JAZZ
Occult detective Ravenwood opens a jazz club. Guests at
the grand opening party include a famed industrialist named Stark and his much
younger fiancée, A.J. Martin from the Associated Press, a scientist named Dr.
Erskine and his wife, and former actress Margaret Grace, who was flown to New
York by ace pilot Lance Star. Ravenwood remembers a recent visit to Los Angeles
where a thrilling golden-haired woman came to his aid against some shady characters.
Short story by Bobby Nash in Ravenwood: Stepson of
Mystery, Ron Fortier, ed., Cornerstone Book Publishers, 2010. Ravenwood was the
subject of a series of stories by Frederick C. Davis in the pulp magazine Secret
Agent X. Journalist A.J. Martin is one of Secret Agent X’s many aliases. The
industrialist named Stark and his fiancée are the future parents of Tony Stark,
aka the Marvel Comics superhero Iron Man. Dr. Erskine is meant to be the same
scientist who created the super-soldier serum that empowered another Marvel
hero, Captain America. In the original account of Cap’s origins, “Meet Captain
America,” the scientist’s name was given as Dr. Reinstein. Later writers
revealed that “Reinstein” was an alias given to him by the United States government,
and that his true name was Dr. Abraham Erskine. However, the Dark Horse Comics
miniseries The Shadow and Doc Savage: The Case of the Shrieking Skeletons,
set in 1937, has him answering to the name Reinstein (along with his daughter
Bernie) well before Doc Savage tells him about the Super-Soldier Project at the
conclusion of the adventure. In the CU, Reinstein was likely his true name and
Erskine the alias, rather than vice versa as in the Marvel Universe. Also,
Bernie Reinstein stated in The Shadow and Doc Savage that her mother was
long dead. Reinstein must have remarried in the two years between his encounter
with the Shadow and Doc and his attendance of Ravenwood’s gala opening. The
year of this story is conjecture, but it must take place before Steve Rogers
was injected with the serum in 1940, in the aftermath of which event Reinstein
was fatally shot by a Nazi agent. The golden-haired woman is the pulp
adventuress the Domino Lady, whose stories in the “spicy” pulps were chronicled
by an author using the nom de plume
“Lars Anderson.” Margaret Grace is mentioned in Nash’s story “Target: Domino
Lady,” and also appears in his Box 13 story “The Mystery of the Menacing
Manuscript.” Ostensibly a character from the Canadian pulps, Lance Star is
actually an original character created by Nash.
Cool. Thanks, Sean. I had so much fun writing Jazz. Ravenwood is an interesting character and I keep hinting that he and Domino Lady have had a few adventures together. One of these days I'll have to get around to writing that story.
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