt by the pistol pellets, but he's cheesed off,
and he attempts to grab and disarm the man.  The guy rushes to his boat
where he has a bigger gun stashed, but Namor seizes him and appears on the verge
of killing him when Diane Arliss's voice is heard urging him to relent. 
All this is being eagerly filmed by a crew of sensation-seeking TV reporters--
until Subby forfeits the sympathies of the media by hurling the miscreant human
straight at them, wrecking their camera. 

The police warn Namor
that if he attacks any unarmed civilians, they will have no choice but to try to
"take him in."  Diane Arliss now turns her pleas for calm and restraint to
the cops; "Don't make him angrier than he already IS... you don't know him... I
DO!"  The head cop on the scene contacts the city's mayor, who agrees to
"pursue a policy of WATCHFUL WAITING... Don't antagonize the Atlantean
further... HE COULD TEAR THE CITY APART!"   As the police and
spectators withdraw, Diane expresses sympathy for the loss of Dorma, but warns
Namor, "You're going about this all WRONG!"  (I'd have to agree with
that.  Wouldn't it have made more sense for Subby to contact the Fantastic
Four, or some of the other superheroes with whom he had established at least a
truce, and ask them to negotiate for him?)  For the moment, Namor is left
alone to do more of his remodeling work and replenish his strength with "such
creatures as still can LIVE in man-ruined waters" (watch out for mercury
poisoning, Subby).  Diane Arliss, now working as a reporter, searches a
newspaper "morgue" for a clipping she vaguely recalls seeing, which might have a
bearing on Namor's course of action.  And a lot of New York citizens aren't
satisfied with a peaceful outcome... and a special mayoral liaison, called to
duty when the mayor is called out of town, is more amenable to their calls for
more aggressive action against Namor.  As National Guard tanks line the
shoreline opposite "Namor's Island", Navy frogmen approach the island from
underwater. 

And so, the truce is abruptly broken as the National
Guard officer in charge warns Namor to abandon Prison Island within three
minutes, or the troops will open fire.  This time Diane Arliss's pleas for
peace are ineffectual.  Namor thinks he still has one ace in the hole; "Do
they think they deal with one as brainless as the lumbering Hulk?  They
know they CANNOT drive me from this isle without totally DESTROYING it... and
all that they have BUILT upon it!"  Nonetheless, the rows of eight-inch
guns open fire!  Namor attacks and destroys the guns one by one, though he
apparently avoids inflicting casualties on the attacking troops.  But even
as the guns are silenced, another sound is heard-- that of the explosive charges
set on the island by the squads of underwater demolition men.   "You
DESTROYED the island-- without a TRACE-- rather than let ME dwell upon it! 
But WHY, man?  What have you GAINED!"  "VICTORY, Namor.  That's
all we were TOLD to gain."  Instead of renewing the conflict, Namor
withdraws into the waters, and the troops also withdraw.  "And perhaps it
is of some significance that not ONE of the troops ever looks BACK on what he
has wrought."  (As with Roy's purple prose, I'm less impressed with the
intended message about the futility of war and military action now than I was as
a teenager. I can see the humans' actions as a valid matter of principle on
their part.  Maybe the Guard commander should have asked Namor whether,
when he was ruling Atlantis, he would have taken kindly to surfacemen
establishing an undersea base on the outskirts of Atlantis without asking
permission.) 

As Namor sits "sunk in dire defeat" on a small
remnant of the wrecked isle, he is approached by Diane Arliss and Walter Newell
(the high-tech oceanologist sometimes known as the armored Stingray) in a
rowboat.  As solace for the loss of his intended home, Diane offers Namor
the old newspaper she has found.  At first Namor is angered, asking if the
paper contains "tidings of a war I helped win" (presumably referring to World
War II, after Subby decided he hated Nazis and Japanese worse than other
surfacemen) and starts to rip it up.  But then he spots the photo and news
story Diane intended him to see.  Muttering quick apologies and thanks to
Diane for providing him with a new goal and purpose,  Namor plunges into
the sea to renew his strength and then flies off to begin a new quest.  A
puzzled Dr. Newell asks Diane what was in the old paper that was of such
importance to Namor.  "There is a CHANCE-- perhaps the remotest, most
insane POSSIBILITY-- that Namor's HUMAN FATHER is ALIVE!"

