Destroyer gives the Skull the what-for, tying him up with one of those wireguns they only used in the 40's--the manufacturer must've gone under after the war, leaving Destroyer, Tarantula, and the original Sandman high and dry. Destroyer turns Skull over to the Iron Cross, who keeps calling Skull "little geist" and helpfully explains the master race's master plan, involving the new V-3 missile and secret transmitters. During this speech, Destroyer ditches out, but is spotted returning. Grabbing a "flammenwerfer" from a guard--wait, who guards prisoners with a flamethrower? Sure it's probably a violation of terms of war at all that, but it doesn't seem that practical--the Destroyer says in German, "Once and for all I shall prove my loyalty to the reich, by incinerating this accursed American!" Then Flame on, Burning Skull!
Of course, that doesn't hurt the Skull, and he and Destroyer start busting up the place. The Nazis attempt to launch the missile Destroyer sabotaged, but Skull slaps the transmitter on Iron Cross. End of base.
Back in America, Mark's editor points out the Nazis still have a spy ring, and possibly a hidden missile base in the Atlantic; but they don't know how the spies are getting out the launch codes for targets. Why is this the newspaper's job again? Didn't we have an army during the war? Luckily, the newsboy is listening to the Masked Raider radio program, and Mark recognizes his decoder ring from the Nazis he stopped on Liberty Island...is the statue of Liberty on Ellis? Yet another tidbit of information I could look up, but no time! Consult your local library or something. The Nazi code book matches landmarks to codewords, which is how they will set the target for the last V-3. While they put the clues together Scooby-style, the masked saboteur that escaped earlier unmasks and goes to work at the radio station: he's the actor that voices the Masked Raider.
Changing into the Skull (but not changing into the costume, oddly) Mark steals a police motorcycle and hightails it over to the radio station, while a clever ad from evil Exxon-analog Roxxon plays. There's also a cameo of Billy Batson. Skull probably had to take the cycle for the Ghost Rider fans in the audience, but it also makes for a fun sequence as he takes up the stairs to the nineteenth floor. That must be one bigassed stairway...I don't ride, but it seems like that would've taken longer than if you ran the stairs yourself, but then you wouldn't have the satisfaction of running over a Nazi spy and launching him and the bike out the window. Only afterwards, while he hangs onto a flag, does Skull wonder, "Boy, I sure hope that's the right guy!"
A quick-thinking radio technician reads the Masked Raider script's secret message, since the program was still on the air. Skull still has a transmitter, and it starts beeping. Swinging from a flag, to a window washer's platform (they are everywhere!), he races to a cab, then steals a plane to get the transmitter out of the city. The missile hits the plane with a huge explosion, but the Skull had bailed out. He's spotted on the docks, but has already turned back to Mark Todd, who gives the reader a wink at his page one story.
Oddly, this was before Dan Slott hit the more mainstream Marvel of Great Lakes Avengers, She-Hulk, and the Thing; all of which I've only read in passing, but there will be more Dan Slott stories covered here. See if you can guess!
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