CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES THIRTY-ONE TO THIRTY-FIVE

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE. 

RIDDLE OF THE SULIOTEN MOUNTAIN – Kapitan Mors and his crew land their air ship on a mountain on a Greek island between Korfu and the Ionian Isles. A Suliot sponge diver sees the Luftschiff land and informs the villainous autocrat who imposes his own iron rule on the locals.

The despot plans to capture Mors and his crew for the enormous reward offered by the tycoons who want to stop our masked hero’s crusade of robbing from the rich in order to give to the poor. The villain’s plot fails, of course, PLUS Kapitan Mors at last perfects his spaceship the Meteor.

CAPTAIN MORS’ FIRST TRIP IN HIS SPACESHIP – After so much preparation, the day has finally arrived to pilot the Meteor into space. Kapitan Mors’ crew includes the Dutch astrophysicist Van Halen, the Italian astrophysicist Cagno, his Executive Officer Lindo of India, the scientist Anita Long and his engineers Stern and Schrecken.

The dozens of international crew members fly off from Mors’ secret island lair near New Zealand. The maiden flight goes very smoothly at first, with all systems checking out and responding properly to the controls. Unfortunately, Cagno, overwhelmed by the feat being achieved, panics, causing an accident which threatens to strand the spaceship in orbit above the Earth until their air runs out.

CAPTAIN MORS IN THE GHOST MOUNTAINS – At Kapitan Mors’ island base, repairs and improvements are being made to the spaceship to ensure a safer outcome on their upcoming second test voyage. Word from Mors’ contacts in the outside world alerts him to a huge mineral discovery in the mountains bordering Korea, China and what was then Russian territory. 

The Air Pirate can’t resist one last big theft before heading into space, so he and his crew head for those mountains. They’re unaware they are headed into a trap laid by their old foes the Chicago tycoons and their newest ally – Lucy Long, Anita’s equally brilliant sister, who mistakenly believes that the Kapitan killed Anita since she never came back from her expedition to kill him.

CAPTAIN MORS IN THE METEOR SHOWER – Kapitan Mors pilots his spaceship the Meteor on its second test voyage. He hopes to avoid the kind of complications that jeopardized the first journey, but fate works against him. Competition breaks out among the combined European and Indian crewmen for the affections of science officers Anita and Lucy Long.

Adding to such an unneeded state of affairs is the fact that the spaceship’s venture further away from the Earth this time winds up landing it right in the middle of a meteor storm which threatens to destroy the vessel and kill our heroes.

BATTLE WITH THE JAPANESE AIRSHIP – Like a master mariner of space, Kapitan Mors got the Meteor safely through the storm and back to his island lair. Damage from meteor strikes necessitates a raid for some of the gold just discovered along the Yalu River. Our heroes work with the oppressed Koreans against the intruding Japanese army to split much of the gold.

A surprise is in store, however. Mors’ archenemy Ned Gully has resurfaced at last, this time employed by Japan to use his own airship to destroy the Luftpirat. Gully joined his new employers in a fit of pique after the Chicago tycoons dumped him a few issues back in favor of the Long Sisters. 

*** I’ll examine the next several tales in the near future. FOR THE NYCTALOPE, A NEGLECTED FRENCH HERO SIMILAR TO CAPTAIN MORS, CLICK HERE.