Quality 1941 Week--Hit Comics #13 (Part 2)!!

We're back, and now we get to the REALLY interesting part of Hit Comics #13. Lets start with:

Lion Boy was a 100% Tarzan ripoff, except this kid (whose real name is never revealed) is raised by lions, rather than apes.

We've got a couple of dim bulb hunters in this story, who decide to poison a watering hole, so can just go and collect animal corpses to skin rather than actually do the work of hunting:

But one of Lion Boy's friends warns him...

...so he warns all the animals in the jungle to avoid that water hole...

...and he sets a cunning trap, by having his lion family play dead:

Oohhh, somebody crapped their pants there!!

Best part--Lion Boy riding a lion whilst brandishing a rifle:

Next up is the infamous Red Bee:

I say infamous because, frankly, he was one of the stupider heroes ever. Assistant District Attorney Rick Raleigh wanted to fight crime, so he put on a costume. No powers, but one gimmick: in a hidden pouch on his belt, he kept a trained bee named Michael.

No, I didn't make that up.

In tense situations, he would release Michael to sting crooks, or just distract them, or summon nearby swarms of bees to help out.

Really.

As to our plot this story, apparently milk was a lot harder to come by in 1941:

Milk racketeers?? Oh, yes, because the sabotage:

A milk train?!?

Anyhoo, Red Bee sends out Michael on a mission:

See, it is effective!!

And when the Red Bee needs more help?

See!! Stop mocking him!!

And what, exactly, is the milk racketeers goal?

So, they really thought that no one would be able to tell the difference between milk and "river water whitened with chemicals"??

Red Bee was revived by Roy Thomas in All-Star Squadron, only to be killed off. He showed up as a ghost in Starman and in limbo in Morrison's Animal Man. Later, his grandniece took up the mantle in Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters.

Next up, The Old Witch!!

I was surprised to see a story like this in 1941, because it's one you'd expect from a horror title of the 50s or 60s. Old Witch just told spooky stories to travelers, not unlike the hosts of the later horror comics.

Nothing more to see there. Next up:

Neon's cape is actually the trailing end of his bandana. That is pretty cool!

Who is Neon? Tom Corbet was the last surviving member of his French Foreign Legion outpost. Lost in the desert, he finds a mysterious glowing pool and drinks from it. Voila, he's Neon!!

Hey, look--an autogyro!!

Anyway, Neon gained the power of flight, strength, and...

"Neonic rays." Yup, that's what it said!

Hey, look, a secret evil spy island base in the middle of the Grand Canyon!!

Now, you'd think that if you wanted to keep your base secret, you wouldn't put it out in plain sight in the middle of the biggest tourist attraction in America. I guess that's why I'm not a spy.

As for Neon, he survived, and was actually re-introduced intacty in 2008 in Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters. He had continued to mutate over the years, until he was pretty Dr. Manhattan-like, blue and alien and aloof:

But Lanford Terill, the original Ray, drank from his mystic pool, so he got the powers, and now he's the NEW Neon!!

Next:

G-5 (originally X-5) was a spy tracker working for an unidentified government agency. We never learned his name, and he never appeared outside of the Golden Age.

In this issue, he has to get photographs of Axis agents (hey, an actual reference to the Axis!) who are trying to visas into the US and Britain from "the sole war-free port in Europe," Lisbon. So, basically, sort of Casablanca, except this came out a good six months before that movie.

That's literally our whole story--he just goes around taking pictures!

We do get a nice Bondian fight in the casino, though:

Next: yet another Flash Gordon clone:

Sigh...take one athletic American, one helpless American female, and a nutty scientist, throw 'em onto another planet, and you've got a comic strip, I guess.

But you do have to appreciate the fashions on the planet Urinex (ask your doctor today!):

Our last feature?

Don Glory??

So, he's Glenn Beck on steroids??

Really, I can't tell you much about the dude, except he's a hyper patriot who beat the crap outta no-good spies and fifth columnists while wearing a bitching tie.

Here, he infiltrates a gang of evil-doers:

Hmmm...I wonder what country they're supposed to be from?

Now, you'd think with a tie like that, it would be obvious that he wasn't really looking to betray America. But you know Nazis--they're dumb like that. So...

And he finds a unique way to incapacitate some of them:

To catch the rest of the gang? He hops into the bitchingest car ever:

Oh, yeah!!

So that's it for Hit Comics #13. Tune in tomorrow for more from 1941!!