Continuing Showcase 6

Challengers of the Unknown in
"The Secrets of the Sorcerer's Box!"

Chapter 4 - "The Whirling Weaver!"

If you missed them, see Chapter 1 or Chapter 2 or Chapter 3.

Returning to Aku Island, Ace notes, "The place looks like a mess - there's ice melting everywhere!"  Prof agrees.  "Like a spring thaw!"
 
They meet Red, who congratulates them.  "You made it!  You took care of the giant!"
 
Ace jokes, "It was simple, once Prof gave it some thought!"

Rocky has thawed out.  "We owe Red a vote of thanks.  The world might have become a big ice ball if not for him!"

(Interesting color error: purple skin and green hair. Must've been some wicked dye fumes that day.)

"Still shaken by their strange experiences, but true to their daredevil code," they forge ahead and draw straws for the last two chambers.  Ace gets it.

The chamber creaks open to reveal "a metal cylinder of some sort.  It's got an odd type of lock.  I'm going to open it - Look out!  Take cover!"
 
SOMETHING shoots out of the tube, "a blur to the human eye because of its amazing speed!"

The guys jump.  "It's spun a cocoon around Ace in nothing flat!"  Their Chall-pal looks like a mummy!

Good guess.  The city of Sydney is snarled in "cobwebs!"

Traffic is stopped.  A man yells, "They say a flying saucer did this!"

Now what?  Ace guesses, "I'd say our web-spinner acts as if it's out of control."

Prof thinks "the answer is somewhere on this cylinder!"  In fact, the queer lock is a dial with calibrated number-ish marks.
 
The weaver isn't a living thing.  "We're dealing with a remote-controlled machine!"  Ace cranked the dial to "super-sonic".

A twist of the dial and, "There's our culprit!" hovering alongside under control.  "Keep him that way."

With the weaver in tow, they turn back for Aku Island.  Prof guesses "that tape-like substance our friend spins - I believe it's purpose is communication."  Does it carry impulses or vibrations like telephone lines?  Who knows?
 
(Boy, that was easy.)
 
On the island, the boys are surprised to find their client Morelian.  "How did you get here?"  The sorcerer smirks, "I can fly a plane too, gentlemen!"
 
There's still one chamber to open -

"Don't bother," says Morelian, "I opened it myself.  I knew what would be left - once the perilous ones were released."

Ace is grim.  "I figured you had a selfish reason for hiring us."  What did he find in the last chamber?

"A diamond ring - the ring of immortality!..  Now that I have it on my finger, I shall live forever!"

Didn't they read the inscription on the box?  Prof reads.

I am danger,
I am death
But also find contained in me
Eternal immortality.
 
Morelian (looking a whole lot like Shakespeare) gloats, "The secret of the ages is now mine!  And you men have successfully defied the unknown!"
 
"It gratifying to know you're happy for us," quips a Chall.

"I am indeed!  A million years from now, I shall still remember the fine job you did - for me!"

Morelian jets away.  Red says, "There goes a guy with a big heart."  Ace notes, "Yeah, as big as a peanut!"
 
Yet Fate has a way of catching up with selfish people.  Morelian's plane suddenly falters,  goes into a spin, and crashes right on the Sorcerer's Box!

"He's dead!  His ring of immortality failed him!"
 
What about "contained in me is eternal immortality"?

Prof guesses, "Immortality was in the box itself!  The Ring apparently meant sudden doom!"  And how "ironic that Morelian himself destroyed the very thing he sought!"

Later, the Challengers fly away from Aku Island.   "We were supposed to be the fall guys for Morelian - but it turned out just the reverse."

Someone adds, "We're still living on borrowed time - which is more than you can say for Morelian."

And Prof asks, "I wonder what's ahead of us now?"

The narration reminds us,

"With this strange twist of fate, the incredible adventures come to an end.  But the unknown still remains coiled and waiting for men of reckless courage.  Watch for the next exciting issue of Showcase and the Challengers of the Unknown!  THE END."

Comments

So ends the Challs' first adventure, setting the pace for stories to come.

One classic element: things tend to get rushed toward the end.  Plotting as he drew, Kirby would often find himself running out of pages, so would wrap up quickly.  The Whirling Weaver from Chamber 3 was an easy fix, and Morelian popped Chamber 4 off-stage.  The sudden-hurry looks like another clue that the story was created without a script written in advance.
 
What's that mean?  The "DC Method" was for writers to sit around a table sharing ideas for various comics.  The editor would then assign them to writers, who wrote a full script.  DC artists followed the script to the letter.

The "Marvel Method" was to kick around a plot, have the artist draw it up, then a writer would go back and fill in dialogue.  That's why some early Fantastic Four stories, victims of misinterpretations, read herky-jerky.

The sudden rush at the end of this comic smacks the Marvel Method.

Like any good short story, there was often an ironic twist.  Here Morelian got what he (thought he) wanted, only it backfired and killed him AND the real object of his desire.
 
From the twist, we can often extrapolate a moral.  Comics had to be moralistic, remember, because they'd been branded immoral by the Congressional-Wertham committee.

The moral here might be, uh, "Don't chase immortality.  It's not natural and will kill you."  Or some such.

For an added ironic twist, see how the Challs are reunited with the box and learn one more final secret (Secret Origins 12).

Finally, like all comics, we end with ads.

What could a kid spend money on?  Oh, sports cards. Except they're "free", provided you send money.

Nutty Putty is a "new scientific toy" suspiciously like Silly Putty, though it looks like a clam in its shell.

Even the smell of Silly Putty made me sick.

If you were broke, you could sell crappy "Religious and Patriotic" cards to your family members.  These cards were pathetic.  Pale colors with glitter that flaked off on your pants when you opened the envelopes.  No wonder the printer needed kids to flog them off.

And lastly, a feature on the back of millions of comic books, Daisy BB Guns!

Now called "air rifles", BB guns were every kids' dream.  And where I lived, a kid's fantasy.

Mothers and fathers had a million reasons why you couldn't have one.  "You'll put your eye out.  You'll shoot your brother.  You'll shoot squirrels and birds.  They're illegal in this state / in this town / on the base."  Or simply, "No."