Dr. Crab's Commie Comics
Dr. Crab's Commie Comics
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Comic Story information
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Dr. Crab's Commie Comics is a Radioactive Man comic story first printed in Radioactive Man #1.
Plot
Radioactive Man smashes his way into the hideout of the Red Fez spy ring and takes them out, trying to find Dr. Crab. After the gang is taken to jail, Claude Kane III changes back into his normal clothes and decides that he needs a secret hideout. He then finds an architectural model lying on the ground and takes it, leaving J. Westminster Fullbright, the architect, confused as to where his model had gone. Radioactive Man then builds the secret lair on top of Mount Zenith, near the nuclear test site. He then calls his new secret base The Containment Dome.
Radioactive Man starts playing cards in his new base whilst Gloria Grand talks on the radio about juvenile delinquency. She gets J.J. Bellwether on the show to talk about it, and he says the cause is evil comic books published by William G. Maimes. He says these comic books are undermining the morals of children. He then calls on parents to throw out these "evil" comic books and buy his comic book Hartley. Gloria questions whether Bellwether is blaming the comic books because they outsell his.
Radioactive Man flies to WZEN Tower and changes into his Claude Kane clothes and heads to Gloria's office. He bumps into Gretchen Grille, the society reporter, on the way. Claude eventually gets to Gloria's office and asks her out again, which annoys Gloria. At that moment, a report that Dr. Crab had issued a challenge to Radioactive Man came through. Crab claimed that he would pull a record robbery, the biggest heist in Zenith City's history.
Gloria asks Claude to do something worthwhile for a change, and shows him a picture of Rod Runtledge, an orphan boy who lives next door to Gloria. She asks Claude to talk to him as Rod needs a man to be a good influence on him. Claude says he'll have to do it another time and goes to figure out Dr. Crab's challenge. He then heads to Finger's House of Giant Props, where they built a giant gold record, which Dr. Crab was going to melt down.
Radioactive Man enters the building, but gets stunned by Dr. Crab's gun. He falls into the giant gold record, knocking it over, taking out all of the thugs. Dr. Crab runs off so Radioactive Man goes looking for him. This is when he notices several kids robbing a store, among them Rod Runtledge. Radioactive Man then takes Rod, and the TV he had stolen, back to his apartment, where he meets Gloria.
Gloria asks Radioactive Man for an interview, but he declines, saying he's trying to stop Rod from becoming a delinquent. At Rod's apartment, he meets Rod's aunt, Aunt June. Radioactive Man then finds that Rod has got lots of violent comic books and tells Rod that he shouldn't be reading them.
The next day, Gloria Grand interviews Dr. Hedrick Hertzmann on her show. He agrees with J.J. Bellwether that degenerate comic books are the cause of moral decay in children, and explains that he thinks William G. Maimes is a soviet agent. Radioactive Man, listening to the radio, believes this theory and goes to talk to Hertzmann about it. He tells Radioactive Man that his informant was Dr. Vladimir Krabokov, AKA Dr. Crab. He then tells Radioactive Man that Dr. Crab has an insatiable appetite for seafood cocktail.
Radioactive Man calls every seafood cocktail delivery company in town and Zenith Seafood Service told him that they were making unusually large shipments to a deserted factory. He smashes through the wall of the factory to find Dr. Crab. Radioactive Man is caught in Dr. Crab's ray gun again and falls, his lightning bolt hitting a metal panel which short circuits the gun. He then finds evidence against Maimes in the factory.
In court, Maimes is standing trial for anti-American activities. Radioactive Man then bursts into the court house with a pile of comics he took from Dr. Crab's factory, which Radioactive Man says proves Maimes was working with Dr. Crab. The congressional committee takes this evidence and declares Maimes guilty. After the trial, Hedrick Hertzmann removes his face, revealing that it was a mask, and he was J.J. Bellwether all along. He says that with Maimes gone, he'll make an even larger fortune and dominate the comic book market. Later, Radioactive Man finds Rod Runtledge dumping all his comic books into the lake and tells him that it's the first step towards a cleaner, healthier America.
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