Like Namor,
when I first read this comic I was excited to see where this new quest might
lead the sea prince.  Unfortunately, at this point, despite his affection
for the character, Roy Thomas apparently became too busy to keep writing
SUB-MARINER, and Gerry Conway took over with the next issue.  Conway's
dialogue and captios were about as convoluted as Roy's, but his storytelling was
less compelling, and I quickly lost interest in the title, though as a
completist I kept buying it. (The quest for Namor's father came to what I
thought was an anti-climactic end, though I won't go into detail in this
review.)   I didn't really get interested again until Namor's creator
Bill Everett returned with issue #50. and even then I regretted that Roy T. and
Everett-- who were good friends-- didn't work on the title together. 
Though in retrospect I'm not sure how well a Thomas/Everett collaboration would
have worked, especially since Everett's notions of how Subby should speak were
quite different from Roy's. 

Sub-Mariner #16; "The Sea That Time Forgot!"

THE SUB-MARINER #16; August 1969; Marvel Comics Group; Stan Lee, editor;
featuring "The Sea That Time Forgot!", written by Roy Thomas, pencilled by Marie
Severin, and inks credited to "Joe Gaudioso" (a pen name  for Mike
Esposito).  On the atmospheric cover signed by Marie Severin and Frank
Giacoia, Namor is struggling to escape a mass of clinging seaweed, as an
Egyptian-looking figure in a small boat watches.  In the background are old
wrecked ships, and behind them a large symbolic shadowy figure of the villainous
Tiger Shark.

Review by Bill Henley

No, I'm not planning to review
the whole run of the Roy Thomas SUB-MARINER, but I thought I'd cover this issue
before I put these comics away.  I had actually intended to review this
issue some time back as a follow-up to a couple of reviews I did covering Batman
and Green Arrow stories in which the heroes discovered a "Sargasso Sea" (or in
the GA story a "Sargasso on land") where ancient men survived-- but I couldn't
lay my hands on the issue at the time. I'm not sure where the fantasy concept of
the Sargasso Sea being a home for immortal castaways first originated, but this
story was the most effective use of the idea I recall seeing.  
The splash page has a blurb, "Perhaps the Most MEMORABLE Sunken Saga of ALL!!"
and indeed, it was a memorable story for me, and it still holds up for me upon
re-reading (which, alas, cannot be said of all Roy's stories of that
period).  The splash otherwise consists of a symbolic image of Namor in his
royal Atlantean crown and regalia, with head vignettes of supporting characters
Dorma, Dr. Walter Newell, and Tiger Shark.

Sitting in his throne room,
Prince Namor (still actively ruling Atlantis at the time of this story) hears a
report from Thakos, the last survivor of a well-manned and heavily armed
Atlantean warship sent on a patrol mission.  While hunting for Namor's
deadly enemy Tiger Shark (a surfaceman who had been transformed into a deadly
undersea combatant in issues #5-6), the patrol crew found itself in a
little-known part of the ocean marked by swarms of glowing eels and dangerous
storms.  They spotted their quarry, Tiger Shark, seemingly trapped in a
tangled net of seaweed, but the ship was forced to change course and take to the
air in order to avoid being trapped itself.  As the ship took to the air,
the crew sighted "a graveyard of a vast armada" of ancient ships, half hidden by
the mists.  But then "a fatal blast from nowhere struck (the) vessel,
destroying it!" and leaving only Thakos as a survivor.  Thakos feels "in
the doldrums of disgrace" that he has lived while his fellow crewmen have
perished.  Namor reassures him that he has done his duty, but warns him not
to speak to anyone of what he has seen.  Namor confers privately with his
chief scientist Vashti, who is concerned that the "People of the Mist",
inhabiting the sector of ocean known to surfacemen as the Sargasso, may have
broken an "age-old treaty" with the Atlanteans.  If so, the realm may face
"WAR-- with a breed of men whom DEATH itself has renounced!"  And yet, if
Tiger Shark now dwells among the mist people, it is Namor's duty to go to the
Sargasso and confront him!

