Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 105: Atlas/ Marvel Horror and Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 90

November 1955 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #43

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Radioactive Man!" (a: John Romita) ★

"The Test!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★

"Will O' the Wisp" (a: Bob Powell) ★★1/2

"The Rival" (a: Werner Roth) ★1/2

"Man Alone!" (a: Fred Kida) ★1/2

After Frank Williams is rudely dumped by his gorgeous girl, Joyce Andrews, because he's not rich enough for her father's tastes, he loudly proclaims that he will somehow make a million bucks and come back to win the love of his life. 

When Frank reads that uranium prospecting is the new fad, he buys a Geiger counter and heads west to New Mexico but accidentally wanders onto White Sands during a nuke test. Frank survives the direct hit but, as a result of the high dose of radioactivity he absorbs, he becomes invisible. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Frank starts butting into secret boardroom meetings and overhears conversations about sure things on the stock market. Our hero then sinks his entire savings into those stocks and makes a million bucks.

Fat with pride and his incoming riches, Frank heads back to Joyce's place to ask her father yet again for her hand. When he knocks, a young man answers and, somewhat surprised, Frank asks if the Andrews have moved. The man explains that he is John Andrews and Frank scoffs, asking where Joyce is. Andrews asserts that he and his wife live alone, childless, and closes the door in Frank's face. The dejected Romeo sits on the porch stoop just as the paper boy tosses the latest edition his way.

Frank reads in amazement that the day is October 29, 1929, and the stock market has crashed! Not only did the blast make him invisible but it sent him back nearly thirty years! "The Radioactive Man!" is entertaining yet dopey.

First of all, it would probably come as a surprise how easy it is to roam the New Mexico desert while the government is testing the big one. You're telling me (Writer Carl Wessler! I'm looking at you!) that, post-blast, Frank went back to his hotel, snuck into several business offices, and (ostensibly) traveled the city streets without noticing 1920s automobiles or fashions or architecture or anything that would send up a red flag? And how the heck did our lead bozo know which businesses to frequent if the ones that would immediately come to mind probably didn't exist yet? But, hey, that last exposition-stuffed panel is a laugh-out-loud groaner.

"The Test" has a man buying a used car that turns out to be a rocket-ship. The previous owner was a nutty professor and made all kinds of "upgrades" to the auto. Our protagonist accidentally hits the wrong button and ends up on Mars, faced down by a hostile population. Silly but fun, with some nice Stallman graphics.

A schooner, The Thurston, happens upon peril after peril, only dodging annihilation through the help of another ship, the Nancy Ann. Once both ships make it back to Liverpool, Captain Austin heads over to the Nancy Ann to thank its crew for their assistance. When he boards the ship, he meets several old men playing cards, one of whom explains that the Nancy Ann hasn't left port in forty years! The men only meet there each night to play cards and pray for troubled ships on the high seas. I think it's probably Bob Powell's art that pushes my star rating for "Will O' the Wisp" up a bit, since the hook is one we've seen dozens of times before. Still, it's an entertaining version of an old warhorse. A few years before we'd have seen the rotting tars aboard the Nancy Ann.

Timothy can't seem to shake his office boss, Miss Kyle, who wants to manage every move the man makes, including his diet and his health. After several months of the treatment, Timothy decides to just go along with the treatment, but the arrival of his new secretary, the young and pretty Lila, leads to a change of heart. Lila is quite the specimen, not only possessing the features of a gorgeous blonde but also that of a top mathematician, able to do huge sums in her head. This is truly the way to a man's heart, thinks Timothy. But Miss Kyle objects, confronting the young blonde. Timothy laughs and reminds Miss Kyle that Lila is actually a robot but, according to the matronly hen, that's the problem: Lila is a younger robot than Miss Kyle! "The Rival!" is a lot like "The Radioactive Man" in that the story takes a big left turn into inanity at its climax. I can only imagine the bullpen writers (in this case, Paul S. Newman) were quickly running out of clever, non-violent twists and had to make do with just throwing anything at the wall and hoping it would stick.

In the anemic "Man Alone!" the first manned expedition to Mars comes up against an unfriendly band of locals but can do nothing to root them out. They only appear as hazy images in the distance. So the men board their ship to return to Earth to report the planet is hostile and cannot be settled, not realizing that the Martian sand storms create mirages. The Martians don't exist! There's not much about "Man Alone!" that makes sense, especially the fact that one of the crew, an old duffer, gets left behind on Mars and seems to be happy about it. Just wait until he attempts to build a salad.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #28

Cover by Carl Burgos

"They Wouldn't Believe Him!" (a: Pete Tumlinson) ★★★

"The Last Chance" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★★

"The Hole in the Ground!" (a: Bob Brown) ★1/2

"Jigsaw!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

"The Survivor!" (a: Dave Berg) ★★1/2

Three thousand years in the future, beautiful Plora avoids an arranged marriage with aged, myopic Everest by taking a "time-vacation" into the past (1955) and finding fame and fortune as a movie star. But Everest is not one to give up, so he searches through time for his intended and finally finds her in 1955, evidently about to tie the knot. 

No one present at the wedding will believe Everest's claims and so he pulls out his "disintegrator," a device that can "pulverize" stone into sand and aims the gizmo at a nearby wall. Unfortunately for Everest, nothing happens and he's carted off to a looney bin. Plora can only thank her lucky stars that Ev is blind as a bat and tried to "pulverize" a cardboard wall. 

"They Wouldn't Believe Him!" has a couple of sly twists that brought a smile to the face of this seasoned comic strip vet, and the art is pretty good. Again, Tumlinson has a very Ditko-esque style to his work, but at the same time adding a layer of detail that Ditko's panels sometimes lack. It's very hard, post-code, to find something "charming" that also comes off as original, and "They Wouldn't Believe Him!" is just about the best science fiction yarn we've come across so far.

War will come to the land unless King Roland marries the daughter of the neighboring kingdom... but she's so darn plain! Wizards and witches have their best go at it but none can make Princess Alicia desirable to Roland. Then a simple sorcerer's apprentice weaves a spell on the girl and... voila!... Princess Marilyn. Roland loves the results and immediately agrees to marry, but war breaks out between the two kingdoms days later when Alicia runs off with the apprentice. "The Last Chance" is a definite change of pace, but one that is very welcome. Paul Reinman's art evokes the classic "Black Knight" art of Joe Maneely from a few years before. The story is breezy and the climax is a giggler. Well done.

