(Fantastic Comics 005, 1940)
Like a fair few Fletcher Hanks villains, the Miracle Men take a regular crime and amp it up to the nth degree. In this case, thanks to the technological marvel that is the Invisible Vacuum Tube, they have industrialized kidnapping. And if the ransom is not paid an appropriately oversized response can be delivered via their tornado making machines! This is modern, industrialized crime!
Under the direction of leader Wolf-Eye, the Miracle Men perform hundreds of simultaneous kidnappings. Should Wolf-Eye be the one in the title of this entry? Maybe.
Unfortunately for the hundreds of rich guys and the US at large, the FBI does not want to pay up, so it's tornado time.
Stardust is of course all over this, so the chances of a major city being destroyed via super-tornado are only about 50% (this is, remember, a Fletcher Hanks comic - he does not shy away from mass casualties). This time there is no slaughter, but remember folks: Stardust will not necessarily save you. He will avenge you.
The greatest and most unexpected thing in this comic is when the hitherto-normal seeming gang boss Wolf-Eye unveils his gland-control magic. Is it real magic or more super-science? Impossible to say but I choose to believe that it's magic, a perhaps one-time spell that Wolf-Eye has kept in his back pocket for years in case his authority is sufficiently challenged. It's really great.
Merely being a big guy is not enough to take on an enraged Super Wizard, however, so all Wolf-Eye gets for his trouble is a sock in the mouth and a trip to Prison City by way of Getting Shrunk Avenue. It is perhaps lucky for the Miracle Men that they only kidnapped people, as the most ironic punishment for a kidnapping is of course to be taken away and confined yourself - it's just lucky for them that Stardust didn't decide to seal them up in a big boulder or something.
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