Appearing in this issue:
Our Heroes, Full Members of the Team:
PLAYBOY, Jack Diamond, head of Diamond Industries, instant expert and unofficial team leader. (Blake Hindman)
Rebel, super strong, flying spokesman for Black Label cigarettes. (Daniel Shiu)
Torch (of Liberty), team player with control over heat. (NPC)

Probationary Members:
Kid Comic, young sidekick with the ability to assume the powers, and personalities, of comic book characters. (Steve McDonald)
Caretaker/Gravedigger, dual natured mystic healer/ supernatural avenger. (James Hall)

The Napoleon of Crime
Cover: Rebel in a pool hall holding a switch blade knife with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth, written across the cover is "Rebel gone bad?". In a circle is a split face on one side an old man, the other a white zombie face with "Introducing Caretaker/Gravedigger".

Opening page: Summer in NYC, young Billy (secret identity of Kid Comic) has a summer job working at the HQ of the newly christened Heroes Inc. In a thought balloon Billy thinks back on how earlier in the week, Elvis visited taking time from his busy schedule to have lunch with Rebel. His revery is interrupted by the arrival of the Chief of the NYPD and one of his assistants carrying a large case. "We need to see Mr. Diamond," says the Chief.

The policemen are shown through to Jack Diamond's office, and Rebel and Torch are called. The case is opened and a variety of automatic weapons, submachine guns and machine pistols, are set out along with their ammunition. "These have been acquired from a variety of gangs and people across New York," says the Chief. "They are all using a wide range of oddball ammunition, 7.62 Russian, 8mm Nambu, 9mm Largo. These calibers haven't been produced in years and these weapons were not originally designed for them."

Jack and Rebel looked over the weapons. "Who modified them?" asked Jack.

The Chief's assistant shook his head, "We don't know, but it was a profession job. A real gunsmith with a machine ship, not some back alley hack."

"And to make matters worse," added the Chief, "Several Mafia leaders have recently died under mysterious circumstances. The Mafia is getting nervous. A big man in the Black Mob, Edward 'Big Monkey' Monet, was killed last night and it looks like a shooting war is in the works between the Mafia and the Black Mob."

"Innocent lives are in danger if that happens," says Jack.

"Whoever is behind this seems to have a group of paranormals called the 3 Rs working for him. The only one we know by name is Ram, who is large and superstrong."

"How strong?" asks Billy.

"Capable of throwing a Buick forty feet," replied the assistant. (Rebel dashed to the express elevator down to the street level and lifted a Buick, testing its weight and then returned.)

"That's not so strong," commented Rebel, a bit breathlessly.

"We will do what we can to help," said Jack standing up.

"Thank you, Mr. Diamond," said the Chief shaking Jack's hand, "if we can be of any help, let us know."

The policemen departed and Rebel leaned against Jack's desk, asking, "So, Jack, how do we find these guns?"

Jack sat down and leaned back into his chair. "I'll check into the machinery end of things with the aid of Science Legionary."

"I can talk to some people who might know something," said Torch (her Uncle is a sergeant in the NYPD).

Rebel levered himself off the desk and lit up a cigarette, "I'll see what the word is on the streets, Jack."
 

Jack and Kid Comic/Science Legionary confirmed the police analysis of the guns, that they had been professionally modified.
 

Torch talked with her Uncle and found that the police were worried about the step up in criminal armaments, but so far that the criminals seemed only be using the new weaponry on each other.
 

Rebel decided to infiltrate a gang and see if he could discover who was providing weapons. He decided on the Black Shamrocks, one of the Irish gangs, using his spectacular charisma to slide into the gang. The next night, as luck would have it, the Black Shamrocks received a mysterious visitor who gave them a suitcase full of guns just in time for the Shamrocks to confront their rivals, the Razors.