And indeed, the scene changes to Tiger Shark
himself as he finally frees himself from the mass of living seaweed which has
held him.  Needing a rest, he climbs aboard an ancient frigate he finds
floating amongst the weeds, enveloped in mists so thick that even Tiger Shark,
now a pure water-breather, can survive there.  He is welcomed onboard by a
remarkable group of men-- an African warrior, a Viking, a couple of pirates. a
knight in armor, a sea-dog swordsman, and a German submarine officer from World
War II.  The men are hostile to the newcomer-- "On your KNEES, dog, or by
WOTAN, I'll hew thee limb from limb!"  "Aye, and I with you, me bucko-- for
I like not the cut of his jib!"  But they are quelled momentarily by the
central figure among them, an ancient Egyptian!  "ENOUGH!  Am I not
the eldest here?  It is for NEKHBET to say if the intruder lives or
dies!"  As Tiger Shark shouts his defiance, one of the pirates leaps to the
attack, but is hurled aside by the Shark's superhuman strength.  Nekhbet
calls for Shark to "stay your hand" and the Shark agrees on condition of an
explanation what is going on here.  Nekhbet complies: "I was the FIRST of
those who came to this place... forgotten YEARS ago..." commander of an Egyption
galley blown off course and out to sea while sailing around Africa.  The
rest of his crew perished of thirst and hunger or sy suicide before Nekhbet came
to rest in the Sargasso, where the mysterious mists kept him alive
indefinitely.  "Since that day, the OTHERS whom you see have also come to
rest here... so many of them ENGLISH PIRATES that we have adopted their native
tongue!  But from whatever clime, NONE has ever escaped... or DARED
escape!"   Unimpressed, Tiger Shark declares his intention to "CLEAR
OUT of here-- NOW!"  Nekhbet declares that this is forbidden, but the Nazi
sub captain asks Shark to take him along in his escape, telling the Shark that
they can "become "masters of the WORLD together" thanks to a secret weapon
hidden aboard the Nazi's sunken sub.  "Sounds like you've got a DEAL,
pal!", says the Shark.  And the other lost seamen from earlier times all
volunteer to join the escape; "We'll serve you WELL to be free of here!" 
Only Nekhbet hangs back "Even the mysteries of IMMORTALITY cannot allay the
scourge of HUMAN GREED!" 

Meanwhile, "not many leagues distant,"
Namor arrives and parks his sub-sea vessel, hoping that the "mist-men" will not
attack "one lone figure".  But he is not alone after all, as a stowaway,
Lady Dorma, emerges from his ship.  Why did she defy Namor's command and
accompany him?  "This is no time to speak of matters of the HEART!", says
Dorma; but she has spotted a "dim flashing light younder" which needs
investigation.  Namor finds that the light is from an air-breathers'
bathyscaphe, wedged on a reef.  "Is there NO PLACE free of them-- even in
the wine-dark DEPTHS?"  But despite his annoyance, Namor cannot let the
humans die, and he uses his sub-sea strength to pull the vessel loose and bring
it to the surface.  There, he finds that the bathyscaphe came from a much
larger human vessel-- an oceanographic research ship commanded by Namor's
acquaintance, scientist Dr. Walter Newell.  Namor orders Newell to take his
ship and leave the dangerous area, but Newell says he cannot comply, for it is
his duty to investigate a dangerous discovery.  He shows Namor a collection
of dead and dying sea life, and then a ship's log from a World War II German
submarine whose mission was to unleash "a deadly, long-lived virus" upon the
United States.  The sub never reached American shores, but now it is
leaking death into the sea-- and it was only one of two subs sent on the same
mission!  The other one must be found!  Namor declares that he knows
where the other sub may have drifted, and in his usual headstrong manner, leaps
into the sea to handle the matter himself.  Newell calls Namor back, but
Dorma admonishes him; "Do not WASTE your words, Doctor... save them for
PRAYER!"

Meanwhile, Tiger Shark is seeking the same lost sub, and after
struggling through more seaweed, he finds it!  "If what that left-over Nazi
told me about it is true-- I'll have my revenge on the whole world for turning
me into a great, gilled FREAK!"   Concerned that Namor may not be able
to accomplish his mission alone, Newell takes one of his undersea vessels to
follow Subby, accompanied by Dorma, and also calls for backup from the U.S.
Navy.  And back in the region of mists, Nekhbet tries one more time to
dissuade his fellow castaways from escaping.  But they aren't inclined to
pay attention; "TIGER SHARK will lead us out of the mists-- into a world filled
with our INFERIORS!"  "SI!  For are we not IMMORTAL?  Are we not
destined to RULE the world without?"  Having seized leadership from the
ancient Egyptian, Tiger Shark seizes Nekhbet intending to kill him, but is
halted by the arrival of Namor on the scene.  "It is not for you to take a
human life-- YOU, who have become more than FISH, but less than MAN!" 
Nekhbet urges Namor not to destroy the "shadowy abode" of the mist-men and
promises that "those who dwell here will NEVER invade the outer world!" 
Tiger Shark boasts that he now speaks for the mist-dwellers, but Namor responds,
"If the eternal ones listen to such as YOU-- they DESERVE no voice, EVER
AGAIN!"  As Tiger Shark and Namor battle, the Nazi captain makes his way to
the sub which the Shark has brought to the site.  Namor promises that he
will defeat the Shark before the Nazi can unleash his weapon, but the Shark
pulls Namor with him into the mire of seaweed so that the Nazi and the other
mist-men can complete their deadly errand!  And meanwhile, there is a new
and dangerous distraction for Namor, for Newell's ship and Namor's beloved Dorma
have arrived on the scene.

