All-Star Comics #57

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE MYSTERY OF THE VANISHING DETECTIVES! Four international detectives are invited to a demonstration set up by the Justice Society where a model crime is carried out in the auditorium and they then have to solve it despite being blindfolded as the theatrics are played out. They succeed, but suddenly the lights double in brightness and by the time Flash's fixed the wiring the detectives have vanished, the only clue being a silver skeleton key found at the scene. A messenger brings in a cablegram for each of the missing detectives, and in light of the situation the JSA reads through them, learning each detective was being called home to investigate a baffling crime. The JSA realize the crimes must be connected, all carried out by one syndicate, if all of them were kidnapped at once to get them out of the way. The heroes split up to investigate the crimes themselves. Dr. Mid-Nite arrives in London and follows the trail of clues from a robbery of a high security bank to a series of underground air raid tunnels the British police overlooked as they're too used to seeing those. After a merry chase Mid-Nite captures the thieves and learns a key isn't only the mastermind's calling card, also his nom de guerre. Flash investigates the disappearance of some of Notre Dame's gargoyles. He catches thieves carrying off another one and uses a piece of paper to drill through a stone wall to chase after them. Not only that, the paper he grabbed are the thieves' orders, telling them where to go after the crime. He catches them and recovers their stolen gargoyles, but is left wondering who the Key could really be. Wonder Woman investigates the crime involving the Emir of Kasdan, who receives his literal weight in gold on his birthday from the people. But the emir who received the gold was a phony, the real one showing up late because his car broke down. Wonder Woman chases them down in her invisible plane then hoists the thieves' entire escape sub out of the water and shakes it until they all fall out. The thieves promise the Key will exact revenge on the Justice Society. Green Lantern investigates the theft of a millionaire's "short-snorter bill", which in his case is a 100k-bill autographed by numerous celebrities, making it practically priceless. Lantern tricks the ship's magician into revealing himself as thief by making him think the bill is radioactive then attacking when he tries to decontaminate it. With the four crimes foiled, Green Lantern notes the Justice Society's next job is to hunt down the Key himself. When the four heroes return from abroad, Hawkman, Black Canary and Atom relay the results of their findings into the disappearance of the detectives: namely that only four sets of footprints departed the scene, meaning the Key must be one of the four detectives! Fully assembled, the Justice Society heads to a manor house and finds the four detectives as if in a trance, and find that the Key had been masquerading as the detective from England. He orders the four detectives to kill the JSA but the Flash steals their guns at ultra-speed and Green Lantern uses his ring to break their hypnosis. The Key tries to escape in a cable car but when Atom starts reeling it in he jumps rather than be captured. The detectives give the Justice Society a solid silver key in gratitude for their help. THE LADY OF MARS