(Zip Comics 002, 1940)
Mr Satan is summoned to the charmingly-named Shadow Pond to solve a series of disappearances among a group of scientists who have secluded themselves there. Upon arriving he immediately finds himself in the middle of an attack by a humanoid monster (the Monster, of course. Annoyingly, it is never once referred to as the Monster of Shadow Pond, which would be a pretty great name). He manages to pull a young woman away from the attack and is shortly thereafter introduced to the cast of characters at Shadow Pond:
Professor Heaslip: Mr Satan's client and the de facto leader of the scientific group.
Mrs Heaslip: the Professor's younger wife, recently rescued from the clutches of the Monster by Mr Satan.
John Heaslip: the Professor's brother, a scientist in his own right. Narrowly avoided being killed by the Monster in its first attack.
Blake: Scientist and acquaintance of Mr Satan. Blake gets mentioned a fair amount throughout the story but only makes one appearance. Probably killed by the Monster.
Richards: Scientist. Killed in the first attack by the Monster.
Slade: Scientist. Killed in the attack that Mr Satan witnessed.
Unnamed Scientist: Killed at some point by the Monster.
Is someone in this motley crew actually the Monster? Not the dead ones, obviously.
Mr Satan does some investigating and is himself almost killed by the Monster. In the process he discovers that the scientists' missing bodies are caught in a whirlpool beneath the surface of the pond, explaining why they have not surfaced.
A plan to kill the Monster with a bomb goes awry when the device, built by John Heaslip, goes off without warning and almost kills both his brother and Mr Satan
This explosion provides Mr Satan with the final key to the puzzle: he tracks down the conveniently-not-at-the-site-of-the-explosion John and Mrs Heaslip and confronts them with the truth: this whole affair has been about the illicit love that they share. The Monster was born out of an attempt to murder Professor Heaslip so that his widow and brother could be together (and also so that they could steal his radium ray, a device that literally had not been mentioned before it was revealed to be a motivation for murder, and which I think was added late in the game to make the story a bit less sordid). A sad and grubby resolution indeed.
We also get to see the full Monster getup, and while some of the other diving-suit-modified-to-look-like-sea-monster examples we have are a bit more monstery, this might just be the best looking weird diving suit. Lust look at that eye stalk/periscope!
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