A haphazard and silly script dooms "The Hole in the Ground," a story about renting agent Mr. Post who rents a building out to nothing but "healthy-looking young couples with above average intelligence" and then lowers the boom when all the flats are rented. Post lowers steel plates over the windows and locks all the doors in preparation for blasting off to another dimension, where the good-looking couples will be studied. But, thanks to a very bright puppy, one couple makes it off the "ship" and comes back to lower the boom right back on Mr. Post (or so it seems since the story ends almost in mid-scene). 

Perry waits for his wife as she browses a thrift store and spies a "One Dollar Grab Box." Thinking he'll show his wife that any money spent in the store is a waste, he buys it (no, I wasn't really aligned with the thinking there, either) and takes it home. When Perry opens the box, he discovers hundreds of puzzle pieces. One day, while Perry is off work, he decides to assemble the puzzle but is amazed to see the pieces don't want to stay down on the table. 

Undeterred, the man grabs a hammer and nails the pieces to his dinner table. The last piece won't stay still no matter what, so he grabs his wife and heads down to his plant, where he utilizes a giant press to stomp the "Jigsaw" down. Once the picture has been assembled, Perry and his wife agree that they were not the people the puzzle was meant for and toss the box in the trash. The Doug Wildey art and Perry's escalating obsession with piecing the jigsaw together make the story at least passable.

In the finale, three men board a boat to escape the outbreak of war. Unfortunately, a typhoon hits their ship and two of the men drown; "The Survivor!" washes ashore on a tiny deserted island. He awakens, hearing tiny voices, and is amazed to see a band of extremely small people. They all become fast friends and the tiny folk invite the survivor to live with them in their "paradise," but excitement turns to terror when he discovers their home is a small cave in the side of a mountain and he has claustrophobia. Can the survivor conquer his fear and join his teensy weensy buddies in Eden? Dave Berg's art looks like a throwback to the 1940s, sketchy but effective. Despite the obvious cribbing done here  (Gulliver also gets a shout out inn this month's Journey Into Unknown Worlds), I found "The Survivor!" to be yet another light and breezy winner. In fact, most of this issue's stories have a comfortable feel to them. In this case, it's a winning formula.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #39

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Escape to Nowhere" (a: Gene Colan) ★★★

"The New Gimmick!" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★★1/2

"The Red World!" (a: Mort Lawrence) ★1/2

"Under His Hat!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"The Mystery That Couldn't Be Solved!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

Jim Reynolds regrets buying an old house because his wife keeps telling him to fix this and that, which interrupts his attempts at resting. When she asks him to hang a tire swing from a tree limb for Junior, Jim finds a coil of rope in the basement. He tosses one end over the limb but, to his surprise, it stands straight up in the air, just like a rope used by an Indian fakir!

Jim decides to give climbing the rope a try and, sure enough, at the top he disappears into a parallel world, where he discovers that anyone working too hard is captured by the Executioners, who punish those who burn up too much energy! Jim manages to escape and climb down the rope back into his own world, where his wife's requests no longer seem so annoying.

A story drawn by Gene Colan is just what I needed to clear away the Atlas blahs! We can all empathize with Jim, who just wants to take a little rest but keeps having to do odd jobs around the house. I'm not sure I would've been so quick to climb the rope, or to keep climbing after my head popped into a parallel world but thank goodness Jim was able to get away and back to his own spot. The Colan art is excellent and the panel I've reproduced here reminds me of the sort of thing he'd be doing in the Marvel superhero comics in about a decade.

TV scriptwriter Rodney Wharton is having a heck of a time coming up with a new teleplay to satisfy George King, the producer of a science fiction TV show. King keeps asking for "The New Gimmick," insisting that no one would believe a story about people living on the moon, since everyone knows it's incompatible with life.

Unable to write a script that will satisfy King, Rodney misses the deadline and is fired when the live show does not air as scheduled. After the furor dies down, King is a passenger on the first rocket to the moon. He plans to take movies of what he finds there, but he's shocked when he arrives and meets Rodney and his beautiful Martian wife. Rodney explains that he's been trying to convince TV producers that the moon is inhabited, and now King can provide the proof.

"The New Gimmick!" is a fun little story made palatable by appropriate art by Bob Forgione and Jack Abel. It's not the first time we've seen a story set in the TV business, and the ending is quite predictable, but the art is good enough that it's an enjoyable ride.

The crew on the first rocket ship to Mars passes the time by speculating about whether anyone had been there before. Did Jules Verne write his book after a real trip? How did Jonathan Swift imagine satellites revolving around Mars if he never saw them? Certain they're just having fun, they arrive on "The Red World!" only to be welcomed by a horde of tiny folks who cry out, "'Gulliver! Gulliver! You've Come Back!'"

If Jules Verne or Jonathan Swift really went to Mars, why are the little people welcoming back Gulliver? Mort Lawrence's art continues to disappoint, looking stiff and posed.

In a small village in the year 1827, Mr. Gregor is able to work wonders by simply rubbing his hat. An out of work man and his wife get a home, a hungry woman's cupboard is full of food, a lost child is found. The villagers begin to wonder what's "Under His Hat!" and want to pull it off to see, but Gregor never removes it. Finally, a dying woman's last wish is that the only gentleman in town show her respect by taking off his hat. Gregor clears the room, removes his hat for the woman, and reveals a halo.

In last month's issue of Marvel Tales, we had "It is Forbidden to Look," which ended with an old gent revealing that he's an angel. And now we have the same surprise ending. Did the editors at Atlas think no one would notice? The authors of this blog are as bald as Mr. Gregor, but I can assure you that we're not hiding halos.

In the future, the first spaceship is launched and carries monkeys; scientists plan to study the effects of space travel on the creatures when they return. When the spaceship returns, the scientists are shocked to find it empty! After a second trip yields the same result, the scientists conclude that space travel causes disintegration and would thus be fatal for humans.