Rebel got in touch with Jack and the team mobilized. The other heroes took positions high above the rumble sight and watched. Rebel managed to talk the gangs out of fighting each other. The team met Challenger (this world's equivalent of Daredevil) who was also watching the rumble. They exchanged information and Jack gave Challenger the Heroes Inc. direct contact number in case he ever needed to reach them. Then they followed another observer of the aborted fight to a nearby restaurant (The Black Angus Pub). Billy transformed into 'Night Nurse', a leggy blond and his least favorite form, to scout out the restaurant. Four figures were seen in a back booth, one a large figure roughly fitting the description of Ram.

The team decided that they needed to confront the villains in their . . . restaurant. So, it was Playboy, Rebel, Torch and Kid Comic (as Sgt. Stone of Army Action comics) against the 3 Rs: Ram, a brick with ram's horns, Rip, who can tear holes in reality (teleportation usable against others at range) and Rosary, mistress of plants who wears a chain of seeds. The fourth figure was never clearly seen. The battle went poorly for our heroes, Torch went down first and was then used as a weapon by Rip (teleportation, he dropped her on Jack). Rosary and 'the other figure' were teleported to safely by Rip who immediately followed. Ram was abandoned and taken down by the might of the team. The police arrived and Ram was taken away.

The next morning back at headquarters, a man in a nice suit showed up and asked to see Jack. Janice, the HI secretary (the newly created NPC for the HQ), showed him in. He introduced himself as James Tarintino of Tarintino, Tarintino and Jones (Attorneys at Law). Mr. Tarintino implied to Jack that his clients would be very interested in learning who was behind Ram. Jack stood up and gave a nice speech on how everyone in the US was protected by the law and that Mr. Tarintino's clients would know just as soon as the police choose to release the information. Mr. Tarintino thanked Jack for his time and took his leave.

Shortly thereafter, an old man came up to Janice and also asked to see Jack, he said that he had information on Rip. Janice buzzed Jack and Caretaker (the old man) went in to see Jack and the Team (just Rebel and Kid Comic, since we had four PCs I let Torch have the day off). Caretaker introduced himself as his civilian identity (which I cannot remember) and explained that he was able to sense the disturbances caused when Rip used his power and he wanted to help the team stop these people. The team agreed to work Caretaker, who just then (don't you love the comics?) sensed a 'disturbance in the force'. The team headed out, Rebel and Sparrow-hawk (the name we decided on for Kid Comic's winged form) in the air and Jack and Caretaker in the car.

They arrived to find three men in business suits (two obviously bodyguards) getting out of a limo, there was a shimmering (Rip's power in action) and a woman dressed in red and tan with claws appeared on the top of the limo (Red Cheetah). Red Cheetah then proceeded to take down the main man before the characters could stop her. Caretaker transformed into his combat mode of the zombie-like Gravedigger. There then followed an inconclusive flurry of missed blows (with Jack being accidently shot in the back by one of the bodyguards) ending with Red Cheetah putting her clawed hand through Gravedigger's chest and Gravedigger just looking at it and then throwing the limo in an attempt to block Red Cheetah's escape. Unfortunately, neither that nor Sparrow-hawk's sonic blasts could stop her from fleeing into the traffic and chaos of New York City and escaping.

While the other characters chased Red Cheetah, Jack stood over the body of the murder man (who he recognized as the older Tarintino of the law firm). Entering into the classic circle of light, Jack had an angst-ridden inner monolog about how he had pledged that the law protected everyone to the younger Tarintino and how the law had failed here. It was in the best "great power brings great responsibility" tradition.

The closing scene of the comic was Jack having lunch with a business colleague, Mr. Magister, a major player in the import-export business. At the end of the lunch over coffee, Mr. Magister explains that 'as you will soon no doubt discover' he is the one behind the 3 Rs and the consolidation of NYC's underworld. He goes on to explain how it was inevitable that someone would end up in control of New York's underworld and that how his goals and that of Jack's team is broadly compatible, 'We both want stability.'

Jack stands up and denies that they have anything in common and that he would devote himself to see that justice is done. Jack then stalked off.

Mr. Magister just shook his head and sipped his coffee. But, in the weeks that followed, New York's criminal underworld was remarkably calm and quiet . . .

Issue Four ends on that strange note . . .

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