Tiger Shark's new allies are not very
trustworthy, as the Nazi captain and a British sailor who has joined forces with
his old enemy, plot to take Newell's ship and use it to escape the mists while
Namor and the Shark struggle.  Namor declares, "There is no honor among
assassins!" and Tiger Shark realizes, "Namor's right!  I could never have
trusted the Nazi!"  The Shark remedies his mistake by attacking the Nazi
captain from behind-- "HE won't get up again!"-- and seizing Dorma as a
hostage.  Dorma urges Namor not to submit for her sake, but the Sub-Mariner
gives his word that, in return for Dorma's life, "you may leave this place in
PEACE!"  And so, with Newell's "hyper-powered vessel" cutting through the
seaweed barrier, the "most fit of the ancient vessels" follow, with all of the
mist-men on board-- except one.  Standing on his own ancient vessel,
Nekhbet of Egypt remains behind sa the mists close around him.  "My fellow
mist-men have CHOSEN their own destinies...while I shall end my sojourn here as
I BEGAN it.... alone!"    (When I recalled this story, not having
re-read it for many years, I thought this striking scene was the final panel,
but I see this isn't the case.)

Tiger Shark glories as the ancient ships
emerge into the light of day; "HAH!  I don't even need to use germ warfare
against the land-crawlers!  How can THEY hope to stop the phantom fleet of
TIGER SHARK?  HOW DO YOU FIGHT AN ARMADA OF-- IMMORTALS!"  And the
mist-men are equally delighted-- at first; "By Wotan!  Behold the gleaming
SUN!"  "It shines as bright as the day I first set sail from Spain!" 
"Maybe you'll return there soon, man... as its king!"  Tiger Shark reneges
on his deal with Namor, refusing to allow Dorma to return to the life-giving
sea. The Shark sneers to Namor, "You stand alone-- against my entire
ARMY!"  But Namor's reply is, "Your army is but a grim JEST,
man-that-was!  LOOK at them now!"  Shark does, and to his dismay-- and
Dorma's horror-- once out of the influence of the Sargasso mists, the ancient
seamen are suffering instant old age and withering to dust!  Their ships
are also reverting to "rotting timbers" and sinking!  The dying mist-men
cry their despair, and "then, from lips that should have turned to DUST
centuries before... NOTHING MORE is heard..."

One of the ancient crews
still survives, however-- though the surviving Nazi sub crew have turned into
weak and elderly men after "staying young these past fifty years!"  (Fifty
years?  Since this story was published in 1969, it would have been less
than 25 years since they entered the mists.)  But Tiger Shark warns them
that, "if you want to get any OLDER," they will obey his orders and relesae the
deadly germ-warfare torpedo aboard their sub!  Namor leaps to stop them,
but Tiger Shark grapples with him, and sa the two sub-sea superbeings battle,
the Nazi crew fire the torpedo.  Now it is up to Walter Newell to stop a
catastrophe that may destroy the surface world and Atlantis alike.  Newell
steers an abandoned freighter whose cargo is several tons of dynamite (it's not
altogether clear just where this freighter came from, perhaps it was one of the
ships from the mist that wasn't old enough to disintegrate) into the path of the
torpedo, knowing that only a big explosion can destroy the germ-warfare
virus.  He accomplishes his mission!  But a naval aircraft that has
reached the scene spots Namor, assumes the Sub-Mariner is up to troublemaking
again, and fires a pair of missiles which stun Namor, allowing Tiger Shark to
escape, and apparently seal the fate of Dr. Newell, "slain by the very ones he
sought to save!"  (Actually, I think Newell turned up alive in some later
stories.)  "And yet, his REAL murderer was-- TIGER SHARK!  When next
we meet-- one of us must DIE!  THUS SWEARS THE TRUE SUB-MARINER!" (I don't
offhand recall if Tiger Shark ever did have a final, fatal confrontation with
Subby.) 

Marie Severin wasn't my favorite artist of Marvel's Silver
Age, but she maintained an effectively atmospheric look for this story, and
likewise Roy T.'s high-flown pseudo-archaic dialogue and captions, often awkward
in stories of contemporary superheroics, worked pretty well in this tale
focusing on a band of time-lost immortals.