Over here Lane. I'm the Invisible Hood, out to get rats like you!! 
Smash Comics #6 is an issue of the series Smash Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1940.
Synopsis for Espionage starring Black X: "Famine and Gold"
Several weeks or months earlier, Thalga the Supreme Dictator of Govania has a starving populace, and an insubordinate underling in Marshall Stadt (who looks like Black X, right down to the cigarette and monocle, only with more beard). Thalga's lame plan to buy food from Yadnovia is no good; the whole treasury has already been spent on arms and purges. Meanwhile in Alaska a gigantic gold rush gets underway (gold is $40/ounce !!); Stadt deploys the Govanian Secret Police on a systematic, territory-wide claim-jumping mission, figuring on six months to develop such a system. Several weeks go by before the murdering and thieving gets started in Alaska, then a week later an FBI agent gets there, then a week later he's dead, but all of this is happening BEFORE Black X gets onto the case, (probably circa 1939-June).
Black X & Batu arrive in Timber, Klondike, and finding a local boxing venue, Black X quickly bullies his way onto the fight schedule, going up against Killer Donovan. His M.O. is to use his wardrobe and that monocle to mislead dumb guys into underestimating him, then he swiftly deftly prevails, both in and out of the ring. All this is a diversion; Batu does the real spying, at the local land office, and finds evidence that whole lot of claim-jumping has been going on.
At Black X's rented apartment, two GSP hoods show up to recruit X for their project; he eagerly joins up, then instructs Batu to arrange for a Navy airplane to arrive at [a particular place and time]. But at the local telegraph office, the telegrapher is secretly a GSP creep, but Batu can read Morse Code and correctly deduces that this guy is talking to a hostile submarine, somewhere off shore. Batu stabs the telegrapher in the hand; the interrupted message alerts the sub commander, Capt. Von Keil that there's a problem in the interior. The Govanian sub meets an anchored gold-laden sea-going barge, near a lonely beach by the Bering Straits. Black X is aboard this barge, snooping, but he soon swims to shore thru the Bering Strait, and within an hour he and Batu are at an airfield, firing up a heavily-armed USNavy torpedo-bomber biplane, painted red and yellow. One direct hit later, no more submarine. Black X has also arranged for a whole bunch of surviving robbed miners to arrive in a flotilla of motorboats; this mob attacks and takes over the barge.
Shortly later, due to food riots in Govania, Thalga is deposed from his Supreme Dictator gig. Marshall Stadt's status is unknown.
Appearing in Espionage starring Black X: "Famine and Gold"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Batu
- Colonel Atwater
Villains:
- Thalga, Supreme Dictator of Govania
- Marshall Stadt,
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Govania
- Yadnovia
- Alaska
- Klondike
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Clip Chance at Cliffside: "Mystery of the Missing Button"
Appearing in Clip Chance at Cliffside: "Mystery of the Missing Button"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Prof. Devlin
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Chic Carter: "Mission In Moravia"
Chic Carter, Ace Reporter, is in Moravia, accompanying King Ludwig and Princess Maria, to inspect a border garrison at Krasnow, on the western frontier, when a sudden attack cuts them off. Chic dons an army helmet and kills a whole lot of invading soldiers. The enemy bombers look like Dornier DO-17s (only painted red and yellow), with black crosses on the wings. At this episode's end, Krasnow is still held by Moravian forces.
Appearing in Chic Carter: "Mission In Moravia"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
- King Ludwig
- Princess Maria
Locations:
- Moravia
- Krasnow
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Flash Fulton: "The Texas Oil Fire"
Appearing in Flash Fulton: "The Texas Oil Fire"
Featured Characters:
- Flash Fulton
Supporting Characters:
- Gabby
- Andy
Villains:
- Nick
- Tony
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Hugh Hazzard and his Iron Man: "The Emerald of Erin"
Hugh Hazzard makes changes in Bozo's design so he can control him from the inside, and also outfits the robot with a telescopic eye, and goes up against a gang of jewel thieves (Boss Spiro, Lippy, Baldy, & B. B. Moss), stealers of the famous “Emerald of Erin.” At one point, these tools have successfully invaded Hugh Hazzard's penthouse and knocked him out and COULD HAVE just shot him, but instead they go to the extra trouble of stealing Bozo off the roof, and sticking Hugh inside Bozo, and then dropping it in the river. None of them are still alive at the end of the story.