Meanwhile, on a planet far out in space, aliens plan an attack on Earth but, when they realize that the monkeys they captured have limited intelligence, they call off the attack. They are certain that, if monkeys could build a spaceship and fly into space, Earthlings must have ingenious weapons to attack any ships that approach. The attack is called off and the scientists on Earth never know that the two spaceflights saved the planet from alien invasion.

The first part of "The Mystery That Couldn't Be Solved!" is pretty good, with strong art by Sinnott. The second suffers from the chronic Atlas problem of how to end a story, and Sinnott's aliens look terrible.-Jack

Marvel Tales #140

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Man Without Fear" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★1/2

"The Man Who Followed!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★★

"The Wings!" (a: John Forte) ★

"Who Goes There?" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★1/2

"In the Dark!" (a: Mort Lawrence) ★★

Paul Abbot opens his front door to see four Martians, but rather than being afraid, he and his wife invite them in and serve refreshments. The Martians tell Paul that they'll bring him back to Mars by order of King Kaaz; Paul takes the whole thing quite well and enjoys riding in their spaceship to the red planet. On Mars, King Kaaz is surprised at this "Man Without Fear" and decides that his confidence must come from having a secret weapon to repel an invasion. The king apologizes and sends Paul back to Earth, where his wife delivers some unexpected news: tomorrow is Halloween, not today, and the Martians were not trick-or-treaters!

This isn't all that different from "The Mystery That Couldn't Be Solved" in this month's Journey to Unknown Worlds; this time, the Martian invasion is foiled because King Kaaz reads too much into Paul's devil-may-care attitude. As in the prior story, Sinnott's art is strong, but the story is predictable and too long, even at five pages.

A WWI German soldier named Eric Roeder arrives at the front, bragging about his marksmanship, but as soon as there's an attack, he runs and hides. Eric is soon arrested as a deserter and sentenced to face a firing squad, but he escapes and gets a ride in a passing car. The driver keeps repeating the sentence, "It's your turn next!" Eric gets the creeps and switches to a freight car, but "The Man Who Followed!" appears and repeats the unsettling sentence.

Eric leaps out of the train car into a river and is rescued by the same man, saying the same thing. Eric makes it to Berlin, where a restaurant waiter is the same man once again. Finally, the soldier loses himself in the crowd at an amusement park but, when the creepy man appears, Eric ducks into the back of a booth. He does not know it's a shooting gallery, where Eric is quickly shot to death by soldiers; he was executed by a firing squad after all!

I hope this month's double serving of Gene Colan stories marks the start of a new trend. I love his inky style and found myself enjoying this tale. For once, I did not know how it would end and read the last three panels without glancing ahead to the finale.

As he rises through the clouds toward Heaven, a dead man recalls his misspent life. Others called him "Mr. Smart" because he always managed to avoid being arrested, though the term was used sarcastically because "'the fool never lived right.'" As the man wonders how he'll find acceptance in heaven, he spies a pair of wings and a robe, lying unused on a cloud. Donning the outfit, he ascends to Heaven, only to find the other angels laughing at him and backing away. He looks down to see that the robe he put on is in tatters.

I admit that I didn't really understand the surprise ending of "The Wings." Why is the robe in tatters? Is it supposed to reflect the man's unworthy spirit? And since when do angels mock people?

Mr. Brant is the top astronomer but he discounts any and all reports of flying saucers. When a reliable witness draws a sketch of a creature in the atmosphere and it's published in the newspapers, members of the public frantically demand that Brant answer the question, "Who Goes There?" Insisting that nothing exists beyond the watery atmosphere, Brant is revealed to be speaking within a bubble dome that covers the undersea city of Atlantis.

Anyone reading this story knows that the twist ending will show that Brant is wrong, but most would probably expect it to be that he's living on another planet and the alien visitors are from Earth. In this case, it ends a bit differently, but I'm not sure it's any better.

The 10:15 train heads into a tunnel as usual, but it never comes out! Not in this world, at least. After hours "In the Dark!" it emerges on another world, where little, pink people with antennae complain about the constant sunshine and their 30-minute work days. The train passengers like it there so much that they want to stay, all except the conductor, who insists on turning the train around and heading home. When he arrives, no one believes his story about having visited another world until all of the little, pink people disembark!

Mort Lawrence's art seems to be getting worse with each passing month. This is the umpteenth story we've read where people unexpectedly end up traveling to another world, but at least it had a minor surprise at the end--I thought the train would be empty and did not expect to see all of the aliens get off.-Jack

Next Week...
Yet Another Annual Helps Us
Keep Our Minds Off the "New" Stuff!

The Hitchcock Project-Irving Elman, Part One-Murder Me Twice [4.9]

by Jack Seabrook

Irving Elman wrote the teleplays for three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "On the Nose," "Murder Me Twice," and "The Door Without a Key." Born in 1915, he wrote and produced plays, including three on Broadway, beginning in the early 1940s, and he began writing screenplays after WWII ended. He wrote for television starting in 1951 and he was also a TV producer from 1962 to 1971. Toward the end of his writing career, he served as head writer for two daytime soap operas, Search for Tomorrow (1976-1977) and General Hospital (1977). He also wrote eight books. Elman died in 2011.

* * * * *

"Murder Me Twice" aired on CBS on Sunday, December 7, 1958, and it was based on a short story of the same name by Lawrence Treat that had been published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in May 1957. Before discussing the story, some background on the case of Bridey Murphy is useful. In 1952, a woman named Virginia Tighe was hypnotized and claimed to recall her past life as a nineteenth century Irish woman named Bridey Murphy. A 1956 book called The Search for Bridey Murphy was a best-seller and it set off a national craze; a film of the same title was released that year. Treat’s short story was probably written in 1956, during the craze.

"Murder Me Twice" was
first published here

 As the story begins, Assistant District Attorney Burke struggles with the Lucy Prior case, where he has a murder recorded on tape and he has three eyewitnesses, but he can’t prove felonious intent. At a gathering at the home of wealthy Will and Lucy Prior a few months ago, talk turned to Bridey Murphy, and Dr. Farham admitted that he used post-hypnotic suggestion on his dental patients to avoid pain. To demonstrate, he hypnotized Lucy Prior at the party, and she recalled a former life as Dora Evans, who lived in Philadelphia in the 1850s.

