| Synopsis
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Aboard the train known as the Comet, Mr. Cranson, owner of Cranson Explosives Company turns on the television and is shocked to see what appears to be a Martian invasion of New York City. Cranson is in for another surprise when he finds that he is riding a car with the Human Torch, who suggests the "invasion" is likely a work of fiction adapted from the radio show by Lawson Bell. The two engage in small talk when they are shocked to see a Martian ship fly past their train and blast the tracks out in front of them, causing the train to derail.
Out from the ship come two Martians who enter the car containing Crason and demand that he hand over his formula for his new form of Trinitrotoluoul however Cranson refuses to hand it over, willing to take his secret to the grave if need be. Elsewhere on the train, the Torch is trapped and has to struggle with freeing himself with his natural strength so as to avoid burning Cranson with his flame powers. Freeing himself the Torch confronts the two aliens, sending them fleeing. When the roof of the train car is about to collapse on them, the Torch uses his powers to melt it away. Checking on Cranson he learns that his back has been broken in the crash. Cranson passes on a written copy of his formula to the Torch to hand to his daughter Diane before dying. Checking outside, the Torch saves the conductor of the train from a falling bolder and when he hears a baby is trapped on the train, he rushes to it's rescue, much to the relief of it's mother.
Rushing off to Galeton, Texas, the Torch pays a visit to the Cranson Explosive Company where he seeks an audience with Diane Carson. He enters her office as she is once more refusing the requests of Mr. Ritton to turn over the formula to him. The Torch forces Ritton to leave, however not before Ritton informs them both that he will stop at nothing to obtain the formula. The Torch then explains everything to Diane who is upset to hear that her father had died. The Torch's story also makes a sort of sense as Ritter had mentioned something about Martians a year ago when he had first started hounding her fathers company for the special formula. The two begin testing it out and find that the slightest drop can cause a massive explosion that damages the lab. The Torch suggests they find a more open environment to test out the new super-TNT and volunteers to take a vat of the material out to test it in the desert.
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Along the way he is attacked by the Martians who have disguised their ship as a normal car. When they fire a weapon at the truck the Torch is driving, he manages to escape just moments before the truck crashes in a massive explosion. Forced to land in a nearby lake, the Torch is quickly captured by the two Martians with a glass cylinder and brought to a nearby train yard where Ritton is waiting for them. With the Torch as their prisoner, they figure that Diane would make for an easy target and capture her. With the Torch attached to an electric chair with a glass cylinder fastened on his head, Ritter threatens to kill the Torch if she doesn't hand over the formula. Tying Diane to the rail tracks he attempts to threaten her by running her over with a train. He boasts about how he promised the Martians the formula so that they -- poor scientists -- could save their planet Mars from invasion from another planet. In return, they would invade the Earth and leave Ritter the ruler of the United States.
The Torch breaks free and saves Diane, and when Ritter flees the scene aboard a train, the Torch chases after him. Boarding the train, he confronts Ritton who jumps from the train when another locomotive is coming down the opposite end of the track threatening to collide with them. The Torch melts down the engine that they are riding on preventing an accident and finds that Ritton had been seriously injured jumping from the train. As the Torch heads off to bring Ritton to a hospital he wonders how Diane is doing against the aliens.
Diane learns that the Martians are truly poor scientists as their civilization had lost it's explosive technologies many years ago. They were sent to Earth by their master the "Great One" who ordered them to work with Ritter and treat him as though he were the Great One. Having failed in their mission they plead to Diane to allow them to take the formula, however Diane refuses telling them it is too dangerous. The Martians leave empty handed, however when the Torch returns and tells her the invasion on New York televised was a hoax they both agree that the formula is not safe on Earth and so they agree to help the Martians.
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Mess Springs: Jeb and Dan Barnes, who own a seemingly valueless plot of land are constantly harassed by men under the employ of Jed Sirrah. They once more refuse to sell their land, and kick them off the property, warning them that next time they'll call the sheriff. Unknown to the Barnes brothers, the property has a valuable amount of gold and oil and Sirrah seeks to purchase the land before they can learn the truth. Brace decides to go into town with the intention of framing the brothers for a crime so the sheriff arrests them. To their good fortune, the sheriff is one of their old friends who has gone straight. When Brace and Barny warn him to stay out of their business he agrees to do so.
When they report back to Jed Sirrah, he is furious that they went to the sheriff however is happy to learn the good news when he learns that they convinced him to stay silent. The following day they begin to add pressure to the Barnes brothers by dynamiting some rocks in the path of a stream that waters their property. The explosion brings the attention of the Masked Raider, who comes to town. The sheriff, knowing the raider is wanted dead or alive warns the Raider to surrender, however he is too fast with his guns and manages to send him packing.
The Raider arrives at the Barnes property where he witnesses Sirrah's men trying to force the Barnes brothers into selling the property for even less. Feeling pressured now that their land is dead, the Masked Raider steps in and frightens off the thugs coming to buy the land. Jeb and Dan are furious until the Masked Raider tells them that their property is valuable. Riding into town, the Masked Raider, Dan and Jeb walk in on Sirrah and his men plotting to once more take over the land. When a gun fight breaks out, the Masked Raider shoots them all dead. When the Barnes finds proof of the Raider's claim of how valuable their land is they decided to make him an equal partner on their salvage when they realize he's already gone.
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Game hunter Steve Hardy has come to a section of the Belgian Congo to try and find animals to capture for a zoo. After setting up camp he soon captures a number of animals including Tuta, the elephant. That night, Trajah leader of the elephants seeks out Ka-Zar to save the captured elephant.