Appearing in Hugh Hazzard and his Iron Man: "The Emerald of Erin"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Boss Spiro (Single appearance; dies)
- Lippy (Single appearance; dies)
- Baldy (Single appearance; dies)
- Dead-Eye (Single appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- B. B. Moss (Single appearance)
- Commissioner Hunt
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Captain Cook of Scotland Yard: "Dirigible of Doom"
Appearing in Captain Cook of Scotland Yard: "Dirigible of Doom"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- the Chief
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for John Law, Scientective: "The Sound of Death"
The Avenger gets the Scientective into a uniquely-contrived deathtrap, from which he escapes, by smacking his head against an electrical switch, hard enough to throw the switch and knock himself out.
Appearing in John Law, Scientective: "The Sound of Death"
Featured Characters:
- John Law
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- The Avenger
Other Characters:
- Roger Carlin
- June
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Invisible Justice: "The Helium Hijackers"
Kent Thurston as the Invisible Hood thwarts a crooked scheme to hi-jack the government's helium supply, one truckload at a time, and smuggle it out of the country. Superintendent Lane, at the Helium Fields, is the gang's inside man. Commander Stone USN, Kent Thurston's friend, meets the Invisible Hood for the first time.
Appearing in Invisible Justice: "The Helium Hijackers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Superintendent Lane (Single appearance)
- Gang leader
- Slug
Other Characters:
- Commander Stone (Single appearance)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Wings Wendall: "The Munitions Smuggling Case"
Wings goes up against a group of smugglers trying to take weapons to Europe from New York. Agent B-10 discovers them, and gets killed. Wings flies a USAAF 2-engine 1-tail attack plane (looks like a deHavilland Mosquito really) (only yellow and red) and attacks a well-armed freighter; he definitely kills at least one AA gun-crew; he gets shot down and captured by the smuggler crew; the captain of this crew has a monocle. Wings is press-ganged into coal-shoveling duty, but he floods the stoke hold with live steam from the boiler exhaust valve, fights his way out of there and picks up a pistol along the way, then kills a couple more guys, while the superheated steam from the engineroom works its way into the cargo hold full of ammunition, there's a ship-crippling explosion, then a USN destroyer shows up to tidy up. Capt. Wendall orders this ship to hurry to NYC, where he visits the Harbor Master's office and gets enough info to pin the smuggling on the warehouse at Pier 9, and a few phone calls later there's a police raid, in which Wings kills yet another of these guys. As the survivors do the perp-walk, we see that one of them, probably the manager, has got a monocle too.
Appearing in Wings Wendall: "The Munitions Smuggling Case"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Agent B-10 (Dies)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Bozo
- Hugh Hazzard gets knocked unconscious, for at least the 3rd time in his career.
- Chic Carter:
- The enemy warplanes in this story, and indeed all of the warplanes in all of these stories, plus the submarine in last issue's Bozo story, are painted garish red and yellow.
- Espionage:
- Black Ace is back to being called Black X.
- We learn that Black X wears a monocle to hide the wound, of having that eye poked out, amid other tortures, by an old enemy, years ago.
- In Black X's first adventure, in Feature Funnies #13 Oct 1938, there was an unnamed enemy agent who looked just like Black X. Marshall Stadt looks just like that guy.
- Story seems to be set in 1939-June. The preliminary bouts are getting fought in Europe, as the lesser dictatorships (and fake countries) get rolled up into the (real) Third Reich. It's not WWII yet, but it clearly will be, very soon.
- In the Quality Universe, the Axis Powers included: Aryania, Austria, Barbaria, Bothnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Darmania, Dunland, Germany, Govania, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jarmania, Kampfland, Latavia, Nordicha, North Germany, Romania, Tokoya, Tuvania, and others.
- Also appearing in this issue of Smash Comics were:
- Philpott Veep: "The Affair of the Fabricating Bridegroom" by John Devlin
- Small Stuff, by John Devlin
- Archie O'Toole: "King Horace of Spatoonia" by Will Eisner
- Abdul the Arab: "Framed for Murder" by Vernon Henkel
- Wun Cloo: "The Counterfeit Thousand Dollar Bills" by Gill Fox
See Also