The party guests continued to meet weekly and, each time, Lucy was hypnotized and assumed Dora’s personality, though her memories ended with an event that took place one morning in June 1853. When pressed, Lucy/Dora explained what happened that morning: the gardener was drunk and Dora's husband Charles was upset. Lucy/Dora refused to say what happened next, so Dr. Farham asked her to demonstrate, at which point she took a gun out of a table drawer and fatally shot her husband.

Phyllis Thaxter as Lucy Prior

Subsequent investigation revealed that there really was a Dora Evans who shot and killed her husband in Philadelphia in June 1853; she was tried for murder and convicted and she died in prison a year later. Burke suspects that Dr. Farham and Lucy Prior were lovers who conspired to kill her husband, but Lucy denies the charge. Burke knows that he’ll have to prove motive and intent, but when he interviews Dr. Farham, the man denies everything. Burke finds an old book about famous crimes and tells Lieutenant Drobney that Lucy must have read about the details of the Evans murder. After she shot her husband, Lucy said, "'I fear me, he is dead,'" approximately the same words spoken by Dora in 1853, though she had claimed that she heard shots, rushed inside to find her husband dead, and picked up the gun.

Dora had blamed the shooting on the gardener, who said that he had been asleep and too drunk even to stand up straight. Lt. Drobney interviews Lucy again, but she says that if she used similar words to those quoted in the book then she really was Dora in a past life. Burke and Drobney next summon Dr. Farham and show him an 1859 newspaper with a report that Dora was innocent and that the gardener eventually confessed to the murder. Farham is baffled, but when Lucy is brought into the room she blurts out, "'Miles! You fool! I told you we'd never--.'" Having cracked the case, Burke later tells Drobney that he had a fake newspaper made up and used it to trick Dr. Farham and Lucy into confessing. Burke wonders if Dora Evans really did kill her husband a century ago.

Tom Helmore as Dr. Farnham

When Irving Elman adapted "Murder Me Twice" for the small screen, he kept the central premise and the main characters but made significant changes to the story and completely altered the ending. The TV show does not use the flashback technique found in the short story; instead, it begins with the party at the Priors' house. Dr. Farnham is a parapsychology teacher, not a dentist, and events are streamlined: Lucy is hypnotized, takes on Dora’s personality, and murders her husband. In the story, the parties and hypnotic trances go on for weeks before the killing, but in the TV show it all happens in one evening. Lucy makes an interesting comment that provides a clue to the denouement; when asked if she’d like to be hypnotized, she replies, "'I’ve managed to keep this husband of mine fooled so far, so why take the risk of giving myself away?'"

Alan Marshal as Will Prior

The sequence where Dr. Farnham (his name is slightly different than in the story) hypnotizes Lucy uses lighting and music to create an eerie atmosphere. When Lucy becomes Dora, she speaks in an archaic way, using phrases such as "'And it please thee, sir'" and "'In the year of our blessed Lord, eighteen hundred and fifty-three,'" and Phyllis Thaxter is convincing as Dora, showing off her garden in the living room to the party guests. Instead of a gun, Lucy grabs a pair of scissors that are lying on a desk and stabs her husband in the back, killing him instantly. Burke later reveals that Dora Evans killed her husband with a pair of pruning shears, not a gun, This is a rare instance of Alfred Hitchcock Presents changing a gun to a sharp object; usually, it’s the other way around.

Ward Costello as Burke

The TV show really begins to deviate from the story when Farnham visits Lucy at home after both have been interviewed by Burke. It's immediately evident that they are not in cahoots, since Farnham suggests to Lucy that she planned the murder and says that he will blackmail her, telling her that he wants money in exchange for supporting her at the coroner's inquest. Lucy angrily throws him out of her house. At the inquest, Farnham testifies that he's "'an accredited metaphysician'" but he is cross-examined by Burke, who brings up a 1938 case where Farnham was indicted for fraud and malpractice. When Burke asserts that Lucy was not really hypnotized when she killed her husband, Farnham angrily defends himself and offers to hypnotize Lucy right in the courtroom. None of this is in the short story.

Herbert Anderson
as George

Lucy agrees and Farnham again puts her under in another eerie sequence. Lucy becomes Dora Evans once again, speaking in archaic phrases. The scissors that she used to kill her husband are lying on the coroner's desk, marked as evidence, and she suddenly grabs them and stabs Farnham in the back, killing him instantly and eliminating the man who had threatened to expose her. His body is later taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher and everyone leaves while Lucy sits on a bench in the hallway outside the hearing room. The only other person present is Burke and, just as Lucy is about to walk away, he asks her a question in order to satisfy his curiosity: "'Did you plan the whole thing?'"

Lucy turns to Burke and smiles and, in the voice of Dora Evans, replies, "'Wouldst not thee like to know?'" The show ends there, with Lucy having successfully murdered two men, gotten away with it, and admitted her guilt in such a way that she cannot be prosecuted. The TV version of "Murder Me Twice" takes a different approach to solving the problem that is set up in the short story. This time, instead of the assistant district attorney tricking Lucy and Dr. Farnham into revealing their crime, Lucy kills the doctor and gets away with murder.

Liz Carr as Adele

The TV show has echoes of two Hitchcock films of the 1950s: Dial M For Murder, in which a woman kills a man by stabbing him in the back with a pair of scissors, and Vertigo, which was released in May 1958, seven months before "Murder Me Twice" aired. In Vertigo, Tom Helmore, who plays Dr. Farnham in "Murder Me Twice," plays a similar character, the manipulative husband of a woman who seems to be possessed by the spirit of a nineteenth-century woman.

"Murder Me Twice" was remade as an episode of the 1980s Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show, and Buck Henry, who adapted Elman's earlier teleplay for the 1980s, makes even more changes. In this version, which aired on October 20, 1985, as "Wake Me When I'm Dead," Barbara Hershey plays the Lucy character, but after she kills the hypnotist in the courtroom, she ends up in Switzerland in bed with the prosecutor, played by Buck Henry!

