Sub-Mariner Comics #27
The Case of the Frantic Fisherman
The Sub-Mariner and Namora have just finished a vacation in the coastal town of Okak, Labrador and head back to New York. A week later, a man named Nels Nelson is digging for water out behind his shed and discovers oil instead. Nels rushes to the home of Jorg Finston, a local geologist who confirms that Nels has hit on a rich vein of oil. Considering his sudden increase in wealth, Nels begins thinking about what he can spend it on. His thoughts take a sinister bent when he begins thinking about buying all the property around the village and driving people away.
The next morning, Paul Renaud’s ship is lost at sea with all hands lost, all part of Nel’s plan to drive the fishermen away hoping that their superstitious nature makes them believe the area is cursed. When ships continue getting lost at sea the police become baffled and the citizens are becoming desperate. During a town meeting the mayor suggests that they are cursed and suggests evacuating the town. However, one of the younger villagers, Jacques DeLong, wonders where Nels Nelson hasn’t been attending the town hall meetings. Suspecting that the old man is up to something, the young man snoops around Nelson’s shack but is caught and knocked out. FIguring that Jacques is a threat to his plans, Nels locks the young man in a trunk. His girlfriend, Fleurette begins to worry when Jacques goes missing for two days and takes a ship to New York to ask the Sub-Mariner and Namora for help.
Namor and Namora swim up to Labrador where they meet with the villagers where they have already are already starting to suspect Nels Nelson. Namor swims out to Nelson’s ship the Stormy Petrel where he is quickly overpowered and tossed overboard by the crew. Returning to shore, Namora tells Namor that the people are starting to leave but he convinces them to stay until he resolves the situation. Returning to the Stormy Petrel, they see it attacking another ship. The pair save the crew from a watery death before climbing about the Petrel. This time, the Sub-Mariner and Namora manage to fight their way through the ship and save Paul Renaud and the trio then battle their way to Nels Nelson. With his plan falling apart, Nels reveals that he had struck it rich and wanted to drive everyone away so he could keep the oil for himself. They then take Nels to shore where the locals lock him up in the stocks and begin pelting him with rotten fruit. However, before the frenzied mob could kill Nels, the Sub-Mariner convinces them to let the law do its job an Nelson is turned over to the authorities while the mayor declares the oil well a community resource.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Namora
Back From the Past
At the office of Mark Mason, the wealthy Sally Barrows has come to asked the private detective to help her find her brother, Sniff Martin. She explains that she has kept the knowledge of her brother a secret from her husband, Clyde Barrows because of Sniff’s criminal past. Sally explains that when she and Sniff were children they were left in the care of their Uncle Jack. Jack lived in a run down apartment building and made money as a bootlegger. An abusive man he demanded that Sniff earned his keep even though the boy did not want to get involved in illegal activities. However, when Uncle Jack threatened to put Sally in an orphanage, Sniff agreed to work with him. By the time Sniff was 19, he was still involved in criminal activity even though Uncle Jack had long since died. When a sale went wrong, Sniff decided that it was not safe for Sally to keep living with him and sent her away. That’s how she eventually met her future husband. After finishing her story, Sally explains she wants to find her brother and try to convince him to go straight. Mark agrees to take the case and learns that Sniff usually frequents the bar as well as the now condemned tenement they used to live.
Hearing all of this is Louise Grant, Mark’s secretary and she makes an excuse to go home early so she can investigate these leads as the Blonde Phantom. Later that evening, the Blonde Phantom visits the bar and learns from the owner that Sniff is no longer welcome there after he tried to rip off one of the blind patrons who usually begs for change. Going to the tenement, she hears a police officer questioning some young men. They talk about how Sniff had gone to jail in the past for cracking safes and has lost his nerve once he was released. Still, he was begging others to pay him to learn how to crack safes. That’s when the Blonde Phantom joins the conversation and finds a newspaper article about Sally and her husband moving into a hotel while their mansion is being renovated, and how Sniff went to find work from Gunner Malone.
By this time, Sniff Martin has convinced Gunner Malone that he could be useful on the Barrows job with his safe cracking skills. However, when they break into the mansion, Sniff recognizes his sister in a photograph and turns on the crooks. In the ensuing gun battle, Gunner Malone and his men are gunned down by Sniff who takes a bullet himself. This is just as the Blonde Phantom arrives with Mark and Sally. Thankfully, Sniff is only wounded and after he recovers from his injuries he is welcomed by Sally’s husband and quickly eases into the life of a socialite.
Recurring Characters
Blonde Phantom, Mark Mason
Monument to Murder
A renown sculptor named Laurette Gower has announced that she is constructing two statues to commemorate the Sub-Mariner and Namora. Reading this in the newspaper a crook named Bronze is furious to hear this because the two heroes have always interfered with his criminal operations and he begins scheming how to finally get revenge against them. Meanwhile, Namor and Namora have met with Laurette to see the statues even though they think they haven’t earned the statues. Their visit is interrupted with word that someone is robbing the nearby Dido Beach Club. The pair swim to the club and arrive just in time to witness Bronze and his men try to make escape in a speed boat. When they chase after the crooks they lose them when the criminals cloud their escape with a smoke screen.
While Namor and Namora try to figure out how Bronze pulled his disappearing act, the villain gloats over the negative press the Sub-Mariner has received after their successful heist. Public opinion of the heroes is diminished again when Bronze and his men succeed in robbing a local millionaire. Later, Laurette discovers that the villains have been using the base of her massive statues as their hideout and is kidnapped, who leave her tied up inside to be blown up with some dynamite. Noticing smoke coming from the statue, the two heroes save Laurette in the nick of time and she tells them that Bronze and his men have retreated to a nearby lighthouse with their stolen loot.
The Sub-Mariner and Namora manage to ambush Bronze and his men and round them up for the authorities. With their honor restored, Namor and Namora are celebrated when Laurette Gower unveils her statues to the public.
Recurring Characters
Sub-Mariner, Namora
