Issue: Flash Comics #3 (Reprinted in The Golden Age Hawkman Archives v.1)
Title: "The Secret of Dick Blendon" (suggested title)
Published Date: Mar 1940
Generation: Golden Age Carter
Retcon Status: In Continuity, With Retcons
Summary: On patrol on night, Hawkman sees his old college buddy Dick Blendon sleepwalking, then returning to his home. The next day, however, he discovers that his friend has died! Paying his respects, Carter Hall runs into Dick' fellow scientist, Una Cathay, of whom he is immediately suspicious. His suspicions turn out to be well founded as he soon discovers that Dick's body is missing. Una and her accomplice Rolf have enslaved Dick and several other scientists with a strange formula, and are trying to extract the chemical secret to eternal life which Dick has developed. Pretending to be interested, Hawkman infiltrates their lab, but Una sees through the ruse and ties a hair onto his wrist, with which she will burn the hero to death using voodoo. Hawkman is narrowly saved when Shiera sees the hair and gets it off him right before it bursts into flame. Returning to the lab, Hawkman frees the scientists, then gives chase to the captors. Rolf kills himself by falling off the roof while trying to grab Hawkman, and Una herself wraps her car around a tree in her escape efforts. Back home, the scientists say that Hawkman's identity is safe with them, and the Winged Wonder advises Dick to destroy the formula.
Review: This story was a little goofy, what with Hawkman being suspicious of Una because "she looks evil," to the scientists being trapped in big laboratory flasks, to Shiera spotting a single hair tied around Carter's wrist from across the room. Still, a good adventure, although I am starting to really get the "Golden Age heroes didn't let their foes survive" vibe pretty strongly from this book so far!
Image: Flash Comics #3, 1940, Sheldon Moldoff.
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