King Calder as Sherman

Lawrence Treat (1903-1998), born Lawrence Goldstone, worked as a lawyer before he became a writer. He wrote hundreds of short stories and many novels and he was known for his police procedurals. A founding member of the Mystery Writers of America, he won two Edgar Awards. Five TV episodes were adapted from his short stories, including two for Alfred Hitchcock Presents; the other was "On the Nose."

"Murder Me Twice" was the only episode of the Hitchcock TV series directed by David Swift (1919-2001), who was both a writer and a director of films and TV shows from 1948 to 1998. He served in the Air Force in WWII and created the TV series, Mr. Peepers (1952-1955), for which he wrote 62 teleplays. He also wrote and directed Good Neighbor Sam (1964), which was adapted from the Jack Finney novel.

Robert Carson as the coroner

Phyllis Thaxter (1919-2012) plays Lucy Prior (and Dora Evans). Born in Maine, she acted on Broadway before making her debut on film in 1944. She began acting on TV in 1953, appearing in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Never Again." She also appeared on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, including "The Long Silence." Later in her career, she played Ma Kent in Superman (1978), and she continued to appear on TV until 1992.

Dr. Farnham is played by Tom Helmore (1904-1995), who was born in London and whose career on screen lasted from 1927 to 1972. He also appeared on Broadway from the 1940s to the 1960s. Helmore was in three Hitchcock films: The Ring (1927), Secret Agent (1936), and Vertigo (1958). Helmore was in one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Little White Frock") and he also appeared on Thriller and on Night Gallery, which was his last credit.

Charles Seel
as the clerk

Alan Marshal (1909-1961) appears briefly as Will Prior, Lucy's unfortunate husband. Born in Australia as Alan Willey, he appeared on Broadway in the 1920s and 1930s and his screen career lasted from 1936 to his death. This was his only role on the Hitchcock TV show.

Ward Costello (1919-2009) plays Burke, the assistant district attorney. He served in both the British Air Force and the U.S. Army in WWII and was mostly seen on TV between 1951 and 1989. This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock TV show.

In smaller roles:

• Herbert Anderson (1917-1994) as George, a party guest; he was on screen from 1940 to 1975, appearing in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (the other was "The $2,000,000 Defense") and two episodes of Batman, but he is best remembered for his role as Henry Mitchell, father of Dennis the Menace on the series that ran from 1959 to 1963.
• Liz Carr as Adele, the party guest who does not want to be hypnotized; she has only four TV credits, from 1958 to 1960, and two are on Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("The Baby-Blue Expression" is the other).
• King Calder (1897-1964) as Sherman, who is with Burke when he interrogates Lucy and Dr. Farham; he was on screen from 1949 to 1964 and appeared in seven episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Gloating Place."
• Robert Carson (1909-1979) as the coroner; he was the brother of actor Jack Carson and he appeared on the Hitchcock show eleven times, including "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?" His career as a character actor lasted from 1939 to 1974.
• Charles Seel (1897-1980) as the clerk who opens the inquest; he had a long career in vaudeville, on Broadway, and on the radio, and he was on screen from 1938 to 1980. In addition to roles on The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Night Gallery, he made four appearances on the Hitchcock show, including "Return of Verge Likens."
• Alma Lawton (1896-1982) as Alma, Lucy's maid, who announces that Farnham is there to visit after the murder; she was on screen from 1951 to 1973 and this was her only appearance on the Hitchcock show.

Alma Lawton

Watch "Murder Me Twice" online here or buy the DVD here. Read Lawrence Treat's story online here. Watch "Wake Me When I'm Dead" online here. Read the GenreSnaps review here.

Sources:

The FICTIONMAGS Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.

Galactic Central, www.philsp.com/.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

"Irving Elman Dies at 96." Variety, 27 Nov. 2011, variety.com/2011/film/news/irving-elman-dies-at-96-1118046604/.

"Murder Me Twice."  Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 4, episode 9, CBS, 7 December 1958.

Treat, Lawrence. "Murder Me Twice." Alfred Hitchcock's A Choice of Evils. London: Severn House, 1987. pp. 310-19.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "The End of Indian Summer" here!

In two weeks: Our series on Irving Elman concludes with a look at "The Door Without a Key," starring Claude Rains!

Batman in the 1960s Issue 15: May/ June 1962

 

The Caped Crusader in the 1960s
by Jack Seabrook
& Peter Enfantino

Moldoff

Batman #147

"The Plants of Plunder"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

"The Secret of Mystery Island"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

"Batman Becomes Bat-Baby"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

After crooks break into a jewelry store's vault by means of a fast-growing plant that emits great heat, Batman tests some strange seeds that he found on the floor near the vault, but they don't sprout. The next day, the bandits use exploding gas pods to cover their tracks after another robbery. Commissioner Gordon introduces Batman to an amnesia victim who was found wandering the streets with more of the strange seeds in his pocket.

Just then, "The Plants of Plunder" strike again as the crooks use them to broach the wall of an estate and steal art objects. More fast-growing giant plants tear up the roadway and block the Batmobile from giving chase. Batman and Robin take a side road and chase the crooks to a trail, where they encounter a giant cactus that shoots deadly needles at them! Needless to say, the crooks get away again. Batman analyzes mud found on the floor of the hospital room occupied by the amnesia victim and it leads the Dynamic Duo to an abandoned farmhouse that serves as the crooks' hideout.

Inside, the crooks are holding the amnesia victim and, when they hear Batman approaching, they shove the poor man and he suffers a blow to the head. The crooks rush outside to use more plants to defeat Batman, but a strange sight emerges from the farmhouse: it's an alien with a ray gun! It seems the amnesia victim was an alien disguised as a human who lost his memory until (you guessed it) he was knocked in the head. He helps the Caped Crusader defeat the bad guys and then explains that he came to Earth to see how his seeds grew here. To his surprise, the plants they yielded grew very fast and a branch knocked him in the head and caused amnesia. He apologizes for the trouble he's caused and hops in his spaceship to return home.

In story after story, one blow to the head causes amnesia and another cures it. Here, this tired plot device is used to explain why an alien from outer space can't remember his identity. The plant angle is silly, but how many times have we seen crooks in early 1960s Batman comics use very complicated methods to commit simple crimes?

