Captain Video #4

Captain Video finds himself on the wrong side of the law when he's caught infiltrating a government facility—but it's all part of a dangerous assignment to expose security weaknesses. Trapped between pursuing agents and a mysterious rescuer, he's drawn into the shadowy world of Rhodent's spy school, where stolen secrets flow to the highest bidder and only the most cunning survive. To uncover the operation from within, Video must pass a brutal series of tests that will push him to his physical and mental limits.

When Saddlehead heads out to visit his uncle's ranch, a rumor stops him in his tracks: word has it his uncle's hair isn't even real. Saddlehead hotly defends his uncle's honor—until he's forced to admit the embarrassing truth about how that hairpiece came to be.

When Doris Kent's search for her missing brother George leads her to the Lucky Chance Mine he inherited, she enlists the help of wandering gunslinger Rod Cameron to investigate his sudden disappearance. Rod quickly discovers that the mine is far richer than anyone in town admits, and that the seemingly friendly neighboring prospector Ollie Tandem is running a ruthless scheme to steal the gold ore from Kent's claim—with George held captive as a prisoner. Now Rod must outwit and outgun Tandem's gang to free the hostage and protect the rightful owners of the mine.

Pilot Pete finds his spirits dampened when his brother gets into hot water—literally, after turning the wrong shower faucet the night before. It's a brief, lighthearted gag that plays on the double meaning of the phrase, delivering a quick laugh typical of the humor strips that filled Captain Video's pages in 1951.

When an ancient stone bearing alien cipher rises from Earth's depths, Captain Video and the Video Ranger race to decode its secrets—only to discover that five colossal giants from the wandering star Orgon have awakened on our world, and only the legendary Ring of Orgon can control them. As the power-mad Doctor Pauli seizes the stone and commands the monsters to obliterate civilization, Captain Video must track down the stolen artifact and the enigmatic ring before the creatures complete their mission of conquest.

When Airfield Al runs into his old pal Charlie at the airfield, he's eager to catch up—but Charlie's curiosity about Al's rough patches leads to a harrowing tale. Al reveals the one time he would've desperately wanted to be "down and out": when he was trapped in a plane caught in a tailspin.