The Men Vanished
A mysterious man with a face like a pre-Columbian stone image lures Doc and his crew to a madman’s secret empire deep in the Amazon jungles — where seven of the world’s foremost explorers have inexplicably vanished. Is Doc next?
A mysterious man with a face like a pre-Columbian stone image lures Doc and his crew to a madman’s secret empire deep in the Amazon jungles — where seven of the world’s foremost explorers have inexplicably vanished. Is Doc next?
The Men Vanished is a good, not great, Doc. It does involve a lost civilization in South America, always a pleasure, and have Pat, always a joy to behold. It harkens back to the grand adventures of the past, even though this is a 1940 book. That is welcome, but overall it could have been better.
Some interesting points: This book has Two-Face as a villian. Yes, ye olde character two-face, as in a split-faced villain with a horribly disfigured sneering side of the face, a la Batman or Dick Tracy. I am unsure which actually created the guy first, but obviously this character was a stock villain of some popularity in the pulp era. i was suprised to find him pop up here in Doc Savage. He usually does his stock characters with enough flare and originality that they aren’t so blatantly recognizeable. Case in point: near the end of the book Doc has a terrific fight to the death with Sun Cats, or giant leopards. This is Tarzan on steroids time, but not so much a rip. Kind of like that bear in the arctic. Just awesome.
In another moment of Doc doing it first, the doorframe of his office on the 86th floor is said to contain a hidden metal detector in this book. A visitor comes in and Monk sees a tiny light begin glowing on the wall that alerts him the man has a gun. Who needs Homeland Security when Doc’s around?
Also, this is a book that shows Doc Savage being honored. It is League of Extraoridnary Gentlemen time! Well, at least The Explorers League. In this book the League is awarding Doc with its Explorers League Ten Year Medal. Doc has accomplished so much he is the unanimous choice for this award which has only gone to people of the stature of Thomas Edison and Admiral Byrd before. Way to go Doc.
Finally, I’ll mention a great Doc scene. It shows his ability to surprise and shock anyone with his amazing speed, stealth, and phenomenal strength: Doc Savage, moving like a bronze ghost in the murk vaulted the stone wall, vanished in the shrubbery. A moment later the bronze man stepped from behind a bush onto the path. The two stocky men were taken completely by surprise. One groaned involuntarily as the gun was crushed out of his fingers by a grip of terrific strength. There was a loud ripping and snapping sound as Doc Savage grabbed the other man’s gun — the weapon was in an armpit holster; Doc gripped it through the coat fabric — and tore it out bodily, snapping the holster straps. The man, wrenched sidewise by the force of the bronze man’s strength, stumbled over a bush, fell heavily. (Bantam Omnibus 7, p 10)
Ahhhh. Nobody can come close to Doc Savage.
Thomas Fortenberry
The Men Vanished is pretty much doc by the numbers. The mystery is strange and more than a little goofy. The action is okay. Average Doc is usually better than a lot of other stuff you could be reading. But not in this case. The appearance of Two-Face was something though and shows just how much comics borrowed from Doc: Fortress Of Solitude, Hero named Clark, gadgets and smarts folks now associate with Bat Man, hey, even the Vulcan nerve pinch had its origins in Doc. Sadly, all the great reasons later creators stole from Doc are not present in this tale. Sub-par Doc. Luckily this is uncommon in the canon.
To answer your question about Two-Face, Thomas: The Batman villian of that same name made his first appearance in 1942, so once again Doc got there first. Interestingly enough, Batman’s Two-Face was named Harvey Dent… Coincidence? Well, as most pop-culture historians could tell you, a tremendous amount of “borrowing” went on between the comics and the pulps. Batman’s Rogues Gallery ( of which Two-Face was only one example) directly inspired by that of Dick Tracey, and it’s an open secret that Batman was heavily inspired by Doc Savage’s stablemate at Street & Smith, the Shadow. And as for Superman… CLARK Kent, CLARK Savage… You do the maths!
THE MEN VANISHED (12/1940) is a Lester Dent-written tale and, thankfully, crisper and peppier right from the start than the story that preceded it, THE AWFUL DYNASTY (written by William “Call Me MEH” Bogart). It opens at a celebration of Doc’s accomplishments at The Explorers’ Society and quickly turns into a kidnapping and a mystery involving a missing explorer and the dozen fellow explorers who went searching for him.
That the whole mystery turns out to be a kidnapping-and-extortion scheme really isn’t a let down because Dent keeps the action flowing. There’s no world-shaking threat from a mad scientist or I-Wanna-Rule-The-World villain. But the personalities of the guest-starring characters catch the reader’s attention, and the action moves to South America in a way that it doesn’t feel like Dent is just checking boxes; after all, he introduces us to a new lost city in the jungle.
Dent cleverly hinges some action on both Doc AND the villain depending on disguises and false identities during the action. And even though Doc demonstrates his mightiness early in the adventure–breaking a gun in a hood’s hand and ripping another thug’s pistol, shoulder-sling holster and all, from its owner–he acknowledges our hero isn’t a complete superman when Doc admits facing a jaguar will mean his death unless he gets outside help.
However, don’t think It’s a perfect Doc adventure. Dent drops in exotic details about foliage and fauna as if he’s just plucking them from a travelogue–the handling is kinda clunky, in a dull way that recalls how Jules Verne would add such details to meet his publisher’s mission for educational material in his novels. Also: The action wraps up, and suddenly, two pages left, Habeas Corpus and Chemistry show up! They’ve not been mentioned AT ALL, and out of the blue Monk and Ham have to search and find them before leaving the jungle. As if Dent’s manuscript had unexpectedly turned up a few words short and needed some padding.
Still, THE MEN VANISHED offers some vim and vigor of the sort we all enjoy from the 1930s Doc sagas. The S&S cover painting does a good job of depicting Doc in a dangerous scene. The Omni cover, great work that it is, has its thrills and chills hampered by the need to showcase so many titles.
Final tally: Not the greatest Doc adventure, but better than any Bogart novel.