On his deathbed, a millionaire gives Catlin, one of his criminal underlings, a key to open a safe, in which he will find a letter explaining where to find his riches. Batman and Robin are hiding nearby and overhear the man's last words. Later, the Dynamic Duo follow Catlin to an island where the millionaire transported various buildings he collected from around the globe. Catlin and two other crooks follow a series of clues to try to find the treasure and Batman and Robin are right behind them. Eventually, the loot is located and the crooks knocked senseless. The final clue includes the word "happiness," which Batman tells Robin is symbolized in China by a bat!

Slightly better than the story before it, "The Secret of Mystery Island!" uses the gimmick of having one clue lead to another until a final clue reveals the desired object. In this case, the crooks have a problem deciphering the clues and only Batman's great brain can figure things out.

Just as Batman and Robin are about to corner Nails Finney and his gang at their hideout, a scientist named Garth shoots Batman with a ray beam and "Batman Becomes Bat-Baby," shrinking to the size of a four year old. Garth sends a photo of the Dark Tot to the Gotham Gazette and the next issue's headline reads, "Gangland Turns Batman into Baby." At Stately Wayne Manor, wee Bruce Wayne has to sit on a stack of telephone books to reach the dinner table, yet he tells Robin that he retains his adult mind and strength.

This whole page is priceless!

Batman fashions a baby Bat-suit, complete with overalls and short pants, and that night, the new Dynamic Duo succeed in capturing bandits as Bat-Baby uses his small size to his advantage. Kathy Kane pays a visit but little Bruce avoids her by putting a cutout in the window that makes it look like adult Bruce is making out with another woman. Bruce stakes out the swing set at a playground and then follows (on roller skates) a crook named Swap Smith until he discovers the hideout of Nails Finney. Later, Robin and Bat-Baby surprise Nails and his gang, including Garth, the scientist. Bat-Baby rides a Wonder Horse down a flight of stairs to knock two crooks off their feet and gets to the machine in order to shoot a beam that lets him regain his natural size. The crooks captured, Batman adds his Bat-Baby costume to the trophy room in the Batcave.

I don't know about you, Peter, but I got a big kick out of the story of Bat-Baby! The first panels, where he is shown in the too-big Batman costume, are funny, as is the fact that Robin has to carry him to the Batmobile. The scene at Wayne Manor is a riot and the Bat-Baby costume is perfect, almost as if Batman is embracing his embarrassing situation and making the most of it. I love the playground stakeout and the way he uses roller skates to follow the hood, and the icing on the cake comes when he rides the horsey down the stairs! These goofy stories make reading through the duller ones worth the trouble.-Jack

Peter-You obviously do know me, Jack. I'm only hoping that Bill Finger was sitting in a bar down the street from the DC Bullpen and thought, "I'm sick up to here with funny book stories and these dopey fans who eat up anything we do. I'll show them! If Mad can do it, so can I!" and proceeded to write a parody of the most famous character he ever worked on. If I envision that scene, I can enjoy "The Burping of Bat-Baby." Some of the elements of this goofy, camp crap jump out at me. Why do all the mob goons in Gotham have such lame nicknames? Who's going to follow orders from "Swap" Smith or "Nails" Finney or anyone who answers to "Blinky?" And why are there so many renegade scientists in this town, working on incredible gizmos with nothing more than Rubber Ducky Factory robberies? "Bat-Brat" was the most entertaining of the trio this issue; I've had it up to here with giant teapots and well-meaning alien visitors.

Moldoff

Detective Comics #303

"Murder in Skyland!"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

"The Great J'Onn J'Onzz Hunt"

Story by Jack Miller (?)

Art by Joe Certa

Skyland, Gotham's sensational new amusement park which simulates the atmosphere of all nine planets, is the scene of a mysterious death on the eve of its opening. The corpse is identified as owner and operator, Wally Dodd, who is found frozen on the tundra of planet Pluto! When Batman and Robin arrive, the Caped Crusader finds strange marks on Dodd's space suit, determining that the millionaire was the victim of foul play! 

Batman must investigate and root out the culprit amidst a few suspects. Was it--

Skyland's architect John Marlowe, or...

John Hanson, Dodd's technical advisor, or...

Paul, Dodd's nephew, or...

Al Bates, shady nightclub owner and Paul's... er... business associate?

The murderer gets nervous when the Daring Duo seem to be collecting clues; the killer dons a cowl and attacks our heroes, utilizing "electronic monsters from other planets" kept in Skyland's interplanetary zoo. Batman outfoxes the villain (the beasts aren't that beastly after all) and nabs him while he's attempting to escape. When the mask comes off, the boys are shocked to see syndicate muscle, Blinky Cole, who cops to orchestrating several "accidents" to prevent the opening of Skyland (his bosses wanted Dodd to pay protection money) but not to Dodd's murder. Batman believes him.

Which brings him back to his original suspects. The Dark Knight begins listing grievances with his fingers...

One/ Paul Dodd stood to inherit his uncle's money, and

Two/ Through his crack detective work (and the gossip of a night watchman), Bats discovers that Dodd argued with Hanson about technical data (which would push me to murder every time), and

Three/ The same mouthpiece told Bats that Dodd was not happy with Marlowe's buildings.

All three have motives. But which one is the killer? Robin (in one of his moments of clarity) hypothesizes that Dodd must have hidden cameras around Skyland and the footage might help to determine the identity of the assassin. While the heroes are out  searching, another attempt is made on their lives (this time with a Martian Lightning Tank!), but the bright side is that it suddenly occurs to Bats who the guilty party is.

He reassembles the four men in the Skyland business office and points the finger at... Al Bates! Yes, Al Bates! The nightclub owner had loaned Paul Dodd a large sum of money in return for one half of Paul's future inheritance. He waited for the Senior Dodd to finish Skyland and then offed him. Realizing he's looking at a long stint of three to six months in Gotham Jail for Murder One, Bates throws a Plutonian Gas Bomb down and exits stage left, escaping on one of Batman's Whirly-Bats ®. With nothing but Skyland's incredible museum at their disposal and a murderer getting away, Batman and Robin grab Experimental Belts of Uranus and give chase. Having only spent a few minutes reading the Whirly-Bat ® operation instructions and the fact that he's a wee bit out of shape, it's not long before Bates is captured and Skyland becomes the property of Paul Dobb.

