Crossover Covers: Halo of Horror

In this novel by New Pulp author Stephen Payne, Secret Agent X, in his assumed identity of Elisha Pond, is called to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to receive an inheritance. There, he meets Waylon Bramble, an acquaintance of the real Pond, who disappeared at the end of World War I. Agent X tells Bramble that he was stricken with amnesia, but his memory was eventually restored by a brilliant neurosurgeon in New York named Savage. An awestruck Bramble asks if this is “the Savage?” and X replies, “the same.” Although “Pond’s” story is false, Bramble’s reaction clearly indicates that Doc Savage is a real person, thus reinforcing Secret Agent X’s place in the CU.