Comic Cavalcade #9

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Graded population

CGC records 38 graded copies for Comic Cavalcade #9 (1944). Population is the number recorded by this grading source, not the total print run or all surviving copies.

Wonder Woman: "The Subsea Pirates"

A sailor tells Steve Trevor a story about being hazed into dressing like a mermaid, then being left alone with seemingly real mermaids emerged from the water and kidnapped most of his crewman, leaving him and the other hazed men alone for being too ridiculous looking to take seriously. Steve doesn't believe him, but Wonder Woman, though laughing at the story, confirms that the sailor isn't lying with her magic lasso.

As twenty 23 vessels have been sunken in the area the sailor claims to have encountered mermaids, Steve Trevor is ordered by Phillip Darnell to investigate. Steve's flight to "Neptune's Isle" startles what appear to be mermaids, and Steve dives into the water in pursuit of them. This turns out to be a mistake. The mermaids laugh at his follow, but they cannot keep up the act for much longer and don breathing masks, also fitting one over Steve as they take him captive.

The mermaids bring Steve into a subterranean lair before what appears to be an old man, whom they call "King Neptune". Under threat of death the mermaids, who by now have shed their artificial tails and outed themselves to Steve as human women, demand he drink Neptune's Nepenthe, which will make Steve lose his memories and become submissive to King Neptune. Steve resists, but rather than kill him, the women simply force the Nepenthe on Steve. He manages to make a mental radio call before swallowing some.

Wonder Woman lassos up Esmeradly from her invisible robot plane and takes the Holliday Girls riding in it to Neptune's Isle. She spots "mermaids" and "King Neptune" moving in what they believe to be a covert manner beneath the waves and dives in pursuit of them, proving to be the far more stealthy swimmer as she sneaks into Neptune's cave. King Neptune finally catches onto the interloper, however and fires an electrical bolt from a trident into the water Wonder Woman is still in, paralyzing her.

Neptune tries to use the magic lasso on Wonder Woman, but not knowing how it works, fails to extract any military secrets from her, declares Wonder Woman a fraud, and admits to also using myth and legend to gain power over men. King Neptune's daughter are ordered to drown Steve Trevor and force Wonder Woman to drink Nepenthe. Steve Trevor is place into a cell that will be under water when the tide comes back in, Wonder Woman that will be above water, at which point she will begin mermaid training.

Wonder Woman then breaks through the cave's roof is untied by the Holliday Girls who remained on Neptune's Isle above. She then pulls Steve out of his cell before he drowns. He instantly falls in love with her, having no memory of her. Wonder Woman and the Holliday Girls proceed to route Neptune's Daughters, and Wonder Woman puts her hypothesis about electrical shocks counteracting the affects of Nepenthe to the test, successfully restoring Steve's memory with an appropriated trident. Wonder Woman then engages King Neptune, whose disguise falls to pieces and reveals that Neptune was really a woman.

Using the magic lasso properly, Wonder Woman compels the captive who masqueraded as Neptune to explain herself. She was an Olympic swimmer known as the "Mermaid Queen" who was kicked off of her national team for violating training rules. Bitter, she decided to use nautical myths like the mermaids to plunder and terrorize the world she came to hate.

Creative credits

Writers: William Moulton Marston, Al Smith, Henry Kuttner, M.C. Gaines, Jon L. Blummer, Gardner Fox

Interior art: Harry G. Peter, Al Smith, Everett E. Hibbard, Paul Reinman, Dennis Neville, Jon L. Blummer, Jon Chester Kozlak

Source records & attribution

Panel Profits keeps each source identity attached to its edition record.

COMICBASE: comicbase:266447

GCD: 4113

PANEL PROFITS: 2453491