Going to investigate the situation, Ka-Zar arrives at the camp wondering if the man responsible is Paul de Kraft the man who killed his father. It turns out it is not, and that night, Ka-Zar sneaks into the camp and sets all the animals free. When he is spotted by one of the natives, he easily knocks him out and ties him up to a tree. The next morning, when Hardy wakes up he is shocked to find his animals missing and when he questions the native, the native believes he was attacked by Anhwama, the jungle god. While Hardy dismisses this as nonsense his men are all shaken by this claim.
Not willing to leave empty handed, Steve orders the men to go out on a hunting party. Deep in the jungle they come across a Rhino and it's child and orders one of his men to shoot the mother so that they can capture the young Rhino. Before the gunman could shoot, he is struck in the back by an arrow fired by Ka-Zar. This frightens the men even more and they refuse to help any further, less they evoke the wraith of Anhwama. They pack up and leave, forcing Steve Hardy to follow them.
Later, Ka-Zar jumps into a nearby lake for a cooling swim when he is attacked by N'Jaga, the leopard his father wounded years ago. N'Jaga seeks to get revenge and pushes the young Ka-Zar deep into the water until the big cat is forced to come up for air. Satisfied that it has killed Ka-Zar the leopard leaves the scene. However, Ka-Zar survives and reminds himself to never be caught without his knife. As he returns home he is blissfully unaware of the fact that his old foe Paul de Kraft is planning a trip out to the congo.
This story is continue next issue...
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Continued from last issue...
After the Sub-Mariner's attack on New York City involving the kidnapping of a girl and the death of an officer, the police begin planning a way to capture the Sub-Mariner. With their searches of the waterways turning up nothing, they would get female office Betty Dean to pose as a damsel in distress to see if the Sub-Mariner would save her.
After a week of staking out New York Harbor, Betty would spot the Sub-Mariner and dive into the harbor, pretending to drown. Namor would come to her rescue, however when she would attempt to arrest him, he would swim her out to sea. There he would witness a Nazi bomber and U-Boat attacking an American ship. Namor would go to the ships rescue, taking control of the Nazi sub and using it to destroy the bomber before sinking the sub itself.
He would push the sinking ship to a nearby island where Betty Dean would convince him to help the Allied Forces, telling him that not all humans are not bloodthirsty. When she mentions that a number of undersea mines are located in the south sea, Namor agrees to go out and destroy them. He does so by tricking Nazi ships into swimming into their path. When another U-Boat happens by, Namor decides instead to turn it's crews over to the Allied Forces and brings it to a British vessel. Afterward, Namor returns to the island where he left Betty and she asks him to help out the human race. This request causes Namor to think deeply...
This story is continued next issue...
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New York City: A young girl is kidnapped by a bunch of robed men. Her screams bring the attention of the Angel who attempts to stop the kidnappers but gets run over. Following them in his car, the Angel is led to a castle on the countryside, and then falls through a trap floor that has been placed in it defense. As the girl is brought to the cults leader, the Sacred One, she is prepared to be sacrificed to their fire god.
The Angel meanwhile has survived the trap and escapes from the pit through a secret opening, and learns that the girl is in the throne room by one of the cult members. Rushing there, the Angel arrives just in time to interrupt the sacrifice. Learning that the Sacred One is a hypnotist, the Angel resists the glare and knocks the Scared One down. Freeing the girl he almost falls for another trap door, however manages to jump out of harms way. Frightened of the Angel's powers, the Sacred One ironically stumbles backward into his own trap door and falling to his apparent death. The Angel then takes the girl and flees outside, going back to check on the other cult members, he sees that they were under the Sacred One's control and that with him dead they have all left.
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Continued from last issue...
Perry Webb, an American mineral hunter, has found himself in the middle of a war between Castle D'or and Attainia, instigated by the evil Queen Ursula. Spotting a girl about to be crushed in a pile of burning rubble, Webb comes to her rescue. The girl, Jeanie, is distraught as her parents were killed and has no will to live. However, having been saved by Webb, she agrees to be taken to safety.
Taking her in his plane, Perry flies her to a cottage, where her sister and grandfather are living. Arriving there, Perry is introduced to her family. After Jeanie explains the tragic events to her sister, Perry is invited to stay.
Meanwhile at the palace of the queen, she is more and more desperate to crush her foes and reveals her plans to take over the world. Even though her minister Josef thinks she's mad, he is too frightened to do anything but to follow her. In order to gain support from her subjects, she begins publishing propaganda encouraging the people of Castle D'or to fight back against their "oppressors" in Attainia.
While back at Jeanie's family farm, Perry decides it is time to leave, as he must continue to find a source of radium for his business. As he flies away he is soon tracked by some fighter planes from Castle D'or. The pilots begin shooting at his plane even though he is unarmed. He is shot down and soon crashes his plane into Jeanie's home.
Jeanie, Marie and their grandfather pull Perry from the wreckage and place him into bed. As he recovers, Perry tells Jeanie, that he realizes now something. He has a more important job than mineral hunting -- taking down the evil queen and her oppressive regime.
- Bill Stern an American soldier of fortune fights his way through the Siegfried Line of German soldiers. It is a line they have been trying to break for weeks with no luck. They make one final push and although most of the men go down Bill refuses to give up without a fight. When the Nazi's stopped firing, thinking that the enemy forces were all dead, Bill would still be alive and he would sneak toward the Nazi encampment. Overhearing them gloat about their "victory" over the Allies, the Nazi's are in for a rude surprise when Bill announces his survival and tosses a grenade into their fort.
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