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Doc Savage 64 -The Submarine Mystery (1938)

. Originally published in Doc Savage Magazine, June 1938
. Reprinted by Bantam as DS # 63
. Lester Dent writing as Kenneth Robeson

Behind a rather mundane title lurks an action-packed Doc Savage thriller in the best Lester Dent tradition.

When the newly-launched submarine U.S.S. Swordfish blows up and sinks outside Boston Harbor, the navy's top admirals are left totally flummoxed - and not so much about the cause. Although the ill-fated sub was clearly identified by eyewitnesses before she went down, the REAL Swordfish reports from its duty station in Panama that all is well. So what vessel was it that sank off Boston? Can a submarine have a doppelgänger? Doc Savage is pulled into the affair by (of all people) a brassy showgirl named China Janes. The tough-talking beauty claims that a good friend, a fellow dancer who left showbiz to marry into the English nobility, is somehow connected to the mystery sub and has now gone missing, her life in mortal danger.

It's an intriguing start to a slam-bang adventure pitting Doc and loyal aides Ham and Monk against a gang of 20th Century pirates. These modern-day sea raiders might sail aboard U-boats instead of conventional craft but they're just as bloodthirsty as their legendary forebears. The populace of remote St. John's Island - a nearly forgotten outpost of the British Empire in the South Atlantic - has been brutally enslaved, their home transformed into the perfect secret pirate base. But liberation is soon at hand, its champion a strange bronze giant with golden eyes...

Dent keeps things moving at a lightning pace, offering up some outstanding action scenes along the way. I enjoyed how he was able to logically explain the pirates' scheme and the unusual culture of the islanders in a rational, believable way, without resorting to any "lost civilization"-type clichés. Of special note are the changes to Doc's persona in this book. Up to this point the Man of Bronze had soldiered through more than 60 adventures wearing the poker face of Star Trek's Mr. Spock. The only emotions he was ever really permitted to have were compassion and embarrassment - it was his five assistants and cousin Patricia who provided the series with its humanity. But with this tale that started to change. China's sarcastic, unhelpful remarks actually cause Doc to lose his temper; he angrily yells at her to shut up. (In previous stories he would've simply ignored such an irritant.) Doc later loses it again, to more devastating effect, after arriving on St. John's Island... Upon witnessing a settler family being brutalized by three of the pirates, Doc wades into the baddies mercilessly, deliberately breaking bones - smashing jaws, busting ribs - to inflict maximum agony. He immediately snaps out of this rage and returns to his normal self, of course (tending to the men's injuries as would the Doc of old), but for a long-time fan it's a startling moment.

Thus The Submarine Mystery marks a turning point in the history of Doc Savage. Why Dent chose this particular story to begin the process of humanizing Doc is unknown. Was he simply bored with the Vulcan-like stoicism of the nearly infallible superhero whose adventures he'd been pounding out almost non-stop for the past five years? Regardless of the reason, over the next decade the character of Doc Savage would be slowly and systematically stripped of most of his larger-than-life qualities. While retaining his great strength, dexterity and scientific genius throughout the series, by the post-WWII years Doc bears little resemblance emotionally and psychologically to the Supreme Adventurer of the 1930s.

Thanks to PermaTourist for the epub format :)