Story title: "The Vampire Master, Part 2" (Probably not the official title).
Cover Date: January 1936
By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Once again we have a story from New Fun Comics, that for some reason changed its title to More Fun Comics. It's another Doctor Occult entry, and it's a direct continuation of the previous one, so let's get right to it.
We start right where we left off: The vampire is about to attack the Doctor after a poker chip failed to contain him.
Luckily, Rose reacts quickly, firing at the creature with SILVER BULLETS. And they don't work! I'm amazed at their surprise because everybody knows those are for werewolves.
For some reason, the vampire decides to flee with a flash, and we're left wondering why he felt the need to escape these defenseless people and if he actually has wings or not.
The Doctor and his assistant are left to recompose, and Rose theorizes that it wasn't an "ordinary vampire" (if any vampire is ordinary), because they couldn't harm him. I guess that kind of explains why the magic symbol didn't work, but it still doesn't explain why it did work the first time. I'm pretty sure that we're dealing with the same vampire from the alley, or maybe I'm just racist and all vampires look the same to me.
Later, a newspaper that is totally not the daily star receives a letter from one "Vampire Master" who's going to take over the city with his vampire army unless they give him money. This just went from creepy vampire stalker to potential global threat real quick. Understandably so, the editor, who is totally not Clark Kent's editor, passes it as a joke.
But alas, the city does end up being taken by a vampire army, and it turns into "A haven of horrors, a nest of prowling vampires". I wish Siegel and Shuster had more time to develop this story and, in this particular moment, show the chaos the city is in. However, they did a great job in just one panel:
I especially like the gigantic figure of who I assume is the Vampire Master looming ominously over the city.
Mr. Sanders pays a visit to the Doc (who doesn't seem very invested in this whole vampire-army-taking-over-the-city situation) and informs him that his wife has disappeared. The Doctor, being the world authority on supernatural threats, goes to another public institution that is totally equipped to deal with vampires: the police. When he gets to the station, it turns out that the Vampire Master had sent another letter asking for him to show up unarmed at a certain location, unless he wants the city gone. But the Doctor is not worried: He has a plan!
At this point, I'm kind of confused about what exactly this Vampire Master character wants. He did ask for $100000 (Weekly!!) but why someone who has an army needs that much money is beyond me. I guess it's just the usual comic-book villain trope. Also, now he wants the Doctor to meet him unarmed. I assume he sees him as a threat and wants to take care of him, but then why did that particular vampire from earlier escape when he had Occult at his mercy? And why didn't any of the vampires running amok through the city consider attacking him on his way to the police station?
Anyway, the Doctor goes to the agreed place at midnight (of course), and we're left with another cliffhanger as he waits on...
"How can Dr. Occult single-handed hope to outwit the Master-Fiend and his minions?" That's how the story ends, so I guess we'll find out in the next issue...
Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5 Pretty much like the first part. It's a nice follow-up and I like how the stakes became that much bigger in just one page, especially because this started as a generic vampire story. However, it's still not good enough to get a 4/5
Cultural/Historical/Narrative significance: 1/5 The first appearance of Doctor Occult was in the last entry, and even though this is part of the same story, I count them separately.
Before I go, you can read the complete Golden Age Doctor Occult works legally and free of charge here.
Anyway, that's one more entry down, but we still have half of this story left to go, so thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!
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