[Johnny L. Wilson]

I started reading Mystery Men Comics because of a reference on the Blue Beetle radio show to which I was listening on another site. Although I had read about Victor Fox ("The King of Comics") in various comic book histories and biographies, I realized I hadn't read any. I didn't really expect to enjoy any of them. But with 68 pages and a wide-range of heroes, this title has proved interesting to me.

In #2, I realized again that the Chinese mastermind, Chen Chang, was essentially a simplified version of Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu from earlier in the century. Richard Kendall plays the Nayland Smith role and, of course, Chen Chang is the notorious criminal mastermind. I really like the realism of Cecilia Munson's inks.

In #1, I had thought that the costume of the Green Mask looked familiar. I suddenly realized it was like that of the early cinematic Zorro. In the first film, it appears that Fairbanks wore a red bandanna and black mask (though both looked black in the bw film), but was apparently all black by 1936's Bold Caballero film. And, although the Green Mask comics feature preceded the Green Hornet comic releases, the idea of an incognito vigilante masquerading as a criminal had already been presented in the Green Hornet radio program of approximately 3 years earlier.

I'm glad that the Ray Dexter stories are in the title. They seem to be a more far-fetched (if that's possible) mix of a reverse-John Carter of Mars with E. E. Doc Smith technology. The episode in Mystery Men #2 has a plot inconsistency that bothered me, though. In one full frame, Dexter has to take his glove off to fire his "destroyer ray" gun. Yet, there seems to be no consequence to him on this irradiated planet. I wonder if that will appear later or if it was a plot point for which the author ran out of room in developing the story.

When I was reading the "Wing Turner" story in #2, I was initially offended at the characterization of the Mexican dialect used by the (apparently, recurring) villain: "wan more plane," "reed of heem," and "weel show" are just a few. Then, I wondered why the villain was Mexican in the first place. After all, Mexico was, at least, an economic ally in World War II and FDR had that "Good Neighbor Policy." Little had I realized till I read this story and it inspired me to do further research that Mexico had nationalized U.K. and U.S. oil properties (as well as 3 million acres of agricultural land owned by U.S. citizens/corporations) in 1938--one year before this volume was published. Who says comic books aren't educational? (Oh, yeah! That was "Dr." Fredric Wertham and the so-called educators and congressmen of the 1950s.)

I'm not sure how I feel about Zanzibar the Magician after reading two installments. Although it seems inspired by the syndicated comic strip that started in 1934, Mandrake the Magician. However, Zanzibar has more magical powers than those of illusion and hypnosis used by Mandrake.

The Inspector Bancroft story was nice, but I was curious about the author, penciller, and inker--Art Franklin. The comicbookdb.com listing gives him credit for art in #1, #3, #4, and #5 but ignores his contribution to this issue as apparently author and artist.

I noticed that the Blue Beetle's "high-powered car" has evolved in this second episode. And, while looking at the art, I discovered why it looked familiar. Not only did it come out of the Eisner shop, but Chuck "Charles Nicholas" Cuidera was the artist on DC's Blackhawk comics and Hawkman features when I was a kid.

I didn't see anything particularly memorable in the Waco Kid story and I was only mildly amused by the fictitious names of Duraguay and Gothland in the D-13 Secret Agent story. I was intrigued by the continuing isolationist message a the conclusion of the latter, though. And I wasn't amused at the "Tonto-speak" of the Indian (not Native American) characters in Captain Denny Scott of the Bengal Lancers. And I couldn't help but wonder why these fisticuff-oriented heroes like Lt. Drake of the Naval Intelligence never seem to have heard of the idea of "back-up."

All in all, I was impressed with the package put together for this issue. An anthology title such as this is bound to be uneven, but even with its unevenness, this title was significantly better than I expected.

Link to the book: Mystery Men Comics 02 (paper/2fiche)