So the nephew gets off Scott-free despite semi-sorta instigating his uncle's murder? You have to hand it to mob muscle Bates, who obviously took a few semesters of Tech back in Gotham High. He's able to operate the Martian Tank and the Whirly-Birds without any trouble at all. Perhaps Bats should work on some kind of security measures for his wonderful toys? Skyland would definitely play havoc with Gotham's fly zone, and the amusement park comes with more than a bit of danger if you can actually freeze in one of its attractions. "Murder in Skyland" is one of the weaker entries so far this year. The art is not good and the script is lazy. I curse the generation before mine for being so enamored with robots and aliens.

An odd thing is happening to the Martian Manhunter as he's saving dozens of lives all around town... he recognizes the would-be victims' faces. But all the parties insist they've never met J'Onzz before in their lives. But thanks for saving us!

Turns out the mob has been using a process of elimination to ascertain the true identity of the Martian Manhunter. Detective Jones was on a flight that was going down and rescued the plane's passengers by transforming into J'Onn J'Onzz. On a nearby flight (let's ignore for a moment that the other flight is really close to the doomed airliner) sits syndicate man Dinky Kovacs and his hoods. They witness the miraculous feat and put two and two together. Now, thanks to the flight manifest and "The Great J'Onn J'Onzz Hunt," the mob is sure the MM is... Detective John Jones! These capo skippers are better detectives than Batman! But MM isn't a dummy and figures out a way to lift suspicion off his Earthbound alter ego and throw a bunch of hoods in jail at the same time. What a guy!

Why the mob has to hatch such an elaborate scheme to ascertain the secret identity of the Martian Manhunter is beyond me. Wouldn't it be easier to draw glasses on a pic of Superman? What they'll do with the info once it's gathered is beyond me as well. MM is hardly around anyway. Would they blackmail him? Use the green dope to dig a trench under Fort Knox? I'm not asking much from my four-color entertainment but perhaps a plot that doesn't scream "Mediocre" now and then would be nice.-Peter

Jack-"Murder in Skyland!" is a poor story with weak art. Finger found a way to work in aliens and other planets without having to leave Gotham City. At least Batman does some detecting for a change. As for the Martian Manhunter, what's the underworld's fascination with uncovering his secret identity? That seems to come up frequently. Don't they have banks to rob?

Moldoff

Batman #148

"The Alien Force Twins!"

Story by Jerry Coleman

Art by Jim Mooney

"The Boy Who Was Robin"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

"The Joker's Greatest Triumph"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

During a storm, the Bat-plane is driven off course. When the sky clears at dawn, Batman and Robin land next to the isolated Kshiho mountain range, where they find an advanced city. They are soon set upon by "The Alien Force Twins," two columns of energy that have assumed the shape of the Dynamic Duo. Smoke pellets and a boulder don't stop them!

Near the city, Batman sees two green outer space aliens and realizes that the Force Twins must be electronic watchdogs. Batman and Robin knock out the aliens and enter the city, where they hear other aliens reveal that they are on Earth to steal rare minerals. The Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder are captured and jailed, but they escape by digging an underground tunnel. Batman's keen observation leads him to realize that the aliens are vulnerable to water, so he splashes a couple and he and Robin make it to the aliens' control panel, where they pull a switch that makes the Force Twins disappear. The aliens blast off back into space, never to return.

Jim Mooney's art is about the only thing worthwhile in this lead story, which features yet another set of aliens who have come to Earth for some nefarious reason. Coleman's drawings of Batman in some of the panels remind me of what we'd see in some of the TV show images in a few years; I wonder if the producers used Mooney's art?

Bruce Wayne's cousin, young Vanderveer Wayne, visits for a week and drives Dick Grayson crazy with his bragging about his skill at fencing and gymnastics. Dick finally has had enough and shows off his own skills, earning a reprimand from Bruce, who fears that such a display will give away their secret identities. The next morning, Alfred carelessly walks through the front room of Wayne Manor carrying Batman and Robin's spare costumes from being laundered when Vanderveer walks in and sees him. Bruce thinks fast and says they're for a masquerade ball, but Vanderveer has an idea.

Later that day, at a giant Don Quixote exhibit sponsored by the Read-A-Good-Book Committee, Bruce and Dick are shocked to see Batman and Robin appear and fight a fire that has broken out. Robin whips off his mask and reveals himself as Vanderveer, telling Dick that he's the real Robin and that's why he's so good at gymnastics! When Van returns to the apartment of his paid accomplice, ex-Vaudeville acrobat "Jumpy" Regan, the crook tells Van that they should wear their costumes to rob the Stuart Ice Cream plant! Van rebels and gets a sock in the jaw.

Van follows Jumpy to the ice cream factory, where there are (of course) giant ice cream sundaes and syrup dispensers. The real Batman and Robin show up and a short battle ensues, where "The Boy Who Was Robin" works with the real Boy Wonder and Batman to defeat the fake Batman.

I've noticed a trend lately in the Batman titles. The stories either have to do with space aliens and don't include many (or any) scenes with Bruce, Dick, Batgirl, Batwoman, and the like, or else they are more focused on the extended Batman family and their shenanigans. I must say that I'm finding the stories with the extended family (even Bat-Mite) more enjoyable than the ones with aliens. Bruce's snooty young cousin Vandermeer annoys Dick Grayson and then pretends to be Robin, and it's fun.

A clue sent by the Joker leads Batman to intercept the Clown Prince of Crime in the middle of a robbery by helicopter, but when the craft crash-lands, "The Joker's Greatest Triumph" is achieved when he unmasks Batman! The next day, a newspaper headline states that the Joker won't reveal Batman's secret identity unless he is captured, suggesting that Batman should leave him alone or else. Batman will have none of it and redoubles his efforts to catch the Joker.

Another clue leads Batman to encounter the Joker as the crook tries to steal the head of a giant stone figure in order to get the jewels hidden inside. The Joker gets away, which leads the press to speculate that Batman let him go on purpose. Finally, the third encounter between Batman and the Joker comes at a circus, where Batman unmasks the Joker, who is pretending to be a clown. In the end, the Joker is forced to admit that he doesn't know Batman's secret identity after all, because a bright light was too blinding for him to make out Batman's unmasked face.

