Story title: "Airborne Revenge"
Cover Date: February 1936
By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Today's entry is another of the Federal Men series, and it's completely independent of the previous one, so let's begin.
This story wastes no time getting right to the action. Actually, the only context we get is a text box that explains the situation: There's this rich guy who makes planes and he created some kind of "revolutionary aircraft" he's going to sell to the government. But apparently, someone doesn't like this (my best guess is that it's the bus driver union) and has threatened to kill him. Of course, no one else but Steve Carson could be assigned to protect him, and now they're both heading to the rich guy's private estate. A horrible plan if you ask me, that estate is probably in his name, so the threatener can probably figure out that he may be there. Also, no witnesses.
Anyway, only half an hour into the flight and half a panel into the story, the machine gun fire starts. Hell yeah!
The propeller has been shattered and the plane can't rise, so Steve decides to walk off the door. How silly! Doesn't he know you can't just walk off an airborne plane? Or any moving vehicle for that matter. The rich guy tries to stop him, probably because he doesn't want him to coyote off to the ground, but Steve offers to take him with him. No thanks!
Steve climbs up to the wing of the plane and... Wait... Is he going to...?
Yep, he jumps. This is absolutely ridiculous but so cool!
Steve reaches the other plane and the pilot tries the classic Super Mario Bros. 3 approach by throwing a wrench at him. Of course, it doesn't work and Steve crawls to the other sit, where the machine gun is, and aims it at the pilot. Man, it must be awkward shooting down an enemy that's in front of the plane without hitting the pilot.
However, the placement of the gun makes more sense in the next panel, because it becomes apparent that this plane was designed by a madman who thought it a good idea to include a plunge-into-flames button.
So, the pilot jumps at the last second, and he has the only parachute! Okay, there is no way Steve can get out of the burning plane alive without a deus ex machina right? RIGHT?
Of course...
An airborne struggle ensues, and the parachute carries both of them safely to the ground. One of them is knocked out, and the other one is named Steve Carson!
However, the pilot comes to and he is now heading toward the rich guy's plane, which has crashed and it's completely undamaged, along with its passengers. I guess that was the revolutionary design?
The pilot is about to shoot the rich guy and the other pilot, but Steve gets there in time (where was he anyway?), slaps the gun out of the would-be killer, and prompts him to talk. Turns out he was the actual inventor of the indestructible plane and the rich guy "tricked him out", and now he's aiming at Steve!
What a twist! Seriously though, I wasn't expecting it and I haven't seen a lot of plot twists in Golden Age, so props for that.
And that's how the story ends:
Just kidding, there's one more page to go, but for some reason, this next issue promo shows up before the end.
Anyway, Brent (AKA rich guy) is narrating his evil plan about killing both of them and framing the pilot, but Steve jumps at the opportunity and attacks him. Why am I not surprised? You know Steve, one of these days the bad guy is gonna shoot first and talk later.
While they are fighting, the pilot (the one from Steve's plane) comes to and... sticks his knee up Brent's butt?
Then, the actual inventor of the plane tries to kill Brent, but they stop him because obviously, Steve wants to do things the legal way.
The day is saved and that's how this story ends.
But before the ratings...
By the way, let me remind you that this is only the second Federal Men story, I'm sure there must've been a lot of fans out there already. I guess kids do sometimes become fans of stuff a little too quickly.
Anyway, now, the ratings:
Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5
I'm almost tempted to give it a 4/5 just because of how entertaining it was, but I don't think we're quite there yet. I did appreciate both the plot twist and the over-the-top action, and for a 1936 four-pager, this is pretty good! However, it is still only four pages long, so it doesn't really have time to create a context I could actually care about, and the action might be a little too exaggerated. Still, I could get used to seeing this kind of pulp action often in the order. It sure beats the kind of generic crime story we got introduced to last time.
Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5
It's just a Steve Carson story, not much to discuss.
Alright, we've reached the end of this entry. Next time, Doctor Occult comes back to fight another supernatural threat, so see you then. Thank you for reading and have a nice rest of your day!
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