Heroic Comics #22

During a shuttle raid over Germany, Sergeant Aubrey Bartholomew finds himself in an extraordinary predicament when flak damage tears the door off his ball turret—leaving him hanging by his toes thousands of feet above enemy territory with no parachute. Surrounded by Nazi fighters filling the sky with tracer fire, Bartholomew must rely on sheer determination and gymnastic prowess to survive the unthinkable. This wartime tale of hair-raising aerial combat showcases one gunner's fight to make it home against impossible odds.

During his fourth war patrol in the Pacific, Lieutenant Commander Howard Gilmore commands a U.S. submarine that engages enemy vessels and finds itself under fire from a Japanese gunboat. When the sub is rammed and taking heavy damage, Gilmore must make an impossible choice to protect his crew and ship. This 1944 war story honors the real sacrifice of a naval hero whose actions became legend among America's undersea squadrons.

When their B-26 bomber is shot down over enemy-held New Britain, Lieutenant Eugene D. Wallace, Lieutenant Marvin C. Hughes, and radio operator Dale E. Bordner must survive ten grueling months in the jungle—dodging Japanese patrols, scrounging for food, and relying on the help of friendly natives. With ingenuity and determination, the three airmen devise a desperate plan to signal a passing American plane and make their way back to allied lines. This true-to-life war story showcases the resilience of three soldiers refusing to surrender to impossible odds.

Manila John Basilone, who earned his nickname during three years with the Army in the Philippines before joining the Marines, finds himself and his comrade Philips pinned down with dwindling ammunition as Japanese forces close in. Determined to turn the tide, Basilone volunteers to fight through enemy lines to retrieve fresh supplies, defying his friend's warnings that the mission is suicide. What unfolds is a testament to courage under fire as Basilone makes a desperate stand against overwhelming odds.

First Class Seaman Frank A. Rifkin mans the wheel of the Coast Guard cutter Icarus off the Carolina coast when a Nazi submarine launches a surprise attack—and in the chaos of battle, Rifkin seizes his chance to prove himself in combat. As depth charges and machine gun fire pepper the enemy vessel, the crew fights to send the sub to the bottom, but the real test of character comes later, when Rifkin returns home and his widowed mother discovers what he's been quietly downplaying all along.

When The Music Master and his sidekick Downbeat arrive for a music lesson with Professor Fredericks, they discover the eccentric teacher dead—killed by an electrically wired doorknob rigged to electrocute anyone touching it from inside. Determined to solve the case themselves before police suspicion lands on them, John Wallace and Downbeat begin investigating, uncovering a desperate search through the professor's apartment and a cast of suspicious figures, each with their own reasons for wanting something the professor possessed.

When a deliberately set fire at the Sherry-Ritz Hotel claims Man O' Metal's attention, Pat Dempsey uncovers a sinister plot: the blaze was orchestrated to distract police while a criminal mastermind known as The Major raids the Central Bank. Now Man O' Metal must track down this ruthless soldier-turned-crook across the city before The Major strikes again—and escape becomes a deadly game of wits and metal.