Mercury Man Read Free

huh?”
    â€œNazis? Pretty corny.”
    Grandpa Sandalls scowled. “The trouble with you kids today is that you’re all too skeptical. It goes with being lazy and with thinking you know everything. You wouldn’t even
care
if Nazi spies blew up the Empire State Building.”
    Tom studied the face of the spy that was crumpling under the impact of Mercury Man’s gloved fist. He thought to himself:
Maybe I wouldn’t care …
    â€œOf course I would, Grandpa. It would be terrorists, though, or neo-Nazis. This is so … out of date.”
    â€œThat’s the point, kid! It’s historical. And don’t qualify everything to death! Some things are best taken in a gulp.”
    Bad-tasting things
, Tom wanted to say, but he knew better than to push his grandfather too far.
    â€œSo it’s the date that makes these valuable, right, Grandpa? And the mint condition?”
    â€œIt’s all that, Tom, but it’s something else. You see, most comics were created in Metropolis itself, in the original Gotham City. You know what I mean? New York cornered the market in this field like it did for almost everything. But there were some exceptions. Like Mercury Man. You know where Mercury Man was created and printed? You’ll never guess, I’ll wager that.”
    â€œI don’t know. L.A., maybe?”
    Jack harrumphed mightily and shook his head. “Not a chance! In fact, these little babies were made right here in West Hope. Yes, sir! They were a crazy dream on the part of one of our local characters, a schoolteacher of mine, he was, by name of Marvin Cormer.”
    â€œWow! That
is
amazing.”
    Tom was thumbing carefully through the comic. Sure enough, even a few of the ads had West Hope addresses. It was almost unheard of.
    â€œThis place wasn’t always the back of beyond, you know. It had signs of spunk, once. Marvin was a bright guy and a good artist who got fed up with school teaching,and since he knew a lot about the Greek and Roman myths he decided to try to launch his own comic, based on the god Mercury. As you can see for yourself, the product was very good. DC Comics got wind of it and was debating whether to sue him or buy him out when he was drafted. After that the whole thing went on hold, only Marvin didn’t come back; he was killed at the Battle of the Bulge.”
    â€œAnd that was the end of Mercury Man Comics.”
    â€œThat was it, except that I remembered these issues. As a teenager I was stupid enough to trade mine away and it’s taken me decades to find them again. I’ll never sell them now, not if I starve because of it. They’ll be with me when I die, I can tell you.”
    â€œI don’t know if I feel that way about anything, Grandpa.”
    Jack shot him a piercing glance. “Time for some pie, I guess. You can look at the comics, but keep them away from the food and drink.”
    While his grandfather set the table, Tom flipped through the comics. They were very slick, but with a few interesting touches, places where the hero broke out of his frame and smashed a grinning spy with a fist that was larger than life. At the same time, his adventures seemed pretty familiar. After saving the Panama Canal from a Japanese assault team, he was on his way to prevent a super-U-boat attack on the Statue of Liberty.
    Mercury Man’s most formidable enemy was Dr. Dark, a hideously evil genius whose life had changed for the worse after he’d been scarred by the experimentalchemicals he worked with. Mercury Man wasn’t completely invincible — none of the superheroes was. In one adventure Dr. Dark learned that Mercury Man could be made helpless by dousing him with mercury. Luckily, as they were about to unmask the helpless hero, Mercury Man’s sidekick, Tom Strong — a high school kid whose life Mercury Man had once saved — arrived to rescue him.
    â€œWant gravy with your pie?” Jack called