What a cheat! I was really looking forward to this story when I saw this issue's cover, but it's just the same series of obvious clues left by the Joker and near-misses by Batman until the final capture. The panel where the Joker should see Bruce Wayne's face is very clear, so the concluding explanation about the blinding light seems like a cop-out. Moldoff swipes from Kane and/or Robinson for some of the Joker's expressions.-Jack

Peter-The Joker finale is the cop-out of the century. I figured the prince of crime would end up with amnesia but, no, we get an even stupider reveal! Aliens. Why did it have to be aliens? That leaves the middle story, "The Boy Who Was Robin," which didn't exactly achieve near-classic status but was at least exciting and clever. And it contained no aliens, let's not forget. I had to laugh at the climax where the rich little kid goes without even a spanking for setting off the events of the adventure. In fact, Dick praises the brat for his athleticism. Rich spoiled kids.

Moldoff

Detective Comics #304

"The Return of Clay-Face"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

"The Crime College"

Story by Jack Miller (?)

Art by Joe Certa

Bruce Wayne and his mentally-challenged ward, Dick Grayson, are in the Bat-Cave desperately trying to figure out why the New Coke formula was so bad when Alfred barges in to deliver the news... Matt Hagen, a/k/a Clay-Face, has escaped from Gotham Prison (and only days before he would be paroled!). Bruce opines that all of Gotham will be in big trouble if Hagen makes it to his secret stash of clay-juice.

At that very moment, Hagen is bathing in the waters that grant him molecular instability, deep inside a hidden grotto. Hagen has major plans this time out: he needs to get together a huge amount of cash and wants vengeance on the Dynamic Duo. Later, his first heist is the payroll in a shipyard office. An alarm is activated and, luckily and coincidentally, Batman and Robin are patrolling the very same street and answer the call. Batman tosses a lasso around Clay-Face but the evil sack of mud transforms himself into a top and Batman barely gets away with his life. Clay-Face escapes.

Later, in the Batmobile, Robin suggests that Batman go hang out in one of his clubs (no, not one of those clubs!) and work off some of his tension. Great idea! So, as billionaire Bruce Wayne, our hero arrives at the Pharaoh Club, a hangout exclusive to rich, elitist snobs who don't really do anything in their spare time besides smoke pipes and read their mail. Bruce is right at home.

At the club, Bruce is introduced to the friend of Professor Colton, a Brit named John Royce, who seems to be a friendly old chap but who may be hiding a dirty (muddy) secret. One of the other members, Phipps, tells Bruce he's expecting delivery of a Rembrandt at his estate later that night. John Royce looks on with interest. That night, Bruce shows up at the Phipps mansion to see what the big hullabaloo is all about and is roundly rebuffed at the door by Phipps, who explains that he has a terrible toothache. Knowing that Phipps wears false teeth, Bruce heads into the woods and strips down to his Bat-uniform. He then heads back to the door to confront the imposter. Frazzled, Phipps transforms back into Clay-Face and then into a giant grasshopper before hopping away with the Rembrandt!

Batman enters the mansion and finds the real Phipps tied up. He releases the man and then, with Robin, heads to Royce's cottage. There they find Royce tied and gagged. Once Bats has removed the gag, Royce displays outrage at his treatment and demands that Batman get on the radio and broadcast an alarm! Being the world's greatest detective has its perks and Batman immediately recognizes that Brits don't use the word "radio" (they say "the wireless"). There is no Royce; this guy is Clay-Face! Realizing the only "Pharaoh" they haven't checked on is Professor Colton, they head to the egghead's swanky digs and find the Prof. chained to a radiator.

Colton explains how Hagen brought the last of his super-rejuvo formula to him and ordered the academic to mess with the ingredients until they produced a longer-lasting protoplasm. Batman wisely grabs the last of the clay-juice in order to concoct a "suspended animation" potion to spray on Clay-Face. The boys head back to Royce's place and confront him with their suspicions that he's not who he says he is. Sure enough, Royce transforms into a giant bat and his nemesis sprays him with Suspendo, immediately freezing him. When the freeze wears off, Hagen is in a Gotham cell once more. But Batman knows there will be trouble if Clay-Face ever escapes again!

"The Return of Clay-Face" is a very satisfying adventure with an extremely cool villain, one I'd like to see drawn by a professional comic book artist. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the art here is awful; quite the opposite, it's much better than usual. The GCD lists Moldoff and Paris as artists but the work doesn't appear to be as generic as, say, the story in Detective #303. Maybe because the team was given something other than aliens or robots to work with. Bill Finger definitely seems to be enjoying himself, writing with gusto and including quite a few clever twists. The continuing carousel of "Guess who the Clay Guy is impersonating now" is a lot of fun as well. I'd love to see a "rules" sheet for Clay-Face. In one scene, he changes into a shark, but why would his gills work? And why does his coloring change? Fascinating.

Professor Proxon, high-end criminal and academic, rules over "The Crime College," hardened hesiters and mob goons who have one thing in common: they love money. But Proxon is becoming exasperated with J'Onn J'Onzz, as the Martian Manhunter keeps foiling his criminal plots. And the students aren't passing with the grades they're getting, either. In the (very predictable) ending, J'Onn masquerades as felon Fred Framer and infiltrates the college before shutting it down altogether. A really dumb adventure... no, wait, that's what I typed about the last episode, didn't I? It's like Groundhog Day around here. I have to say the only panel in this disposable tripe that made me smile is when Proxon meets Framer at the college and remarks that he'd be happy to sign him up at the crime college. Meanwhile, Framer (MM) replies out loud in what should have been a thought balloon. Yep, I'm reaching for things to mention here.-Peter

Jack-Clay-Face is a great villain, and he's a welcome break from stories about aliens, Bat-Babies, and the Joker. The end of this one leaves the door open for more, and I hope he comes back soon. The Martian Manhunter story was fairly routine, with more nonsense about trying to keep his weakness regarding fire from the underworld. The tank with the giant circular saw must have cost a lot, but I guess it's worth it to steal a cool million.

Next Week...
Gentleman Gene
Throws Us a Rope!