Classic

Some time ago Hollywood made a serial about the All-Winners Squad.

Of course, like most serials, it was low budget to the point of being ridiculous. There was no Torch and Toro. (Faking a buring man and boy was practically impossible given what they had to work with. So they were out.) "Cap" had no shield, or even a Bucky, to throw around. "Namor" didn't have the ankle wings or even pointed ears. (Can't fake those on a shoestring budget. But filming a guy in swim trunks underwater is pretty simple to do.) "Sun Girl" didn't have her wrist mounted sunbeam. And that gown they had Phyllis Coates wear was far more restrictive than the ropes they tied her up with. Oh yeah. She and Linda Stirling's "Sun Girl" got tied up a LOT in this one.

A LOT!

Of course the "Blonde Phantom" with her tight gown and "Sun Girl" didn't actually get to fight anybody. Nope. The boys did the all the punching in all 15 chapters. (And the "Sub-Mariner" was just an average water-breathing joe who didn't have super strength. So he had to hit Clayton Moore more than once. But at least he and "Cap" got to hit him.) The only physical action those actresses got was to get a bump on the noggin that caused them to pass out instantly. 

Needless to say none of us in the AWS liked it. Especially Mary and I. Sun Girl and the Blonde Phantom have done stuff, on a weekly basis, that would make most normal guys wet their pants. To have some Hollywood HACKs treat us like we were next to useless window dressing...Grrr! Those jerks better be thankful there's several State lines between us. (And that Namor doesn't go to the movies.)

So why bring it up then if it upsets me?

Because Mary and I are actually reliving a scene from that piece of...cinematic drivel.

We were working together, investigating some group calling itself Hydra. We got word that they were going to raid Howard Stark's warehouse. So off we went. We got spotted, overpowered and knocked out. (Not some lame tap on the head mind you. We were pinned down and chloroformed.) And, like Phyllis Coates and Linda Stirling, we woke up bound and gagged inside the warehouse. With the classic time bomb death trap. It was on an oil drum with the ticking timer facing away from us.

There was no telling how much time we had. Minutes? Seconds?

We had to act fast. Assuming we could.

And it was a sure bet Tom Tyler and Buster Crabb wasn't going to charge in and rescue us.

  starting off the New Year with a blast from the past. Golden Age heroines in a classic serial situation.  

Blonde Phantom and Sun Girl (c) Timely Comics