Doc Savage in THE PHANTOM CITY
From December 1933, this is a book that many Doc Savage fans would choose as their favorite, and with good reason. It is a classic Lost Race story, one which H Rider Haggard or Arthur Conan Doyle could have written and Lester Dent obviously puts a great deal of energy and thought into the details and plot twists. THE PHANTOM CITY has a lot to recommend it, and only a few weaknesses to nit-pick.
This is your vintage Doc two-segment tale, the first part dealing with mystery and mayhem in New York City, leading to a long journey which ends in a colorful, exotic location. The Phantom City with its small population of white-haired people is deep in the lethal desert of Arabia's Rub Al Khali desert, reachable by a nerve-wracking journey down an underground river. There's a beautiful white-haired girl named Ja who can only speak English using the deaf-mute hand gestures, an Arab bandit named Mohallet, who has a glass eye and jewels set in his teeth (and people think navel rings are gross--- it's nothing new), and the Morlock-like White Beasts.
One of the most memorable threats in the series is the menace presented by the White Beasts. Human but simian in appearance, with long arms and flat-nosed mugs, the vicious Beasts are covered with thick white hair that makes them look as if they're wrapped in cotton. They are a real threat, powerful brutes who are aggressive and determined. One of the most startling moments in a Doc story is when they surround the moored Helldiver sub and attack by the hundreds. For once, the bronze man is up against opponents fully as strong as he is, and Doc lets loose with the fighting power he normally holds back a bit.
A number of interesting elements are introduced here. As far as I can tell, this is where the mercy bullets make their first appearance. Even so, the superfirers still throw regular lead when appropriate. This is also where Monk finds Habeas Corpus; he pays four cents for the pig and tells a dubious tale about Habeas dragging dead hyenas into the previous owner's home.
The characterizations are still being worked on. Johnny speaks with scholastic precision but he hasn't started annoying his friends with those big words. Long Tom is described as having bachelor quarters at an exclusive club and he mentions that he has started collecting trophies from their adventures for his little 'museum'. This is the only mention of his souvenir room I have found, but wouldn't you just love to spend an afternoon in Long Tom's museum of momentos from these adventures?!
Doc himself is a bit looser and more easygoing than he later becomes (he calls his friends "you birds", has a dry sense of understatement and smiles occasionally.) But he is in his prime physically and mentally. Fighting four assassins, he yanks their concealed swords away, sheaths and all. He's not infallible ("Getting careless," he says out loud at one point), but he's consistently able to outwit the villains, no matter what they come up with. Oh, and add Arabic to the list of languages our boy speaks (hmm, that's fifteen so far).
I've mentioned before the rather cruel pranks Doc sometimes plays on his prisoners, including that bit where he stages throwing one crook out the window of the 86th floor to frighten another one into talking. Here he sets up an incredibly complicated and melodramatic trick to convince a captured thug that he's dead and being judged. It's to get valuable information, but with the truth serum, hpnosis and lie detectors he has available, you can't help but think that Doc Savage has kind of a twisted sense of humour. His constant use of disguises and elaborate ruses are part of his personality; he gets a kick of doing things the roundabout way, whether he admits it or not.
The cover to the Bantam reprint is likely to be one of the best portraits of our hero that James Bama ever did. (Although personally I like the one on DEATH IN SILVER most.) It was used again for the first Omnibus edition and is a definitive work. Doc's face is lean, grim and his eyes have real intensity. And notice that in this story, that "his shirt, torn in the fight, was merely a few soaked rags." I'll bet the cuff to his right sleeve was still attached, though.