(Zip Comics 002, 1940)
While walking down the street one day in what is almost certainly supposed to be New York City, Jim "the Scarlet Avenger" Kendal witnesses the protection racket-related bombing of a tailor shop. What's worse, the police response to the blast makes it pretty clear that they are on the take!
Using his network of operatives, the Scarlet Avenger discovers when and where the next bombing is set to take place and intervenes by way of a heat ray that blows up the bomb as well as the crooks delivering it to kingdom come.
After this and other interference in the gang's activities, the Scarlet Avenger has well and truly drawn the ire of the leader, the aptly-named Chief, who arranges for the Avenger to be captured and delivered to him for disposal. But! Not without the Scarlet Avenger hearing about it first.
Before the Chef can execute his plan to execute the Scarlet Avenger in his homemade gas chamber, the hero reveals that he has "electrically wired myself, a million volts," and that whatever that means, it allows him to easily escape both his shackles and the glass chamber.
It also gives the Avenger a lethal touch, as both the Chief and his gang learn when they are killed by it. And just who is this mastermind of crime? Why, it's the district attorney! There are a lot of questions to be asked about the large numbers of both super-heroes and super-villains who are district attorneys in their day-to-day lives, but at this point the one I'm asking is: just where do they find the time?
