Young Men #25

he Return of... the Human Torch

A youth crime spree has exploded all over the city, and the Human Torch and Toro rush to the scene of a bank robbery in progress. They attempt to stop the young hoods trying to hold the place up until one of them threatens to shoot a girl he has taken hostage unless they surrender. The Torch and Toro comply and are locked in the time locked vault and left to suffocate to death while the robbers flee. However, despite the fact that the vault cannot be opened while the time lock is active, the Torch and Toro use their flame powers to melt through it and chase after the crooks. Using their flame powers the getaway car is incapacitated and the youth gang is apprehended. When the Torch and Toro turn the young men over to Chief Wilson they find it puzzling the amount of young men have been incarcerated and why they are apparently happy about it.

With no apparent answers, the Torch and Toro go back out on patrol and as they pass by the old folk's home where Toro's uncle Julius lives they notice that it is being boarded up. They decide to land and learn from the owner that all the old people suddenly disappeared and he was forced to close, and that he has no knowledge where Toro's uncle went. The two investigate this further and learn that old people have been vanishing all over the city. Wondering if there is some sort of connection between the disappearance of elderly people and the spike in youth crime, the Torch and Toro disguise themselves as elderly men and go out on patrol.

While walking the streets they are approached by a young hood who offers them the opportunity to be young again. Interest, the incognito crime fighters join the young man back to the secret hideout of Doctor Markov. Markov is having a meeting with a group of old men offering to use his device on them in order to reverse their ages. Markov offers them this service in exchange for the youthful men to carry out crimes for him. He rationalizes this to the elderly men by telling them that they will get at most five years in jail and will be released and be physically 25 and have the chance of a renewed youth. To show his device works, Markov demonstrates de-aging a 70 year old man until he is 20 years old.

Suspecting something is up since the such a device could be used for great good, the Torch and Toro reveal themselves. As Toro grabs the hood that brought them there he is shocked to learn that the young man is his uncle Julius, who had already undergone the process. The Torch meanwhile quickly nabs Markvo. They then strap him into his machine and threaten to use it on him unless he explains what the deal is. Afraid to be subjected to his own device, Markov explains that he had been conning the elderly people, that a side effect of the de-aging device only keeps people young for 30 days before they die and crumble to dust. Having undergone the process 29 days previously, Julius becomes enraged and fires his gun at Markov's device causing a massive explosion that everyone inside the hideout except the Human Torch and Toro who are blasted free.

Recurring Characters

• Human Torch

• Toro

• Chief Wilson

Top Secret

At Steve Roger's quarters at the Lee School, Bucky shows Steve the front page of the newspaper which features a call fro the assistance of Captain America by the United States Army. The pair change into Captain America and Bucky and head to Washington D.C. and are asked to go to Nevada. There they are brought to a nuclear testing ground where scientist Jim Slade has developed a new atomic trigger for a nuclear cannon.

Meanwhile, in nearby Las Vegas, Communist spy Arnold Lupoff and his wife Lupa are in the middle of their plot to steal the plans for the atomic trigger, as Lupa has been spending her time posing as Slade's girlfriend to try and learn the secrets. Fearing that the operative known as the Executioner might eliminate them if they fail they decide to try and obtain the plans that night and prepare for Jim Slade's upcoming date with Lupa.

Back at the base, Captain America and Bucky meet with Jim Slade and the scientist talks about his "luck" with his new girlfriend. As he leaves he unknowingly drops a photo of her on the ground. Picking it up for a look, Captain America recognizes Lupa Lupoff as a Communist spy. Both Cap and Bucky then rush off to stop the spies before they can take the plans from Slade.

At a Las Vegas restaurant, Lupa begins trying to pump Slade for information but he refuses to divulge the top secret nature of his work. As Bucky watches from above, Arnold drugs Jim's drink and when he passes out the spy couple carry Slade out of the restaurant and into a car waiting outside. Bucky dives into the roof of the car and Captain America catches up just as the car drives away. Before he can try to catch up with it he is attacked by communist agents and is forced to fight off a gauntlet of various attacks. Captain America soon finds himself caught in the blast of explosives set off by the spies.

Meanwhile, out in the desert the Lupoff couple have tied Jim to a tree and demand that he give them the plans for the atomic trigger or die. He refuses and suddenly Bucky attacks, but the young man is easily subdued and tied to the cactus as well. However, Captain America soon arrives and attacks Arnold, taking him down with a single punch. Suddenly Lupa shoots Arnold in the stomach and reveals that she is the Executioner and announces that he failed at his mission. Lupa then turns the gun on herself having also decreed that she had failed. With the danger passed, Cap unties Jim and Bucky and later the trio return to the atomic base where they witness a test of Jim's invention.

Recurring Characters

• Captain America

• Bucky

Continuity Notes

• Although this story refers to Captain America and Bucky as Steve Rogers and James Barnes here, as per Captain America #153, these appearances are actually attributed to William Burnside and Jack Monroe.

The Shark People

At the Battery Park ferry terminal people are horrified when a woman pushes through the crowd and dives into the water before the ferry arrives. A man dives in to try and save her from drowning but finds only her dress, but no sign of the body. The Coast Guard is called in to search, but even scraping the bottom of the water yields no results. The mystery baffles the authorities, and it makes the newspapers.

Reading the story Betty Dean suggests to her friend the Sub-Mariner to check it out. Namor goes down to the docks where the woman disappeared later that night and comes across the body of a man who appears to have been mauled to death by a shark recently. However, upon closer inspection Namor is surprised to find that the man is bone dry and recalls that sharks don't live in the waters near New York. Calling the authorities to recover the body, Namor then dives into the water to investigate. While Namor is occupied, not far away a coast guard ship's hull is breached and the crew aboard are attacked by sharks.

The next day, the Sub-Mariner is called to help examine the remains that have washed ashore and everyone including Namor is stumped as to the origin of the attacks. However a bystander overhearing Namor's conversation with coast guard officials makes a snide comment suggesting that he might know the cause of the attack. The Sub-Mariner begins trailing the man and watches as he suddenly walks into a secluded part of the water. Diving in after him, Namor is suddenly attacked by a great white shark. In order to defend himself Namor rips the creature's jaw open killing it. The next morning the body of the man Namor followed swims to shore and Namor notes that his jaw has been ripped off as well.

Staking out the beach that night he finds a mysterious woman wandering around and stops her. Suspecting she is one of the shake people Namor remarks how the authorities have devised a way to slay all her people, making her blow her cover. Realizing the jig is up, the shark woman attacks but Namor easily subdues her. Defeated, the woman explains that she and her people are a water-dwelling species from another planet. They had mastered the ability to transport their minds across space to Earth and took on the form of the great white shark. Craving live flesh they developed the ability to assume human form so they could attack their land dwelling prey to feed but have to return to the water by nightfall or die. She then tells Namor that all her people are going to meet off the coast of Cape Hatteras. Namor thanks her for the information and filled with grief for betraying her people the woman dives into the water, resuming her shark form and impales herself on a rock jutting out of the water.

Namor convinces the coast guard of the story and they soon arrive at the meeting of the Shark People and bound them all in a net, and give them an ultimatum: return to where they came from or die. Refusing to leave, the coast guard and Namor haul the Shark People out of the water and leave them out long enough that they all die off.

Recurring Characters

• Sub-Mariner

• Betty Dean